![\"CIMG1875\"](\"https:\/\/berkonomics.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/CIMG1875.jpg\")
<\/a>bridges behind<\/i> comes to mind. \u00a0I had no alternatives to success. I was not going back to corporate America. It wasn’t a fall- back position.\u00a0 I had to be successful at my new software company. And it wasn’t easy.<\/p>\n[Email readers, continue here…]<\/em><\/span> I remember taking a walk with my wife one evening and sharing my concerns over cash flow. My sales tax payments were due in the next few days, and I didn’t have the money.\u00a0 Default would bring many consequences. But I did have an appointment, a sales opportunity the next morning. I woke up that next morning with a jolt – literally.\u00a0 An earthquake struck Los Angeles. \u00a0In an hour I received a phone call from the friend who was in the office where I was due later that morning. He had made the introduction for my appointment. \u201cPeople are pretty shook up here today.\u00a0 Some were stuck in an elevator.\u00a0 I don’t know if today’s the best day to come up.\u201d \u00a0He wasn’t telling me I couldn’t come, so, because I had to, I did. \u00a0I made the sale, and paid my debts. \u00a0I always remember that \u2018back against the wall\u2019 feeling.\u00a0 It was stressful and yet so typical when running a small company.<\/p>\n This morning over coffee, my wife told me of a dream she had last night. It was about the earliest days of our life together when we moved to Westwood so I could attend UCLA. \u201cMoving out west away from our families was one of the best things that could’ve happened to us at that early age,\u201d she recalled wistfully. \u201cWe had to make a go of it.\u201d \u00a0It brought back the memories of landing at LAX in 1974 with three suitcases and $1,900 to our names. Like my eventual experience as an entrepreneur, we had to persevere.\u00a0 We had no alternatives.\u00a0 We had burned our bridges behind.<\/i><\/p>\n Frank Peters <\/i><\/b>made his money writing software for Wall Street. Today he is best known as the host of the Frank Peters Show, delivered via the web each week to tens of thousands of entrepreneurs, angels and VCs worldwide. Frank speaks and networks at angel events around the world. <\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By Frank Peters I became an entrepreneur because I had to. My life in Corporate America wasn’t going so well. \u00a0I never got fired, but I did quit one job the day before I was to be let go. I … Continue reading