Socially Speaking

Transcribed from last week’s Waxxi ‘Cast with Seth Godin:

“What was your biggest Dip?”

I’ve had lots and lots of Dips, which is really lucky for me.

There are plenty of people I went to business school with who have been on a dead end ever since. There are plenty of people who I worked with at my first job, who have been at a dead end ever since.What I have tried to do is seek out Dip after Dip.

Now, there have been a few times when I’ve quit in the Dip and regretted it. There have been a few times when I almost quit in the Dip, and managed to just squeak through. Just before I sold Yoyodyne to Yahoo in 1998, the good news is the day before we sold, we were profitable which was very unusual in those days. The bad news is that in the six weeks before we sold, there were three occasions where we almost missed payroll. We were within an hour of not having the money in the bank to pay our employees.

And it would have been really easy in those days to give up. To look around at the well-funded companies that had raised twenty or forty or eighty million dollars. We had raised four. To look at the companies in California that were getting great deals and hook-ups because of who they knew, and we were in New York and knew no one.

It would have been easy in the pressure of the moment to say, “Well, we gave it a good try. Let’s go home.” I’m really glad we stuck that Dip out.

Originally blogged over at The Long Blonde Tail.

Today was an exceptional experience: we had the chance to really riff with Seth Godin for about an hour. I have to say, this was one of my favorite Waxxi ‘casts to date, simply because people seemed to have so much fun (moderator and guest included!).

We talked about working with Hugh, The Dips of Google, StumbleUpon, Squidoo, Yoyodyne, Oprah, Microsoft, Ask.com, Yahoo!, the book publishing industry, and much more. The ‘cast will be live shortly, and we’ll have some transcripts of the conversation here as well.

If you haven’t yet done so, take an evening or a few hours on a weekend day – and read The Dip (a New York Times bestseller, just this week). Then, buy five (or more) copies, and give them away to people you know. The message, and lessons, are relevant to just about everyone.

Thanks again to Seth, and to everyone who participated!

On May 10th, Seth Godin’s The Dip hit #1 on CEO READ.

If you have an entrepreneurial bone in your body, or if you have embarked on a new project (/job/company/career/etc.) lately, we strongly recommend this quick, yet incredibly well-rounded and insightful, read.

Plenty of others seem to like it, too.

PS – don’t forget this date: June 6, 2007 – when you’ll have the chance to pick Seth’s brain.

 

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