"Success Made Simple: An Inside Look at Why Amish Businesses Thrive" - Book Review

When you think of getting business advice, what comes to mind? Subscribing to the Harvard Business Review? Visiting the local Small Business Administration office? Reading a book by Donald Trump? How about visiting your local Amish community? If you haven’t considered the latter, maybe you should.

There has been a significant uptick in business formation for the Amish in recent years. It is estimated that an Amish business has a 95% chance of being open after five years (run by people who have no more than a formal 8th-grade education.) The rate for the general population is about 50%. What might we learn from the Amish? That is what Erik Wesner wanted to know, so he conducted in-depth interviews with Amish from several communities. What he discovered is the subject of his new book.

Success Made Simple: An inside Look at why Amish Businesses Thrive isn’t exactly what I expected, but that isn’t a criticism. I was expecting more of a comparative study. Instead, Wesner interviews various Amish business owners and looks for themes about their success. Clearly, community plays a big role. The Amish resistance to prideful behavior helps restrain some excesses that too many small business owners fall prey to. There are lessons about the importance of frugal living. There are important lessons about seeing your work in terms of transcendent reality. That has implications for how you relate to employees and customers. Wesner uncovers all this with some delightful and entertaining narrative.

It occurred to me as I read the book that there may be at least three factors that may work to the advantage of the Amish:

First, business studies show that the most important determinant of whether someone succeeds in business is whether or not one of their parents was a business owner. The Amish have traditionally grown up working in the family farm business. That develops both the work ethic and the acumen to manage an operation.

Second, the most critical juncture at which businesses fail is when they try to leap from being a fledgling operation to a significant producer. Business school case studies are rife with stories of businesses that tried to expand too quickly without enough capital. The Amish model tends to tap down grandiose visions and ambitions toward more practical expansion. Furthermore, it appears that many of the businesses are not amenable to large-scale production in the first place.

Third, there is a tight-knit support community. As Wesner points out, there is competition between the Amish, but there are also strong community ties of mutual support. A key factor in the failure of small businesses is an insufficient support network for the business owner.

The book is a fascinating read. The book has raised my interest in business in the Amish world, and I recently purchased Donald Kraybill’s book about Amish Enterprise. Wesner’s book is a great read for anyone looking for a window into Amish life and their business life in particular.