Two stories I found inspiring
From this month’s Fast Company article “Girl Power”:
“Late last year, Ian Moray stumbled across a cotton-candy-pink Web site called Whateverlife.com. As manager of media development at the online marketing company ValueClick Media, he was searching for under-the-radar destinations for notoriously fickle teenagers …
He approached Ashley Qualls, Whateverlife’s founder, about incorporating ads from ValueClick’s 450 or so clients and sharing the revenue. At first, she declined. Then a few weeks later she changed her mind. He was in Los Angeles and she was in Detroit, so they arranged everything by phone and email. They still have yet to meet in person.
When did Moray, who’s 40, learn that his new business partner was 17 years old?
Pause.
‘When our director of marketing told me why Fast Company was calling,’ says Moray … ‘I assumed she was a seasoned Internet professional. She knows so much about what her site does, more than people three times her age.’”
From Shel Israel’s blog, Global Neighbourhoods, a quote from Sirhey Danyenko, founder of the Ukrainian website/online newspaper Highway:
“We do not hesitate to experiment and work in style ‘Fire! Fire! Fire! Now Aim’. People who come to our office, think that Highway has a huge editorial staff and they are pretty astonished, when they get acquainted with me and my several friends.
When I send letters, depending on the addressee I sign them ‘Editor in chief,’ ‘Head of marketing department,’ ‘Co-founder,’ ‘Head of advertising,’ ‘Brand manager’ etc.”
Both Ashley Qualls and Sirhey Danyenko saw a potential need and worked to fill it. It doesn’t seem to have occurred to them to let their ages or their locations keep them from being successful.
Is there something keeping you from firing away at a great new idea in your association? Can Ashley and Sirhey’s example inspire you to look for ways those obstacles can be removed or sidestepped (or just ignored altogether)?
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