Crowned With Crime

Always start small

The business world is the greatest adventure. I remember it like it was yesterday, those words my grandpa often repeated, now engraved in my memory. It's thanks to him that I am where I am today.

Some dream of exploring mysterious caves or fighting savages. But grandpa's dream, his battle, was entrepreneurship. Let me tell you about it.

It all starts with Edward Linderberg, my grandfather. He was a modest merchant from a commoner family in Lyubeck. The only luck he had in life was inheriting a piece of land well-positioned in the downtown, right across from the town hall, a stone's throw from the inn, and most importantly, not far from the city's market. And I can tell you that some merchants would have sold their mothers to even get a piece of land as well-situated.

Though his skills as a craftsman didn't point him in any specific direction, my grandfather nonetheless decided to venture into the blacksmithing trade, a simple strategy.

The forge eventually allowed him to forge his own armor. You've probably heard that old saying, "knowledge is power." Hmm, nonsense! That's the argument of people who don't have power. Weapons, now that's real power.

And very quickly, grandpa Edward realized that the world of entrepreneurship wasn't all flowers and little birds, you know. He lost count of the swine and scoundrels who wanted to make a name for themselves.

But for now, that kind of rivalry wasn't for him. His modest forge had just started out.

At the beginning, he didn't have much: just a few small iron bars, some pieces of wood, and one employee. A somewhat dim-witted and not very competent commoner, and as the only means of transport for his goods, he had only an old cart pulled by a fool.

Sure, that somewhat limited his sales points, but you have to understand that back then, the roads were dangerous, more so than now, and grandpa feared that his poor employee might get attacked on his way to the factory. Well, knowing grandpa, he didn't want his cart to be attacked, especially.

First rule of entrepreneurship: always start small.

At the beginning, he started with the production of tools, easy to make, easy to produce, but the profit margin wasn't huge.

He had to secure new stocks to avoid running out. Moreover, these adventures taught him several lessons, which he often shared with me. The first was to always buy stock where it’s cheapest to increase profits, and too bad for the local farmer; he should sell it cheaper.

To increase his margin, grandpa regularly sent his cart to Essen, where iron was cheap. He also hired an escort because the road to the mining town of Essen was dangerous, and it would be a shame if something happened to his only employee.

So, the cart quickly returned full of iron and coal, which allowed him to move up a gear: the production of daggers, thereby generating better profit margins.

Now that business was starting to take off, he took the opportunity to hire a new employee because, ultimately, being a boss means having people work for you. Otherwise, there would be no point in being a boss, let alone a queen.

Now that the machine was up and running and the business was starting to flourish, it was time for grandpa Edward to start a family.

I’m not talking about love here, no sir. Grandpa Edward didn't believe in love, no, he left that to the poets.

I'm talking about succession, family businesses, because to have power, money alone is not enough. Money is just a means to power. To have power, you need a powerful family, and to have a family, well, you need a wench.

As a poor commoner with a small business, no woman of good standing would want him. To begin with, he had to aim low, as he put it, “go for the low-hanging fruit.”