As I’ve written many times here, the entrepreneur’s nightmare is to lose control of your business creation during the expansion process and then find yourself dumped by the incomers.

Whatever happened to Duncan Riley, for example? Now thriving at TechCrunch, he wouldn’t be a man you would want to lose in a hurry.

That is the cautionary tale of JPG Magazine, an online and print business that morphed into 80/20 publishing which resulted in disaster for its founders.

The story is told at some length by Derek Powazek, who describes himself as a thinker, designer, and writer in San Francisco.

His conclusions from the experience are :

If it’s any help to other entrepreneurs, here’s what I’ve learned.

1. Make no assumptions when it comes to roles and responsibilities. Like my dad says: “Someone’s gotta call quittin’ time.”
2. Communication between partners is mandatory. And you cannot communicate with someone who is not communicating with you.
3. Decisions aren’t decisions if you have to keep making them. Set on the course and stick to it. If you keep talking about things that have already been decided, nothing will ever get done.
4. When someone says one thing, but acts in a contradictory way, you have a choice between believing their words or believing their deeds. Believe their deeds.
5. Never let anyone tell you what you want. When someone says, “You don’t want that,” what they really mean is, “I don’t want you to have that.”
6. Don’t stay where you’re not wanted, respected, or happy. Even if it’s your company.

That goes without saying, but it’s still worth reminding people that business is a tough environment unless you hold the best cards.

PayPal is moving its British base for all European transactions to Luxembourg, where it will be regulated under EU rather than UK rules.

Currently, PayPal (Europe) Ltd. is the service provider for PayPal in the EU. PayPal (Europe) Ltd. is a UK company regulated and authorised by the Financial Services Authority (FSA) in the UK …

From 2 July 2007, a new PayPal company, PayPal (Europe) S.à r.l. & Cie, S.C.A. (PayPal Luxembourg), will become the service provider for PayPal in the EU. This is a Luxembourg entity regulated as a bank by the Commission de Surveillance du Secteur Financier (CSSF), the Luxembourg equivalent of the FSA. PayPal Luxembourg will provide the PayPal service throughout the EU.

This is an ominous move for British users, since PayPal is now swallowed up in the eurozone currency area of which the UK is not a member.

This represents a downgrading of the service and yet another euroization of British business.

A quick reminder that our fourth network magazine, Moneyizor, will be launching on Wednesday.

It will range over finance and business and provide an aggregator for our money and business sites, as well as driving traffic to them.

Designed by Thord Hedengren, Moneyizor will have all the features of our other magazine portals.

Are you getting tired of hearing the whining, depressive voices of the new prophets of doom? Listening to technologists, scientists, politicians, pundits and economists, you would think we were passing through a Dark Age.

The threat from China and India is seen as dire and growing. Climate Change threatens our entire civilization. Terrorism stands ready to murder the lot of us in our beds.

We terrorize our own children in schools by telling them that flood, fire and famine are just around the corner — unless, of course, they recycle their sweet wrappers and stay at home in the holidays.

We warn of catastrophic job losses because of a rampant China and a burgeoning India … and maybe Brazil too.

Jihadist Islam is plotting to turn the world into a gigantic Caliphate in which men will wear turbans and women will all but disappear beneath miles of black cloth.

These are the bad times, indeed.

What tommyrot. We’re being manipulated by neurotic, self-serving attention-seekers demanding that we all become just like them.

The Good Times
In fact, these are The Good Times. In the north, we’re entering a balmy period of clement weather similar to the Medieval Warming Period, which lasted hundreds of years. Then, we Brits could grow wine in the northern fastnesses of Northumberland.

In the Little Ice Age that followed, the River Thames through London froze over every winter. They were the bad times.

Soon Scottish Chardonnay will be on every menu, and bourgenvillea will grow wild all along the English Riviera from Lands End to the White Cliffs of Dover. In a few centuries another cooling period will begin and the price of fur and coal will rise. Make no mistake, these are the good times.

China and India are interacting with rich Western lifestyles with the only comparative advantage they have : cheap labour. They send us cheap goods which keep inflation low and increase the standards of living of the poor. This has the effect of driving us to become innovation societies, with highly educated and high-waged populations.

The new Tiger economies will reach that stage soon enough and things will return to normal. But, for now, these are the good times.

As for terrorism, no-one ever took over the world from a cave in Pakistan. In fact, in the UK we suffered far more casualties from the Irish Troubles in the 1970s and 80s than we have from Islamic terrorism. Our grandparents went through two world wars when countless millions were slaughtered and mankind went collectively insane.

Then they had the Cold War to put up with, and possible instant annihilation or slow death by radiation poisoning.

So, here we are : great weather to come for a couple of centuries, comparative peace, and endless cheap goods and gadgets from the wonderful Chinese and Indians.

THESE ARE THE GOOD TIMES.

Get used to it!

Could this be the first glimpse of the new Syntagma Towers?

It’s not what you think. I’ve drawn the building rather than show you a photograph, in case others move in before us. It’s a cut-throat market here.

This extraordinary house is situated on the edge of a fabulous country estate on the River Dart in Devon, England. It was designed in the 19th century by a famous cathedral architect in the Gothic (medieval) style when John Ruskin was all the rage.

The window lights are exquisitely carved out of sandstone, as is the noble fireplace. There’s also a tower nearby, designed by the same architect.

Needless to say, my drawing doesn’t do justice to the place, but is designed to keep the predators at bay.

More on this later. It’s the first prime candidate for the new Syntagma Towers.

Stay close.