The Marketplace Magazine November/December 2022

Tales from the trenches and a roadmap for entrepreneurs

Angels and Entrepreneurs: A Lifestyle Formula for Starting Your Own Business and Riding the Roller Coaster of Entrepreneurship

By Bob Schlegel (Savio Republic 2022, 251 pp, $28 US)

Angels and Entrepreneurs is part biography, part how-to manual for current or aspiring entrepreneurs, and part motivational thesis.

As biography, it tells the remarkable tale of Bob Schlegel, a serial entrepreneur who is the son of a southern Ontario Mennonite farmer. He moved to Texas and along with his partner Myrna, built a chain of upscale nursing and retirement homes.

After selling that business, they built the US’s leading paving stone manufacturer, with sales of hundreds of millions annually.

Schlegel is candid about business success and setbacks. The angels of the book’s title are both heavenly and human beings who he credits with saving him from extraordinary physical and business peril more than once.

He stresses the importance of values, including gratitude and philanthropy, plus having a statement of purpose for any business venture. His worst business challenge, the collapse of the $540 million sale of Pavestone, had a silver lining after another buyer came forward. Schlegel has gone on to start a logistics firm that he says should hit $200 million in sales this year, and other enterprises.

The Schlegel family are active philanthropists, and the book explains why they give where they do. All four of their children have launched their own businesses.

The book is a good read. It has lessons for anyone in business or who is interested in the story of someone who has enjoyed extraordinary success and remains interested in “creating companies and projects that do well while also doing good in the world.” .

22 The Marketplace November December 2022 Books in brief