Rosedale resigns....

LOL you will never get as many self-starters as you want. And most people you hire who claim to be ... aren't.

Others will be able to function on their own with little guidance when they are new but loose the zeal after a while. Once jaded they lose the drive.

I knew one management consultant who said that he fires half the people that he hires.

I suppose that works for a while, but its not self sustaining.


----------------------
If it were the computer which created the work dynamic you described; Mankind never would have been able to invent computers.

LOL! I have to agree with that one! I remember the old Kai stuff for PS and I tried Blender.

Kai made me think "Wow! These designers do ALOT of drugs!"

Blender just made me think that industry standards are a good thing. I can use 3D Studio MAX and Maya VERY well. Even figured out Lightwave & SoftImage to a point. But Blender? I'm still clueless!!!

I am in total agreement there. It has to be a San Francisco thing or something.

Where I'm from, the boss says "I want this by Noon" and you do it..... OR ELSE. No "its done when its done". Do it or find another job.

Maybe I'm just old fashioned?

If I had my way, everyone would be assigned a project to work on. You have 1 month to show prelimenary progress. 3 Months to show progress. After that, you'd better come up with something or else.

Ok, ok.... I can give or take depending on circumstances. I'm not a total heartless old-fashion-suit and tie-workaholic bastard!!!

Kind of like most SL Residents?

Got it in one, Trout. Most companies fail when the visionary founder stays past the point when the job really calls for someone who can do the scutwork. This will keep the vision available, but put the practical stuff in the hands of someone who won't be bored by it.

I wonder if they need a quantum mechanic. I have some very strange wrenches...

God, so many of my College friends fall right into that boat. They either have no outside life or can't disconnect from work no matter where they are. A bunch of us went to a Hockey game recently and one was like a terrorist going through Security with so many devices, 2 cellphones, PDA, etc. Spent more time texting and whatever than watching the game. I admire dedication to one's career, and if that is what's needed in the IT industry, I'm glad I slept through most computer classes. More power to them. I prefer to work to have a life, rather than my work being my life.

I reckon I must have started my business the hard way ..

I'm not sure where business management = "scutwork" at all.

When I started 10 years ago, there was me in my bedroom. 1 desktop PC and a 56k line to my shared server.

I had an idea, I know that nowadays that's called a "vision" and I guess I had the "guts" to go for it.. although to be honest most of the time I nearly soiled myself every time a letter came through the door - just in case it was another bill I couldn't pay!

At the same time I did the "scutwork", I designed the sites, I did the programming, I did the marketing collateral and manned the stalls by myself at the expo's.

96 hours straight without sleep wasn't rare.. and certainly 120 hour weeks were pretty much the norm for a while there.

Alongside all of that I did the accounts, paid the tax man, billed the clients, chased payment.. chased payment (I put that in twice .. becase I had to do that a lot!.. ).

10 years later we're doing fine thanks very much.. three offices, a sizeble workforce etc etc.

All I can say is that when you start a business, you do everything.. the bits you hate, the bits you're rubbish at... you pay the bills.

Maybe this is why so many startups fail, there seems to be the idea that being an entrepreneur is some glamorous, ivory tower dwelling mystical calling.

It's really not, even when you start hiring people there are times.. 2:00am in the morning sitting on the stairs.. wondering where the f*ck am I going to get the money to meet next month's wage bill.

As I say though maybe I did it wrong.. we grew organically without investors.. and I guess after 10 years although I don't worry anymore ..I'm not Bill Gates..

Oh and the final thing is, you never stop doing the "scut work".. I pay people to do all of the above now, but I still feel the need to know exactly what's going on and when.

NB---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I've read this again and realise it comes across as self congratulatory hogwash really..

I guess my point is that Philip, although obviously having done this a lot smarter than I did, will have been been through all these phases and more since his little baby has spent a lot more time in the public eye.

