VinConnect is Born!

Yesterday my brother launched a brand new business.  It is a brilliant concept on a unique new way to sell wine directly from the European producers to discerning oenophiles here in the States. 

While I have some cousins that have built and run their own companies, nobody in my direct family – siblings and parents – has ever launched a company.  We’re damn good employees and can effectively run business units and in some instances entire businesses.  But these are not businesses that we built with our own hands. 

He’s the first entrepreneur.  Hot dog!

I’ve always had great affinity for the American entrepreneur.  They are mostly responsible for driving our overall economy, and their innovation and developments push established businesses and processes to do better.  We’d be lost as a nation without them.

While I admire them, I don’t think I could ever join them.  I’ve worked way too hard for my money to put it at risk, and make no mistake, with the failure rates of businesses, especially new businesses, it would definitely be at risk.  Personally, I enjoy the financial (and medical) security offered by traditional employment, and while I may have been better off doing my own thing, I cannot complain about how things have unfolded.  The road has been hard, the hours long, the sacrifices great, but the results rewarding. 

But that’s chicken feed compared to what my brother is doing. 

He’s conceived of this business, did his due diligence, invested his savings, and took a first step out on that wire.  And is doing so in the middle of the biggest economic tumult that any of us have seen in our lifetimes. 

If this economy recovers, it is going to be guys like my brother – guys with an undeniable dream and a steel set – that are going to save us.  It sure won’t be guys like me.

I encourage everyone to go out and view what he’s pulled together at VinConnect.com.  While his wares may not be for everybody, his vision, guts, and optimism clearly are. 

K, you make me incredibly proud.  I wish dad could have seen this.