There’s No business like BUSINESS! by Brian Butterfield

Is this some kind of joke?

A more (i.e. not non-) financially astute friend of mine gifted me a copy of “businessman, entrepreneur and business man” Brian Butterfield’s recent book, There’s No business like BUSINESS! (capitalisation as per the publication) for my Virgo-season birthday earlier in the month, and I read it with relish (as in interest, not with condiments) during multiple trips to the toilet throughout September.

As a new parent with probably more debt than assets (I don’t know how those things are calculated and I do partially wish I was joking), I did believe that a guide to business, to entrepreneurship, to money management might be an appropriate read at this time of life.

Unfortunately, though, the book turned out to contain essentially nothing of any use and some factual and interpretive errors that even I – a person without money – could have corrected.

The book contains multiple articles, “how-to” guides, glossaries, quizzes and even business-themed short fiction (structured as a “choose your own adventure” type thang), all of which offers advice on entrepreneurship based around the (exclusively negative) experiences of the author, a man whose continued ability to accrue the loans necessary to float a continuing string of failed businesses – a real talent given the string of bankruptcies he openly acknowledges – is about the only thing he doesn’t explore in detail.

Brian Butterfield seems to be a man with no meaningful skills, yet an unflailing instinct to try and monetise anything and everything he encounters. It is a tragic flaw, I suppose, yet one he seems emotionally untroubled by, in fact the only thing one imagines could floor him would be an inability to “do business”.

He’s not a people person, not an ideas man, not a salesperson nor an artisan, not a numbers guy and not even a plodding labourer. Butterfield isn’t a cynic, he’s not an opportunist, he’s not under the impression that he is owed success and very much seems to believe that entrepreneurship is the one human ideal to aspire to.

If he wasn’t a real person, this might all seem a little one note, and he does almost feel like a simple comedic character, with the joke being that he loves business, but is terrible at it.

This book – which Butterfield has clearly produced himself – features glaring errors in terms of its production (an upside down front cover, annotations meant for an edition of Tess of the Durbervilles, etc), but arguably captures entire the many sides of this man, this strange man of indeterminate age whose continued business failures continue to fail to put him off trying.

In many ways, he’s a great and aspirational role model: Butterfield may not be rich or respected or successful, but he seems happy (ish) and he seems fulfilled (enough), which is far more than many of us.

Maybe I should start a business, because although Butterfield makes it seem low risk, low effort and, sure, low reward, but he also makes it seem like a real way to find some purpose. Something I think we allll could benefit from, right???

Jay-Z, a man who released a few rap songs circa 2000 (and remains famous for being married to global cultural icon Beyoncé), once said “I’m not a businessman, I’m a business, man,” a line which Butterfield (a fan of vintage hip-hop) alludes to on the upside down cover of this volume. Unfortunately, Brian Butterfield is neither of those things. But at least he’s not depressed. Which is more than you can say for most people who write books, I suppose???