Despicable and Disgusting….

Usually my surfing around for new trends, ideas and innovation brings me much of the positive aspects of entrepreneurs in action. Ideas that work, ideas that don’t and ideas that just need a little more thought, effort and innovation.

Not everybody is going to succeed and sometimes your idea might be just a little ahead of its time. (I know when I started what I reckon was the first web developer in Australia back in the early 1990s, we were probably five years, if not ten ahead of there being a sustainable commercial market – it was hard, frustrating and sometimes it nearly became a little too much., but we just kept trying our hardest.)

I understand passion. I understand drive, I understand the undying desire to see your passion through. I remember someone telling me that there are three simple rules to being an entrepreneur;

1. Never Give Up
2. Never Give Up
3. Never Give Up

What I don’t understand is when that passion, drive and ambition crosses a line and drives unacceptable behaviour.

Unfortunately, tonight I have come across a blog post which has upset me. Michael Arrington, the founder of TechCrunch has posted this post following an experience he has had at a conference in Munich, Germany.

Michael is a legend in the blogging world and perhaps the most prolific user of digital technology I have ever seen. He is active on his blogs, Facebook, Twitter, Flickr… you name it, he is on it and active – posting, tweetng, blogging and sharing. I swear the guy must be like that dude out of Tron… inside his machine, getting stuff done. Importantly, he has been a commercial success – TechCrunch is a very successful, well respected blog and gets millions of readers.

Michael has announced in his post that following an incident with someone he assumes to be an entrepreneur who felt he was either underdone or poorly represented by TechCrunch, and other past, poor experiences, he is taking time away from his passion to think about his future. It is a real shame that one of the digital pioneers has been driven to this.

So a message to those people who think that it is OK to attack, abuse or otherwise threaten when their business is not going they they had dreamed. You DO NOT HAVE A RIGHT to project your frustrations and failure onto someone else.

Lots of people get carried away with the prospect of being an entrepreneur. Media has to some extent glamourised the entrepreneur as the person with the sports car and the flashy lifestyle, and create the perception that it isn’t all that hard to be successful in your own business. What most don’t realise is that more fail than succeed, and that those who succeed have often got there after many years of extremely hard work, long hours and loads of personal sacrifice. It isn’t instant, it is inevitable and it certainly isn’t glamorous.

Finally, it isn’t anyone elses responsibility than your own. If you think that one post on a blog, one review, one comment from a journalist is going to make or break your business, then you are clearly not good enough to be a successful entrepreneur. If you think that the right response when one of these things doesn’t go your way is to attack, abuse or threaten, then frankly, you are a moron.

Michael – I hope you find the drive and passion to carry on. You have made an impact I certainly feel like there is much more left for you to do.