Damn the torpedoes, full steam ahead!

Naval hero, Admiral Faragat is credited with these immortal words in the heat of combat and these same words resonate with me now. Like all entrepreneurs and people in general, I've had my fair share of ups and downs, of failures and successes. When you put yourself out there in the battleground of war and even business, you're going to have to take the shots fired at you...literally or figuratively.

I've been a "pureblood" entrepreneur for 35 years now, having started my first "official" business as a young man of 19 years old while a freshman in college. Looking back, I've taken some major rolls of the dice with any number of attempts to start, enlarge or acquire businesses. At the tender age of 21, just two years into my first business of renting mopeds on Nantucket Island, I took the plunge of commercial property ownership when I committed to a $1.1 million purchase of an empty lot with a popcorn stand and a broken down garage in Nantucket's town center.

I signed on the dotted line when "offered" this extraordinary opportunity from the S&H Green Stamps heir, Walter Beinecke, Jr. by carrying the whole balance at 10% interest for six months, when I'd then have to hand him $1.1 million in cash. While nearly every available dime earned from renting my little fleet of mopeds went to supporting this monumental sum (to me), I scrambled around putting together my first syndicate of investors to cover the purchase price.

That day, six months later, when I handed my cashier's check for over a million dollars to Mr. Beinecke, I was a very proud young man. That day, a scant two years later, our syndicate sold just one lot for $2.5 millon, keeping the garage and adjoining lot for redvelopment...I was a rich young man.

If I told you the ridicule I took from nearly every person that learned of my million dollar purchase, (before I multiplied my investment multiple times) you'd learn the lesson I did at such an early age. Admiral Farrgat was right..."Damn the torpedoes, full steam ahead." Let the sheep who bray "It can't be done" remain on the sidelines of obscurity.

Best to all,

Peter J. Burns, III
Founder