Breaking Ranks

Get Rich: Be Amish

Heather Horn 175 Views Aug 13, 2010
"Make Money. Be Amish," says Rob Long. He's referring to the fact that Amish businesses apparently boast a "95% success rate." That's compared to the 50 percent of all new businesses that generally fail within five years. He links to Jason Zasky's interview with Erik Wesner, who has written an entire book on the secrets of Amish business success. "What can modern American business owners learn from the relatively uncomplicated ways of the Amish?" asks Zasky. For starters, humble leadership winds up leading to higher productivity among employees. Then there's this:
Viewing employees as family, rather than a disposable input, tends to make you approach decisions more cautiously. A side benefit has been a very low rate of failure among Amish businesses.
In other words, you won't find a lot of Amish at the center of a Wall Street bubble. Business schools, take note.

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