I believe that handing over the "scutwork" will be as hard for him as it is for anyone who's been in at the start of their dream.

At the end of the day he's doing this because it's best for the business and not because he feels that any of these responsibilities are any less important than those he is retaining.

Just my thoughts

It's Robin Harper. http://lindenlab.com/about/management#harper



Why not? He'll be around.

"Second Life is my life’s work, and I am not going anywhere... As a community member, you will probably see more of me in-world."

http://blog.secondlife.com/2008/03/14/changing-my-job/

P2

Robin won't be the new CEO unfortunately. Maybe the boys in the lab aren't ready for a female boss, or maybe they are and they've got Meg Whitman lined up.

I doubt it will be Meg Whitman either, she just signed on to co-chair McCain's campaign:

http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSN1546275420080316

Which, interestingly, will probably bring her into daily contact with Carly Fiorina, past CEO of HP.

Reputedly, Whitman is also considering a run for California's governorship in 2010. Perhaps she's a bit of a big fish for LL's pond anyway
.

Hopefully Carly Fiorina doesn't come anywhere near this place and stays exactly where she is!

I didn't mean Robin would bne the new CEO. I was responding to Mari's uncertainty as to whether Robin's rl name was public.

P2

Skeet shooting.

P2

Ya, I jes did't wanna put the name in a post without it being okay. I'm never sure with RL/SL information.



Well, I'll keep my camera handy, then.

Mari

No CEO will be able to stray too far from the vision of a company board.

Not this board, anyway. That's good or bad, depending how you want to look at it.

* * * * *






Take this company.

Once they ruled the skies.

Chasing practical dollars ahead of vision they now they make airplane radios and stuff.

So there's the tradeoff. Vision may cause you to be too-soon-for-primetime, perhaps for decades... but when it is really time to reach for the moon and beyond, will you be ready? Will you even be able?

Something to think about.

No great triumph was ever achieved by lowering expectations, and I don't see how the birth of cyberspace will be any different in that regard.

Hi Desmond,

No disrespect, and I hope this doesn't come across as offensive, but you really have to step away from the bar and leave the koolaid alone.. just for a wee while.

I get you're point.. the whole aim for the sun and you hit the moon.. aim for the moon.. thing..

Seriously, I've been to many an entrepreneurial back slap, and I've heard hyperbole about hyperbole.

Unfortunately we do live in a market economy, if following a visionary's path to enlightenment is what an individual want's to do.. then a nice view and some solitude will do the trick.

If today, or in ten years time, or even 50.. you want to actually build or change something in RL or you need to either get people to work for free.. give you things for free.. support you for free... or while you try to fulfill your dreams you have to pay your way.

To be honest that's why any business 101 student will tell you about goals and tactics.. which are the small stepping stones to strategic success.

There is a price, a cost to action.

In my experience, yes there is a certain poetic stirring of the loins whenever the words "vision", "guts", "glory.. etc are used.

But you know there's a thing called "talking the talk".. and then there's something else which is "walk the walk", and to be fair people will only listen to the talk so long before they want to see you actually walk somewhere.

All the great leaders and visionaries.. Martin Luther King, Ghandi, Mandella, .. Alexander.. they had vision and passion and the ability to move people with words.. to be fair though they still had to saddle up and take successful action too.

Now you have talked and walked in SL and you should be proud of everything you've accomplished. I realise too that in the context of SL.. I'm pretty much the talker who sits on his bum all day..

The point I guess is that LL is a RL organisation .. RL is a place where Vision and Oratory is fine, but only when followed by mundane.. day after soul destroying day, hope grinding action. Yes this "cyberspace" of which you speak may be what humanity needs.. it might save us all. As it stands though I defy anyone to actually define this "cyberspace".. or prove that we actually need it, or that it's a good thing.

At the moment, like it or not, it's a fancy new way to make some profit.. and even that's not proved yet.

Anyway, this is way off the OP's subject so I'll shut up..