Charge money for your work. Don’t be a jerk to people. Repeat.
Two things happened this morning that are worth further comment.
First, The AV Club’s interview of Dan Sinker, AKA @MayorEmanuel, where, buried a little ways down the page:
Because [Chicago-founded Groupon and Threadless] are companies that aren’t founded on California principles … which I will define as, “Hey man, we’ll make something really cool, and we’ll eventually make money from it.” Instead, [they’re based on] very Chicago roots, which is, “Let’s sell something people can buy, and let’s do it really well.” There’s actually a business plan in effect. Whether it proves to be a correct business plan or not is one thing, but it’s much less touchy-feely-and-eventually-we’ll-find-our-way than what you see out in California.
Exactly. Make something cool, charge people for it, take their money, keep making cool stuff. Sadly, an awful lot of people don’t practice it.
Second, the Ethan Marcotte-led Boston Globe redesign launched, which – shock! horror! – charges money for its content, and gives you a great experience in return. This is more or less the same thing that iA wrote about a few months back. Now, maybe this won’t work – I don’t think people have found a magic bullet for journalism quite yet – but kudos to the Globe for trying. I’ve wanted to pay for quality journalism for a while – and I don’t think I’m alone in demanding that it be coupled with a good reading experience.
I made a book. I charged people money for it. People bought it, and I made a profit from it. It took a lot of work, but I was rewarded accordingly. This, in turn, encouraged me to keep making more awesome stuff. It’s a tried and tested way of feeding myself – hustle, build, profit, repeat – and I’m happy to see others doing the same, in whatever other small ways. It sure beats the alternative.
