I’ve never in over 17 yrs taken out a bank/sm bus loan and I certainly never will.
That certainly sounds like a prudent strategy. I would be interested how you invested in large capital. In some businesses one just cannot compete without it. I suppose venture capital would be an option. I suspect another option is to be very selective in business selection - choosing businesses that that don't require it. Sounds much easier said than done. I am employed in a very capital intensive occupation for a large corporation and our lab has been repeatedly downsized because of cost pressures. I've been considering what I might do next after the inevitable occurs and am quite wary of capital-intensive endeavors...
I rolled (modest) capital from another business for startup, and started very small and scaled slowly. Vendor financing was/is crucial my industry, along with a good trade buying group. These concerns have specialized knowledge of my industry and I further found that I could leverage their industry expertise as well as their capital. But, again, an ongoing focus and nurturing of positive cash flow cannot ever be minimized or you will end up chasing your tail in the end. LOL. This is one principle you can actually take from a business theory environment into the marketplace. In fact, you must.