People wanted for hazardous startup

According to podcaster Mark Leruste, Ernest Shackleton’s famous recruitment ad for his 1914 Endurance expedition to Antarctica could be a useful stand-in today for anyone thinking of becoming an entrepreneur, https://youtu.be/f6nxcfbDfZo.

Here’s that ad, which it is believed first ran in the London Times (although that is far from certain, https://discerninghistory.com/2013/05/shackletons-ad-men-wanted-for-hazerdous-journey/):

Men wanted for hazardous journey. Low wages, bitter cold, long hours of complete darkness. Safe return doubtful. Honour and recognition in event of success.

I re-wrote it (heresy!) for anyone thinking of commencing her/his journey as an entrepreneur where every business is an experiment until proven otherwise:

Humans wanted for hazardous startup. Low wages, bitter cold calls, long hours of complete loneliness. Safe landing doubtful. Honour and recognition in event of success.

Apparently, Sir Ernest received 5,000 replies to this advert; 5,000 people willing to risk it all for glory. #Amazing

It was an incredibly close-run thing–the return journey after they lost the Endurance to an unforgiving ice floe was a lengthy tale of heroic proportions.

Today, everyone wants to be an entrepreneur; in my day, they all wanted to be in a band. But few ever became Jimi Hendrix or David Bowie and now many folks want to be either Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Steve Jobs or Jack Ma.

This journey isn’t for everyone, but if it’s your choice, then be prepared to work harder, for longer, with more stress than you ever expected.

Prof Bruce

Bruce M Firestone, B Eng (civil), M Eng-Sci, PhD
Real Estate Investment and Business coach
ROYAL LePAGE Performance Realty broker
Ottawa Senators founder
1-613-762-8884
bruce.firestone@century21.ca
twitter.com/ProfBruce
profbruce.tumblr.com/archive
brucemfirestone.com

-MAKING IMPOSSIBLE POSSIBLE
-FREEDOM VIA REAL ESTATE INVESTMENT AND PB4L, PERSONAL BUSINESS FOR LIFE
-FEHAJ, FOR EVERY HOME A JOB
-MAKE YOUR HOME WORK FOR YOU, INSTEAD OF YOU WORKING FOR IT
-HIGHER ROI NOT JUST FOR OWNERS AND INVESTORS, BUT FOR TENANTS, GUESTS, VISITORS, NEIGHBORHOODS, COMMUNITIES, TOWNS, VILLAGES, AND CITIES TOO

Feature image: By Unknown – Scan of original from Christies’ Auction 2000, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=5442523