Disney exemplifies the lessons I learned from two other great companies: Vlasik and Toyota. The first built its success on the rock solid foundation of market domination much like Disney dominates the market for family entertainment. The second built its success by empowering its employees. Disney clearly demonstrated its mastery of this facility when my family and I embarked on a ​Caribbean Cruise on the Disney Fantasy during this past Thanksgiving Week

In the interests of full disclosure, I can't compare my experience with other cruises. I've never taken another. My fifty years of sailing doesn't compare. You don't have someone tending to your every need when you're piloting your own pleasure craft or working as a topmast sailor on a tall ship. No, this was an entirely different sort of experience. I suppose that others may do it as well as Disney Cruise Lines (DCL), but I can't image how they could do it better.

I remember those early days, fresh out of the Army, pursuing a career, learning a new trade: Consultant. I began working for another, someone with experience, a mentor. As the new kid, I had to take the clients no one else wanted. That's how you learned.

No Bull is a story, a true story from those days.

If you think that being a writer, living in your head, romancing the most beautiful women you can imagine, daring to do any task and vie with any foe, is interesting, you should have lived my life before I retired to write stories. I was a consultant.

I pursued five careers in my lifetime: bureaucrat, soldier, marketing guru, and computer technology. I survived the last three as an entrepreneur. Over the course of fifty years working years I participated in projects with every type of organization from one-man operations to multinational corporations, for profit and nonprofit, every level of government, local, state, and national, and a variety of military units.

Frequently, I have been asked, “Which is the best managed?”

I've never hesitated, not even a heartbeat, to answer.

The United States Army.

Yes, you're laughing.

So have all my audiences.

But, it's true.

The laughter dies when they realize I'm not joking and there's a pause as they wait expectantly for me to explain.

I do, simply.

Trouble! No one appreciates an inventor's baby as much as the inventor. Be ready for anything. Also, entrepreneurs should have their own attorney, one expert in intellectual property. You can be the inventor will have their own, and having one attorney represent both sides while negotiating the license or purchase of intellectual property makes no more sense than having the same attorney represent both sides in a divorce.

Luck doesn't appear the same to any two entrepreneurs. Most, especially the very successful ones, would prefer not to admit that luck played any role in their venture.

Entrepreneurs have played a key role in the establishment and success of the United States. From its earliest history, entrepreneurs funded the establishment of the English colonies, built its commercial and industrial might throughout the Nineteenth and early Twentieth Centuries. It's only in the later decades of the Twentieth Century and continuing into the Twenty-First Century that government has stifled entrepreneurship and the nation and its economy have suffered accordingly.

In an earlier blog post, I recommended The Myth of the Robber Barons in which the author describes the difference between political and commercial entrepreneurs. Much to my shame, I am forced to admit that I did work as a political entrepreneur for a brief time. Hopefully, I redeemed myself as a commercial entrepreneur during the greater part of my life.

Let's get back to work, America. Here's an idea that some ambitious entrepreneur may want to use to build a new business, create jobs, and make a fortune.

You may view the pilot film mentioned in this video blog - Denver - in its entirety at YouTube

On balance, I'm happy. Sure, I've had my dark moments, especially when I've been unemployed. However, I always weathered them by starting my own business. Maybe entrepreneurship will work for you if you're unemployed or someone you care about who's unemployed. Give it a try.