I took in dinner and a play the other night with a couple of good friends. During our repast, the topic of a young, local entrepreneur came up. I had met this guy while filming a television show on entrepreneurism and he struck me as the total package --- bright, articulate, handsome, and already the owner of a successful start-up here in Pittsburgh.

But when I mentioned his name, my buddy (we’ll call him “Scott”), said, “That guys is no entrepreneur … at least not by MY definition … how can you be an entrepreneur when you have a rich daddy who will bail you out any time that you screw up?”

I responded by saying, “Scooter, I know PLENTY of guys who have built companies using venture and angel capital … what’s the difference?”

“Well, that may be true”, he replied, “but this guy sure doesn’t fit my definition of an entrepreneur, which is someone who is willing to risk EVERYTHING HE HAS, with absolutely NO safety net. You know, like Cortez, when he burned his ships after reaching the new world.”

(By the way, I have always admired the Z-man for having that kind of courage. Tell me, do you think he took a vote of his men first, a la’ our modern-day political leaders?)

I said to Scott, “You know, I have to tell you that ‘losing it all’ has never once crossed my mind in any of my start-ups … I have always just gone right past that. Too many problems to deal with, I suppose.”

And maybe that’s the whole crux of this “Born or Made” entrepreneur thing. Maybe a true entrepreneur never even considers the fact that he or she can lose everything. And maybe this is true because an entrepreneur simply refuses to lose.

Which is why people who invest in start-ups either win big or never again see a dime of their investment. Since 1998, I have invested in eight start-ups (wherein I had no control) and with just one exception, there was never anything left but “scorched earth” at the end.

Oh, every one of these entrepreneurs promised to pay me back. (I can think of one guy in particular … a guy who still out there hustling investors … who said, “Ron, I promise you that you will leave this venture with at least as much as you invested.” (It was $50K, I think.) He truly believed this. Probably still does.

Have you seen the Leonardo DiCaprio movie from a few years back, , “The Aviator”? Great film! At least in my eyes. Why? Because Hughes was simply indomitable. (And by the way, his daddy had money --- not a ton, but the Hughes Tool Company certainly provided old H.H. with some play-around jing.)

But there is a scene where he is lying in a hospital bed, burns over 75% of his body, crushed ribs and contusions everywhere. Too many broken (major) bones to count, his heart having shifted (permanently!) from his left to his right side, and on and on, when his Number Two comes into the room to tell him that:

• The government just grounded his Hercules (soon to be “Spruce Goose”) project,
• The government also cancelled a contract to build 150 spy planes, and,
• Even though, and through his company –TWA - he had just taken delivery on the most powerful and beautiful airplane in the world (the Constellation), within just a week, one of the forty in his fleet had crashed near Reading, PA.

(Oh, and this is after he had been told of his health condition.) His reaction? “So, what’s the problem here?”

How many times have I and others like me been in this same circumstance? No money, angry customers, product doesn’t work, key people are resigning, and only your dog considers you sane. And yet, you attack the problems one by one and pretty soon, you’re back in stable air again.

Hey, we all take a risk when we leave the house each day. The world by definition is one helluva risky place to live.

The only guy you can count on is the guy you shave with each and every morning.

And to an entrepreneur, there is no one that he trusts with his destiny more than that guy in the mirror.