Today marks the end of the second week since Jeff and I took over the Internet and Publishing areas of Rudius Media. Here are some thoughts from the first two weeks.
1. There's internet time and there's real time. I always sort of knew this, I think everyone knows this, but it becomes painfully real when you're trying to both run sites and plan for the future. I've had to start thinking on two entirely different timelines.
One is the world of instant publishing, entries on Rudius Media, editing, my own writing (which I've been neglecting). There's the day-to-day business of generating new content, finding new content, getting new content to those who want to consume it. And while people will gladly wait a year for a new book or a new movie, they won't waiting a week for a blog post.
The other is the world of planning for the future. Sitting down with a designer to roll out the next generation of features for our sites, sitting down with Donika to talk about our current authors and projects, working with new authors to see if they'd be a good fit within the Rudius universe. All of these things have a horizon of months. It takes time to rollout site redesigns, create a working relationship with new authors and figure out what's working and what isn't. And it takes time to synthesize everything I've heard from all of you and figure out how to make it work with where I want to go.
There's nothing inherently wrong with this, but when you spend your day living in internet time, it's sometimes hard to accept that you can't redesign the network, rollout six new authors and generate internet crushing traffic all before miller time.
2. If you don't love it, don't take the reins. There have been at least two days where I've seriously wanted to say "fuck it" and walk away. And it's only been two weeks. If you have any doubts in yourself or if you don't 100% love what you're doing, then there's no way you're going to hack it. You really have to have an almost naïve belief in your ability to take a project from nothing to success or the doubts alone will crush you, not to mention the fires that have to be put out every day.
3. If you get the chance to take the reins, do it. For all the moments that suck, there are moments that are awesome. I tend to focus on the negative, because I'm bitter and angry and fuck you. But for all that, most of the day, I'm excited about what I'm doing, I like what I'm doing and I believe in what I'm doing. I'm not sure how many people can say that about their jobs. I'm 30 years old and I'm running a startup. For how much I've bounced around, it's a pretty good landing. This is by far the coolest chance I've ever had, but that's probably not something I'd admit to if you asked me right out.
4. Being a digital nomad doesn't always work. This is probably the hardest lesson for me to learn. I have an irrational, blinding belief in technology as the ultimate problem solver, akin to how people probably believe in god. I love the idea that with my blackberry, laptop and a wireless connection, I can work from anywhere in the world. But the truth is that nothing is as effective as face to face meetings, especially early on in the lifecycle of a project or startup. Later, when everyone understands where the ship is headed, then there's a lot more freedom to work remotely. But as I'm getting comfortable with the new Rudius, it's invaluable to be able to sit down with someone and really work through issues and ideas. Of course, I'm not talking about recreating some sort of bullshit office culture, a lot of my meetings happen over drinks, but they still happen IRL.
Posted by Ben Corman at 6:46 PM