Letters

Readers reply to articles and issues featured in past editions of Inc. magazine.

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Brickbats and roses this month. Readers cheered the "bad boys of Wall Street," jeered research on "copreneurs," and admitted that their personal life is more important than growing a company quickly. For all that and more, read on.

A Load of Bulls
Edward O. Welles's January cover story, " The Bad Boys of Capitalism," profiled two Texans who have irked Wall Street with their cutting-edge on-line-trading service. Readers clearly like the idea more than traditional brokers do:

Your article really hit a nerve. I'm not a day trader, but I trade frequently. It's not often that I don't shake my head at the execution after looking at the intraday numbers on the issue. Bring on these two entrepreneurs! I for one am fed up with the games of the Street.

Virginia Sacha
Principal
Business Accountants
Philadelphia

These young men must be onto something. Why else the strong resentment from the established old guard, and equally strong interest and success from those taking advantage of their program? I love renegades who challenge the status quo and succeed. Bad boys? I can't wait to get in touch with them.

G. Scott Miller
President
GS&K Inc.
Clackamas, Oreg.

These two kids have learned the looting techniques of the Wall Street sharks and are now teaching the average citizen how to steal money--all to the irritation of larger firms. They're not entrepreneurs, thieves, or even rogues--theirs is simply a case of "monkey see, monkey do." But they'd better enjoy the fun while it lasts. This gigantic speculative financial bubble is about to pop any day, and when it does, they'll be lucky to find a $5-an-hour job answering phones.

Jim Harwood
Business Manager
Arden International
Charlotte, N.C.

Ed Welles responds: On January 20 the Securities and Exchange Commission instituted changes to order-handling rules that would do two things. First, they'd allow certain orders by small investors to compete with orders placed by dealers and institutions, to ensure a fairer price. Second, they'd permit market makers to reduce (from 1,000 to 100) the number of shares they must honor at their quoted prices for 50 of the most widely traded stocks on NASDAQ. SOES traders, like those at Block Trading profiled in my article, applaud the first change but see the second as making it more difficult for them to execute trades at favorable prices--particularly in periods of market stress. At press time, the second rule change was undergoing a 90-day test.

Of Mice and Men
In " The Best-Laid Plans" (Street Smarts, January), Norm Brodsky shows how entrepreneurs often pursue the wrong goals. The column tells of Mike, who wanted to grow his family business quickly because he thought he had to. But he really didn't want to deal with hypergrowth at all. For some, Mike's story hit close to home:

After 10 years of working like a dog I finally realized that what I really wanted was to grow my company big enough that I could hire people who excelled to run their own departments, allowing me to concentrate on the things in the business I enjoyed and did well. Doubling my salary and taking more time off to play were really my goals, and that did not necessarily mean taking my company to $20 million. I wish I'd seen this article two years ago.

Todd S. Keller
CEO and Founder
IMC Health Care
Jacksonville, Fla.

In the management and organizational-behavior classes I teach, I ask my students to write their ideal obituary. It's when you evaluate what you'll be remembered for that you actually identify the life goals that your article discussed. For many of my students, that helps them identify a direction to go in throughout their entire life.

Bennett W. Cherry
Teaching and Research Assistant
University of Arizona
Tucson

All in the Family
A considerable number of readers called into question the research of psychologist Kathy Marshack, whose work was cited in " The Myth About the Mrs. in Husband-and-Wife Teams" (Managing, January). Marshack reported that "copreneurs," or husband-and-wife entrepreneurial teams, were far from being models of business and marital equality. A sample of the responses appears below:

Copreneurs: The Inn Crowd

Has Kathy Marshack (see "All in the Family") ever talked to couples who operate some of the 30,000 bed-and-breakfast inns throughout the United States? Those are truly one of the fastest-growing types of real husband-and-wife team businesses that involve a true husband-wife partnership. We know of very few B&Bs in which the owners conform strictly to stereotyped roles. Take ourselves: Bill does more than his share of the cooking, housework, and shopping, while Sharon also handles business finances, fixes broken doors, and works with contractors. Each of us can and does do each type of job necessary, and neither of us limits what we do to roles based on gender boundaries.

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