The public relations firm I’m using for the launch of my new book has asked me to write a provocative op-ed piece which they intend to pitch to The New York Times among other tier one newspapers. I’ve included a draft of the article below and would like to invite you to help me shape this piece with your own comments, examples or counter arguments. I’ll include your name and company name if you send me your comments (use the comments section below the post) by end of day Wednesday Feb 17. Looking forward to seeing your comments, here’s the article:
President Obama, Lloyd Blankfein: Get Out of Our Kitchen
It’s amusing to me to watch the small business market be used as a “get out of jail free” card for anyone who makes a mistake or needs to gain public support for an idea.
Last week, with his agenda treading water, President Obama wrapped his arms around small business owners by urging lawmakers to pass legislation aimed at helping this group.
Politicians’ proclaiming their support for the small business market is the equivalent of the ad agency executive, stumped for a good idea, opting to put dogs in the commercial since everyone loves a golden Lab.
Before Goldman Sachs announced its employee bonus, it tried to soften public opinion of the company by announcing the “10,000 Small Business” initiative, which promised to give small business owners access to Goldman employees as mentors and advisors.
Are you kidding me?
What exactly do Goldman Sachs employees know about running a small business? Take a look at the life trajectory of the typical Goldman Sachs employee: a gifted student who was told how wonderful and intelligent he or she was from kindergarten on up. These people went through school with parents pushing them to get better and better grades. No time for sports, play or just being a kid—they had to be in the top 1% of their high school class so they could get into the best undergrad schools, which would, in turn, guarantee them a spot in the MBA class at either Wharton or Harvard. Upon graduation, they were dispatched to Wall Street, where they worked 100 weeks at the knee of someone who told them exactly what to do. No time for independent thought—we have financial models to build. They’re good at math but have no appreciation for context. Given the protected and directed nature of their upbringing, the Goldman employees I’ve met are like financial robots who can neither sell nor communicate their ideas.
Take Hank Paulson, a master of the Goldman universe, who left the top echelon of Goldman Sachs, where he was revered as a demigod, to take on the job of Treasury secretary for the Bush White House. During the financial crisis, he became a daily punching bag for the press because he had none of the skills necessary to start and operate a business. He had no ability to communicate a vision, no ability to sell an idea.
Paulson and his Goldman brethren are great at math, and I’m sure they can make an Excel spreadsheet dance. Entrepreneurs they are not. And the idea they would somehow be worthy of advising business owners on anything more than balancing their checkbook is offensive to business owners.
The business owners I know started from scratch with not much more than an idea. They fretted about securing the resources to get started but ultimately pulled themselves up by the straps of their well-worn work boots and sold to anyone who would listen. Over time, if they were tenacious and flexible, they learned to carve out a niche, a business and a living.
The last thing they need is a 28-year-old MBA from Goldman Sachs who has been mollycoddled and manipulated his or her entire life to give them advice. It was bankers, not business owners, who brought the financial system to the brink. Having Goldman employees provide advice is a little bit like asking President Clinton to counsel married men with a wandering eye or asking Britney Spears to share fashion tips for ninth graders embarking on their first day of high school.
President Obama, Lloyd Blankfein and anyone else thinking of proclaiming their undying love for the small business owners of the world, stop. Business owners do not need your charity. Business owners need you to get out of their kitchen.
Most business owners want to know what the rules are and for you to leave the rest to them.
- They don’t want you messing with the financial system so that one day banks will lend money to just about anyone only to turn around the next day and lend to nobody.
- They want a health care system that covers their workers so they don’t have to play insurance company to their employees.
- They want a strong, stable currency instead of one that fluctuates wildly because of the mismanagement of public funds.
- They want to compete on a level playing field, not within a complex web of socially engineered programs for every conceivable special interest group.
Stop using the small business market as a pawn to make yourself look better. Just tell business owners the rules and get the heck out of their way.
John Warrillow is the author of the book Built to Sell: Turn Your Business into One You Can Sell. He has dedicated his entire career to understanding the small business market. He has started and exited four businesses. Most recently, he founded Warrillow & Co., a firm that researches the small business market, which he sold to The Corporate Executive Board in 2008.
