Sunday, September 18, 2005

"Learn to handle rejection. It's easy to handle success" Seth Godin

The gentleman I first came to know and respect in the eighties when he was part of the Stanford Entrepreneurial Roundtable, The Skeibo Press and Spinnaker Software is not just an author any longer, he has also become a self-proclaimed "Agent of Change." I speak of Seth Godin who, it seems to me, may also be on yet another path, one of becoming an agent provocateur. To be fair, it's really too early to tell. Godin is speaking at the NAB Radio Show this week and we'll see if, during his talk, he mentions and offers support of his recent writing that "radio is officially dead, especially when wireless internet access comes to your car" (page 15, Who's There?). Why would Godin make a paid appearance presenting to what I must guess he considers to be the dead or soon to be dead? A case of schadenfreude? Certainly not. Is it wrong to take money from those you have publicly diagnosed as critically ill without offering the sick some assistance, advice, or at least disclosing to the dying that while certain of your diagnosis you are not now prepared to offer an effective plan of treatment? Hard to say without all the facts. Is his mission to now save an industry, the very one he proclaimed "officially dead" earlier this very month? Does he come to inspire and provoke into action the first tribe of wireless? Will the hiring of Godin to keynote turn out to be a stroke of genius or will we be asking "Was Mel not available?" Stay tuned.

Tom Evslin is in the process of writing a book by way of something he is calling a blook (sic), a book he will serialize on a blog. The story begins as hackoff.com CEO Larry Lazard is found dead of a gunshot wound. Tom has also created a faux corporate website related to his dot com story and is encouraging participation via a dedicated wiki. Very cool. Bravo Tom! As someone who worked in the crazed, sometimes plainly goofy, pre-ipo dotcom world I applaud Tom's endeavor and look forward to a good read. You may read the first chapter here. Thanks to Fred Wilson for the tip and background here.

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