Re: Cave in

I agree...and I thoroughly enjoyed the story too :) 

Kym



At 10:48 AM 07/11/2000 , Keith D Sellars wrote:
>Fuzzy,
>
>I applaud your efforts.  Although I haven't achieved the level of HTML 
>knowledge
>that you have, I have learned enough over the past 3 years to build a 
>successful
>business.  As with everything I've ever done, I am always trying to raise my 
>level
>of performance and improve.  I do not profess to know all of the answers
by any
>stretch of the imagination.  Self-confidence, if well-founded, has never 
>offended
>it.  Anyone that has put the time and effort into learning earns my respect.
>
>It is with input and feedback such as yours, Harold's, and others, that I have
>benefitted greatly from being a part of this list.
>
>Thanks to all those that can offer AND accept constructive criticism.
>
>Keith D Sellars
>WebGraffix
>www.webgraffix.com
>
>"Captain F.M. O'Lary" wrote:
>
>> Let me share a short story please.
>>
>> Once upon a time there was this guy. He decided he wanted to be a web
>> developer because it looked like a cool thing to do and it definitely
>> looked better than a real job (he was a commercial diver and boat captain
>> by trade). Even though his first exposure to source code resulted in a
>> reaction of: What was *is* this stuff . . . Martian?
>>
>> Anyway, not to be put off, he was walking along the isles of a local book
>> store one day and ran across a book called "HTML for Netscape". VIOLA ! The
>> holy grail. He had heard about these new browsers that showed pictures, and
>> it seemed like Netscape was the one he had heard the most about (sure he
>> knew there was atleast one other graphical browser out there - Mosaic).
>>
>> He bought the book and loaded the browser from the included CD-ROM (VERY
>> hi-tech at the time!). WOW. there really were pictures out there !!!!!!
>>
>> He was hooked.
>>
>> He read that book until the pages started falling out. Not only could he
>> recite code strings orally, but he could tell you what page and what
>> chapter it could be found on in that book.
>>
>> When he was confident he knew all there was to know about HTML, he started
>> soliciting customers. Oh, he got his butt kicked financially. He solicited
>> many many sites completely free of charge to build his portfolio. He did
>> really enjoy writing the code, but at that point the pay really stunk.
>>
>> In an effort to "make things easier" he bought a ' canned ' editor. It was
>> called "Hot Dog Pro". Man, was that cool. No more switching back and forth
>> from text editor to browser, no more typing and typing, just drag and drop
>> (more or less).
>>
>> Things went ok for a month or two. Then the phone started ringing. Holy
>> COW. People he built sites ~for free~ for, were calling to bitch about
>> "this" or "that" not working. Being supremely confident in his knowledge
>> and ability, he told them without hesitation there *must* be a problem on
>> their machine, because the work displayed perfectly on his computer!
>>
>> For some reason, he didn't get much paying work.
>>
>> One day curiosity get the best of him and he:
>>
>> 1) Upgraded his Netscape browser
>>
>> 2) Downloaded this browser he had started hearing about: MSIE (I think the
>> version was .9 or something).
>>
>> All of a sudden his whole world caved in around him.
>>
>> A ~lot~ of stuff he had written was screwed up. Text was out of place or
>> missing, pictures were out of place or surrounded by these weird blue boxes
>> - or missing completely, just all kinds of stuff.
>>
>> He was soooo sure of his knowledge/ability he actually started calling
>> ISP's hosting his work to raise hell about "some server problem screwing up
>> his pages".
>>
>> He didn't get very far with them. :-)
>>
>> In an effort to figure out what was wrong, he started doing research on the
>> web. He heard about this "new" guild of HTML writers. They were
>> established, but he understood most of them to still be pretty new to this
>> stuff too.
>>
>> He joined one of the mailing list. There he met two people by the name of
>> Duif Calvin and Harold Driscoll. The first thing he did was address Duif in
>> the masculine (he is still making that mistake from time to time with some
>> names - unfortunately) These two were unique, it was obvious pretty
>> quickly. They knew this HTML stuff and a lot more - inside and out. Over
>> the next few weeks they managed to get across the fact that he had been
>> seriously mislead by a couple of authors, the person who wrote "HTML for
>> Netscape" and those fine Australian folks who wrote Hot Dog Pro, for 
>starters.
>>
>> He started learning again from scratch. This time he only used three tools:
>> http://www.w3.org ,  http://ugweb.cs.ualberta.ca/~gerald/validate/ and a
>> plain old ASCII text editor.
>>
>> The real down side was that he had built ~commercial~ sites that did not
>> work. Because he was completely serious, and completely new, trying to
>> build a business and a reputation, he _paid_ someone else to fix the sites
>> he had built for free. It literally cost him thousands of dollars he didn't
>> have to spare.
>>
>> Lesson learned? Yes.
>>
>> Can he still recite code strings? Yes. He can tell you what page, what
>> chapter, what section of http://www.w3.org you can find that code at.
>>
>> Has he -ever- had another customer call him and substantiate that his code
>> is "broken"? No.
>>
>> He heads that off by putting a link to the validator on each and every page
>> he gets paid for, and makes a point of not only showing it to the customer,
>> but takes the time to explain why that is SO important to them. If it's a
>> potentially big customer, he challenges them to find ~anyone~ offering the
>> same guarantee in writing he does: NO crashes or anomalies or your money
>> back and you KEEP the code (after he fixes it to their satisfaction).
>>
>> He doesn't do outside sales. He doesn't do cold calling. He doesn't do
>> _any_ paid advertising. He is, and has been for a few years now, swamped by
>> businesses (gladly) waiting months for his services. On those very rare
>> occasions when things slow down around his shop, he has to do nothing but
>> validate a couple of "random" URL's and write a couple of professional and
>> polite letters, and wham, he's busy again.
>>
>> It seems one cave in was enough for him. Has the dirt started trickling
>> down *your* neck from above yet?
>>
>> <Epilogue>
>> I hope that this message didn't make anyone mad, it WAS NOT aimed at any
>> one individual. The ~only~ intent was to provide food for thought. *Your*
>> actual mileage may vary.
>> </Epilogue>
>>
>> HTH,
>> Fuzzy
>> __________________________________________________________________
>> Captain F.M. O'Lary
>> webmaster(at)canopy.net
>> sysop(at)mail.ruediger.leon.k12.fl.us
>> sysop(at)mail.woodville.leon.k12.fl.us
>> Member of the HTML Writers Guild and
>> International Webmasters Association
>> ------------------------------------------------------------------






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