- Thread starter
- #91
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
456%
- May 1, 2011
- 7,695
- 35,097
100% and it's worse than that. Not only they can ban you, they charge you draconian fees to use their network. They own the network.
It's like saying you'll open a coffee shop at your favourite corner in your town, you know you'll deliver value but the roads aren't free - they are owned by the same landlord that owns the retail space you want to lease. Not only they can kick you out of the store you created, they control who can travel to your store because they own the damn road.
What I mean is that it's just a bad place to do business because the odds aren't on your side. Heads you lose, tails they win.
That's a very accurate way to put it and exactly how I feel.
The challenge with business is simple: finding the best asymmetric return that's tilted in YOUR favour. Which broadly speaking no longer applies to the vast majority of online business that used to work very well.
Unless that was also your intention, in your favor can be also emphasized as specific to you. Starting a construction company is not tilted in my favor but it is to a person who understands this world. Meanwhile, the odds may be tilted in my favor if I want to start a vegan food company compared to someone who isn't vegan.
Building a B2B usually involves growing a team. Doing it solo often requires being a strong programmer that's got both introvert & extrovert parts fully developed. Few people are like that.
I've heard that as well. Perhaps with some services it may be a little different as you don't need a programmer then but you probably still need a very strong salesman (unless you're doing productized services and don't need to have calls with potential clients).
Even in the Youtube space it is still possible to create a following and succeed. It's not impossible, but what I don't like is the odds.
One of the things that I would love to do is to write an epic story (most likely fantasy or sci-fi) and have it adapted into a TV series. But knowing the reality of writing first-hand and TV production from reading and talking to other people in the industry, I know the odds are so ridiculously low it's not worth my time.
Is it possible? Sure. Is it realistic? No. And even if it is, this likely requires 10-20 years of investment for something that may never work as the amount of luck required is unfathomable.
1) Internet space is now about blockchain. It's the 1990s of the old internet, just upgraded to the newest thing. And AI is a huge part of that, they are hand in glove. Solving problems there is not centralized and cannot be centralized. But it's also not the big 7 lane highway of the 2010, it's hard to travel there at speed at the moment. But that's where I personally believe the "internet business future" resides.
I may be wrong here but to me it seems that this opportunity is only limited to programmers and extremely intelligent people, and above all, to big teams of people (not solopreneurs or small businesses). I don't understand it and likely never will.
2) As a non-tech but curious entrepreneur, I prefer to stick to the old style businesses that rely on humans interacting. Where leadership matters. Where employees and money help provide scale. Where control is with those who have access to capital and human talent. With that, I promote small businesses that can thrive in a local environment. A local quarry that provides concrete to construction concrete projects can make millions! A person who starts a plumbing company and scales it up to 100 staff will make millions. (Assuming they do good work and there is a need for it!) You get the point.
Each day I see so many local businesses doing very well (at least on the surface), yet often there are so many improvements they could make it's interesting to see how well they're still doing despite that. But I also see the lifestyle of the owners and I don't envy them.
That's how RSS died... remember that? Terrible but it's expected. No one is immune, not even Tim Ferriss level of influence.
I still use RSS though it's definitely dead to 99% of people.
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