Mail: November 2002

Readers react to recent Inc magazine articles.

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Where, and from whom, do you find the wisdom to help you through all the crises that mark the often isolated life of an entrepreneur? That was the subject of our September cover story, " Who Do You Call When No One Has the Answers?" by Jill Hecht Maxwell and Michael Hopkins.

Beyond the Board

Forget the M.B.A.'s. Sometimes a CEO's best guidance comes from people who know nothing about spreadsheets.

What a great article. I would have more appropriately titled it "Who Do You Call When You Don't Know the Question?" because that's the dilemma that faces many small-business owners I know.

Entrepreneurs are often intuitive enough to sense that something is wrong, but they just can't put their finger on what it is exactly. Too often they find it costly and counterproductive to search for the question in their stable of conventional advisers (lawyers, certified public accountants, and so on), who are skilled at postulating answers only after the question has been articulated. Many times the best advice -- of the type that helps us see the forest from the trees -- is found outside the cadre of typical business advisers.

J.B. Carter
President
El Macero Associates
El Macero, Calif.

Mad for Science

Also in September, in the second installment of our three-part series on innovation, associate editor Thea Singer explored how neuroscience is shedding light on the process of creativity, in " Your Brain on Innovation."

I took the September issues of Inc and of Scientific American on vacation with me. For a second, I forgot which one I was reading. Thanks for a superb article and one that I believe definitely has a place in your publication -- the only one of its kind to do justice to the process of entrepreneurship.

Terri S. Alpert
Founder and CEO
Professional Cutlery Direct
North Branford, Conn.

This reader agrees with a doctor cited in Singer's piece who believes that emotion, along with reasoning and imagination, plays an important role in the development of innovations.

I read the article "Your Brain on Innovation" with great interest. I agree wholeheartedly with Antonio Damasio [the head of the neurology department at the University of Iowa College of Medicine, who is interviewed in the story] that "emotion is literally the alarm that permits the detection."

As a package designer for a manufacturer of premium chocolates, I find that there are often many technical problems that arise when we're designing new packaging, and I have learned that problem solving is an entirely emotional experience.

When I don't like an idea or a proposed solution that someone throws out at a meeting, I try to figure out what is making me feel uncomfortable. The feeling gets me thinking of alternative solutions that are "comfortable" to me. It's as if the discomfort itself leads me to think creatively to come up with solutions. I look forward to reading more on this subject. Thanks for the excellent content.

Yael Weiss
Product Development Manager
Astor Chocolate Corp.
Lakewood, N.J.

Green vs. Greenbacks

September's Incubator section profiled a company whose product tests water's safety; Susan Davis, who uses her elite network of pals to push socially responsible businesses; and Sumner Erdman, who has transformed his Hawaiian cattle ranch into a tourist attraction. The contrast between the first two subjects and the third left one reader aghast.

After reading the article in your Incubator section about Watersafe's home tap-water-testing kit and Susan Davis, who is now involved in "socially responsible business" (more details about those investor networks with the "triple bottom line" would have been interesting), I was appalled to read the Main Street piece on the "pasty" guy who raises cattle, grows wine grapes, and encourages all-terrain vehicles to travel over his land. What an environmental nightmare.

Jean Schweibish
Attorney
Westhampton Beach, N.Y.

No I in Morals?

When columnist Norm Brodsky discovered that a leasing company had overcharged his business, he and his partners filed a lawsuit against the vendor. In the process they discovered that the vendor had also taken advantage of hundreds of other companies. In September's Street Smarts, " A Breach of Trust," Brodsky described how he negotiated a settlement with the vendor. One of our readers raised questions about what happened to the other victims.

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