Gust Do It
If Balls Weren't Round, The World Would Still Be Flat
The Ultimate Survival Guide FOR Serial Entrepreneurs BY Serial Entrepreneurs 

Since leaving college in the late 1960’s, I have, for the most part, been self-employed as a start-up (serial) entrepreneur involved across many businesses and platforms. My first job out of college was in advertising, working in TV commercial production for many agencies on Madison Avenue before getting into the feature film business in New York and California.  See www.elliotkrasnow.tv. After the unexpected tragic loss of my then fiancé just weeks before our scheduled wedding, I left LA deeply depressed to join up with my father in Miami.

Fast forwarding to the mid-1980’s, I was the founder and CEO of a precious metals and numismatic company (CRCG) employing over 150 people and, with the help of FNN-TV (now CNBC), where I appeared daily with host Mario Machado, reached sales of $1 million per month within five years. Just prior to this start-up, I had the opportunity of being trained and coached by J. Douglas Edwards, often referred to as the “father of sales training”. Unfortunately, in 1989, the FTC brought a complaint against the company, which, after denying all allegations, we vigorously defended and ultimately settled favorably without any admission of wrongdoing. Although there was a financial redress, no liability was found and no laws were broken. We did have to re-do some of our marketing materials disseminated to the public. It was always my opinion that the FTC attorney who came on at the end of the case took everything very personal, especially when the Florida district court judge admonished the FTC for bringing the case against us and initially ruled in our favor. The FTC, of course, files cases against hundreds of companies for many reasons, and the big guys can easily defend themselves because they can match resources (as they have sued Intel on December 16, 2009). But when a small business is distracted by such an action, does not have the resources of the government, it can be a very painful and expensive experience, difficult from which to recover. (Just ask internet guru Frank Kern (Mass Control). He, too, became an authority on the FTC after they sued him.) I ultimately sold the business in 1991. 

I had two other businesses, also involved in tangible assets: Kennedy Arts Center, with Peter Max, selling his vintage art; and another business, Supercels, buying and selling vintage animation art. I made the largest single art sale ever for Peter, selling the famous Statue of Liberty painting that hung in the Reagan White House to a wealthy collector. And Supercels was probably the third largest buyer of vintage animation art in the country, often competing against Steven Spielberg for the high-end pieces, sometimes reaching six figures for the “uniques”. After the CRCG debacle, I sold these businesses as well.   

I then launched another new business venture called Voicescribe, which was a medical-legal transcription technology business designed to replace those tiny micro-recorders. We got it up and running, had national customers calling in, but because I invested my own money without partners, could not scale fast enough to keep up with the enormous Lanier infrastructure expenses. After losing $750,000 in nine months, I shut it down. Lesson learned.     

Next, I started a new business with another mentor, David Sandler, and was president of The Sandler Sales Institute in Florida. See www.sandler.com. Training, coaching, and helping others grow has always been part of my core values. I was fortunate to have given many national and local seminars employing the Sandler methodology, reached thousands of attendees, and was often called the Tommy Hopkins, Dale Carnegie, Brian Tracy, Zig Zieglar, that no one ever heard of. Although the Sandler techniques are very different than these motivational sales trainers, I do believe strongly in the philosophy that to get where you want to be, you must first help others get to where they want to be. Again, another untimely death: Dave passed away in 1994 – he recruited me and was really the reason I was with the organization – so, I left, was successful in selling the franchise, and found myself looking for another opportunity.

It was 1995, and being the creative gadget freak that I was, I first discovered the Internet and, after helping launch IMall and Snap.com (with NBC), started a new company, Netspace, and created a brand.  It was the dot-com boom (2000), and we began by selling web services to SME’s across the country through a network of 500 part-time Netspace Internet consultants. That led to franchising the concept, growing to 80 franchise locations in the US and the UK, and going public in 2002. We produced TV commercials, a half-hour infomercial entitled, “The Internet Revolution”, received lots of national press and accolades, etc. However, in our exuberance, we made some mistakes in our franchise selection process that, unfortunately, led to some “disenfranchised” franchisees. Their expectations were too high as they thought the franchise purchase would be an instant shortcut to financial success, they could hang their shingle and wait for the telephone to ring. Not uncommon for new franchisors. And although our support was 24/7, quarterly conferences, and monthly newsletters, for some it just was not a good fit. The “techies” could not sell, no matter how much sales training they were given. We switched our profile to those with sales and marketing backgrounds, but it was too late. My old nemesis from the FTC, yes, that same attorney from over 15 years ago, found a loophole in which to bring an action against the company. It was unbelievable! 

