Create Your Reality

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It’s been almost two months since I announced the launch of WaveCenter, and traffic has slowed to a tiny trickle. There were obviously some serious flaws in the WaveCenter plan and/or in the execution of that plan, and I wanted to take just a few minutes to summarize on the lessons that I learned from this experience.

But first, I want to just take a few minutes to reflect on how I feel about this experience. You see, WaveCenter is a concept that has been developing in my mind and in my heart for almost 20 years. To say that I have a lot of mental and emotional energy tied up in the concept is a huge understatement. In time maybe I’ll be able to express the significance of this project to me, but I’ll leave that for another time. But given that I poured my heart and soul into this project, spent countless hours planning and producing videos, put my face and my voice on the web for all to see and offered my precious ideas with enthusiasm and clarity, only to be met by a collective yawn by those who viewed it, well… you might think that I would be pretty devastated. But oddly, (even to me) I’m not.

Maybe part of the reason for that is I’ve suffered so many disappointments and defeats in my business career that I’m just used to it–it doesn’t even phase me any more. But I think there’s more to it than that. I guess I don’t really feel defeated because somehow I don’t think this is the end of the story. Even though I gave it my best shot and the world clearly said “No”, I think I’m just choosing to hear “Not Now”. I believe the concepts that form WaveCenter are fundamental, so I at some other time and under different circumstances it could spring back to life at any time. Meanwhile, I feel like I accomplished something worthwhile. I suppose what it boils down to is that even though others don’t seem to get the concept or think much of it, I still love it. Like a painter who really likes their own works of art…who care’s what other people think? And I

Of course, this was a business venture, so of course it matters what other people thinks in that sense. So I also want to step back and examine the specific reasons that something which I believe is such an awesome thing could be so uniformly disregarded by almost everyone else.

First, it’s obvious that this concept was just too involved for most people to absorb. Over years of thinking about it, it had evolved in my mind into this multi-dimensional, complex organism made up of parts that inter-connected in myriad ways. I could see how all the parts would work together because I had been thinking about it, and indeed, had conceived the whole thing. But others couldn’t. And that doesn’t surprise me. I’d hoped others would see it if I explained it clearly, but I’m not surprised that they didn’t.

The other key failure point was simply a flaw in execution and my old achilles heel—impatience. My plan was to introduce this plan to a bunch of very successful entrepreneurs who I thought would get the idea. I wanted to have several of those impressive individuals signed on to the plan before I ever launched it publicly. The idea would be that once I launched and other people saw these impressive individuals jumping on board one by one, they would want to join the band wagon and we’d get a chain reaction going. I was also set on a specific launch date: 8/24/10. Well, in the weeks leading up to that launch date I was trying to make contact with those specific individuals and secure my “aces in the hole”. The problem was, no one was responding to me. As my launch date approached I had a “go/no go” decision to make–launch without a net or abort and just keep trying to interest those key people. I decided to launch. And the rest, as they say, is history. People checked it out, saw nothing was happening here, and left.

There are so many details involved that I could go on and on about it. But my main take away lessons are:

1) Do something so simple that people can get it within a 30 seconds. The complexity has to be time-released.
2) Use the plan as a guide, but go with the flow. Keep applying the pressure and moving forward, but don’t force it.

I’m planning to apply these lessons to my next big venture: MentorNet.com. I hope to have better luck with that, and I believe I will. And who knows… if all goes well with MentorNet I may be back to dust off WaveCenter again. Meanwhile, it’s off to Web mothballs for WaveCenter. If you’re curious you can check out the plan here.

The other night I had the opportunity to attend a Board of CEOs meeting in Mountain View, CA and got advice from a room full of very sharp Silicon Valley CEOs. It didn’t go the way I’d hoped, but it did give me much to think about.

In this round table group, each CEO gets a chance to present a business issue or challenge to their peers and get feedback and problem solving support. The issue I presented was: “Help me figure out how to describe this incredibly huge and multi-faceted vision succinctly so people will get it”. Instead, they all agreed that trying to present this as one super ambitious project is almost certain to fail. The consensus was that I should focus on delivering one simple service that meets a clear need in the marketplace right now, and build from there.

I totally understand that logic. After all, Microsoft started as just a couple guys writing software programs that people were willing to pay for. Facebook started out as just a simple app to allow people to share their profiles. They were just looking a couple steps ahead and one thing led to the next. The business world is full of similar stories. Not to detract from the business savvy of the founders of these businesses, but it does seem to me that there’s a strong element of random chance involved in the process of transitioning from being just another business to being a fundamental platform.

But that’s not the only way it works. Steve Jobs, for example, came right out of the gate with a sweeping vision to make Apple the computer for the masses. So I believe it is possible to start from basically nothing (Steve Jobs was a 21 year old college dropout) with a lofty vision and actually create that reality, or at least some variation on it. Of course, Jobs had Woz who built a cool machine that they were able to sell. Without Woz, Jobs would be right where I am now.

That’s what the WaveCenter Project is about right now. I’m not trying to sell this service yet. I’m not even trying to raise capital. I’m simply trying to find those people who can share my vision. Together, I know we can build a useful core product that provides an immediate benefit–but that is designed from the ground up to expand into a world-class platform.

Yesterday I launched the WaveCenter Project, and as the comments began to come in I quickly realized that people’s reaction was pretty much what I expected. Like the proverbial blind men trying to describe an elephant, different people tended to focus on one aspect of the concept or another. For some it’s the single sign on aspect that is the key. For others it’s the standard user interface. Some people who looked deeper focused on the ability to earn commissions by referring things to friends. All great observations.

I knew that would be a challenge. People want to “get it” within 30 seconds, and that’s tough when an idea is really big. And WaveCenter is a really BIG idea.

In my first video, I described WaveCenter as a Digital Life Manager that helps you access all your digital stuff through a standard, intuitive interface without having to login again and again. That’s the equivalent of saying “An elephant is a really big, gray animal with a trunk”. If you’d never seen an elephant before, you wouldn’t get a very clear picture from that description. And I never expected the first video to paint the whole picture of WaveCenter. My objective was simply to get as many people to watch as many of the other videos as possible. Those videos are the equivalent of describing the elephant’s legs, tusks, ears, etc.

Over time, I expect that here and there certain people will absorb enough of the material in those videos and then they’ll get it. They’ll see the vision as I do, or better, they’ll synthesize it through their own experience and mental frame work, share their ideas with me, and together we’ll form an even more complete image of this amazing creature. I am really looking forward to that process!

Meanwhile, I need to convince people that the only way to get the full picture is to take the time to peruse the videos and give the ideas some serious thought. And I need to convince people it’s worth their time and effort. And how do I do that?

Well, I’ll be trying various ways to accomplish that goal in the days and weeks to come. For today, let me try this tactic:

Consider the fact that I’m a pretty smart guy (by most accounts ;- ) whose been in the Internet industry for over 15 years and has been developing these concepts for that entire time. I’m very clearly and boldly staking my reputation on the claim that this is a huge idea that can really work–if I can build the right team. Now maybe I’m just dreaming. But maybe–just maybe–I’m actually seeing the whole elephant here while others are still just starting to notice the trunk. Aren’t you curious to know if there’s something more to this than immediately meets the eye? Are you curious to know what makes me so fascinated by this idea?

And if there is something really big here–if this really is an elephant of an Internet idea–aren’t you interested to know how you can be a part of making it happen now?