Rehoboth Business Center

My sister is a successful entrepreneur. But you won’t find stories about her business successes in the Wall Street Journal. For that matter, you probably won’t find her reading the Wall Street Journal or any other business publication. Bobbie probably couldn’t explain the difference between a stock and a bond and doesn’t know about or care about the prime rate or the latest analysis of policies of the Federal Reserve. She doesn’t know much about accounting methodologies, mergers and acquisitions, or techniques of modern management. She’s not even rich.

How then is she a successful entrepreneur? Bobbie is a lifestyle entrepreneur. She uses the tools of business to live life on her own terms. After college, she learned karate and fell in love with the sport. She also became active in the then fledgling women’s movement. So she combined her love of karate and commitment to the women’s movement into a business: a karate school that taught only women. Bobbie works roughly half-time. You see, besides karate she loves a lot of other things and sees her work as a means of supporting a lifestyle, not as an end in itself. She’s successful in having made her love of karate her work and, at the same time, carefully integrating the rest of her life with her work.

The rest of her life includes long annual trips to Guatemala, working with cancer patients, and spending time with friends. Her business is a vehicle to living the lifestyle she wants to live.

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