The Friends & Family Network

I started this latest newsletter with a gripe and a thorn in my side regarding the topic at hand. I muddled over the twist I would put on my gripe to make it sound less ‘gripee’. (no that is not a word, but I bet you understood what I meant.)? Moving forward and removing the complaining from this story, as best I can, I present to you my thoughts on the Family and Friends network.

As an entrepreneur, whether it be in a start up or in filmmaking, a commonly reiterated phrase when seeking advice, support or capital is ‘ask friends and family’.? I have read it in print and on social, it’s a Guy Raz’s go to on ‘How I built This’, it is presented in group settings and given as advice from career coaches.? But you see, my gut reaction to this mantra is empathy for my peers, those who don’t have a well connected network to seek such advice nor by any means the Capital…Hogwash I say!

It’s as if Harvard issued a white paper, stating, “all future outliers and entrepreneurs must have a network of family and friends in order to succeed.”

To be fair, it’s not that I don’t get it, I do, but when you consider that most folks don’t have 'family and friends’ with spare coin to invest in much of anything, never mind the wild dreams of an entrepreneur or the crazy dreams of a filmmaker. So what is one to do?? How can a brilliant enterprising blue collar mortal navigate those waters, scale that mountain and find the ‘holy grail’ they seek.? If only it were, as simple as attending the next family gathering or having lunch with an old friend and walking away with a team of supporters and a nest egg of investment into your future. ?

Nobody said life or business is fair. ?

But I am a dreamer and I want more for my peers and let’s face it for myself. I guess what I am saying, as I have professed in more recent newsletters, is outliers could really use more options and less dogma. There must be other ways.

So where does this leave us, or me, or you? I guess it’s back to our old friend tenacity. The warm cloak we turn to for comfort when the climb up ‘Mount Doom’ proves most challenging. When we lack a dedicated friend like Samwise by our side, when we seem to be haunted more by Gollum and our Aragorn has gone missing.?

I am guessing, only because I have seen it myself, through this journey we may pick up a Samwise or Aragorn along the way, chances are though, soon enough that fine colleague will fade into the bleachers and take a seat. I don’t fault them, to follow the dreams of a raving lunatic… Wait! No! A driven entrepreneur has its challenges. And so the entrepreneur finds themselves driving the wagon and tending the horses alone on the journey. Along the way greeting the gatekeepers and toll booth operators who ask for the password and price of admittance in the form of ‘friends and family.’ Each time the traveler reaches into their portfolio, extracting our credentials, presented in the form of ‘tenacity’, at which point the gatekeeper recognizes who they have come across, it is left unspoken, they step aside and utter, 'let this one be’.?

So perhaps you see where I have gone with this, the metaphor for the entrepreneur is the adventure story, yes, Lord of The Rings perhaps, applied, extrapolated and derived. The journey of self discovery throughout the ages has been pioneered alone, not exclusively, more ostensibly and not unique, whether you achieve your goals or not is anyone’s guess, but if nothing else and if you are lucky enough, you will be greeted by your family and friends as well as your champions in the bleachers when you come home again. Just like Mr.Frodo.

You know there really is no applicable synonym for entrepreneur,

seems it’s either all or nothing.