Prologue
In 1985, I was fired.
I had been asked to take over a boutique consulting firm in Providence, Rhode Island, the year before, so my wife and our nine- and ten-year-old children moved up from New Jersey. I had little in the way of savings, a new mortgage, private school tuition, and credit card debt. The Chicago-based owner of the firm—he owned 40 companies—and I didn’t get along well at all, and he fired me in the Admirals Club of O’Hare Airport with his entourage at his side, and offered a grudging four months of severance.
I tell you this because, occasionally, someone supposes that I never had to start my own firm or that I’ve always had major assets.
Believe me, I know exactly what it’s like to launch a business, except that I did ...
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