In the latest issue of Report on [Small] Business Magazine , Lorne Abony neatly sums up the essence of being a serial entrepreneur: "You have to be able to see things other people can't see. You have to be an iconoclast, because you have to challenge traditional ideas or, by definition, you'll go the traditional route—which, by definition, isn't entrepreneurial."
Mr. Abony understands the path less traveled. Though not yet 40 years old, he's already launched five companies, including Petopia.com, and Fun Technologies, 51% of which he sold three years ago for $194 million (U.S.). (Armed with both a law degree and a MBA, Mr. Abony has also done separate stints as a securities lawyer and an investment advisor, but that's another story). Mr. Abony is now on his fifth business, Fluid Media Networks, a digital music distributor.
The experience of starting up, over and over again, has taught him a number of lessons. The first is that work-life balance is a crock, says Mr. Abony, who believes you need to have an absolutely single-minded focus on the success of your business. This leads directly to his second point, which is that you'd better be ready to throw up every morning from the stress. "You're always going to be told it will fail. The whole inertia of an industry is going against you," he says. "You have to be able to hear, 'You're wrong,' and keep at it."