Once again, to the best of our ability, we vigorously defended ourselves, denied all the allegations, and ultimately settled for business and financial reasons. There was no entry of wrongdoing or liability. The settlement amount was for redress to those franchisees and my agreement to exit the franchise business. I was ready for that, and coupled with the distraction and cost of the litigation for over 1 ½ years, the company could not survive with me continuing as the CEO. This is now the Internet age, and everything was reported online, causing irreparable damage to our brand and good will. I was left with no alternative but to make a fire sale to a group of business people who I believed would save the company and, importantly, the successful franchisees. They took the company private, and I sold the public shell in a reverse merger transaction. 

Around this same time, late 2006, I began feeling fatigued – something was happening to my energy and this, of course, impacted on how I dealt with these business challenges. With the help of close business associates, at the start of 2007, I had the opportunity of starting up another new online business in the global travel and tourism sector: TravelRegistrar, which I did have to leave for health reasons soon after launch. (Still counting?) It wasn't until a few months later that I found out what was happening to me.  

In April, 2007, after acute kidney failure, blood tests that were off the chart, and a bone marrow biopsy, I was diagnosed with advanced multiple myeloma, cancer of the blood and bones. Typical life expectancy of this cancer, given my specs at the time, is two years. I was very sick, and had a further complication of contracting a very rare lung infection unrelated to the myeloma. After three hospitalizations and lung surgery, I rushed to write my last will and testament, powers of attorney, and appoint my wife my health care surrogate while I prepared for the battle now that I was forced into medical retirement.

In my favor, I have always believed in philanthropy to whatever extent possible. Truly, giving is one of the great highs. See www.elliotkrasnow.info. I was fortunate to have surrounded myself with a top medical team, including hematology/oncology, pulmonary specialist, nephrologist, pain management, etc. 

I watched Tony Snow with admiration, and was able to relate to his reasoning for leaving the White House: no matter how good your insurance is – eg., just one of the many pills I take costs $400 per day – he needed to move on to improve his financial situation so his children’s education could be adequately funded, and having a son myself complete under-graduate and graduate school living away from home, I can attest to these high costs of tuition and living. When Tony Snow passed away, I cried for his family. But this happens to many families, doesn’t it? And to many entrepreneurs who lose their income and savings during the many cycles of life for whatever reasons.

Fall down seven times, get up eight. Stuck, get unstuck. The good news is, for all intents and purposes, I am now in remission. Feeling great! I will always take medication, but I have stabilized the disease and am ready for my next big idea, my comeback. And the epiphany has hit me once again. While working on other selected projects, I am embarking on designing and developing a new Internet search engine website that will ‘match’ consumers with doctors to help them find a proper physician from a list of medical practitioners who will advertise their expertise and qualifications on the website. Big pharma and medical device companies can also display on the site. 

This is an improvement on existing technology and search delivery results unlike anything currently being done online. Having filed many trademark registrations in my career, I can now add “inventor” to my credentials because for the first time I have filed a patent application with the USPTO. The domain name will be WhoCanIHeal, and I am embarking on the funding, design, development and programming of the website. Patent pending.

So, what have I learned? It is that entrepreneurs have a different DNA. They have a passion, a higher level of risk taking rather than risk avoidance, and will be driven by that passion to fulfill their dreams. Most fail, and don’t come back. But true entrepreneurs see things differently, are mostly visionary in nature as they find a need not seen by others, and then have the ability to unleash their ‘Big Ideas’ into an executable plan. We realize that we are not judged by the number of times we fail, but by the number of times we succeed, and the number of times we succeed is in direct proportion to the number of times we can fail and keep trying. (I think Tommy Hopkins said that.) 

This is the premise for the book GUST DO IT! Helping other entrepreneurs identify their inner selves, motivate them to keep going and never give up, and recognize that money, like a ball, is round: sometimes it rolls towards you, and sometimes it rolls away from you. Yes, we are money motivated, no doubt, but health and inner happiness is true wealth, and the book will contain inspirational stories from wealth builders you may have never heard about before. We can read about Donald Trump just so many times. These are real stories from real people across America. You may not know their names, but don't be surprised if your life is improved because of them.

What makes this book different is that each contributing author is a "serial" entrepreneur that has made and lost ONE MILLION DOLLARS or more at least THREE (3) TIMES in their lifetimes. Learn their secrets, and uncover your DNA.

To learn more about me, please visit Elliot Krasnow .