Howdy! I’m Joel D Canfield, business heretic and author. This book, 49 Proverbs of Business Heresy, was my first business book, published back in the summer of 2008.*

My very first job that didn’t involve flipping hamburgers was working for a friend who was an entrepreneur. At the time I didn’t appreciate his work ethic and the benefits that came with it. But I think even at the age of 17 it planted seeds that are still sprouting. My next job was also for an entrepreneur from whom I learned endless lessons in what not to do. It left such a bad taste in my mouth that self employment seemed like a terrible idea. So I got a job and another and another. I changed jobs every three years for the next two and a half decades and changed careers more than once in that same time.

One observation that stuck in my mind because it seemed upside down was that in any organization the higher up you went the more fun you had and the more money you made. Swinging a pick is the hardest, lowest paying work in landscaping. The landscape designer makes the most money and has the most fun. The same is true in accounting. It’s true in computers. It’s true in a janitorial business for crying out loud. I always thought the guy working the hardest should get paid the most. I was right. I was just defining “hard work” the wrong way.

Fast forward 25 years to yet another job where I worked awfully hard and got paid awfully. After participating in a team effort which saved a certain international garment retailer four million dollars a year and being rewarded with a coffee cup and a pocket knife, I walked out. I simply decided that if I was going to live in poverty anyway, I would rather do work that I enjoyed. I called all my friends and business associates who had been asking me to design websites for them and said ‘I’m ready’. My last year as an employee I earned $24,000. My first year as an entrepreneur I earned $111,000. It’s amazing the business lessons you can learn from $87,000.

I’ve spent most of the last decade expanding and refining the epiphanies which filled that year. This book is just one in a series which I hope takes some of the struggle out of entrepreneurship for others.

* Originally published as 49 Commonsense Business Observations.