You and I first ‘met’ due to a mistake I made during a product launch. While I greatly regret the mistake, it was also an amazing learning experience, though it didn’t feel quite so amazing to me at the time, LOL.

As far as I am concerned, if you never make mistakes, it probably means you’re not trying anything new, not breaking any new ground. And how boring is that?

We all make mistakes, but the biggest mistake of all is to not learn from your previous ones.

Happy holidays, and keep up the great work on your blog.

Bill

Chris

Halvarez

“But last week I found myself in a room with 50 South Florida domainers and there stood Jeff Kupietzky President of Oversee after making a short statement turned to the crowd basically saying “if you have any questions I will be happy to take them now, I may not be able to answer all of them for legal reasons but if you have questions I’ll do my best”.

Guess what?

Not one person got up to ask a question.

Jeff said do you have any questions to 50 domainers.

Dead silence”

That’s really funny but also pretty sad at the same time – I can’t imagine that happening in Britain, in fact I think he would have been bombarded with questions once one person started….just ask the politicians Brits tend to say exactly what they are thinking.

1. Let’s say you see someone walking down the middle of the street, naked, in sub 0 temperatures… and you stop them to ask what in the world they are doing. They simply say, “Yeah. Jeez, I feel so silly. It’s cold out and I forgot my hat.” You want to scream at them and say, “Hey, Moron, you are naked AND in the middle of the street!” Some of the comments to Aron’s post were trying to point out problems and issues that Aron was not “owning up” to (such as how he claimed the data was “backed up” but was backed up to the same hard drive). I don’t get my jollies off of ripping into people, but there were valid issues people had with his post and his situation. But when confronted with these things, Aron became very defensive. Now, it’s obviously still a fresh wound and I’m not sure I wouldn’t have acted any differently, but this is the internet. When you put yourself out there, expect to have some critics and don’t expect that everyone will “get it”. If they don’t “get it”, in some ways that’s a failing you should learn from, too. I’m not sure how someone with a thin skin can survive as a cybersquater. I mean, domainer

2. Incorrectly estimating the auction results of a domain name is not a mistake. In order for a domain to reach it’s maximum price, it requires at least two parties who are willing to bid the price up. Who’s to say what the winner would have been willing to spend, because no one else was willing to bid it up any higher. That does not make the name worth less than a million. This is one of those situations where you can be fairly justified in saying the winner got a very good deal. It happens in auctions. What was surprising was that geo domainers weren’t going after it in droves. I’m not sure if that’s recession or business model problems starting to show themselves here and that’s the worrying bit for everyone. If Rio doesn’t get a lot of auction action, what name will??

3. The world may be a better place if everyone who posted comments online had to do it using their real name, but I’m sure the internet would not be the place that it is if everyone didn’t have their right to privacy… even when making their comments. That said, I personally agree, if you see me casting stones, know that I’d be willing to do it face to face and that I’m open to stone throwers myself.

(for real).

Wish I could have said it the way you did. Excellent.

Let’s not forget though, that those same reasons also make their opinions and statements that much louder and hold that much more weigh among us well. When those same pillars make a statement, they come off as statements of fact (Hmm, maybe it is how they are presented to us minions? More humility might help) rather than opinions or advice. And who doesn’t like the whole David and Goliath story? Taking down or attacking a giant. Unfortunately that comes with great success in a growing dynamic industry.

I have little appetite for negativity and am more interested in what the most successful domainers have to say because it is usually solid, sage advice needed to improve our own position and portfolio. I have too much growth to do before I can start to point fingers. We also need those voices to continue to be credible and sound for the sake of our fragile industry and egos. There are too many “haters” attacking us from outside the industry, for us to be doing it from within. There will always be room for dissenting voices and contrary opinions as long as those thoughts are based on solid fundamentals and well though out opinion. Picking apart a single statement or incident, just make you look petty.

Best post by you this year. You nailed it in so many areas, especially Aron’s frustration with the wannabees in the industry who like to attack easy targets, because they get that secret crotch jolt of excitement from putting someone down, but not using their real names.

