Be Your Own Boss, Summer 2000
We Americans have an insatiable appetite for quick, easy-to-use
products and services. It began with the introduction of the frozen
TV dinner in the 1950s, rocketed through various freeze-dried
products of the space race in the 1960s and was brought to full
flower by the fast-food franchise phenomenon of the '70s and
'80s. Along the way, we learned to nuke food in a microwave and
crunch numbers at unbelievable speed on our desktop. Compress it,
package it, reduce it to its essence, save time, don't think
about it, just do it, do it all for me and don't spare the
horses.
It was inevitable that our culture would produce the
"business opportunity." This is a self-contained,
self-executing, affordable (just put it on a credit card)
no-brainer of a business concept. It has sizzle. It has instant
curb appeal. It seems so simple. It has potential. It's
catching a wave. It is the ground floor. It's the next
McDonald's. It's the next Pet Rock, that touchstone of
irrational success. It's an investment that embodies the
giddiness of personal business ownership and promises the buyer an
opportunity to grab hold of the elusive dream of financial success
that dogs the American psyche.
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