Entrepreneur: "What I built — with government help"

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Entrepreneur: "What I built — with government he... - 8/18/2012 9:27:50 AM

dcnovice

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In an essay for The Washington Post, entrepreneur James C. Roumell, who founded Roumell Asset Management (a $300 million firm), describes his rise from a working class childhood to a prosperous adulthood.

quote:

Today, I own a small business, an asset management firm with $300 million in assets. Last year we launched the Roumell Opportunistic Value Fund (RAMSX) and hired three more people. We’re growing and creating jobs. I suppose I could pound my chest and take credit for my journey from Detroit to Chevy Chase, from working class to professional. I could say I built it myself. But this wouldn’t be true.

* * *

Nothing in terms of “regulations” or “business uncertainty” has stopped me from investing capital for a return. In fact, the stability that government involvement brought to the capital markets over the past three years, evidenced by a 100 percent increase in the Standard and Poor’s 500-stock index since March 2009, probably enabled my business to survive. The federal government’s back-stopping of money market funds in the fall of 2008 ended, effectively in one day, what was turning into a 1930s-style bank run.

* * *

I did work harder, and perhaps more imaginatively, than many colleagues. But does that mean I built it myself? Does it diminish my success to be grateful for the public investments that so clearly contributed to my success? Every successful person knows, and will admit if he is honest, that luck played a role in his good fortune.

Complete essay at Washington Post

Thoughts? Does this capitalist just not understand capitalism? Or is success perhaps a bit more complex than a t-shirt slogan might lead us to believe?

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RE: Entrepreneur: "What I built — with governmen... - 8/18/2012 10:40:18 AM

Musicmystery

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Actually, he totally gets it. Use available resources, especially including getting help from others. And adapt to conditions. There are no "bad markets" to someone who understands business, just changing markets and updated business models.

There's a reason some succeed continually (despite failing at times) and others complain continually. Thing is--that's where the discussion breaks down into fighting and name calling and partisanship. It's a shame. We need to transition to a business owner economy from a largely employee economy, and that's going to mean a LOT of mental shifts. But when we get it--damn, life is grand, personally and for those around us.

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RE: Entrepreneur: "What I built — with governmen... - 8/18/2012 12:23:01 PM

erieangel

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He totally get it.

So does the family that runs the small department store a few block from where I live. Kraus Department Store has been in business for over 120 years. In the exact same location. It was once a 3-story department store that sold everything from clothing to hardware to toys; they even run a US postal desk. Then the Americans with Disabilities Act came into being and, lacking an elevator, Kraus had to scale back by putting all their merchandise on one floor. But they were still "the place" to shop for those items nobody else carried. I bought my first roasting pan there, at a time when everybody else was selling nothing but the junk foil kind, Kraus had ceramic-on-steel covered roasters. Both of my kids' first tricycles came from there--no extra charge for assembly. The wiring in my house is old and I still have a fuse box...I can run to Kraus to buy a single fuse if needed. For the past several years, Kraus has been trying to finance the installation of an elevator. They almost had the funds--for 3 floors, it would be over $200,000--then the '08 crash came and they lost most of their investments. They've had to virtually start all over. But they aren't giving up. One of the current owners, the grandson of the founder, told me a few months when I took a window in to be repaired that his grandparents survived the Depression and they'll survive now.

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RE: Entrepreneur: "What I built — with governmen... - 8/18/2012 12:38:45 PM

Sanity

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Not that I want to be of assistance but the left would be far better off not reminding people (especially business owners) of Obamas overtly Marxist slip of the tongue

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RE: Entrepreneur: "What I built — with governmen... - 8/18/2012 3:10:23 PM

dcnovice

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quote:

Not that I want to be of assistance but the left would be far better off not reminding people (especially business owners) of Obamas overtly Marxist slip of the tongue

Interesting point. I might agree if I thought we'd be allowed to forget Obama's "slip of the tongue," but I doubt that will happen. So I thought it noteworthy that at least one successful business builder got what the President meant.

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No matter how cynical you become,
it's never enough to keep up.

JANE WAGNER, THE SEARCH FOR SIGNS OF
INTELLIGENT LIFE IN THE UNIVERSE

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RE: Entrepreneur: "What I built — with governmen... - 8/18/2012 3:45:54 PM

Fellow

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quote:

I did work harder, and perhaps more imaginatively, than many colleagues. But does that mean I built it myself? Does it diminish my success to be grateful for the public investments that so clearly contributed to my success? Every successful person knows, and will admit if he is honest, that luck played a role in his good fortune.

I do not think this example is good. We have a financial speculator who took advantage of the government artificially propping up the asset markets. He was not really helped, he just positioned himself properly into this rather bizarre environment we are living in the moment. Also, "public investments" is fancy deceptive way to describe the government (Fed) involvement in capital markets. The public has nothing to do with it.

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