Introduction (Views)
Victor Kermit Kiam II (December 7, 1926 May 27, 2001) was an American entrepreneur and TV spokesman for Remington Products, and the owner of the New England Patriots football team from 1988–1991. He was well known for his turnaround of Remington's fortunes, as well as for his commercials written by his director of advertising and sales promotion at Benrus, Howard Shavelson, with whom he first worked on the Playtex Cross Your Heart Bra commercials.
Kiam was born in the French Quarter of New Orleans, the son of Nanon and Victor Kermit Kiam, a bond dealer who had divorced his actress mother while Kiam was four. His parents both moved away, with his mother going to California and his father to New York.
Theme
Victor Kiam's essay “Are You an Entrepreneur” advises an
upcoming entrepreneur to follow certain self-restricted discipline to become a
successful one. He says a successful entrepreneur has to strive
hard initially to win the confidence of a customer.
Summary
When I was eight, The Streetcar
Named Desire ran only four blocks from my home in New Orleans. But the
sound of eager Desire racing through the night did not inspire me – as it did
Tennessee Williams – to spin a passionate tale. Instead, it invited the entrepreneurial
muse to whisper the suggestions that guided me to the path I’m still
travelling.
That summer I noticed that people
getting off the Streetcar at the end of the day looked as if they would pass
out if they had to go another step without a cool drink. I didn’t realize it
then, but I had responded to the first precept of an entrepreneur: I had
recognized a need.
My grandfather gave me five dollars to
buy 100 bottles of Coca-Cola. But before I could take my first step into the
world of high finance, I had to set a price for my goods. With naïve boldness,
I settled on a mark-up of 100 per cent!
Business was brisk the first day and got
better as the week progressed. You would have thought I was a pint-size
millionaire. My grandfather was of that opinion. So you can imagine his shock
when, having sold my entire sock, I had only four dollars to show for my
efforts.
Few of my customers could afford to pay
ten cents for a bottle. Many couldn’t even afford the five cents I needed to
break even. It was so hot that I couldn’t bear to let anyone go away
empty-handed, so I just gave away my merchandise. My first business was a
financial failure, but it sure built up a lot of good will.
Entrepreneurs can be found everywhere –
from fellows with outdoor lunch wagons to people within the corporate
mainstream. Their common bond is that they are risk takers, willing to roll the
dice with their money or stake their reputations in support of an idea or a
project. They’re following their visions, and have decided to make the
sacrifices necessary to achieve success.
In 1968, after 18 years at Lever
Brothers and Playtex, I left my job. I had long thought of doing something on
my own, but it was talking with friends and attending a seminar on
entrepreneurship that gave me the push I needed. I bought into the watch
manufacturer Benrus Corporation. Then in 1979 I acquired the Remington Company.
Thirty-five years of experience has given me a good idea of the
entrepreneur’s profile. To find out if you have what it takes, ask yourself.
1. Do
I have enough self-confidence? You
must believe in yourself. In a company, you want the people working for you to
follow your lead; you want your superiors to respect your judgement. If you’re
running your own business, you want investors to place their money and trust
behind you. You want your clients to catch your enthusiasm and to believe in
your product or service. How can you inspire them if you don’t believe in
yourself?
If you lack self-confidence, find some.
Lack of confidence isn’t a disease, it’s a symptom. Self-perceived negatives
can rob you of a healthy ego.
Every six months, I do a personal
balance sheet. I make a list of my pluses and minuses. For example, I was once
a procrastinator. Confronting this helped me to overcome it. I started making
it a point to tackle distasteful jobs first. In a short time, procrastination
disappeared from my list of minuses.
There is nothing on my list I can’t
overcome if I make the effort. Try a balance sheet of your own.
2. Do I have
confidence in my venture? I’ve been
asked, ‘When you make an investment, are you backing the idea or the people
behind it?’ Both. No entrepreneur is a miracle worker. You can work 16 hours a
day, seven days a week, but if your product is lousy, you’ve wasted your time.
