Letters

Inc. magazine readers respond to topics raised in past editions of the magazine.

Sure, we heard from readers on takeovers and generational marketing, but the biggest response was to " What Balance?" (April), Nancy K. Austin's column on the near impossibility of building a great business and a great family simultaneously. On the Verge...

Nancy K. Austin's observation that it's futile to hope for balance between work and family hit home with many readers:

" What Balance?" brought on feelings of nausea--make that sadness. I have chosen to take on no more management or business ownership for exactly the reasons discussed. How long will it take for people to know that a business or a success does not love you back?

Phil Taggart
Senior Technical Adviser
HBO & Co.
Eugene, Oreg.

I recall fondly a speech Austin presented last October in San Francisco. As I read " What Balance?" it occurred to me that it could have been our group she was talking about when she described that panel of "four high-powered women" who responded, "My business" when they were asked which they would choose if faced with a choice between their business and their families.

I know many women who have had to make that tough choice more than once. It's not easy. But Austin's right: given the choice, I realize I would still leap at the chance to build something great, namely, a business.

Susan Willett Bird
President
American Mediation Council
Greenwich, Conn.

Other readers took issue with Austin's take:

After 15 years in the corporate world, I took the plunge in January and incorporated my strategic-marketing practice. You can imagine, then, how shocked I was to find out from Austin that I will never be a success. I'm a man whose "terra firma" is his faith and his family, not his business (strike one); whose concept of building something great includes the character of his kids and the strength of his marriage (strike two); and who, despite the pressures involved in starting a business, still considers work to be a means to an end, not an end in itself (strike three, I'm out). I could write more, but I've got to prepare for tonight's baseball practice: 13 sixth-grade boys are counting on their coach's actually being there.

James B. Holthus
President
Strategic Discovery
Shawnee Mission, Kans.

Austin's contention that women in business face only a series of ridiculously cruel and grinding choices does not square with my experience. My partner (a woman, a wife, and a mother) and I have been in business for 20 years. We are, by our standards, very successful. By that I mean we did not choose growth as an objective. As a consequence, our organization today is no bigger than it was 20 years ago, even though our dollar volume has multiplied several times. From day one, my partner was determined not to sacrifice her family, a determination I agreed with wholeheartedly. Her rules were out front for everyone to see: no work or travel on weekends, no spending more than one night away from home at a time. It worked. Clients and potential clients knew and accepted that, and it did not in any way hurt us.

Arnold Brown
Chairman
Weiner, Edrich, Brown
New York City

I decided a long time ago that my family was the most important thing in my life. I have also made it very clear that if the company is successful but the family is dysfunctional, then I have failed. And I'm willing to get up at 4 a.m. to work, go into the office Saturday nights, and forgo business trips to be able to make it home for dinner and attend the elementary-school Christmas show.

Steve Wulchin
President
FreeWave Technologies
Boulder, Colo.

Trans-spotting

In " The Takeover" (April), Stephanie Gruner wrote about the founders of Transworld Teachers, a language school, who lost their company when the chief financial officer they'd hired persuaded shareholders to dump them. Readers took note:

As a graduate of the program and a friend of the couple, I knew them to be warm, trusting individuals focused on educating their students. Unfortunately, they didn't possess the cunning and guile required for success in today's business world.

LCDR James Mitsatsos, USN (Retired)
Naval Science Instructor
Santa Teresa High School
El Paso, Tex.

Love Struck

One reader found Dr. Susan Love's choice of words in " Is There an M.B.A. in the House?" (Inc. Query, April) particularly provocative: