Great Entrepreneurial Mistakes

One of the best features to come out of the Globe and Mail's Report on Small Business online section is the "My Best Mistake" interview (although their inventory is still pretty slim, and my friends at Alberta Venture magazine did it first).

Click here to browse through the Globe's eight or so interviews online to see how prominent Canadian entrepreneurs - from Teresa Cascioli to Dan Aykroyd - learned some of their most valuable lessons.

My favourite interview is the one with my PROFIT 100 friend John Nemanic, of Tucows, iDirect and Hostopia fame. John talks very frankly of the entrepreneurial obsession and overwork that led to the breakdown of his first marriage, and takes full responsibilty for messing up.

"During my days as CEO of Tucows and Internet Direct, I worked 12-14 hour days, six days a week, and on my day off, I would spend it catching up on my business and economic readings," recalled Mr. Nemanic. "My view was that working very hard and ensuring that my family would be prosperous and secure justified
ignoring my wife and not paying attention to my children.

"The end result was great business success, but personal failure expressed in the form of divorce and estrangement from my children."

Now married again, Nemanic worked hard to restore balance in his life. "Finding that balance isn't easy," he says. "Every person has to find their own answer to that. And find out what really works."

Read the full story here.