Zeldman is basically trying to explains why he doesn't have any drive and hasn't had a breakout success: because he's so well balanced and normal and all the successful people in the world have some sort of a mental defect.
Really?
It's not possible to be driven and well-balanced? Everyone who is successful didn't get enough love from daddy?
Even if he is right who cares... we're all adults now and have free will. My life kicks ass and I'm driven like a mofo.... and it has nothing to do with money or fame... it has to do with solving problems, building a great team and having fun!
Jeff: save the dime store BS and get back to coding some dope shit. Keep trying... as some point you'll get that big exit! Don't give up!
blah blah blah... yes I know he's done a cool blog for a long time, but he's got MASSIVE entrepreneur/big win envy.
Everyone wants to hit a home run, and it has nothing to do with being a craftsman or a suit... he's hating on people who have won big because he hasn't.
Dude, for real? You sold a weblogs company to AOL -- who everyone in tech knows are morons. No one gives props to Powerset either. They found a bigger fool too.
I mean, you founded MAHALO, the pets.com of the 00's. Zero tech, zero innovation, just slaves. "Mahalo everyone!" You have invented and created nothing in your life.
Seriously, you are an ant running up an elephant's leg with rape on its mind. Zeldman is FAR beyond you technically. Zeldman is to web standards what Picasso is to modernism and what you are to tabloid journalism.
Mahalo actually is paying hundreds of contributors hundreds of thousands of dollars a year at this point (since we launched Mahalo 2.0 in June). We're creating a lot of work/income for unemployed folks all across the country and we're proud of that. There are no slave... just folks doing good work and doing well for themselves.
In terms of technology you would be surprised. Our Answer product is the most advanced on the planet right now, and when you see Mahalo 3.0 in December you'll be fairly impressed I think.
On the subject of Weblogs, Inc. one of the insider pieces of information you might not know is that we built the most advanced blog publishing software at the time (called Blogsmith), which AOL also bought. It's the highly scalable, group publishing software that Wordpress and Moveable Type never had the time to build, and it's why TMZ was able to grow so quickly, and why Engadget and Autoblog became the #1 blogs in their vertical.
AOL was not a fool to buy Weblogs, Inc., in fact AOL's entire strategy right now is to be Weblogs, Inc. If you listen to Tim Armstrong's talk at Web 2.0 this week he discusses growing from 500 to 3,000 freelancers and launching hundreds of vertical content sites (aka Blogs). When we sold weblogs, Inc. it had 500 contributors around the world... and that after only 18 months in business (yes, we sold the company for a reported $30m after 18 months).
I concur Zeldman is more advanced at CSS than I am, but Zeldman wouldn't last more than five hands with me in headsup poker, raising money, building a business, building a team, doing M&A, building a brand or building a product that passes 3, 5, or 10M unique visitors a month.
However, I might hire him to do some CSS or a logo. Then again I might put that work on 99designs too. (zing! pow!)
Wait a second, why am I even responding to someone with elephant rape fantasies?!?!
What the fuck are you talking about? Zeldman is talking about creative entrepreneurs. Zeldman is a creative entrepreneur[1]. I'm pretty sure you weren't on his mind at all, unless you know something we don't.
oh, you've figured me out.... I was nerd and got beat up in school. That made me want to start companies and work until the break of day..... I've never felt any true love.... booooo hooooo for me....
whatever.
There is no "one theory" of personality when it comes to success and motivation. Motivation is very layered and complicated. People are motivated by competition, by the love of the actual act, by pride and by a higher calling--and some can experience these things to various level simultaneously.
While I do think many successful entrepreneurs are more focused/less "balanced" (whatever that word means), it is absurd to say you can't be happy, productive, driven and competitive and still be a cool, happy and content person.
Anyway, Z obviously hit a nerve.... let's all go to two therapy sessions this week and get back to work. Right now I've got to get Mahalo in to the top 100 sites on Quantcast or I'm going to jump off Santa MOnica pier and end it.
Since becoming a father of two young daughters, and seeing their personalities grow (from birth) to their current ages (2, 6) I can say that their personalities were fairly developed at around six months. Sure, they couldn't talk, but their actions and their crying (all infants seem to have different kinds of cry's based on the emotion they are feeling) I can conclude that a lot of personality, and motivation come programmed in your genetics.
The way both of our girls' personalities have been since they were infants has been amplified by experiences and learning. Now that they can communicate better, and we understand them more, our guesses as to how they would "turn out" are fairly accurate. It's almost scary as to how much has not changed with their personalities since birth.
Zeldman is basically trying to explains why he doesn't have any drive and hasn't had a breakout success: because he's so well balanced and normal and all the successful people in the world have some sort of a mental defect.
Really?
It's not possible to be driven and well-balanced? Everyone who is successful didn't get enough love from daddy?
Even if he is right who cares... we're all adults now and have free will. My life kicks ass and I'm driven like a mofo.... and it has nothing to do with money or fame... it has to do with solving problems, building a great team and having fun!
Jeff: save the dime store BS and get back to coding some dope shit. Keep trying... as some point you'll get that big exit! Don't give up!