Letters

Readers react to articles from the November 1998 issue of Inc., including Harriet Rubin's "The Soloist," William W. Horne's "The Sting," and George Gendron's "No Fooling."

Part two of Harriet Rubin's "soloist diaries" (November) sparked a batch of hot-blooded rejoinders from readers, as did a story about an entrepreneur who lost $700,000 in a venture-capital scam.

The diary debate
Harriet Rubin, who once had her own imprint at Doubleday, is now her own woman. In " The Soloist," part two of her diaries, she described the process of creating her own company, Rubicon.

What a disappointment the second installment of Harriet Rubin's diaries was. (And I was not all that fond of the first, either.) I look to your magazine to provide practical information and realistic but inspirational examples of starting and running a business. With the money Harriet has in the bank, she can afford to spend months thinking about what she might want to do. But she is not running a business: she's investigating what life means to her. Profile someone real. Give us the real facts about businesses that are started successfully by people who understand that a business has to make money and support its founder.

Jill Stahl Tyler
President
Stahl & Associates
Brattleboro, Vt.

Other readers were less than amused by Rubin's less-than-quotidian struggles:

On October 10, 1990, I was downsized from my midlevel management position. My severance was six weeks' pay and benefits until the end of October. I had a wife who (until then) had stayed at home with the children--ages 10, 8, and 4. We had no backup savings other than $20,000 in the company 401(k) plan. My only credit card was a company card, which was canceled that day. Vowing not to put myself in that position ever again, I started my own company and not in the industry of my former employer.

Now, that's going solo. It's a shame you have sold out to a compatriot and given her so much press for an unimpressive story.

Todd Luft
Owner
Luft & Co., Certified Public Accountants
Hatboro, Pa.

Please--let's not hear any more about Harriet Rubin. She is a name-dropper, she seems to feel that she has more insight than the "people with contacts" who presently occupy board seats, and now after being independent for a year, she's finally gotten around to getting stationery. What lessons should I learn from her?

Bill Fridl
President
Scanasia
San Francisco

There was also a strong show of support from readers empathizing with Rubin's situation.

Just wanted to say I read and enjoyed the second installment. I'm a young engineer in Colorado Springs and look forward to one day going solo. Your article helps me understand what it's like from a human perspective. Too often, business-related books are just technical dissertations on finances and business plans--as if we were there for the business, not the other way around. Whatever business I create in the future will be there to serve my needs.

Keith Vick
Field Service Engineer
Applied Materials
Santa Clara, Calif.

Some even threw in advice:

I read your diaries on the plane last night and wanted to tell you how much I enjoyed them. Thank you--I found them inspirational. Three years ago I got fed up with working for a "prissy" boss whose biggest concern was where his next vacation was going to be. Meanwhile, I was busting my ass servicing clients. When I left the firm, my boss took me to lunch and said things like, "Maybe we can throw you some extra work if you need it." What a jerk. Three years later my income has tripled and my old boss has had to close down that particular office. I am a one-man show (in consulting) but found your angle on being a "peer" very compelling. With regard to charging people who ask for advice, when someone calls me and says, "I need some advice...." I say, "That's what I sell."

Name Withheld
Hollywood, Fla.

Slighting the scammed
Reader sympathy hardly abounded for Paul Shearer, the pseudonym of the businessman profiled in William W. Horne's " The Sting." Shearer, who once had a net worth of $14 million, was the victim of a venture scam run by a man named Robert Newman.

Paul Shearer knew what Robert Newman was. Shearer's lawyers and private detective had told him so. To Shearer's credit, he does not sound like a complainer. But as long as victims ask, in some cases beg, to be parted from their money, someone will always be happy to oblige.

Robert C. Ramos
Owner
Gabriel Enterprises
Corpus Christi, Tex.

The fool still rules
In November's FYI editor-in-chief George Gendron referred to the Motley Fool Inc.'s employee handbook, The Fool Rules!, as the best in its class. The article told interested readers to E-mail the Motley Fool for copies. Several readers were surprised to learn of a $10 charge for the book.