Letters

Inc. readers react to articles from the August 1998 issue of Inc., including "Diary of a Soloist," by Harriet Rubin, "Caveat Emptor," by Norm Brodsky, and "Partners on the Edge," by Jerry Useem.

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In August, Harriet Rubin reported that soloists have a lot of time on their hands, and the flood of responses to her story bears that out. (The second installment of Rubin's journal appears in this issue.) We also received comments about buying a business and taking on a partner.

Solo sound-off

Harriet Rubin, once a top editor at Doubleday and now on her own, is the author of the best-selling The Princessa: Machiavelli for Women . She offered readers a first-person account of life among the self-employed (" Diary of a Soloist," August).

I am in the process of trying to convince my boss that laying me off would be a good idea. She's not quite there yet, but I hope to get her there by day's end. Driving in to work this morning, I alternated between feelings of peace and panic. I have worked for Digital--now Compaq--for the past 18 years. The thought of leaving scares the hell out of me. I am responsible for two small children, a husband who works on 100% commission sales, and a nanny who's been with us for nine years. (The cat could probably fend for himself if he had to.) Rubin's belief in herself is what encourages me as I step off this cliff. I have no other job lined up right now, but my brain is atrophying here, and I can't stand it any longer. Going solo is a fantasy of mine, but realistically, I don't know how I could make an erratic income stream work for my household. Such are the choices we all make in life. They define the paths we end up on, I guess. Thank you for hanging in there, for writing your diary, and for helping pre-soloists see what it can really be like.

Jane Heaney
Groton, Mass.

Writes this anguished reader:

Having recently left "Big Six" Consulting Land last year, I hear you, sister, when you relate your discussions regarding new ventures. All I can say is, hang in there. It took me eight full months to get my new practice off the ground, in which time I did more self-destructing and self-doubting than I thought one person could humanly accomplish in an entire lifetime.

William D. Newman
Managing Director
A-OK Applied Technologies Group
Auburn Hills, Mich.

Now for dissenting opinions. This woman was unimpressed by Rubin's tale:

Whine. Whine. Whine. Rubin leaves a 20-year career with a book in her back pocket (published by her former employer), the ability to still use connections to sit at the feet of Peter Drucker, an invitation to the World Economic Forum in Davos, and a net worth of more than a million, and talks about the "shock" of being on her own. Excuse me, but this "girl guru" (as she calls herself) doesn't even know what shock is. Give me the journal of a true entrepreneur: one who has to build a reputation from deeds, not networked connections; one who has to mortgage the house again and again to try for the dream; one who worries about day care and sick kids and finding time for the spouse; one who starts with a second-hand computer and collateral materials printed in just one color. Then you'll have presented the journal of a soloist.

Eileen Mcdargh
President
McDargh Communications
Dana Point, Calif.

In the same vein:

I must take exception to the "Diary of a Soloist" article in your August issue. The idea that Rubin represents what it is "really like" to be starting the solo process is ridiculous. Most soloists do not have a million-dollar net worth and invitations to Davos, "the Rolls Royce of business conferences." I humbly suggest that people like me who were pushed into this process by corporate downsizing are more of an accurate representation. While Rubin was toughing it out in the Delta business-class lounge and keeping her chin up at the World Economic Forum, I was hustling to find the money for child support, a college tuition, and a mortgage payment due in February. Please don't insult people like me with this business fluff--have the guts to tell it like it really is.

Mark B. Patten III
Patten, Vergis & Associates LLC
Albany, N.Y.

Try before you buy

" Caveat emptor," warned the headline of Norm Brodsky's August Street Smarts column. Brodsky cautioned would-be entrepreneurs about the risks of buying an existing business rather than starting one of your own. This reader embraced the advice:

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