Graybeard Entrepreneurs

In times of crisis, perspective pays. That's why we spoke with veteran entrepreneurs who truly have some.

In Pictures: Graybeard Entrepreneurs

William Miller has clocked 200,000 airline miles so far this year. Miller is on the management squads of three start-ups, all focused on breakthroughs in nanotechnology, and teaches at Stanford University. Next spring, he will fly to Seoul, South Korea, when Konkuk University will cut the ribbon on the William F. Miller School of Management and Technology.

Still spry at age 82, Miller has seen a few economic downturns in his time. "My usual message is 'Don't panic, we've been here before,'" he says. "But I don't think we've been here before." Then again, he adds: "Some of the best companies we see now were started in the downturn. To get there, you need to make it through the bottom with enough cash on hand to invest in the future."

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If, in fact, the U.S. has slipped into recession, it will be the seventh since the Great Depression of 1929-1939. To understand how nasty the latest crisis really is, and how entrepreneurs can hope to survive it, we spoke with Depression-born graybeards who have been running businesses since World War II. The short answers: Yes, things are bad, but the strong will, indeed, survive.

In Pictures: Lessons From Seven Graybeard Entrepreneurs

In Pictures: 10 Entrepreneurs Who Rose From The Ashes

Memories of the '80s banking crisis can still make Sam Wyly wince. The Texas billionaire, who has dabbled in everything from restaurants to computers, found himself short on financing when 600 banks failed in his home state.

His savior: junk-bond king Michael Milken. In 1985, when Wyly wanted to expand Michaels, a home-decorations retailer he had bought, Milken's firm Drexel Burnham Lambert arranged a bond offering at a 17% interest rate--nearly 10 points above Wyly's previous financing. But the gamble paid off, and Wyly eventually earned a handsome return on his investment.

That kind of confidence helps. So does the willingness to constantly re-evaluate your business model. That's what Wyly and his brother Charles had to do after they bought Bonanza Steakhouse in 1967. Of all the companies in Wyly's portfolio, recessions hit steakhouses the hardest. "We were selling to blue-collar customers who were the first to get laid off during [tough] times," says Wyly, now 75.

During one particularly rough patch in the '70s, Wyly looked closely at his restaurants and discovered that franchised locations fared better than the ones he owned outright. He quickly moved to an all-franchise model, slashing his employee roster to 50 from 5,000.