There is a whole genre of business writing built on urgency, the promise that the right hack will get you rich fast. James F. Comley’s The Ups and Downs of Running a Small Business is the quiet opposite of all that, and it is more useful for it. Written by the 95-year-old founder of Embree Elevator with co-author Jason R. Rich, the book argues that steadiness, not speed, is what keeps a company alive over decades.
Comley has the record to back the claim. He took over Embree Elevator in 1972 and turned a small regional operation into a family business that has served Eastern Massachusetts and Southern New Hampshire for more than fifty years. He did it without a college degree, without heavy borrowing, and without the constant expansion that most founders treat as a measure of success. His central warning, repeated throughout, is that growing too fast can quietly kill a good company. He saw rivals overreach, hire people they could not train, and fail, and he built his own firm to avoid exactly that fate.
The practical spine of the book is a closing list of 25 philosophies drawn from his career. Some are about money, such as maintaining financial discipline and never making rash decisions under pressure. Some are about people, such as focusing on employee happiness and building relationships that last for years rather than for one transaction. Others are about mindset, including his insistence on learning something new every day and keeping a sense of humor when things go wrong. None of them are complicated. That is rather the point. Comley trusts durable common sense over clever tactics.
Where the book earns its keep is in the specifics behind the principles. Comley explains why he obsessed over insurance in a trade full of dangerous work, a lesson handed to him by a former Otis Elevator executive. He describes turning down jobs that were too big or too risky, even when the money was tempting. He talks candidly about the relentless hours, the 3 a.m. service calls he answered personally, and the fact that he never treated ownership as a nine-to-five arrangement. These passages give the advice a texture that generic business books usually lack.
The book is not flawless. It circles back to the same themes of safety, honesty, and family more often than it needs to, and readers wanting detailed case studies or spreadsheets will not find them. Comley deals in principles and stories, not data. The tone is also unmistakably personal, closer to memoir than manual, so anyone expecting a step-by-step operating guide should adjust their expectations before starting.
Taken for what it is, though, the book has real value for a first-time owner or anyone weighing the leap into self-employment. Comley is transparent about his mistakes, generous with credit to his wife Virginia and his employees, and refreshingly uninterested in selling a dream. His life outside the business, including Navy service, two decades on the Massachusetts Board of Elevator Regulations, an Ellis Island Medal of Honor, and a hand in founding an Elevator Museum, lends the advice a credibility that no marketing pitch could.
The result is a modest, honest book about building something that lasts. In a market crowded with promises of fast money, that patience feels almost radical.
