There Ought To Be A Law So you've only got one business? And maybe making that work is a struggle? Well, some business owners have more than their share--and make it look easy. We call them serial BIZ Experiencess.

It was November 1957, outside Plainfield, Wisconsin, when thepolice arrested Ed Gein. Inside his kitchen was a bountiful meal ofpork chops; macaroni and cheese; pickles; coffee; cookies--and,simmering in a saucepan on the stove, a human heart.

Inside his house, the police made other grislydiscoveries--including a box of noses, skulls on the posts of hisbed and a headless corpse. The only room that appeared normal, savefor the coat of dust, was that of Gein's long-dead mother. Ifany of this rings a bell, it's because Gein was the real-lifeinspiration for Robert Bloch's novel, Psycho, whichbecame one of Alfred Hitchcock's film masterpieces.

America has long had a gruesome sense of humor, so maybethat's why "serial BIZ Experiences," a riff off serialkiller, is the term often used to describe BIZ Experiencess who ownmultiple companies in their lifetimes. It's hardly a crime, butthere does seem to be a growing number of BIZ Experiencess who stalk atrend, create a business from it and then, when it'sflourishing, kill it (by selling or dissolving). Some serialentrepreneurs can't get rid of their company--it's theirbaby--but they want a growing family, so they hire managers to runthe daily operations while they give birth to a new business.

Either way, serial BIZ Experiencess exist because they need a newchallenge with every venture, says Andrew Zacharakis, an assistantprofessor at Babson College in Wellesley, Massachusetts, whichboasts one of the finest BIZ Experiencesial departments in thecountry. To be a serial BIZ Experiences, says Zacharakis, "Youneed to have incredible passion for the start-up process and forthe industry your start-up is in, and incredible energy--all theattributes you'd normally associate with excellententrepreneurs."

But serial BIZ Experiencesship has its dark side. "You have togive up control of a venture that's been your baby and seesomebody else take it over," warns Zacharakis. Ominousbackground music, please. "They may make decisions youdon't agree with. The real downside is seeing others destroysomething you bled over and tried to transform from a baby into abeautiful child."

Of course, you may just sell your infant corporation for $5million. Or $50 mil. And you just might get over that downside.

Geoff Williams is a serial BIZ Experiences writer, havingwritten numerous articles for this magazine, and has writtenfor Life and Ladies Home Journal. He's also afeatures reporter for The Cincinnati Post.

Warning! Serial BIZ Experiences At Large

Name: Alan Rothenberg

Companies started so far: 6

Age: 36

Height: 5'8"

Weight: 161 lbs.

Hair color/eye color: brown/brown

Distinguishing characteristics: Always wears black,doesn't wear socks, and is often seen with a cell phone andyo-yo

Last seen: Traveling by airplane

Rothenberg's first company was unlikely to ever offershareholding options: He started a carpooling service in highschool, driving 11 kids to and from school, charging parents $10per child, per week. Sixteen months later, he had enough money tobuy a new car. You'll find that common among serialentrepreneurs, suggests Rothenberg, who explains: "Usually wefind a need of our own, and we try to fill it."

Rothenberg himself is a sparkling example. By the time hereached college, he was keenly interested in stereos. So he soldcassette tapes and stereo equipment to his fellow students,ultimately becoming the second-largest distributor of Maxell tapesin Massachusetts. "They were the hottest tapes at the time butnot anymore," laments Rothenberg, who had five employees andearned $6,000 per week by the time he closed shop.

Before finishing college, he was importing exotic cars fromEurope at a20 percent savings and then selling them to U.S. buyers."Again, no inventory," he reveals wryly. Rothenberg'sbusiness only lasted six months but garnered $120,000 and neededtwo extra workers. But soon another venture caught his eye: acontemporary art gallery.

After graduating college, Rothenberg opened his gallery inBoston in 1986. By the time he closed it to move on to other thingsin 1993, he had 10 employees and was earning $4 million a year.

