Where Does it Hurt?, by Jonathan Bush and Stephen Baker. Bush is W’s cousin, and I imagine there are many people who will not be able to read it because of their attitude about the family. Here is one quote that I liked:
I reached the conclusion not long ago that anger, either white hot or smoldering, is a fundamental fuel for entrepreneurs. They don’t have to be angry all of the time, of course; that would be no fun for anyone. But it helps if deep down they nurse some wound, grievance, or perhaps a sense of injustice.
I was very bitter in April of 1994 when I left Freddie Mac to start my Internet business. I had been shoved aside in a project that I had struggled to start at Freddie, and I was treated in a humiliating way. I called a staff meeting, and no one showed up. One of the staff members then explained that she had been named as my replacement.
I was motivated to do some things I would not have done ordinarily, including going out of my way to meet new people and to do sales, in part because I thought of succeeding in the business as a way of “getting back” at the people who I thought wronged me at Freddie.
Anyway, I have not read enough of the book to form an overall opinion.
The greatest truths are often in the simple ideas that other pass by. I have often wondered why I didn’t start a business in my earlier days. Now I know that I maybe just wasn’t mad enough. You can’t know how much of a simple truth that is to me. It really explains a lot. Thanks so much.
Interesting personal story.
I think it was Buckley who quipped, “anger is a good whip but a poor master.”
There is overmuch to be angry about. The volume of bureaucratic and personal malfeasance in the world drives me between roof-top sniping anger and debilitating depression. What is the utility of spending your best efforts in a system that nurtures catastrophe?
I was reading about the French effort to build the Panama canal. It read like our current Washington DC game plan: all was politics; technical experience was shunned; corruption was mandatory. It was somewhat balming to realize that such malfeasance has always been with us.
1984 is… let me tick off the correct number of fingers here… 30 years ago? I’m a little younger than you (52) but I cannot remember a single offense committed against me from that long ago. With all due respect Arnold… and I do very much admire your writing… let it go!