What is the dumbest thing you have ever done in this business?

[Nickatilynx]

Mine is simple...

All of us in the board room having been told on a Friday prior to a long weekend that the check had not been sent for the previous weeks traffic by High Society

But that it would be fedexed overnight on Tuesday and in our hands Weds , latest.

Making the call to continue to buy "in" the traffic for onward sale and not advise all affiliates to stop sending us traffic immediately.

[Peaches]

Put all my eggs in the Dmoz/AOL box and to compound that - taking about 3 months off when it started going south.

[Dravyk]

Mine is simple...

All of us in the board room having been told on a Friday prior to a long weekend that the check had not been sent for the previous weeks traffic by High Society

But that it would be fedexed overnight on Tuesday and in our hands Weds , latest.

Making the call to continue to buy "in" the traffic for onward sale and not advise all affiliates to stop sending us traffic immediately.And here I thought the answer was, "What's grey and black, grey and black, grey and black - and comes from Columbia?"

http://oprano.com/msgboard/images/smilies/happy45.gif

[MorganGrayson]

I think the dumbest thing I ever did in this business was during my first incarnation, back in the day, when I *didn't* ask questions, for advice, or in general totally pick the brains of the people around me and follow their advice. I don't know why I didn't, honestly. Maybe I'll never know.

The absolutely wonderful Defiant (http://www.adult-video-editor.com/) (while multi-tasking (http://www.adult-video-editor.com/), no less) took some time in ICQ and pounded a *lot* of money making information into my head because I asked a question about one of the things he was doing. I didn't say "teach me everything you know and basically do shit for me," either. I asked a question to the right person, and he was off and running. :okthumb:

I couldn't possibly list the things that Red has done for me and taught me. :waving:

This year's list is long. :) I don't want to list any more people for fear of forgetting someone.

One of the things that makes this a very special kind of dumb is that one of my jobs back then was to run around madly and tell *other people* to ask for advice. Those who can't do...teach.... :(

[Nickatilynx]

And here I thought the answer was, "What's grey and black, grey and black, grey and black - and comes from Columbia?"

http://oprano.com/msgboard/images/smilies/happy45.gif

He really didn't cost me much money....in comparison.

And he was meat's mistake...I just inherited him. ;-)

[Nickatilynx]

I think the dumbest thing I ever did in this business was during my first incarnation, back in the day, when I *didn't* ask questions, for advice, or in general totally pick the brains of the people around me and follow their advice. I don't know why I didn't, honestly. :(

WHAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!

Remember conference calls along the lines of...

"Are you all fucking crazy!!! Build a fucking site , submit it to fucking AC/ etc etc and never fucking look at it again"

"Love zoo!!!?? Course its fucking legal and it converts like a son of a bitch"

3 weeks later.

"I've built 350 plus , how many have you got?"
silence....
silence....
Mr. "X" - "I have 6 under construction total , but I'm not really happy with them , I'll prolly just..

(SIGH)

You had me on the phone for hours and hours in the 90s!!

You just didn't fucking listen!!!!


;-))

[MorganGrayson]

WHAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!

Remember conference calls along the lines of...

"Are you all fucking crazy!!! Build a fucking site , submit it to fucking AC/ etc etc and never fucking look at it again"

"Love zoo!!!?? Course its fucking legal and it converts like a son of a bitch"

3 weeks later.

"I've built 350 plus , how many have you got?"
silence....
silence....
Mr. "X" - "I have 6 under construction total , but I'm not really happy with them , I'll prolly just..

(SIGH)

You had me on the phone for hours and hours in the 90s!!

You just didn't fucking listen!!!!


;-))

Now, I believe if you read what I posted, Satan, I *said* I fucked up. I stood up and answered that fucking question...and it's not like I had to.

Yes, you drove yourself nearly batshit trying to teach me how to make money in this business. (This is true, folks. He did. He talked, he screamed, he did everything he could to make me stop being whatever the hell it was I was and start being somebody else...a rich person.)

This was not a good time in my life and it was *my* fault, not Nicks.

[Peaches]

This was not a good time in my life and it was *my* fault, not Nicks.
Let's go ahead and blame Nick any way :) I'm blaming him for my Dmoz/AOL/vacation faux pas :okthumb:

[Nickatilynx]

Let's go ahead and blame Nick any way :) I'm blaming him for my Dmoz/AOL/vacation faux pas :okthumb:

I was a dmoz editor and milked the crap out it for about 2 mths :)

[Nickatilynx]

Now, I believe if you read what I posted, Satan, I *said* I fucked up. I stood up and answered that fucking question...and it's not like I had to.

Yes, you drove yourself nearly batshit trying to teach me how to make money in this business. (This is true, folks. He did. He talked, he screamed, he did everything he could to make me stop being whatever the hell it was I was and start being somebody else...a rich person.)