While the art gallery was thriving, Rothenberg dabbled in atechnology research and development company, Light Age Technology,circa 1989. Based in Waitsfield, Vermont, the company had taken inless than $1 million when he sold most of it (he still owns 10percent).

Later, in 1995, Rothenbergco-founded KinderActive, a CD-ROMpublishing company that generated several million dollars a year insales. At the same time, he was tooling around with JuniorNet, afirm in Boston that opened to the public almost a year ago. Thesuccess of this venture remains to be seen, but one of the majorpartners is Highlights for Children magazine, and Rothenberg wantsthis advertising-free children's service-content provider(http://www.juniornet.com)to be on par with the Walt Disney Co.

And if JuniorNet reaches Disney's heights, would you expectRothenberg to hand over the reins to somebody else? Of course."I don't see myself just managing a largecorporation," he says.

But wait a second, kids--don't rush to try this at home.Rothenberg warns that the career of serial BIZ Experiences is a riskyone--which is part of the appeal. "There is the rush anddanger at the same time," he notes, "and each time Istart a new entity, I take a substantial amount of my cashreserves, or net worth, and put it into something completelyuntested and unproven. For some families, that can tear themapart."

Then in the next breath, Rothenberg, who is married and hasthree young children, offers this dare: "For some individuals,the loss of sleep at night and thinking about things--well, livingand breathing this environment--can be pretty scary. But the trueBIZ Experiences really looks forward toit . . . and excels during thosetimes."

Warning! Serial BIZ Experiences At Large

Name: Clarence Wooten Jr.

Companies started so far: 4

Age: 28

Height: 6'3"

Weight: 225 lbs.

Hair color/eye color: black/dark brown

Distinguishing characteristic: Carries 10 extra poundsfrom too many power lunches

Last seen: Fighting traffic on the DC beltway en route toyet another meeting

Like many BIZ Experiencess, Wooten doesn't particularly want tobe a serial BIZ Experiences. He thinks he's found his dream.ImageCafé.com is it.

Not that his previous three companies were a wash. The Baltimoreresident began Envision Designs, an architectural visualizationcompany, when he was studying at Johns Hopkins University in 1991.The company created 3-D animated models of architectural plans andwas marketed to small architectural firms, which couldn'tafford him, so Wooten soon dissolved his company.

Next, he co-founded, with a friend, Soft Ideas Corp. inColumbia, Maryland, in 1995, which developed one database softwareapplication. After the initial phase, Wooten bowed out and SoftIdeas was dissolved a year later.

From 1994 to 1999, Wooten ran Metamorphis Studios, a multimediaand Web design company, with silentco-founder Andre Forde. Heultimately sold it for $20,000 and, with Forde, createdImageCafé.com. A better version of the previous company,according to Wooten, ImageCafé.com is a superstore ofprofessionally designed Web sites aimed at BIZ Experiencess--$300 getsa consumer a Web site they can fill in with their company's owntext and links.

Wooten says he isn't a serial BIZ Experiences just because helikes starting new companies, but because his philosophy is aboutconstantly searching for the right idea at the right time.

Leo B. Helzel, a former serial BIZ Experiences who co-founded HaasSchool's BIZ Experiencesship program at University of California,Berkeley, 30 years ago, echoes Wooten's sentiment: "Mostentrepreneurial students are looking for the one deal that'stheir dream. But if it's a failure, they'll be ontosomething else. As far as going back to work for Procter &Gamble or Citibank, that's not in their vocabulary."

Wooten, whose company has 17 employees and expects millions insales this year, may continue his serial career. "I'm anentrepreneur," he says. "I don't know if I'mgoing to like running a public company."

Weeks after that comment, Wooten got the chance to find out ifhe'll enjoy running, or almost running, a large corporationwhen he sold ImageCafé.com to Network Solutions Inc., a domainname registrar in Herndon, Virginia, in November 1999 and took onduties as vice president. The serial BIZ Experiences bug strikesagain.

