Getting Started

This is my first blog post. It's an interesting time for me to get started. The front page of today's Wall Street Journal features a story about the saga of rahodeb--the online pseudonym of John Mackey, the founder of Whole Foods. Mackey used this name for eight years as cover to post messages online promoting his company and attacking his primary competitor. While any entrepreneur might admire Mackey's competitive drive, few I know would admire his dishonesty and lack of integrity.

My hope, with this blog, is to be as open and straightforward as possible about the issues I face as CEO and about my ongoing effort to learn more about, and better understand, the secrets of entrepreneurial success.

I am in a special position to do this as the CEO of Mansueto Ventures, the company that publishes Inc. and Fast Company magazines. Both of our print publications--and their sister online operations, inc.com and fastcompany.com--are dedicated to exploring innovation and entrepreneurship. This mission sets them apart from traditional financial publications, whose news judgment is shaped by other factors, most notably the impact of a business development on the stock market and the sizeof the business institution involved. I will write more about this as this blog evolves.

The important thing about our publications--and our company--is that we daily strive to adopt the business practices that we write about. In order words, our goal is to walk the talk.

This is easier said than done--and the point of this blog is to describe our struggle in as much detail as possible in the hopes that other entrepreneurs and innovators can learn from it.

Along the way, I'll write about my own personal struggles, as well as the discussions I have with other business leaders and experts in the fields that our publications explore. For if I have one advantage over other CEOs in my position, it is almost instant access to some of the leading business minds in the U.S. and around the world. Let's see whether I can take advantage of that as I guide my own company forward.