jayeff

I started my first business almost 35 years ago. In 2004 (and since I sold it in 1980 I claim no credit for this) it reported sales of $450 million.

That was also a new industry and I got into it at the tail end of when dealing with competition often meant bricks and petrol bombs through office windows. The antics which go on in this business are tame by comparison.

I have worked in other new industries and the pattern is always depressingly familiar: there is an initial period when anything goes and then finally, people begin to wake up. It is depressing because it isn't until the cowboys are eventually sidelined that real money gets made, yet for some reason, every new industry apparently has to learn that lesson for itself.

I guess it happens because people who never dreamed of serious money get lucky with their timing and none too scrupulously in some cases, find themselves rich (at least by their own standards). More people come aboard and their only interest is quick, easy money too. Ironically it isn't until making money becomes harder that more people begin to look at the business seriously instead of as a chicken to be plucked.