This was not a good time in my life and it was *my* fault, not Nicks.

Sorry Morgan.

I launched into a rant...lol

there was just so many when in the Condom days and then with Netpond that I and others tried to help.

This is why I became disenchanted with running or helping newbs..

I have lent money to over 10 webmasters.

Not one EVER paid me back.
Some gave me crap content which I never used. but not one paid me back...cept Anthony actually.
I spent hours on phonecalls with newbie webmasters giving them advice.
Very few listened. (tat2jr however went off and learnt html in a weekend and did very well. Smart guy)

Sorry....I'm in full "WTF!!!" rant mode...lol

[Biggy]

The dumbest thing that I ever did was do a verbal deal and then get fucked. I got fucked for about 10k give or take a little. That 10k lesson though, has gone a long way.

Theres a great saying I believe in..
Fuck me once - fuck you, fuck me twice - fuck me.

test:nm

[MorganGrayson]

All is well.
It's just business, never personal.

[CuriousToyBoy]

Let's go ahead and blame Nick any way :) I'm blaming him for my Dmoz/AOL/vacation faux pas :okthumb:

Why stop there ?

We could also blame Nick for global warming, third world debt, oh, and letting guests post on Oprano..

He he

my last word on that, I *promise*, just could not resist

;-)

[Biggy]

Let's go ahead and blame Nick any way :) I'm blaming him for my Dmoz/AOL/vacation faux pas :okthumb:

i blame nick for being so damn charming.
hes more charming than the lucky rabbit on the cereal boxes.

[CuriousToyBoy]

My biggest fuck up was going into partnership with a couple of guys because of who they knew and what I thought I could learn by that association.

I learnt for sure, but I learnt by fucking up along the way. NOT because anyone particularly helped me - and I say me, because my 2 partners were too busy getting in at 11am, doing YumCha at 12pm and then fucking off at 2pm.

Being given steps 1,2,6,8,10 leaves a LOT of learning in the middle.

I don't begrudge ANY of that though, I wouldn't be giving away the keys to the farm either, and I probably got a lot more than most others.

But I did learn an awful lot of the attitude and acumen by osmosis as well.

So when is a fuck up and fuck up ?

When you do NOT learn from it and do the same stupid shit again.

;-)

[Nickatilynx]

First person btw that offered to bail me out over my fuck up was Scottpb.

Good guy.

I turned him down. Didn't want to borrow money from Scotty LOL ;-)

[TheEnforcer]

Easy.. not giving a fuck about my business at all for a VERY long time after my wife and I split up. Cost me a lot as I had a bunch of stuff in the pipeline I was working on and then all my plans went to shit.

[Trev]

Moving to Canada the Second time!












I should have stayed the first time!

[Dravyk]

Partnering up with a company of certifiable idiots. Even did an LLC. My company kept up our end. They couldn't do a fucking thing right or make a fucking schedule to save their fucking lives. A supposed three-month project and then the money would come rolling in (it literally would have!), and 21 months later they still were saying they were working on it. I said you're fucking kidding? We gave up on you so long ago, forgot you still existed.

Cost me enough money in development to buy a helluva expensive car or even a house. Because it was such a sure-fire concept, I let all the other projects, sites wither on the vine so when it all went wrong, all the other stuff was left in multiple stages of collapse. Today, there's hundreds of those sites out there now, the kind we were going to do. At the time, we would have had a nine-month jump on everyone and been the very first!

Massive waste of money, time, resources. I could fucking spit acid. Two of the bastards them I'd love to kill -- slowly. The other I'd just mame and let bleed a lot. Ok, maybe a little bludgeoning too.

Hey, but fortunately that's all under the bridge now and I hold no anger, no resentment, nor any regets now at all. http://oprano.com/msgboard/images/smilies/smile.gif

... Yeah, fucking right!!

[CuriousToyBoy]

First person btw that offered to bail me out over my fuck up was Scottpb.

Good guy.

I turned him down. Didn't want to borrow money from Scotty LOL ;-)

Ha ha ha ha

Greg has certainly learned that the hard way.

;-)

[Lisa]

Harry, anyone I know? :)

[Dravyk]

Harry, anyone I know? http://oprano.com/msgboard/images/smilies/smile.gifThat would be telling. http://oprano.com/msgboard/images/smilies/wink.gif

[Lisa]

Eh precisely! :p

[Red]

I foolishly believed and trusted...Nah, forget it. it's too fresh to look back on objectively.

[sarettah]

Partnering up with a company of certifiable idiots. Even did an LLC. My company kept up our end. They couldn't do a fucking thing right or make a fucking schedule to save their fucking lives. A supposed three-month project and then the money would come rolling in (it literally would have!), and 21 months later they still were saying they were working on it. I said you're fucking kidding? We gave up on you so long ago, forgot you still existed.

