I was having a discussion with a friend of mine about how his brother’s business failed after 26 years. The bank called their credit line and he was toast. He had a “successful” business but he used debt to finance the growth. At one point, the brother had bragged about having 10+ credit cards maxed out with over a $100k of debt.
It was at that point I remembered reading numerous stories back around 2005 in magazines like Entrepreneur and INC. extolling the virtues of maxing out your credit cards to start, and run, your business. “Real” entrepreneurs did it, why not you! Get out there and be a success! Lack of money is no excuse, use a credit card you loser!
I did a Google search and found a blog posting “What it means to be an Entrepreneur.” The first in the list is: You’ve maxed out more than $50K in credit cards to fund your business.
We were all told we should spend “other people’s money” and “leverage” was the key to success. What happened? The rules changed and millions were left with unsustainable amounts of debt in a new economy. Suddenly those credit cards have 25% interest and your revenues have fallen through the floor. Looks like conventional wisdom was wrong again.
Seems every decade has a catch phrase or two. Like in the 80’s with “Where’s the beef?” The 90’s with “Show me the money!”. 00’s will probably be “WTF?”
