A hero is no braver than an ordinary man, but he is braver five minutes longer.
Ralph Waldo Emerson

#1 secret of business success revealed!

In an interview with the founders of California Pizza Kitchen, a Newsweek article revealed their #1 business-success secret. Hold on to your hats, folks, it’s gonna be a shocker: they were really well capitalized.

In other words, to make money they needed money — lots of it.

I know this is a revelation to all those out there who hope to make a go of it without any money behind them or believe in the power of prayer to run a business, but it might not be so shocking to anyone who has actually tried to run a business.

In the same issue a few pages later was an article gushing about this obscene yacht built by the guy who used to run HP. What’s the message?

Money makes the world go round.

PS: This is a toss-off post, I’m swamped right now and this has been sitting in my admin panel for a couple months now. I found the story hilarious in a way the journalists never intended. I’m sure it’s on the Newsweek site, but I’m not feeling like digging for links at the moment.

comments

8 Responses to “#1 secret of business success revealed!”

  1. Ian Thomas Healy on November 8th, 2007

    That’s just brilliant. Hell, if I was well-capitalized, I could make a fortune too.

    If any potential investors are reading this, I can be reached at the email address above. ;)

    Ian

  2. Amanda Brooks on November 9th, 2007

    Yeah, I can’t believe this counted as a news article, or was considered reporting or anything. This wouldn’t have been news 2000 years ago.

    XX

  3. Jenny DeMilo on November 13th, 2007

    It takes money to make money is a mainstream news story? this is news? maybe it’s the usage of the term “well-capitalized”

    whats the next big breaking news story, clouds are fluffy?

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oWMIXgCaJPQ

    Jenny

  4. Amanda Brooks on November 14th, 2007

    Jenny,

    I hear you. I wondered about the magazine editor’s choice of stories as well.

    Newsweek also likes to cover weight loss/health issues, but always end up saying the only way to lose weight is eat less, exercise more. I think the quality of their “news” has been declining over the past year.

    XX

  5. Ren Galskap on November 25th, 2007

    Them that’s got shall get
    Them that’s not shall lose
    So the Bible said and it still is news
    Mama may have, Papa may have
    But God bless the child that’s got his own
    That’s got his own
    –Billie Holliday

    It would be appropriate for Newsweek to credit the person who broke the story, instead of reporting it as if it were their own. ;)

  6. Amanda Brooks on November 26th, 2007

    Ren,

    But who’s the first person to discover this truth about business? We’d have to go back to the moment money was invented.

    I love Billie Holiday, but was not familiar with those lyrics. Thanks for sharing. “Them that’s got shall get” seems to be the working motto of loan processors.

    XX

  7. Nerraux on November 27th, 2007

    I love this. I come up with several billion dollar ideas every year, but since I don’t have any money to make them realities, I have no choice but to sit back and wait 4 years for someone else to produce them. I wonder how much further we would be as a race if we didn’t have to wait for already-rich to come up with ‘original’ ideas…

  8. Amanda Brooks on November 28th, 2007

    Nerraux,

    Yes. There are only a couple of ideas I’ve managed to do on my own (the book project being one of them). The rest I’ve had to sit and watch someone with money produce the idea and make more money.

    It sucks.

    Even more frustrating are the things I want/need in my life, but nothing is created for it and I can’t do it for myself. Then I want someone with money to come along and make it!

    XX

Leave a Reply

Your e-mail address is not collected, used or listed with your comment.

When writing your comment, you can use these tags: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <code> <em> <i> <strike> <strong>





  • New visitors:

    This is the personal site/blog of Amanda Brooks, author of The Internet Escort's Handbook series. If you're over here because you heard of the books and are interested, just click here to go to the book's site and blog.

    TexasGoldenGirl doesn't really deal with the books -- it's my personal site. To continue exploring here, use the menu above.

  • Search?

    The Search bar is at the bottom of the page. It's not far to scroll.

  • Copyright Notice

    Notice of copyright: The After Hours blog is copyrighted (c) 2002-2008 by Amanda Brooks. All rights reserved.

  • Personal Update (7/2/08)

    Book #2 is on its way. Slowly. But getting there.

    I'm finally ready to rejoin life. Slowly, too.

  • Geeky

    I've discovered the pleasure of working with Brian Gardner's WP themes. His free stuff is nearly flawless and his more expensive stuff is mind-blowing. Although his work is easy to use right out of the box, there's infinite fun to be had by customizing (i.e., destroying) it. As you can see here.

    Code Like a Girl
    Faithful follower