Today I was at The Rackspace Cloud Event– Where Rackspace announced several new products, as well as the acquisition of JungleDisk and SliceHost. Between seeing many good friends that are entrepreneurs at the event, and what I believe to be some smart strategic acquisitions on the part of Rackspace- I felt like I must be living in a different world than much of the rest of the world concerned with the credit markets. And then I saw the following interview from Guy Kawasaki about the Care and Feeding of Entrepreneurs. Here is the most telling question / answer from the interview:
Q. What is your advice to entrepreneurs seeking funding or growth opportunities if the credit and capital markets continue on their current course?
A. My advice is that they melt wax into their ears and go forward. If they are waiting for wonderful credit and capital markets, they probably aren’t entrepreneurs. They’re much more likely to be consultants and bankers looking to quickly flip a company.
It feels like a great time to be an entrepreneur. I am sorry to see so many other people in the world upset about financial doom and gloom. Maybe at some point I will change my song…. but for now, I am glad to be building a company, and helping other entrepreneurs build their companies. Yes, all of us entrepreneurs have to be somewhat more conservative right now than we might be during boom-times, but it is a GREAT time to start a company. If you have been displaced from your previous job, or have the general entrepreneurial itch that you have not been scratching, and you have the entrepreneur jean (not the consultant or banker gene described above) build it now. Sure, calculate it out… but realize that right now, entrepreneurial businesses will be the first to recover and thrive from the present credit crisis. Damn the torpedos, full steam ahead!
Leave a Reply