Q: Most of my friends are telling me that I am crazy to want to start a business in this economy. What do you think? — Tran

A: There is an old adage that says your income is usually about the average of the incomes of your three closest friends. So, the first thing to consider is, are your friends that are giving you this advice making the kind of money that you desire to make? If your answer is no, then what value should you place on their advice? Secondly, they are dead wrong. Some of the most successful companies and ideas have been launched in tough times. Just before the great depression a retired farmer, George Jacob “G.J.” Mecherle started the State Farm Insurance Company. And, inventor Charles Darrow, unemployed and struggling in the years after the 1929 stock market crash, put together a table game that he called Monopoly. That idea made him a millionaire and changed his family’s financial future.