Cost me enough money in development to buy a helluva expensive car or even a house. Because it was such a sure-fire concept, I let all the other projects, sites wither on the vine so when it all went wrong, all the other stuff was left in multiple stages of collapse. Today, there's hundreds of those sites out there now, the kind we were going to do. At the time, we would have had a nine-month jump on everyone and been the very first!

Massive waste of money, time, resources. I could fucking spit acid. Two of the bastards them I'd love to kill -- slowly. The other I'd just mame and let bleed a lot. Ok, maybe a little bludgeoning too.

Hey, but fortunately that's all under the bridge now and I hold no anger, no resentment, nor any regets now at all. http://oprano.com/msgboard/images/smilies/smile.gif

... Yeah, fucking right!!

Do I know something about this ? :blink:



.

[ThrobX]

Diversify. First thing I was doing was going gangbusters, should've just milked it.

But I still ain't hurtin'. :okthumb:

[Anthony]

Not one EVER paid me back.
Some gave me crap content which I never used. but not one paid me back...cept Anthony actually.




Woot! I paid!

With blood, sweat, and tears, damnit!

Oh, and sexual favors. Shit, forgot about those.

Do blowjobs really go for a quarter in Canada? I've never asked.

[Nickatilynx]

Woot! I paid!

With blood, sweat, and tears, damnit!

Oh, and sexual favors. Shit, forgot about those.

Do blowjobs really go for a quarter in Canada? I've never asked.

Yes....

Yes they do....

And you now owe me 50,000 more through breech of the confidentiality agreement.

SWEET!!!! :)

[Vick]

too many to fucking list, I'm the king of idiots

But .......

Not studying new market economies and thinking the $ would always be rolling in at that rate

Taking too long to get rid of partners

Not allocating more resources for additional advertising (especially when I lost one of the sweetest and most profitable ad deals ever)

Riding the high horse instead of making more millions and retiring and saying fuck you if you don't like what ..... um ...... my former company did

While many pissed $$$ away on hookers, dope, crazy parties I pissed away money on vacations (up to 6 a year), clothes, crazy home furnishings and who can remember what

[Nickatilynx]

ahhh yes ..the mythical "fuck you" money...

[Hell Puppy]

I shoulda grabbed more domains in the early 90's back before most of yall had even heard of the internet.

I kick myself in the ass at least weekly over that still.

[RyanLanane]

Easy, being a total moron and literally just giving up on the business that made me so fucking wealthy I didn't know what to do (except increase the net revenues of Las Vegs by 2% annually). If i could go back to the day everyone industry wide realized that 50-60% trial conversion rates were here to stay and redo everything.. I would still be very very very well off.

As they say hindsight is 20/20 - and wow I can see so many fuck ups I made, good thing is hopefully I have all of them out of the way now and this time around I don't make the same idiotic moves :)

5 years from now I will be saying "Hindsight is 20/20" about mistakes I am making every day. I try to think about what I could be looking back on as a mistake in 5 years on every project I get involved in now. And I am only making one mistake atm, which I am starting to change my ways on..

[DannyCox]

Hindsight is 20/20, and if I could change the past, I'd be a Billionaire!! ;)

Like most of the "old-timers" in this business, I made more than my share of stupid mistakes and bad decisions. A big one was getting too big, too quickly! In 1999, I had a payroll of just over a million a year, and extremely high overhead. If I knew then what I know know, 80% of the people would never have been, overhead would have been much lower, and I would have still had the same revenues!

Thank God I was smart enough to invest and put lots away.

[Nickatilynx]

[QUOTE=DannyCox]
Like most of the "old-timers" in this business, I made more than my share of stupid mistakes and bad decisions. A big one was getting too big, too quickly! In 1999, I had a payroll of just over a million a year, and extremely high overhead. If I knew then what I know know, 80% of the people would never have been, overhead would have been much lower, and I would have still had the same revenues!

[QUOTE]

Amen to that!!! lol

[Hell Puppy]

Always fascinates me to watch people's response when they're asked to be self critical. One group contains people who accept responsibility for their actions, and the better ones even learn from it. The other inevitably contains the "victims". Unfortunately those folks usually never learn from their mistakes and often go thru life blaming their failures on things like bad luck when there's no one else to blame.

[CuriousToyBoy]

Always fascinates me to watch people's response when they're asked to be self critical. One group contains people who accept responsibility for their actions, and the better ones even learn from it. The other inevitably contains the "victims". Unfortunately those folks usually never learn from their mistakes and often go thru life blaming their failures on things like bad luck when there's no one else to blame.

You are so right.

We live firmly in the middle of the me generation.

Hate fuckers who will not take responsibility for their own actions.

