One of my favorite entrepreneurs is Jamey Bennett, founder and CEO of LightWedge. If you read, you know what a LightWedge is. If you read a lot, you have more than one and have one for everyone in your household. I’ve known Jamey for many years. We worked together at LendingTree Inc., where he was the co-founder and head of strategy and I was president in the very early days of the company. Jamey is an entrepreneur’s entrepreneur. LightWedge is just the latest of the companies he’s launched out of an idea in his head. He’s remarkable for his drive, intensity and also his great sense of humor and humanity. Several months ago, I asked him to answer a few questions for this blog. It took him a while (you’ll see why momentarily) and he just emailed his responses to me a few minutes ago. His insights are so good, I wanted to put them up right away.

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What does being an entrepreneur mean to you?

For me, being an entrepreneur is about the challenge of turning ideas (abstract potential value) into reality (actual tangible value). I have the world’s greatest job.

With Lightwedge, what was the darkest moment (forgive the sort-of pun) and why didn’t the lights go out?

The dark moments are always about cash. In the darkest of dark moments, my core group of enthusiastic investors stood ready to support the company. One of my board members has persistently coached me to ALWAYS have a backup plan. Like most entrepreneurs I am a pathological optimist, so this has been a hard behavior to learn. I am still learning.

How many hours a week do you:

Work ___ 60
Think about work___ 40
Spend w/family___18
Read____8
Sleep ___42

This is scary. I am not sure I am happy about having done that breakdown.

What support systems have you developed that help you be effective in your business?

I work closely with my wife. [That is Debbie in the photo above, she's head of marketing and sales for LightWedge.] She is a critical part of our team. This means we have an even tougher time getting some distance from the business. Truthfully, we have mostly handled this badly. Recently we became much more disciplined about having some times, and places, where work talk is not allowed. That makes work time and non-work time more productive and healthier. I couldn’t do any of this without being in synch with my wife on priorities for work and life.

What is the biggest misconception people have about the idea of being in business for themselves?

I think people fall in love with their ideas. I believe entrepreneurship is the process of creating value out of the idea – it isn’t about the idea itself. To put it another way, the name for the job of developing your idea is “professor”. The name for the job of creating value from your idea is “entrepreneur”. Both jobs are important and can be very fulfilling, but you really need to know which one you are doing. If you have accepted investments in your business from others, you ABSOLUTELY must know which one you are doing.

What’s your best work-related habit?

I delegate. I make sure people understand that they will be accountable for the results they produce in their defined area of responsibility. I make sure they have what they need (or, at a minimum, they have all that is available) to do the job. And I make sure that people understand how the results will be measured. I think I do a good job letting people know how success is defined.


What’s your worst work-related habit?

I don’t do a good job helping people figure out what tasks to do on a day to day basis. I tend to define the destination and expect people to figure out all of the steps to get there. I have an unrealistic expectation that everyone thinks like I do, so they will figure out how to get to the destination on their own. Lately I have discovered that this approach has its limits.

The thought of having to say, “first, turn on the fryer, next put one bag of frozen fries in the wire basket, next drop the basket into the hot oil, next wait 3 minutes for the beep, etc.” really makes me impatient. I know I need to draw a few dots for people to connect, but I am really bad at it. This pattern of mine isn’t fair to people and isn’t particularly good for business. I am learning to change it.

What are you reading now and why?

I read fiction to non-fiction in about a four to one ratio. The fiction is all over the place: crime novels, historical novels, espionage thrillers, etc. I read it to escape. The non-fiction is mostly biography and science with the occasional business book in the mix. The most useful business book I have read recently is Verne Harnish’s “Mastering the Rockefeller Habits”.

Describe the Lightwedge journey: past, present, future.

I started LightWedge in 2001 with one product, the LightWedge Original. Since then we have developed over 200 SKUs (including color and package variations) within the footprint of “products that help people see better”. In 2002 we did less than $1m in revenue. In 2007 we did more than $11m. We have a plan to get to $50m over the next several years. We work off of a set of clear objectives that keep us focused on the activities that we believe will create the most value for investors.

How many of these suckers have been sold?

Well, quite a few.

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Here’s a great video interview just published on the Boston Globe’s website about Jamey, Debbie and the LightWedge story.