I think its perfect the way it is – very well stated. I especially like the analysis of taking help from Goldman. Now let’s hope the Canadian banks read your peice.
Hi John,
Great article! I too have worked with small business owners for the past 25 years and you’re right. They want less interference, more respect, and an appreciation for the blood, sweat, tears and second mortgage they’ve put into making their business a success – without a handout, without a bailout, without academic platitudes that are impractical in their world. The thought of an army of blue suits descending upon the entrepreneur to teach him/her how to run a better business is as comic as it is tragic. Not that they couldn’t learn something valuable. You can always learn something from others. It might just be the wrong lesson!
John,
I don’t think what we need is ” . . a health care system that covers workers so [business owners] don’t have to play insurance company to their employees.” Rather, we need a tax environment that empowers employees to purchase their own health insurance with tax-advantaged dollars which, right now, can only be done by companies. The last thing we need is for anyone but the one who has to live with his/her decision, making it for someone else. Only a government powerful enough to take everything you have can give you whatever you need.
Education continues to be a key requirement for current and potential business owners. They don’t have the time to read through the mass of information on the internet. Succinct, to the point events or other delivery methods that can give them the information and tools to help them are needed (if not always recognized by the owner!!) Organizations such as BizLaunch provide invaluable advice to those starting out. Where are the governments in supporting this?
John, your piece is quite solid and VERY good. I’ve nothing to add but more of what you’ve already wrote…
The government, for the most part, have no clue what it really means to run a business, big or small. Sure some senators and representatives have had their own businesses, but for the most part, the President, his cabinet and our congress our clueless about managing cash flow, budgeting, hiring, firing, being the cook, bottle washer and waiter.
If we are to stimulate small businesses the president needs to regularly convene a small business advisory panel made up of small (5 – 10) and medium (10 – 100) business, also add those who have GROWN their businesses from these numbers to 500 or 5,000. He’ll get solid and good advice on how he can and cannot help.
The best sentence in your article was this: “They want to compete on a level playing field, not within a complex web of socially engineered programs for every conceivable special interest group.”
The greed and disconnect of Wall Street to the realities of the snowball from hell that they rolled is just as bad, and probably exists, because of far too many ‘socially engineered programs’.
The dumbing down of America must stop. I am not a sheep, and I don’t need a nanny.
I’m impressed! After reading your post I can tell you are well-informed about your writing. If only I had your writing ability. I look forward to more updates and will be returning.Cheers!
Since it is now late June and I see comments from back in February, I assume your op-ed piece has already run.
I hope it ran just as you wrote it.
As I read what you wrote, I felt you were an articulate, polite (if soft-spoken) voice of reason.
I value BUILT TO SELL very much and so wish I had your book in my hands 17 years ago when I moved from Cubicle Nation to my own business. I’ve referred your book to a number of people in my network.
If you’ll please look at the little bio at the end of the op ed piece, and at the longer bio at the end of the book, I’d like to offer a reaction and a suggestion.
When I read “… He has started and exited four businesses….” I found myself wondering if all four were successful, or some were and some were not?
If they were all successful, perhaps the inclusion of “SUCESSFUL” somewhere within that sentence would be a good idea. And if some were not successful, I bet readers would appreciate some words to that effect as well because certainly it is important to know what not to do as well.
Thanks for all your help.
Don Burrows
Don:
Thanks for your suggestion. I’ll be writing a new column for BNET starting in July and I have taken your suggestion. Here’s my new bio: “John Warrillow has started and exited four businesses. Most recently he launched Warrillow & Co., a subscription-based research company that was acquired by The Corporate Executive Board (NASDAQ: EXBD) in 2008. That’s where John’s bio usually ends, neatly glossing over the other three businesses. Dig deeper and you’ll find his first business was a spectacular flop. His second was an advertising agency he shut down after a spat with his shareholders. The third business was an event company that began to thrive after 10 years of care and feeding. Along the way, John Warrillow made every mistake in the book: It is those blunders — and the lessons learned — that John intends to share through this first hand account of the life of a serial entrepreneur. “