ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Michael "Mike" Couture
My dream as a young boy growing up in the rockbound state of Maine, known for its independent thinking citizens, was to forge my own path in this world. I was the first born in my family and my parents instilled in me the mindset that I was responsible for the person I would become.
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I married young at nineteen and worked fulltime for a wholesale chemical distributor located on the waterfront in Portland, Maine. I also attended college four nights a week taking five years to earn my Bachelor of Science degree in Accounting and Business Management.
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From there I spent most of my working career as founder and co-founder of several businesses and enjoyed the satisfaction of providing my family and many employees, associates and partners with a rewarding workplace environment and competitive compensation packages through these businesses.
I am now seventy-years old, and I am in pain. I have been on a roller coaster of emotional pain for the last decade. I spent forty-plus years pursuing my life-long goal of being an entrepreneur and building a successful business. Writing this book is my effort to overcome the pain caused by the loss of this business in 2012.
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ABOUT THE CO-AUTHOR
Jim Moore
As a hospice chaplain and bereavement coordinator Dr. Jim Moore has had the privilege and honor to sit with thousands of people as they contemplated the sacredness of their lives. Life is a journey with a beginning, a middle and an end. Jim’s goal is to help people find meaning throughout all of life’s journey.
With roots in central Texas, he holds a B.S. from Texas A&M University and an M.Div. from TCU. He then ventured to Kansas City, MO. where he obtained a Doctor of Ministry from St. Paul School of Theology.
Jim and his wife Carol raised their three (now grown) children in Northwest Arkansas where they have lived since 1999.
Forward
When the Bottom Drops Out
Overcoming the Devastating Loss of Your Business
Written by Co-Author, Jim Moore
I met Mike Couture in 1999 and have called him a friend ever since. We were both new to the Northwest Arkansas area and we both had young families. Northwest Arkansas is an idyllic place with its combination of natural beauty and economic opportunity. NWA used to be an agricultural community where they grew things like apples, grapes, and green beans. Home to three Fortune 500 companies, it is now a place that grows businesses.
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Mike came to NWA as a hard-working entrepreneur to grow a business and I came as a pastor to start a new church that would help meet the needs of a burgeoning community. Mike’s family became part of that church and we became friends. Since we didn’t yet have a church building I would often borrow empty space in Mike’s office to work. In those days it was just Mike and his wife Linda in the office. Mike was probably the first true entrepreneur I ever met. I was impressed and intrigued by the risk, the hustle and the strategy it took to start a business from the ground up. I watched over the years with great interest as Mike built his brand. I had a front row seat as he expanded his business, ultimately bringing in partners to the very company he birthed. Over the years as NWA grew so did Mike’s businesses.
Mike’s dream from a young age was to be an entrepreneur and to own a business and through great determination he realized his dream. Mike was a successful entrepreneur and business owner. As they say, he was living the dream.
And then one day, a day that started like any other day, the bottom dropped out and the very company he started was taken from him. On that day Mike lost more than his business. He lost his dream, his financial security, his place in society and to an extent his identity in the community.
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Mike Couture has a story to tell. When the Bottom Drops Out is that story – it is his story. It is a story everyone can relate to. In the pages that follow you will journey with Mike through risk, reward, perseverance, struggle, success and ultimately betrayal of the worst kind.
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However, through all of that it is also a story of self-discovery. How do you come back from a devastating loss? How do you put the pieces back together? How do you make sense of life when your lifelong dreams have been stolen from you?
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When the Bottom Drops Out is genuine and surreal but is also hopeful. It is a testament to how indomitable the human spirit can be.
Mike's Entrepreneurial Journey
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On September 13, 2012, my three business partners expelled me from the business I had originally founded in Bentonville, Arkansas in 2000. On the day I was expelled these three men took my 30% ownership and distributed it equally amongst themselves. I was sixty years old and out of a job. This was not just losing any job. This was the disintegration of my entrepreneurial career that I had aspired to as a young boy and spent my adult life building.
Excerpt From
When The Bottom Drops Out –
Overcoming The Devastating Loss Of Your Business
THE GOAL OF THIS BOOK
To leave a positive legacy for Mike's family.
To overcome the trauma Mike endured.
To address the unfairness of the legal system.
Abraham Lincoln
"You must remember that some things legally right are not morally right."
Sam Walton
"Personal and moral integrity is one of our basic fundamentals and it has to start with each of us."
Martin Luther King, Jr.
"The time is always right to do what is right."