Next to the last chapter of Vladville

For the past 6 years (8 if you count Blogger) I’ve been documenting the evolution & extinction of the IT service provider. When I first started blogging my role revolved primarily around the technology – and the IT service providers were heavily engaged in debates on what is enterprise and what is SMB.

Today, the debate is not much different. It’s in-house IT vs cloud IT. Same debate, same points, same concerns and largely, the same players. Only there are a whole lot less of them. The era of RMM eliminated the fly-by-night SPF that existed for the sole purpose of workstation reimaging and spyware removal. The era of cloud eliminated a lot of hardware specialists and “we install support and manage small business networks”

And here we are today.

So before I write the last chapter, I’d like to take a moment and let you in on a little secret. Throughout my blogging career I’ve received countless amount of advice from people that are less successful than me (at blogging or in business) and I can’t even begin to count the millions of dollars I have lost by not spell checking my posts, including more advertising, making my posts less direct and my arguments less controversial. Yes, if only I were more boring, surely that would translate into more money…

… meanwhile in the real world, what really matters is the idea. Thanks to the calculated profanity laced posts and opinions wedged in between grammatical crimes, I have been able to talk to the world and have it respond back with some brilliant ideas. People I’ve never met in my life have approached me in person and said “You’re Vlad! I like you!” – best damn feeling in the world.

As my mentor once told me, opinions are like assholes – everyone has one. My opinions are just that, and my opinions don’t typically represent those of OWN & ExchangeDefender (though multiple people have quit over them). What’s important in business is rarely what you say – what counts is what you do.

So before I drop the nuke on this place, I would like to thank so many of you that have not just read Vladville – but actually gave some thought to what I was saying and bothered to email me and give me some more ideas. I have benefited from those tremendously, both personally and financially, and I’ve spent a great deal of that time and money giving back. I encourage you to do the same.

In business, there is a safe path and there is a challenge. If it’s safe and easy, everyone will be doing it soon. So you can either be first – and always be chasing, or you can be brave.

Somewhere between outright stupidity and careless spending is a goldmine. Thank you!