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Readers react to articles from the September issue of Inc, including Susan Greco's "War!," and Andrew Raskin's "Confessions of a Nonserial Entrepreneur."

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In our September issue, senior writer Susan Greco investigated small companies that are banding together to form powerful entrepreneurial alliances. On the cover, we called the story " War!" That headline seemed appropriate when the magazine went to press, more than a month before the horrific events of September 11. Though our wording was ill timed, our intent was to underscore a serious transformation in the way small companies are now doing business.

Give Peace a Chance
This reader understandably takes issue with September's cover line and calls into question the oft-repeated business-as-war metaphor.

The tragic events of September 11 shed a stark light on the unfortunate wording of your cover headline. Perhaps it's time to take a step back and rethink the increasingly popular characterization of the business world as a theater of war. I suggest we think twice before further injecting the bloody language of war into our business vocabulary and our everyday working lives.

Ken Simon
Manager, IT Standards
Gap Inc.
San Bruno, Calif.

Business Cycles
In September's Letter From Silicon Valley, " Confessions of a Nonserial Entrepreneur," Andrew Raskin turned his gaze to the entrepreneurial psyche and discovered, with the help of a career counselor, that his professional life was patterned on a three-year cycle of change. Raskin's discovery proved revelatory for one reader and reassuring to another.

I know intimately the type of internal struggle that you've articulated concerning "what are you" once you sell your business or otherwise move on.

I was a broadcasting executive for what is now the country's largest radio group. Three years later I became restless and started my own radio group with stations in Las Vegas and the Gulf Coast. Three years after that I sold out and started a fine-arts magazine. Three years after that I started a company that represents local public radio stations with their underwriting development. Now I own an advertising agency in Las Vegas.

All that time I thought I was simply lost, attempting to create something that was engaging and entertaining, something that supported my family and threw off some cash flow. Your article may have helped me (and many others) to identify something deep down that I have known for some time: there is a season and a reason for what motivates entrepreneurs to build what they build.

Dale J. Matteson
President
Matteson Media Group
Las Vegas

Raskin's column really struck a chord with me. I've been in transition, taking time off and looking for the next big thing. I sold my snowboard company in July 1999 and haven't worked since. Sometimes I would think about my next company, but mostly I would just empty myself of my last company. After 18 months or so, I feel ready to reengage. I'm planning my next venture: Aarvee Industries, a developer of sustainable homes. Though I know what I want to do, unlike Andy, I'm unsure how to do it. For that very reason, Andy's career counselor, Victoria Zenoff, sounds like a godsend. Would you mind providing her phone number?

Robert Valente
Former president and CEO
Atlantis Snowboards Inc.
Encinitas, Calif.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Victoria Zenoff can be reached at 510-526-5210.

Playing Down Passion
A business owner who wished to remain anonymous solicited advice in September's IncQuery on whether he should risk his comfortable annual six-figure income to grow his company. Bill Samuels Jr., president of Maker's Mark, told the waffling inquirer that without the requisite passion needed for building a company, he should probably remain in "his rocking chair."

Bill Samuels went overboard. You don't pull in six figures sitting in a rocking chair. This man's yearly income places him well inside the top 1% of income earners in the United States. Bill, the "execute with passion" man, should have giv-en his answer more thought. Each stage of growth in a company requires more and more of a person. And at each stage we have to decide whether the skills and time required fit our abilities, interests, and priorities. There are many people who can grow a $50-million company, but some of them have weighed the trade-offs and decided to use their time and passion in other pursuits. Life is not always about "killing somebody" or "conquering something." Ease up, Bill.

Ron Maines
Change Practice Leader
Ronmainesconsulting
Fayetteville, Ark.

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