Although I appreciated Suzanne Mulvehill's long list of tips
for starting a business ("Fear
Factor," April), I think she misses the essence of
courage. To paraphrase Chinese philosopher Laotzu, courage requires
a deep love. This love cannot derive from journal entries, positive
affirmations or visualization techniques--it is a passion that
burns in the heart of the true entrepreneur. It is more than doing
what you love. And just like the love we feel for people, nothing
about it makes sense.
Benjamin Kwitak
InterForm Inc.
Colorado Springs, Colorado
Priceline Clearinghouse? Priceless
I loved your Business Travel Awards ("Winner's
Circle," April), and agree wholeheartedly about AirTran
and Priceline. One of the best ways to squeeze the last drop of
value from Priceline is to consult www.biddingfortravel.com, a
user-contribution-sponsored free clearinghouse for Priceline
information. There, you'll find the names of the hotels likely
to come up in each zone's different star levels, bidding
strategies, and representative bids and results from actual
Priceline customers. I use it religiously.
William Candee
New York City
Get Protected
Don Debelak's April article ("Innovations")
on Staples' 2004 Invention Quest contest winner, Todd Basche,
made a number of insightful points for individuals and small
businesses with new products, services or ideas. Often overlooked
is the need to pay close attention early on to obtain proper
protection of their intellectual property, especially time-critical
patent filings. Unlike the large, "we patent everything we
can" companies with their own legal departments or on-retainer
legal firms, individuals and small companies all too often publicly
disclose and/or present their new ideas to the open marketplace
without paying attention to the risks they're taking by not
obtaining intellectual property legal advice before doing so. As
Basche's profound and well-deserved success clearly
demonstrates, while such advice and assistance is not cheap, its
value is often priceless.
Steve Morsa
Founder
Match Engine Marketing
Thousand Oaks, California
Mad About You
Content Continues Below
I just wanted to thank Nichole L. Torres for the article
"Anger
Management" ("Biz 101," April). She did a very
nice job with the piece: practical, concise and easy to relate to.
I expect quite a few of your readers could see themselves in
exactly those situations.
Andra Medea
Author of Conflict Unraveled:
Fixing Problems at Work and in Families
Chicago
Band of Sisters
As a longtime entrepreneur who understands the importance of
marketing, I've always been a great fan of guerrilla marketing
guru Jay Conrad Levinson. So while I gained much from his and Al
Lautenslager's article "Mind
Over Market" (March), one of the marketing-sabotaging
attitudes they trumpeted left me cold.
Apparently, those of us who are guilty of "lacking a
competitive spirit, not having a killer instinct, and not playing
to win" are doomed to fail.
This may be what I refer to as a "genderalization,"
but in my experience of working with other women business owners,
I've noticed this kind of eat-or-be-eaten approach just does
not resonate.
Perhaps a more accurate interpretation of what some see as a
lack of competitive spirit is actually the belief among many women
that there is something wrong with a definition of success that
says, "in order for me to win, someone else has to
lose."
In fact, instead of trying to kill my competition, I courted two
highly successful competitors, Barbara Sher, author of I Could
Do Anything If I Only Knew What It Was, and Barbara Winter,
author of Making a Living Without a Job. Together, we
produced--and share in the profits of--a unique CD program for
aspiring entrepreneurs called Making Dreams Happen.
It's this kind of win-win-win marketing strategy that has me
and my competitors laughing all the way to the bank.
Valerie Young
Dreamer in Residence
ChangingCourse.com
Montague, Massachusetts
Corrections
In "Wherever You Go, There You Are" (February),
MSN's instant-messaging application, MSN Messenger, was
misidentified as MSN Instant Messenger. Instant Messenger is the
name of AOL's instant-messaging application.
In "Healthy Returns" ("Smart Ideas,"
April), the costs of Health Advocate's services were listed as
25 cents to $3.95 per employee. The actual price range is $1.25 to
$3.95 per employee. Seton Hill University ("Honor Roll,"
April) is located in Greensburg, Pennsylvania.