Missouri Small Business and Technology Development Centers Blog

Like most of you, I’m buried in information from a variety of sources — magazines, journals, newsletters, Twitter, Facebook, emails and various nuggets of information that others copy for me and leave on my desk. I try to take a few minutes each day to at least skim all of that information and put the best ones in a folder for more careful reading later. It’s time to share.

Here’s a recap of some of the best quick reads on entrepreneurship:

Many entrepreneurs call themselves “unemployable.” That, they say, is why they work for themselves instead of someone else. And most acknowledge they have “control issues,” adding they simply “want more.” This is basically what research has shown over the years, but it’s interesting to see it self-reported by the entrepreneurs themselves.

Most entrepreneurs wish they had jumped in sooner. I think this must be something akin to people waiting to have a family. We hear them say, “We’re waiting until we can afford it,” and the response from the older, wiser, sage parents is, “Don’t wait. You never will.” Seems many entrepreneurs feel the same way. Now in business, they view the two or three years they waited for the time to be “just right” as time lost to their dreams. So, don’t wait until you know everything. You never will.
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We walked in front of the Lincoln Memorial and talked of bar-b-que sauce.

That sounds strange, but that is often the case when worlds collide.

Dr. Harry Berrier, emeritus professor of veterinary pathology and active entrepreneur, is also a World War II-era veteran and former member of the Air Force Reserve. He was with us when Central Missouri Honor Flight took its third journey to Washington, DC, earlier this week to see the WWII Memorial and other historic sites. I was assigned to be his “guardian,” an Honor Flight designation that simply means we accompany the veterans on the trip, managing airport logistics and personal needs. After seeing the WWII Memorial, our group typically goes to the Korean War and Vietnam War Memorials, passing the Lincoln Memorial in between. It was on that walk that Dr. Berrier and I discussed his business, Show-Me Bar-B-Q Sauce, Inc.

Here again, worlds collided. My father, a WWII veteran and rather accomplished outdoor chef himself, introduced Show-Me sauce into our family when I was in high school. Since that time, it’s the only sauce any of us have used. So, I had a particular interest in hearing the story of this amazing concoction and how it fit into Dr. Berrier’s life and work as a veterinarian, educator, conservationist, arts enthusiast, bird-watcher and military man.
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