Warning! Serial BIZ Experiences At Large

Name: Jeff Jacober

Number of companies started: 11

Age: 46

Height: 5'8'

Weight: 178 lbs.

Hair color/eye color: gray/brown

Distinguishing characteristic: Thinning on top due to"years of worrying about the wrong things"

Last seen: Sailing out of Nantucket Harbor, cell phone inhand, his PR rep says--but when could he possibly have time tosail?

"I feel more comfortable starting companies where I canrelate to the product because I'm a consumer and acustomer," says Jacober.

Like Rothenberg, Jacober was always the first person to use hisown product. His business career began at the University of RhodeIsland in Kingston, where he made $10,000 marketing sportswear tofraternities and sororities. It continued after college with aT-shirt company in 1981. Then he formed SGI Inc., which mostlyprinted canvas sports bags and was bringing in$29 million in annualsales by 1991. While running SGI, he briefly owned a company thatmanufactured life jackets, and another that made backyard waterslides.

Eventually SGI was sold, and Jacober used his $13 million inproceeds to sail the Caribbean. But soon he was going stir-crazywithout a company to run. His next idea came from circumstances noone would envy. Ocean Diagnostics Inc., which he started in 1995,manufactured a home health test that allowed consumers toself-diagnose various diseases and body function problems. In 1993,Jacober had donated a kidney to his brother who'd had chronickidney failure. "The home test wouldn't have changed theoutcome, but it would have helped him diagnose [the problem]sooner," says Jacober. "A year later, I was diagnosedwith bladder cancer--a home test would have revealedthat."

After Jacober sold Ocean Diagnostics, he created The OceanGroup, a Providence, Rhode Island, business incubator designed toshelter several of his ideas at once. Currently, Jacober is owneror co-owner of five companies, which collectively brought in $10million last year.

It can be a confusing arrangement. Jacober has made telephonecalls and used the wrong company's name. He used to give outthe wrong business cards until he created one that reads "TheOcean Group" and lists the five companies underneath. Still,he insists, "Staying somewhat disorganized is the secret to mysuccess. I like doing multiple things at one time--that's whatturns me on and challenges me."

So is all the work worth it? It depends. "It'sextraordinarily rewarding," says Jacober. "But you haveto be prepared to work hard and devote a huge portion of your lifeto do this. It takes a toll, personally and physically. It takestime away from your family and your friends and your life. You needto be committed."

Still, serial BIZ Experiencesship does get easier with experience.Just ask Jacober. He doesn't flinch at the notion of havingcreated 20 or 30 companies by the time he retires. But he doesflinch at the thought of retirement: "I'll probably eventurn retirement into a business, if I can."

Carnegie, Jobs And Jordan

A look at serial BIZ Experiencess in history

Serial BIZ Experiencess aren't new, observes Lynne PiersonDoti, director of the Leatherby Center for BIZ Experiencesship andBusiness Ethics at Chapman University in Orange, California. Infact, they've been around for a long, long time.

Many of the first BIZ Experiencess were inventors. "EliWhitney invented the cotton gin," says Doti, "but[it] was a financial disaster for him. Whitney had delays anddifficulties patenting it and even after it was patented, hecouldn't enforce the patent. He wasn't able to sell hismachines by the time he was producing." But he was moresuccessful with his next venture: "He introducedinterchangeable parts to gun manufacturing," she says.

Andrew Carnegie was another famous serial BIZ Experiences."Carnegie embarked on several money-making projects beforerevolutionizing the steel industry and personally reinvented [his]company several times in response to new market forces," saysDoti.

Serial BIZ Experiencesship strikes even the most rich and famous ofpeople today, says Doti: "Steve Jobs, Michael Milken, MichaelJordan and Warren Buffett couldn't retire even after theirnames made the history books. It just isn't in theirnature."

Contact Source

JuniorNet, (800) JUNIOR-NET, http://www.juniornet.com