Dale H West Menu

This letter was written in response to a moderator's comment in an e-mail digest. It was originally published September 26, 2001. To put things in context, here is the comment this letter is in response to:

I've long thought that it's a sad thing when pornography businesses are thriving on the Internet, while businesses such as [name of business omitted] struggle to stay alive. Not a very positive commentary on our frail species.

I read our moderator's comment bemoaning the perceived success of "porn" versus the perceived non-success of [name of business omitted] - and chuckled to myself.

There are days I stand at the front door of my brick and mortar store and watch the "successful" drug dealers in the parking lot of the bank across the street. Their business has its expenses and no matter how lucrative it may seem, it is just not a kind of business I want to run. There was a time as well, people gawked and were amazed by the "successful" dot-comers and all the perceived wealth and prosperity they seemed to own.

To all good things must come an end. When we spend too long looking at whom we believe to be successful, we forget about our own endeavors and the investment we must make. When you look at your bottom line, remember why you chose this path. Money is the first reason for most businesses, but I have found that it is not usually the first motivator and hardly the only reason for going into business.

Maybe the Internet moves information faster than any prior form of communication, but it is not going to change human nature and therefore the laws of business. It still takes 9 months from conception to birth for a human. It still takes 24 hours for the earth to revolve around its axis. It still takes 29 days for the moon to revolve around the earth. Even though the communication moves faster or differently, the human synapse still works like it always has. Like a match being struck for the first time, dot-comers burned through some cash real fast and made a bright light - most burned out before lighting anything sustaining.

If money is your motivator and you think Porn is the successful way to get it, go into Porn. If you read that statement and do not instantly want to start a Porn site, then there must be other motivators to your on- line business. I know of ways to make my companies more profitable, and I choose not to. I have a plan, and I have a guideline of what these companies are, and to waiver from that plan is not in my best interest. If they don't make money with the plan, then I'll close them. I may look to consciously change the plan, but changing a business model is a serious endeavor.

If you haven't done so already it is time to take a personal inventory. Why am I in business? Why am I in the business I am in and what does it pay me that I'll miss (include money or the lack thereof)? If I close my business tomorrow, how will my life be better? Now you have a REAL balance sheet, not one based solely on money. When it comes down to it, even if we are salesmen, we are humans first and we make human decisions. "... the only right is what is after my constitution, the only wrong what is against it."