2c

[Dravyk]

Do I know something about this ? http://oprano.com/msgboard/images/smilies/blink.gif Uh-huh.


Always fascinates me to watch people's response when they're asked to be self critical. One group contains people who accept responsibility for their actions, and the better ones even learn from it. The other inevitably contains the "victims". Unfortunately those folks usually never learn from their mistakes and often go thru life blaming their failures on things like bad luck when there's no one else to blame.I started to write a very long missive just in case I'm one of the alleged victims you're referring to, HP.

Just deleted it. Let me say this instead ... While you might be generally correct that people need to be responsible for their own actions and need to learn, specifically in my case and in the case of others, it is possible to be fucked, fucked good and not see it coming.

So in specific cases, don't armchair quarterback about things you have zero knowledge about. If you've never been fucked, good for you HP, but don't get a high and mighty attitude about it. Cause if you do, there's always Kharma.

[nlphoto]

moving out to LA... and not getting out of the biz sooner

[SykkBoy]

some will know what I mean when I say "GoAmatuers"...
well, I think I shared in the dumbness...I wasn't the sole proprietor of dumb...

[cj]

Those who can't do...teach.... :(

or ... we teach others what we most need to learn for ourselves.

[Winetalk.com]

I made no mistakes and I can't contribute to this thread
;)

[Grump]

My biggest single mistake was trusting Adult Check. I'm still here but that hurt.

[sarettah]

Uh-huh.


:okthumb:

Did I ever tell you how much I hate NDAs ? :headwall: :headwall: :headwall:

[RyanLanane]

:okthumb:

Did I ever tell you how much I hate NDAs ? :headwall: :headwall: :headwall:


I figured non-competes would be your worst enemy!

[Nickatilynx]

Uh-huh.


I started to write a very long missive just in case I'm one of the alleged victims you're referring to, HP.

Just deleted it. Let me say this instead ... While you might be generally correct that people need to be responsible for their own actions and need to learn, specifically in my case and in the case of others, it is possible to be fucked, fucked good and not see it coming.

So in specific cases, don't armchair quarterback about things you have zero knowledge about. If you've never been fucked, good for you HP, but don't get a high and mighty attitude about it. Cause if you do, there's always Kharma.

When ever I've been fucked over by a person , say European Lee for example.

It is my own fault.

I was too trusting.No doubt about it.

However I decided ages ago not to be totally "trust no one one , suspect everyone".(It was the mantra of my mentor as a youngman.)
Despite the GREAT business advantages gained by following it.
Its apretty bleak way to run yr life.
Rather take on the chin the few times you get fucked over and weigh it against the advantage of the people whom you put trust in who don't
:)


Serge , fuck off!! LOL

Your mistake was taking holidays!!! ;-))

[RyanLanane]

Nick your 'pearl' about the $100 bill has a good business analogy as well, rather than having a "trust noone" mentality... I think the best way to go is..

"Offer a little trust to everyone, make them earn my full trust"

For every 10 people who screw you small you are bound to make 4 or 5 business connections that more than make up for the $1,000 you would lose. Those numbers are even on the extreme side but helps giving you an idea as to what I mean...

I for one, have always trusted people a little up front as long as I didn't get 'that feeling' about them.. I have been screwed suprisingly few times over the years - Given only 3 or 4 of them were years I was steadily working to make new connections on a daily basis though.

Now in the real world, personal friend wise.... alot of people have burnt me and I wish I had read your $100 bill post.. I would of saved myself alot of agony over the years.. honestly.

[MorganGrayson]

or ... we teach others what we most need to learn for ourselves.

:-pearl:

Thank you, cj. That is without a doubt one of the most profound and accurate things anyone has ever said to me. I'm having it printed on a coffee mug, a t-shirt and quite possibly, a tattoo. :)

[sarettah]

I figured non-competes would be your worst enemy!

Nah, most no-competes are written so loosely they really don't mean much. NDAs are usually straight forward, "I won't talk about what I know about it or what was revealed to me yadda yadda".

And not joining in a discussion with a good story because of an NDA sucks...lol..

Kind of like not being able to talk about what I did in the Navy for the first 20 years after I got out. You hear bullshit bullshit bullshit and you can't jump in and call BULLSHIT because you can't reveal what you know. :blink:

edited in: And then you sometimes have to wonder if you just violated an NDA by revealing that there was an NDA (might have to go look at the fine print) :unsure:

.

[Winetalk.com]

Serge , fuck off!! LOL

Your mistake was taking holidays!!! ;-))

you right!!!

FUCK ME!!!!
;)

[Sysprod]

Working for a certain person… But I did learn how NOT to run a business :)

[Vick]

ahhh yes ..the mythical "fuck you" money...

Alledegly ;-)