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Ruthless Sons of Bitches

According to a USGS report on US gemstone consumption, the numbers for 1999 and 2000 were the following:

Stones (cut but unset)	1999		2000
	Carats	Value (US$)	Carats	Value (US$)
Diamonds	19.2 million	9.16 billion	19.5 million	11.3 billion
Emeralds	5.04 million	183 million	22.1 million	176 million
Rubies & Sapphires	11.2 million	239 million	12.9 million	241 million

So in the U.S. market in 2000, cut-but-unset diamonds were worth (per carat) 72.8x more than emeralds, and 31.0x more than rubies & sapphires. Interesting.

Yesterday Dad cooked rack of lamb for dinner. It was just us guys -- Mom was out of town, and Sarah had an "emergency birthday party" to attend. We mostly told stories about Grandpa and talked about IntraOp. Good news -- they've just signed a new manufacturing deal with a new company. Hopefully the new partner, unlike the old one, won't simply renege on their contract because they judge that course of action to be more profitable. So that's one problem down. Now for more funding...

It's been so frustrating to watch IntraOp limp along so undercapitalized for so long... always, there's never been quite enough money to manufacture that next machine, hire another sales rep, ... you name it, they didn't have it. It was particularly painful during the Internet boom, where you had companies burning through ten million dollars a month with no business model whatsoever -- while IntraOp was spending two orders of magnitude less money, and selling a real product that cures cancer (and for a actual profit, imagine that!) I think Dad's problem is that he's too honest. "How can I ask someone to invest in a company without telling them exactly what they're getting into?"

What's happening to our family? Grandpa George was a successful businessman. On the other side of the family, my great-grandfather was even more successful (because, as my uncle says, "he was a ruthless son of a bitch.") But we Goers and Harmans and Kellstedts seem to be losing our edge. My fathers and uncles have struggled mightly to get their businesses off the ground. and my sisters and cousins have shown no interest in entrepreneurship at all.

Over the last few years I've read maybe over a hundred magazine articles that have extolled the virtues of The American Entrepreneur: being tough and fast and smart and blah blah blah. The funny thing is that the real entrepreneurs that I've spoken to all tell me the same thing: at any moment, your small business could be crushed. A big company will just take over the market and squash you. Or someone will rip off your patent, or refuse to pay for inventory, or renege in some other way. The sad part is, for a small business it doesn't matter whether you're in the legal right. As Mike likes to point out, justice, like medicine, is expensive. You might win your lawsuit, but it'll probably be far too little, too late to save your livelihood.

My impression of the entrepreneurial world? It's not really about being tough and fast and smart (although that helps). It mostly has to do with luck. And it probably has something to do with being a ruthless son of a bitch.

That's why I like writing. The luck part is clear enough, but the son-of-a-bitch part is completely optional.

Posted by Evan Goer on Feb. 18, 2002 at 11:19 PM