Your Company, Your Passion

I was looking at all the questions I’m sent on Quora and I was thinking about how to categorize them so I’d have some idea what matters to our followers. In the next couple of weeks, we’ll likely hit 150,000 followers and we are honored that people follow us and take it seriously. Thank you if you’re one of them.

Sometimes we have to read between the lines when people submit questions and after a while you see a pattern. I was reading a few questions this morning and I was left with a strong impression that so many budding entrepreneurs are afraid to start because they somehow don’t think they measure up on a personal level. I’m going to write this blog post to you.

I’ve noticed a pattern on Quora where many of us who answer questions all know each other, follow each other, and support each other. We all come from different points of view, but all think our various differences remain valid. I can tell you in all my years as an entrepreneur, there is no one way to run a company and there is no standard background required. This very sentence rubs some people the wrong way, even on Quora.

There is a segment, like in any industry, of elitists who went to all the right schools, have all the right degrees, worked for the right companies and still believe that entrepreneurship should only work for them, and that everyone else is somehow lucky, had some hidden advantage, or that it should never happen. I see it a little more concentrated angst from those folks who came from a family with financial resources. From a narrow ignorant point of view from that segment, the scrappy successful entrepreneur shouldn’t exist. Ha!

That same group tends to talk as if there is only one way to run a company or become a success. I’ve never found just one thing that works. I think running a company is about many options.

Recently I answered a question about the importance of an MBA. Great if you have one, but I’ve never seen a direct correlation between an MBA and success. That’s offensive to some who hold an MBA. Sorry, but this is a no BS site. Suggesting that an MBA causes success is like saying that the seatbelt light on your commercial flight home causes air turbulence.

It could be that people who obtain MBAs are more driven, and thus it results in more success. I don’t know. Does it help? Probably, but I don’t see hard numbers. I just can’t point to a large body of successful entrepreneurs with MBAs and conclude it’s the reason for their success. Nor could I conclude that those who failed did so because they didn’t have one.

I have concluded, controversial as it is to some, that entrepreneurship is for everyone who has the wits to do it. Period. I’m not giving any other qualifiers. I’ve watched a friend build one of the largest companies in the region without money or a college degree. He wasn’t lucky. I knew he’d become a success before he started. I’ve watched successful entrepreneurs from all walks of life and I know it confounds those who think it’s somehow not fair. Would it be fair if it was any other way?

My drive and mission at Middlerock is to not just provide help for companies that are stuck, but to also encourage anyone out there who thinking about starting a business and feels the judgment of others to not take a stab at it. Don’t let them get to you. We’re here cheering you on. We’re dedicating our work to sharing everything we know about running a successful company and we’re out to build the best resources of doers we can find. We’re also providing as much free content as we can afford and we’re coming up with ways for everyone to participate in entrepreneurship in some form. We don’t give a flying F about those who try and discourage you. The Flying F would be a great name for a ranch.

Join our Zoom calls and see what we’re about. See how seriously we take this, while still keeping fun in the center of everything we do. If you’re stuck and you’re running a company. Don’t wait until you’re on fire to call us. Instead, reach out and just tell us what worries you. We will help you sort it out. Don’t let other define your entrepreneurial path.