Inoculation.

Bendbubble2 has a rather harsh assessment of the Pegasus experience...but I'm not going to argue the point, except to say that just about anyone else would have done the same thing I did.

Paul-doh says, as follows:

"Dunc is a perfect encapsulization of Bend:

* Buys first store at True Rock Bottom Price.
* Does surprisingly well. Thinks it is personal genius, not cresting wave of fad.
* Expands in short order. 4-5 stores
* Fad implodes.
* Stores implode.
* Hanging by fingernails. For 20 years."


I call it the Peter Principle of Small Business -- that owners will expand to their level of incompetence.

But I would point out that it wasn't all retreat. I sold the mall store, and I was able to double the size of the downtown store while all this was going on.

They say that in war, a well-ordered retreat is much more difficult to pull off than an advance. I think being able to extricate myself from all the other stores was one of my major accomplishments.

I also need to point out, that as miserable as some of those 20 years were, we did come out the other side with a Pegasus Books that is giving me a living, and which is still fun to do. And we were able to apply all our lessons to opening the Bookmark, which is doing even better.

On the other hand, I made other major mistakes besides opening four stores on the strength of a baseball card fad. I made an almost equally large mistake with comics -- they sort of changed the rules in the middle of the game but that's what bubbles tend to do -- and went backward with card games and non-sports cards, as well.

On the other hand, I handled four other fads rather well: the Shaq basketball fad, beanie babies, pogs, and pokemon. In fact, I often say I pitched a no-hit ballgame with pogs.

So it is possible to learn from one's mistakes.

I would go even further. I had the fortunate experience of inoculating myself from the biggest bubble of all: the housing boom in Bend.

Most people, most businesses, suffer only one huge bubble in their lifetimes. Because the pain of it lingers through living memory. Most people, and most businesses don't even get to learn from their mistakes, because it really only happens once, and it's usually enough to wipe out the true believers.

So....as painful as my little fad busts were, they prepared me for what's going on now.