From a custom fishing rod business in the Keys at the age of 12 to currently publishing the Nautical Mile here in Florida, I’ve always been associated to some kind of small business.
I quit high school and never attended a college, but mentors have helped me understand what makes a business excel.
The concept of being a “Street-Entrepreneur” has encouraged college professors to invite me to talk with their business classes about things students may not get out of a modern textbook.
I expected a class of Millennials and Gen-Zs to fall asleep as opposed to listening to the “old guy” not addicted to apps, but to my surprise, they were very attentive. Several even took notes.
I was treated like they finally got to learn something, though I always communicated that there would be ongoing value if they could combine what I have to say with what’s in the books and apply both.
A question that has come up more than once is what I think my greatest accomplishment has been. I go into a story that leaves them with a comical tale, and an important thing to think about as they go out into the world looking to build their own enterprise.
Years ago, around 2003, when I was teaching myself publishing software and trying to figure out what a pixel was, I figured I need a Google business listing. I didn’t know why or what it would do, but others had one, so I figured I should too.
I was working the publishing business out of my home and didn’t want an image of an apartment showing as the company address, but I couldn’t figure out how to make a profile without a location. In time, something that should only take a few seconds had consumed hours of my life, so I just went without it.
I was so frustrated that we have no way of contacting companies like Google for assistance, so I hand-wrote a letter to Mountain View California about this, and suggested they hire old people as design consultants so the average person could figure things out.
Weeks went by and I forgot all about mailing that letter, till the phone rang one day. A man with a heavy Indian accent asked if he was speaking with Jim Griffiths from Nautical Mile.
Thinking it was a telemarketing call I almost hung up, but I wanted to play with the guy for a bit. He said he was calling from Google, in which case I knew it was a fake call, but then realized I had mailed a letter to Google weeks back. Coincidence?
His accent was familiar. Have you ever seen the movie The Internship with Vince Vaughn? Vince got a job at Google with Owen Wilson as interns and their boss was a guy with a heavy Indian accent.
I think that was who called me. This is much more interesting if you can hear that voice as you’re reading…
He said, “I have a copy of a letter on my desk that was actually mailed through the US Postal system with a sticky stamp, and I was asked by my supervisor to call you on a telephone connected to the wall in my office.” He was a real smart-ass, I liked him.
A few seconds went by and all I could come up with was, “BULL-$#%&.” He said, “No, this in not BULL-$#%&. I don’t believe it myself, and I will remember this day with you for the rest of my life.”
He asked if I was near a PC terminal so he could guide me through the process of removing my location from my Google listing. He asked me to open this page, click this, scroll down…..
As obvious as a shark riding a lawnmower, there it was, a button marked, “Hide location.” He asked me to click that button, refresh the screen, and tell him if my profile no longer shows a location.
The business location was hidden, and the profile was live. He asked if there was anything else he could help me with at this time, because Google was not likely going to be calling me back anytime soon.
I laughed, he didn’t, and my contact at Google, the 2.4 trillion company, could now go back to doing more productive things.
So my answer to the question, “What is your most memorable accomplishment,” was that I got Google to call me. Beat that!
Classes understand this is more than a tale, it’s a serious lesson if you want to make a business work. This story offered me a way for me to communicate with younger entrepreneurs that there’s almost always a way to make things happen.
Think about Captain Kirk in Star Trek who didn’t believe in no-win scenarios.
When you hit a wall, you may be able to go around it, you may be able to go right through it, you may even find a way to go under it. There’s always a way.
Sometimes a wall is not worth going through. Perhaps you’ll get past it and find out there’s nothing of value there. But go through it anyway, every time you figure out how to make something happen, you learn something, it’s practice, and your skills improve.
The class knows I’m not talking about a guy I met from Google. When you learn “Street Entrepreneurism,” you learn life.
I got the letter idea from my mom. She was a Letter-Nazi. If she had a hard time opening a ketchup bottle, she’d write and mail a letter to Heinz Corporation complaining about it, and they’d send a free case of ketchup.
It worked every time. My cabinets were full of various products because she couldn’t use all of what companies sent her.
So don’t let anyone tell you you can’t do it!
Jim Griffiths
Publisher, Nautical Mile
