Michael Ashley

I’ve been working on Radi8 for 3 years now. I’ve started and stopped and started and stopped. I’ve given up... then picked up the pieces and started new. I’ve tossed them out, turned left and picked up different ones. Sometimes I think entrepreneurship is a curse, but more often I think it’s a blessing. The depression that follows a failure is quickly replaced by hope as a new insight emerges. Then I dust off and start climbing again. My hands sweat even now as I think about how I’m going to make it to the next ledge. If you’re trudging, don’t give up. It’s the tortoise that wins the race.

What does the world look like if you succeed beyond your wildest dreams? This is a question I asked myself recently as I was working on the business plan for another startup. I didn’t like the answer. Let’s start at the beginning. I had discovered a way to amplify marketing content using new technology. It would be faster, cheaper and spread content all over the world with just a few clicks. Businesses would be able to reach customers in every corner of the internet and spread their marketing messages 100x further than organic sharing. Enterprises would ditch email marketing and spend their marketing budget on my new company. This sounded great from a money-making-machine point of view. But then I asked myself what would the world look like if I succeeded beyond my wildest dreams? What if every single company used my service to amplify their content 100x? Would I even want to live in that world? Yuck. There are two types of entrepreneurs I’ve encountered. Those who are enamored b...