You should go read Marc’s write-up of why Wesabe “lost” to Mint†; it’s interesting, insightful, and clearly written.
It was two sentences that aren’t about Wesabe or Mint which caught my attention; the emphasis is mine.
I don’t agree with those who say you should learn from your successes and mostly ignore your failures; nor do I agree with those who obsess over failures for years after (as I have done in the past). I’m hoping that by writing this all out I can offload it from my head and hopefully help inform other people who try to start companies in the future.
Writing is how I get things out of my head, how I get some distance from my own thoughts, and how I put things in perspective. Julia Cameron calls them morning pages in `The Artist’s Way <https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/The_Artist%27s_Way>`_, but I’ve found it doesn’t matter when you do it: if I want to get perspective and stop obsessing about the possibilities, I write. If I want to stop worrying about the future, I write. If I want to get a better idea about how things went, I write. Informing others is great, but I actually think that’s actually a secondary benefit: writing alone is worthwhile.
I suppose the real question is why I’m surprised or excited when others have the same insight. And why I don’t I do it more often.
† Everything he says makes sense to me, which sucks since I always perceived Wesabe as more closely aligned with my best financial interests. When Mint showed me an ad for FreeCreditReport.com, I lost all faith that they have my best interest at heart (this TechDirt article is a good introduction to why).
| date: | 2010-10-01 11:33:44 |
|---|---|
| wordpress_id: | 1788 |
| layout: | post |
| slug: | write-it-out |
| comments: | |
| category: | writing |
| tags: | mint.com, morning pages, wesabe, writing |