In 1997, after working for corporate America for 20 years, a growing realization that working for someone else was not the road to the life I wanted to lead, I quit and started  Plum Creek Associates. The name is from On The Banks of Plum Creek, by Laura Ingalls Wilder. Little did I know that four years later I'd wind up living in the town where the author was born, Pepin, Wisconsin.

Robert L. Schwartz says "The entrepreneur is essentially a visualizer and an actualizer... He can visualize something, and when he visualizes it he sees exactly how to make it happen."

A lot of people have ideas, but there are few who decide to do something about them now. Not tomorrow. Not next week. But today. The true entrepreneur is a doer, not a dreamer. - Nolan Bushnell Founder of Atari Computer

Yeah, well that's not the way it works for me. The key to being a successful entrepreneur is the ability to roll with the waves and go where the wind takes you, while keeping your feet beneath you. There are far too many variables to know exactly how something is going to turn out, so if you think you know "exactly how to make it happen" and that's the way it works out for you, then you have a different life experience than me!

That's what makes the entrepreneurial ride such a good time! And why business plans are overrated. They're great as a tool to get yourself focused and on task, but don't think that what you write down is the way it's going to be. A business plan is not an operating manual. The most successful people, the people who have the most joy in life, know how to adjust the sails mid-race as the winds change and swirl around you. If you aren't comfortable with that you have two choices; go back to work for someone else or learn how to roll with it.

Check out www.entrepreneur.com and look for Dr. Ivan Misner if you want advice on networking.