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Fred Whitlock decided to become an entrepreneur at age 44 to seek the fulfillment a career as vice president for a small computer dealer chain did not provide.
"Rather than have to suffer from someone else's failures, I might as well launch my own failures," Whitlock says. "At least I could look in the mirror and say it was my own doing and not someone else's."
Whitlock launched a failure or two of his own, selling a small computer integration business he started after leaving the computer chain because "it went out of favor." He also misjudged the possibilities of a mail order company for energy-saving products. "It turned out to be a bad idea," Whitlock says. "I overestimated people's interest in that kind of thing."
Whitlock did not make the same mistake with the four Internet-based businesses he founded in recent years knifeoutlet.com, chefsoutlet.com, shootersoutlet.com and audionow.com. A self-described Type-A personality, Whitlock embraced new technology with fervor before it became an established part of the American economy.
"I went from the computer company to e-commerce without breaking stride," Whitlock says. "I had the fourth Internet Web...