I’ve had a few people ask me in the past few days whether I’m going to sell this blog. The short answer is “no.”

This blog is not for sale. I will never sell it.

It’s not that I don’t have plans for this business. All businesses have plans, and all entrepreneurs have visions of success (or else they’d never get started). But this business doesn’t need to be sold in order to fulfill its potential, or at least the potential I have laid out for it.

I’ll be honest with you; my plan is not that big. It’s one of those plans that would seem small if someone else was sharing it with me, but seems pretty scary when I look at it myself. It’s kind of like what people say about their personal appearance: most of us think we’re pretty average looking, but everyone else thinks we’re more attractive than we think we are. Similarly, our business plans are probably larger than they need to be, and bigger than we think they are.

I’m Jim Collins, author, speaker and self-professed “teacher of business” — an academic by training, a student of all things business by choice. I’ve spent the past twenty years researching how some companies seem to be able to sustain success while others don’t.

I’ve written four books on this topic: Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies (with Jerry Porras); Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap… and Others Don’t; Good to Great and the Social Sectors: Why Business Thinking is Not the Answer; and How the Mighty Fall: And Why Some Companies Never Give In. (See my book recommendations for more on these and other related books.)

And, like any good teacher, I’m still learning. Most of what I learn comes from my own research, but I also gain a lot from readers of this blog who share their insights. I hope you’ll join in that conversation by commenting on my posts.

Finally, a note on tone: This blog is meant to be practical and pragmatic. If you’re looking for inspiration, look elsewhere. This is not a motivational blog. But if you want to learn some lessons about building great business — especially if you’re looking for counter-

The purpose of a business is to create and keep a customer.

The first requirement for an exemplary user experience is to meet the exact needs of the customer, without fuss or bother. Next comes simplicity and elegance that produce products that are a joy to own, a joy to use, and are so good that you want to share them with other people.

If we want to make something great, let’s make it simple, comfortable, and beautiful.

Joseph Aspdin invented the first true Portland cement in his Leeds kitchen in 1824. His son William patented the name Portland Cement and the business was born. It’s an incredible story, but one that needs to be told better.

He is famous for the patent he took out in 1824 for a new kind of hydraulic cement – but only because he was trying to copy the innovative Roman cement of Pozzuoli and failed! He had earlier tried to make a cement using limestone from Middleton, Leeds – but only because it was a cheap building material. The first product made by Joseph Aspdin was called Roman Cement, but only because Italian cements were popular at the time!

The real story is so much more interesting than this…

Joseph Aspdin was an English cement manufacturer who obtained a patent for Portland cement on 21 October 1824. The patent described a process of producing an artificial stone from ‘argillaceous [clay] and calcareous [lime] materials’, including the use of a ‘peculiar retarding substance’ which when mixed with lime and clay would set after exposure to air.

Aspdin burned finely-ground clay, mixed it with finely-ground chalk (calcium carbonate) and ground it again. He called it Portland Cement because he believed the solidified cement resembled stone quarried on the Isle of Portland.

In 1843, Aspdin’s son William patented a similar method using nearly anhydrous calcium sulfate to prevent the early setting produced by the presence of gypsum in natural anhydrite.

William Aspdin had left his father’s firm and in 1859 formed a partnership with a man named Francis Lowndes, trading as Lowndes & Aspdin. Their mill at Rotherhithe was so successful that William Aspdin was able to sell his share in the business to his partner for £30,000 (about £3 million today).

Joseph Aspdin (1778-1855) was an English cement manufacturer who obtained the patent for Portland cement on 21 October 1824.

Aspdin was the eldest son of Thomas Aspdin, a bricklayer living in Hunslet, Leeds, Yorkshire. He had seven brothers and sisters and his mother died when he was 10. The family was poor but in 1790 Aspdin’s father married again and had another seven children with his second wife.

In 1791 Joseph started work as a plasterer’s apprentice then served a seven-year apprenticeship to become a bricklayer like his father. He married in 1799 but lost his wife during the birth of their first child. In 1800 he married again and went on to have ten children with his second wife.

Aspdin was a prolific inventor and began experimenting around 1810 with the manufacture of ‘Roman cement’ which resembled the natural deposits found in Roman ruins at the time. He set up a small plant at Wakefield where he made lime mortar from limestone chunks burnt in his kitchen stove then ground to powder in a hand-turned mill. In about 1813 he developed the process of using powdered coal as fuel and by 1820 had patented the process of using finely ground coal

Joseph Aspdin (1778 – 1855) was an English cement manufacturer who obtained the patent for Portland cement on 21 October 1824.

Portland cement, the main subject of Aspdin’s patent and the reason for his fame, has little resemblance to modern cements, but it was a step in the development of modern hydraulic limes, and as such is one of the most important advances in masonry construction.

Aspdin invented “artificial cement” by burning finely-ground chalk with clay in a lime kiln until carbon dioxide was absorbed and the product sintered. The resulting balls were then ground into a fine powder. This product, made into a mortar with sand, set in 5-15 minutes. The process involved in making material “artificial cement” is similar to that of natural cements made from crushed limestone that also absorb carbon dioxide from the burning process. The product of Aspdin’s cement patent was substantially different from the modern product known as Portland cement because it contained little or no calcite/calcium carbonate (CaCO3), which makes up 30% or more of Portland cement.