Right after college I got to work for a great small company. There were only 12 of us and my boss -- the CEO -- a brilliant businessman who was only 33 at the time manages to snatch a great market share. Actually, we were doing what nobody else was doing at the time - forecasts for major metropolitan cities' consumption of water and electricity.
Ten years after I moved away, my former boss sold his company and moved to the Silicon Valley to work as a programmer for one of the major software companies. What happened? I don't know, but, perhaps, something like what is happening to one of my friends now. Lets call him Dan.
Dan is a party planner. He is great at what he does. What he is not good at is strategic thinking. And so his business is always above the water but just about. Last week Dan called me to ask whether he should convert into a programmer or a webmaster because his business is not doing well and the news of the recession are very, very scary.
Dammit!
I've spent hours helping him improve his business. Free of charge. Just because I wanted to help. And now he wants me to help him be a coward. I am sorry but I don't think he needs my help with that.
What I really think, it that he should do whatever he whats to do. But do it without trying to scare the hell out of me because he needs someone to be scared with him; and without whining to me about bad things that MIGHT happen to his business. Really, if I ever want to hear someone's whining I'll listen to my own.
People do get scared and depressed, but the worst thing one can do when feeling like that is to try and bring someone down with him (or her) because it feels lonely to be scared without a company.
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