Jaffe Juice: Willy Wonka & the Net Factory
How does one explain the surreal elements of the Internet bubble? How did we get ourselves into a mess? Joseph finds a good explanation from Roald Dahls Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.
By Joseph Jaffe
Joseph is as inciteful as ever here with his analogy between the Internet Bubble and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.
At the end of his article, he asks:
“Whats the Golden Ticket that will help us get to the next level in terms of continuing to build our industry, legitimizing the medium and helping to grow the overall pie? Realistic expectations, integration, smarter metrics or interactivity? Creativity, brand studies or research? No more pop-ups, money back guarantees, solving the branding conundrum or education?”
Personally, I think the answer has a lot to do with patience. Stop the build to flip attitude. Stop the incessant reliance on stock price as an indicator of success or failure and the fickleness by which we all react to it.
Stay the course. Have a vision. Count on MANY years of actual hard work before you see your million dollar reward. Do some actual work. Have respect for your fellow employees and the business partners with whom your work. LISTEN to your customer. Have actual conversations with them. Don’t rely completely on impersonal research.
Realize that most of the successful companies here today took decades to build. We don’t seem to have the attention span for that today. It’s always on to the next thing. Oh sure, life is faster today but it doesn’t mean you have to change your vision everyday to suit the fickle whims of your investors.
I don’t know where I am going with this other then to say have some commitment. Have some dedication. Build something you are proud enough to want to own and operate not build and sell.
