From Michael Cheney, Top Internet Marketeer
“You can make money or excuses.
Not both.
Don’t be the person who says;
“I don’t have the time.”
“I don’t have the money.”
“I don’t have the knowledge.”
“I don’t have the experience.”
“I don’t have the expertise.”
“I don’t have the product.”
“I don’t have the website.”
“I don’t have the idea.”
What a total ……..
NOBODY has any of that stuff when they start out.
But they carry on regardless until they get it.”
Yes, that person was me to a large extent. Also it reflects some of my misgivings when I came to work in Russia from the UK.
I have been a car driver for many years, but have ignored most of the workings of a car, especially since
so much has been computerised. Adding water and oil, plus the occasional pumping up of tyres has been the extent of my involvement.
Computer usage and knowledge of computer workings have been comparable.
My introduction to computers was while working as an accountant. For those who want to see accounting before computers, the Tony Hancock film ‘The Rebel’, probably available on You Tube
shows an office of 50-100 men (all of them) each with an adding machine and a ledger. Today, all those jobs have been automated away by computers.
The first business computers that I saw were in climate controlled rooms, serviced by 30-40 people.
The idea that one person among them could do all the work was difficult to believe. The idea that the public could ever do this was one that Steve Jobs of Apple was almost alone in contemplating.
The day came when an Apple 2 computer arrived on my desk. It had 64k memory, of which only 32k was usable for a Visicalc spreadsheet. Models were continuously interrupted by ‘memory out’ flashing signals. Rebuilding models was standard for me until I learned to ‘save’ my work every few minutes.
Spreadsheets were (and are) wonderful tools for accountants. Once the memory problem was solved (over quite a few years), we could consolidate budgets and results from any number of business units.
Networks were a key to office computers, so that information could be shared.
New spreadsheet models were not necessarily better. Visicalc gave way to Lotus 123,which had many useful shortcuts. Microsoft flooded the market with Excel. When 3 of my contracts in a row insisted on Excel, the writing was on the wall for Lotus 123, though I missed it a lot.
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