I have always been a voracious reader of business news as far back as I can remember, - in fact I credit the NY Times Business page with most of my broad, real life understanding of micro-business operations - I used to just suck that section up while working my 6am-11am parking lot attendant shift at Shadyside Hospital while attending the University of Pittsburgh from 1988-1992.
Under the Business Section, there is a sub-section called Small Business, and it's composed of a bunch of blogs by entrepreneurs. One of them is "You're the Boss."
One guy is blogging as he is preparing to open a restaurant, and he just wrote a great thread "How to Make 100 Enemies List" - it was just such a familiar narrative to me, where every push has a pull, every tough decision leaves many disappointed non-chosen ones, and every action has many more opinions than I ever imagined.
http://boss.blogs.nytimes.com/
And then to have the wherewithal and audacity to actually succeed, - now, that's when you see the real haters.
Anyway, these little online communities of persons battling the same or similar wars as us is definitely a great way to keep it all in perspective. Most of the hurdles are so inane that sometimes I think the most successful business people are those that survive and maneuver around nonsense successfully. Anyone can be brilliant, but to suffer fools endlessly in order to grab the big picture, now that's something to see.
Actually, after 7 years of building a business in a economically depressed region, I forget that my tolerance for 'eating shit', 'turning the other cheek', 'letting bygones be bygones', 'getting shafted' and 'forgiving and forgetting' is far more advanced than most mere mortals.
and that's not meant to be an unhumble statement - it's a business necessity up here, not any less important than cash flow management, employee relations, and quality-control.
In an area with a shallow talent/labor pool, you get a lot of chances to be disappointed, and not letting that cloud your decisions (however difficult) is the secret to country success.
You build your team with what you have - not what you wish for. And you keep improving incrementally and gradually. Any grander ambition is doomed to failure.
And you collect your unexpected enemies like so many notches in a belt, feathers in a cap, or etches in a the tree bark.
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