Have you ever sat on a park bench and just talked about business, family or future? I had that privilege a few years ago when I visited my parents in California.

My father, who was then in his 93rd year, recounted for me his only entrepreneurial venture. I felt like crying as I learned how quickly his dream died, even before he was really an adult. What a shame!

For true entrepreneurs, one failure seems to just whet the appetite for that Big Success that is always right around the corner. For others, like my father, it was a red light that never again turned green.

My father was raised in Nephi, where he learned the printing trade at his older brother's knee. In his late teens, he moved to Southern California to seek his fortune, like so many have done before and since. He quickly got a job as a printer in a small print shop and he felt successful - really successful - for the first time in his life.

So much so that when his new boss said he wanted to sell the printing business, my father, filled with hopes of his own printing business, jumped at the chance and wrote his mother in Nephi requesting a loan of $600 to buy the printing equipment from his boss. His mother had recently inherited what was in those days a small fortune. Not wanting to disappoint her son, she sent most of her inheritance to him so he could buy the business.

Soon dad had his own shop and stood ready, willing and able to serve the printing needs of his customers. But the customers never showed up. They followed my father's former boss down the street, where he opened another print shop with brand new equipment. My father didn't know anything about non-compete agreements, or how to go out and get new customers. Selling was not his game - printing was. After just a few weeks, Dad quietly shut down the business and put the printing equipment into storage. He never again ventured into the bewildering world of self-employment.

What a shame that this experience 72 years ago squashed the dreams of a sincere and caring young man.

Today it would be easy for me to tell him what he should have done. But those lessons would be fruitless and frustrating to a man who now has only the past to dream of since the future is short, and holds little promise. Fortunately his dreams now center around his computer, which allows him to travel the world with the push of a button.

But what about you? Can you start over again if your dreams have been crushed by some mistake or a crooked partner or a market that wasn't what you perceived it to be?

Of course you can! Just do it differently the second or third time around. Learn to spend more time in the research phase of starting a business instead of rushing out and spending money for overhead before you have any customers.

Analyze your idea. Is it an idea or an opportunity?

Remember that passion is not enough; you also need a market and customers. Technical skills, like printing, aren't sufficient; you also need selling skills yourself, or you need an employee or a partner who can go out and get the customers.

You also need execution. Remember, great execution of a poor idea is better than a great idea poorly executed.

And be sure to find a park bench to sit on with someone older and wiser who you can share ideas with. It may save you 72 years of regret.