Tightrope: Twin towers survivor offers lessons for entrepreneurs

— -- I suppose it's natural for people to wonder if the entrepreneurial spirit can make it to the other side of the current recession. My inbox is loaded with e-mails from entrepreneurs wanting to know: Will my small operation survive this recession? Is it safe to start a business now? Can we as entrepreneurs ever recover from this economic problem? Given these uncertain times, is there a place for entrepreneurs? The questions are endless.

Owning a business is what we do for our survival. Entrepreneurship has been around since the beginning of time, it's nothing new, it's how we pay the bills, buy groceries, and send our kids to school. As long as human life exists there will be entrepreneurs.

This is not the first crisis that we have experienced, and it will not be the last.

Sept. 11, 2001, was a most devastating time for our country. Within minutes, we lost thousands of lives and subsequently slipped into an economic crisis. I am reminded of a story that I wrote about during that time about a man who made it to safety from one of the upper floors in the World Trade Center. I think his story is a good metaphor for entrepreneurs now:

After hearing and feeling an explosion that literally rocked the building, he started running down the steps. The sprinklers had gone off, and water poured down the stairwell. As hundreds if not thousands of others crowded in to the stairwell, he slipped on the wet steps. It was pitch black, and he was getting trampled. Then he saw a small glimmer of light -- a flashlight, getting closer. His rescuer grabbed his arm, pulled him to his feet and led him at a breakneck speed down the stairs.

He was just outside the building when he slipped and fell again. He was surrounded by darkness, again, this time from the smoke and soot all around. He could hear people screaming that the building was falling, but he felt he couldn't move as debris fell on and around him. Suddenly a voice said, "Quick, get on your feet." At the same time he felt hands grabbing him on each side and pulling and dragging him rapidly down the street as the one of the towers crumbled to the ground.

They finally arrived in front of a small restaurant that was well out of danger. Smoke and dirt still covered his face and eyes. Someone from the restaurant gave him water to wash out his eyes, while another took a hose and rinsed all of the dirt and smoke from him head to toe. At last, he was out of danger and could see clearly again. Through it all he kept the faith that he would make it.

This man's experience is very similar to that of the entrepreneur moving through a crisis. And his story shows the kinds of things that we as entrepreneurs should do as we move through the recession. We must be a light unto each other as well as ourselves. We must pick ourselves up, pull others along and keep moving toward full recovery. We must maintain faith and not doubt.

The past year or so has raised a lot of doubt and fear about our future. Entrepreneurs are the pearl of this country's economy. Creative and resilient entrepreneurs who exhibited tremendous faith and confidence built America. And, with that same fervor of creativity and resilience, of faith and confidence, we will move forward because we must move forward.

To move forward we must continue to say yes. Yes, we can and will survive in our small businesses. Yes, it is safe to start and continue a business. Yes, there will be some dust and soot that we will have to hose off of ourselves from time to time. And yes, we will need a supply of strength and courage along the way.

The individual spirit of entrepreneurship built this country and I believe whole-heartedly that same spirit will pull us through this crisis.

I plan to write more on this subject next week.

Gladys Edmunds' Entrepreneurial Tightrope column appears Wednesdays. Click here for an index of her columns. As a single, teen-age mom, Gladys made money doing laundry, cooking dinners for taxi drivers and selling fire extinguishers and Bibles door-to-door. Today, Edmunds is founder of Edmunds Travel Consultants in Pittsburgh and author of There's No Business Like Your Own Business, a six-step guide to success published by Viking. Her website is www.gladysedmunds.com. You can e-mail her at gladys@gladysedmunds.com.