A friend of mine is a terrific shoe
salesman. When management of the business changed, the quality of the stock
dropped off. A customer complained that the expensive shoe she was about to buy
was too tight. He offered to stretch it. ‘I gripped the shoe and pulled’, he
told me. ‘It tore in half. What had been a finely crafted shoe was now a piece
of junk. I told the customer the truth, then I resigned.
The lesson is simple: you can’t sell
anything you wouldn’t buy.
3. Am
I willing to make sacrifices? Body-builders
have a saying, ‘No pain, no gain’. I should be the credo of every entrepreneur.
Forget the clock. Nine-to five doesn’t exist.
Saturday became part of my regular work
schedule as a young salesman. And when a snowstorm hit my region, it was an
opportunity, not an obstacle. The idea that my rivals would be hiding from the
elements gave me the impetus to push my product. It’s amazing how receptive a
buyer could be when the snow was waist-deep and I was the only friendly face
he’d seen all day. If you’re opening your own business, you’ll lose the
security of a regular salary and the company benefits you take for granted. And
there will be other changes. You might not get home for dinner; relaxing
week-ends may be few and far between. I’ve even seen entrepreneurs whose
marriages fell apart because they forgot about their spouses. That’s one
sacrifice I don’t recommend!
4. Do
I recognize opportunity? This is
essential. Get used to examination all angles of a proposition. Ask, ‘How can
this work for me?’
I learnt this the hard way. When I was
with Playtex I met an inventor who showed me two pieces of nylon fabric and
demonstrated how they adhered without hooks, zips of buttons. All I could think
about was the lack of applicability for our brassiere business.
That product was Velcro. And not a day
goes by when I don’t see it used somewhere.
5. Am I
decisive? You’d better be. As an
entrepreneur, you’re on your own. And you’re going to encounter situations
where time isn’t on your side. At Lever Brothers we were launching a new
product, an improved wrinkle cream. We planned a major promotion in Ohio
stores, with a famous make-up man flying in from New York to apply the stuff.
But he suddenly became ill and couldn’t come.
What do I do now? I thought. So I
spent the next 24 hours in a crash course in make-up, using a secretary as a
guinea pig. Poor woman. I practised until her face was raw.
My moment of truth came with my first
customer, the wife of a store president. I applied the product and she left
without comment. Two days later she came back. Her husband had liked the
results so much that she wanted more. Developing a quick positive response to
adversity had saved an important promotion campaign.
6. Am
I willing to lead by example? You
can’t ask. Your workers to give their all if your idea of a rough day is two
hours in the office and six on the golf course. I never ask an employee to do
something I’m not willing to so, and I work even harder than they do.
By now you should have some idea if you
have what it takes to be an entrepreneur. So I’ll mention some of the rewards
for your sacrifices. You’ll find satisfaction in creating something out of
nothing. You’ll gain a positive sense of self. And of course, there are
financial rewards.
But it’s not easy. Nothing worthwhile
is! If David had slain a dwarf instead of Goliath, who would have remembered?
Glossary:
entrepreneur: person
who undertakes business with a chance of profit or loss.
muse:
inspiring goddess
pass out:
colloquial phrase meaning faint, lose
consciousness
precept:
moral instruction;
rule or guide, especially for behavior
naïve:
natural
or innocent in behavior (because of being young or inexperienced}
pint:
one-eighth
of a gallon
merchandise: goods
bought and sold, trade goods
corporate:
belonging to a corporation (i.e. group of
people recognized in law as a single
entity, especially in business)
self-perceived: regard oneself mentally in
a specified manner
procrastinator: one who delays
actions
venture:
undertaking in
which there is a risk
credo:
a
statement of belief
impetus:
driving force
adversity:
trouble
spouse:
husband
or wife
Tennessee Williams: Famous
American playwright (1911 – 1983)
‘A Street Car Named Desire’: Tennessee
Williams’ classic play, produced in 1947
‘David and Goliath’: Reference to the Biblical story in which
David in his youth slew the Philistine giant Goliath
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