| I told my family that I finally accepted that my | | | | into micro-brew's face. I told him he was |
| passion had become an ob- session, and you could | | | | under-capitalized. He was giving away his |
| even call it an addiction. They all laughed. What | | | | intellectual property. His burn rate was twice as |
| had taken me 25 years to accept, they had | | | | fast as this so-called "angel" investor was |
| known for years. | | | | revealing. Big Pharma would pay a much higher |
| My wife detected my addiction as early as our | | | | multiple for the company if he would listen to my |
| honeymoon in Paris. All I wanted to do was spend | | | | suggestions.He looked bewildered. I said it again, |
| time at the Bourse trading francs on the spot | | | | "Don't make the deal - you'll lose your company |
| market. She kept on nudging me to see some old | | | | to this chamber of commerce man of the year |
| picture in the Louvre.For my daughter, it became | | | | wanna-be in seven months."The conversation on |
| clear when I demanded that her prom date be an | | | | the cell phone ended, and Mister Single Malt |
| officer in Junior Achievement. I thought it was a | | | | Scotch asked, "Do we have a deal? " Micro-brew |
| good way to ensure that she dated a young man | | | | looked at him, then me, and said.... "No way!" He |
| with career aspirations. She saw it differently.It | | | | reached for his beer and slid into my booth.I don't |
| had been six months since I had read a business | | | | have to tell you what happened next. You all |
| plan. And I missed it. I mumbled when the Wall | | | | know it too well. We sat for three and a half |
| Street Journal driver came down my block... only | | | | hours, re-doing spreadsheets on his laptop, and |
| to skip my house. My wife had a block on our | | | | playing out various pro-formas.I finally stumbled |
| cable television - no more MSNBC, and it was no | | | | home, embarrassed and yet delirious with joy |
| better on the Internet; I couldn't access | | | | over the deal I had structured. My wife could see |
| Bloomberg.Last Tuesday, a power stronger then | | | | me hiding the business plan under my coat. She |
| myself won out. I don't know how, but I ended | | | | demanded to see my cell phone. Quickly she |
| up at the Harvard-Yale-Princeton Club. My eyes | | | | went through the calls I had made in the last four |
| focused on the booths along the back wall. I | | | | hours. She knew the area codes: New York, |
| immediately saw the signs. A shot of single-malt | | | | Brussels, London, and my newest haunt, New |
| Scotch, half finished, was being used as a | | | | Delhi. I had been lining up angel investors.What |
| paperweight on a four-color business plan. The | | | | could I say? I had already used up my inventory |
| reader, a silver-haired executive with | | | | of "I promise it will never happen again." She had |
| monogrammed reading glasses, was analyzing | | | | been going to her own meetings and knew that |
| spreadsheets as he simultaneously served volleys | | | | she needed to go on with her life and not let my |
| of staccato-like questions at the young man | | | | addiction manipulate her.Had I called my sponsor? |
| across the table.This young man was obviously | | | | She had not seen his number in my cell phone's |
| new to the game. His dark blue suit looked like he | | | | call list. " No," I whispered.She made me return to |
| had not worn it since his bar mitzvah, and the tie | | | | Entrepreneurs Anonymous (EA). I had stopped |
| must have been knotted eight years ago and | | | | going to my meetings. I had beaten it or so I |
| never unraveled. He had ordered the latest | | | | thought. But the truth is, we never do. I was just |
| micro-brew, but had not taken even one sip.I sat | | | | like everyone else in EA. I matched the profile |
| at the next booth and listened in. I smiled as I | | | | perfectly. Eighty percent of members have a |
| heard the two argue over burn rates, traction | | | | relapse within their first six months. I was now |
| projections, alpha/ beta sites, and most stridently | | | | another data-point confirming that statistic.Hesh |
| about valuations.A cell phone rang, and the | | | | Reinfeld writes a syndicated business humor |
| single-malt Scotch stood and walked a few steps | | | | column. |
| to take the call in private. I jumped up and got | | | | |