Be Your Own Bitch

Fred Wilson, a prominent figure in the venture capital/investment community was getting interviewed at the TechCrunch Disrupt conference in front of a group of developers and entrepreneurs. As they were talking, the idea of applications for platforms (companies like Facebook, Google, Twitter) came up and Fred told a short story about his experiences with platforms:

Fred – My friend Seth Goldstein had a company called Social Media that built one of the first ad networks on Facebook, and one day Facebook decided they didn’t really want Social Media to exist, and they didn’t.

Interviewer: What message does that send out to other developers and start ups that they build on the platform? They build business on the platform and then they get the rug pulled out from under them”

Fred: I have a saying, Don’t be a Google Bitch, don’t be a Facebook Bitch, and Don’t be a Twitter Bitch. Be your own Bitch.

Besides providing a great little soundbite for tech blogs everywhere and momentarily stunning his interviewer, I think there’s a lot to learn from Fred’s point [you can watch the full interview here - good stuff at the 23 minute mark].

Whether you’re a developer or entrepreneur or not, I think it’s important to pay attention to this because the one thing I learned about business and life is that lessons can come from anywhere and truth always has applications beyond the field in which you initially encounter it. For instance, I can’t write a lick of code, but Fred’s statement is still incredibly relevant to me because it really comes down to five simple words.

Do what you really want to do.

In everything you do, you have a choice. Every time you delegate that freedom of choice to someone else, you’re voluntarily becoming dependent on them. In Fred’s words, you become someone’s bitch (for lack of a better term).

Read more: Blog of impossible things

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