I keep tabs on former consulting clients. It’s always valuable to know what folks’re up to, how they’re doing, and if there’s the possibility for future advice or work. In a previous entry, “The Good Guy Network,” I outlined how/why good people help each other, and why those less desirable, shady characters tend to fade away. I reread the post, and decided to check up on a couple former clients … just to see what was up. In doing so, I saw a classic example of a decent idea gone horribly wrong. And so, in tribute to one of my favorite movies (and Norma Nathan … ), here is a tale from the Naked City:
Once upon a time, there was a man who thought he had a great idea. And while he had a moderately successful career, he knew that his idea was gonna set him apart. He took out a massive loan, hired a team of developers, and set off to build the greatest music discovery website in the whole wide world.
Unfortunately for him, bigger minds had tried to crack the online music discovery nut only to find that it was a surefire descent into an unprofitable pit of torment and Hellfire. But, naturally, he did his research beforehand and he was gonna be different. Or did he? He was smarter, he had a different idea, a different approach, and he was gonna make millions of dollars!
As my faithful readers have learned, the desire to make gobs of cash often deludes folks from having good ideas. But that didn’t stop our faithful entrepreneur. He spent a year building his dream site, hired ill-equipped folks to work with him, and plodded onward toward his shiny financial future.
After my involvement with this charlatan ceased (with him still owing over $2000.00 in consulting services!), he (months behind schedule) launched his MASTERPIECE. And …
It tanked. Within months, he pulled the plug. Investors weren’t interested, the public wasn’t interested, and with no budget to promote his site, no one really heard about it.
But did that stop him? Of course not!
Leveraging himself into further debt, he rebrands the site, changes the name, and while the backend is still identical, he seems to think that the new name, new look will make things magically all better. Does anyone other than him believe this is gonna work? Nope, not really … not at all. The other selling point, a MySpace widget. Apparently folks’re still thinking they can make money with MySpace. MySpace can’t even do that – they just canned 30% of their team!
Ultimately time will tell. And until that magical time comes, we can watch, wait, and hopefully we can learn.
There are eight million stories in the Naked City; this has been one of them…