Your example covering the “concept” of those who may have posted attack comments online about “halverez” but can’t stand up and talk to the President of a company that is being “accused” unfairly of being a part of the scam proved the “concept” you state that I give kudos to at the end of this comment. These anonymous posters are all over the place. (NOTE: I said “concept” of not hiding behind an anonymous name to make unfair accusations. The fact that no person stepped up to address J-Kup about the “halverez” issue just shows that the attendees weren’t hiding behind anonymity and instead had other goals – like wanting to have discussions with fantastic domainers who I know where there. Nobody stood up to ask J-Kup any hard questions because nobody there were “anonymous cowards,” and are on board to moving domaining forward. They understand that “truth will out”. Kudos for J-Kup appearing at what could have been the “Lion’s Den”).

Now, I am here at the “you will hate me” comment! Don’t hate me, really. But as far as your description of Tim Tebow’s failure to win his last game for the SEC, it was poignant and correct. But there were several things about Tebow that bothered me, and what I know about football players and their future success. It had NOTHING to do with his onfield performance:

1) Don’t go into a game with Bible verses pasted on your face. God doesn’t care nor help those publicly waving Bible verses around to “help them win”. This discussion is another whole 1000 pages, so that’s for another day.

2) If your team is rated #1 in the country, and you are the LEADER of your team, you don’t mope, cry, and sob because you lose. (Rick The King’s comment here somewhat addresses this). I almost vomited seeing Tebow, this supposedly ‘strong” football player losing his composure on camera for the national audience to see. ADVICE: Tim, if you want to be a strong leader, you stand tall, congratulate the winning team, and take the loss as a way to learn something about yourself and your team. You gather your team together and exult in your past accomplishments to remind them they are winners. You don’t sit around on the bench crying, where stronger-minded teammates have to come up to you and rub your shoulders and put their arms around you for consolation. WHUUUT!??? This isn’t a little girl’s game. When you win and celebrate, dancing across the field hugging everyone when your opponents are sad and upset, you better have a better mental/emotional stance ready when you lose a game. All I saw after that game was Tebow throwing out crocodile tears because he didn’t get his favorite toy for Christmas.

3) NOW TO THE FACTS! Best QB in college that pushes the Tebow legacy into a little backroom where they keep the brooms and mops? JEREMIAH MASOLI of the Oregon Ducks. He lost two devastating games, but he never looked back, never whimpered, never cried, and brought his team to the Rose Bowl and #7 in nation. Remember, after the Ducks lost to Boise State in their FIRST game, losing to #6 Boise State, they were written off . Don’t take my word for the Tebow/Masoli test: check their stats comparisons.

Now for the final HIGH FIVE if your readers got this far in my attempt to regain the “verbosity title” from Atom Bomb:

Your comment above near the end of your article is THE KEY KILLER STATEMENT THAT CUTS ACROSS ALL ONLINE COMMENTARY, WHETHER ABOUT DOMAINS OR ANY OTHER SUBJECT:

“So maybe you should adopt a simple policy. Don’t say something anonymously online, that you wouldn’t say to that person face to face looking him in the eye. Because if your not willing to say it to someone’s face then its not worth saying and its sure not worth listening to.”

That statement pounds home the truth about online participation in any discussion. If you’re anonymous, you are scared and unsure of what you’re saying, or you’re just getting out your emotional worms. When you post as anonymous, or behind a “handle” few people know, you have lost all credibility in a professional forum.

Em-Bee, you should make a graphic of your comment, in nice bold letters and neon frame border, and place it at the top of your website. Heck, give it away for free with your name as the person who made the quote, and domain blogs should place it on their website, with backlinks to Thedomains.com. I would put it on my site in a second. I’m sick of reading any comment on any blog/forum from people who are hiding.

Sounds a little nutty, but lots of people like nuts and nuts are healthy for you!

cheers!

That’s a lots of positive energy here!

Aron should put the post back up the way it is.
Face the critics to fuel your success.

Great Article and Commentators. I like this group.

What you have been describing is destructive. I think you make a great point.

Constructive criticism would be to point out that this article (and some of the responses) misuse “your” when they really mean “you’re”.

The great ones make mistakes and LEARN from them. So I hope this doesn’t offend anyone. And I liked the post, honestly.

http://www.wikihow.com/Use-You%27re-and-Your