It’s so easy to relate blogging and internet business to the real world, despite what you may think about the lack of a connection to the web, and people instead of lines of HTML and code. I was thinking about this especially whilst reading through the latest edition of The Economist – a weekly subscription-based glossy magazine which gives all the latest news and opinions in the business world.
One such article particularly caught my eye. It was called “What I’ve Learned“, and was by none other than Mr. Tony Blair, Prime Minister of Britain. Now I don’t really want to get into politics here, but throughout this essay on reflecting on a decade as PM, Mr. Blair made really good points that are very relevant to being an internet mogul hoping to take the web by storm.
I’ll go through each of the 4 points, with Tony’s main ideas in bold, and my follow-up remarks next to each and how by applying the skills he has learnt at Number 10 Downing Street, the Prime Minister could make an awesome webmaster. Read the article if you want to see how his points relate to politics.
1) Be a player not a spectator – this is of the utmost. It’s all very well buying Mr. Marketer’s $99 eBook and surfing competitor blogs and websites daily, but procrastination in itself, isn’t going to get you anywhere. All the best coders and designers say that the only way you can learn is by doing something yourself. Don’t be afraid to make a mistake, as this is how you will learn in the e-world.
2) (Transatlantic) Co-operation is still vital – whilst this is referring to friendship between the UK and US, having contacts online is of equal importance if you want to get recognised. Say if you need a friendly Digg to get your article going, or some advice on how to boost traffic to your site, a buddy that you can contact via Instant Message will definitely help you out. I know that I wouldn’t be where I am today without the help of some close friends that I met online. So get networking.
3) We must stand up for our values – again another solid nominative statement. We’ve all heard the expression “if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em“, but there’s no point in getting dragged into something you despise secretly. Stick up for your morals and be prepared to defend them when it comes to the crunch. Don’t actively criticise another blogger for traffic and media attention – be sure to have a good reason for doing so, and make sure this is implicit in your article as a blogger.
4) It’s about tomorrow’s agenda too – in this quote, Tony Blair is referring to growth and present policies for a safer Britain tomorrow. The same applies to being an internet entrepreneur (and corresponds to a guest article I wrote for Ray). Be prepared to put in the hard work today in order to reap the benefits tomorrow – in webpreneurial terms, focus on writing good content for your website as a solid base, then look towards monetization and earning your dollars.
To summarize, Mr Blair may have made a few bad decisions in his long-lived career, but as a human, it was important to him that he made sure he recognized what he had achieved through being Prime Minister in the form of this essay. Make sure you too realize what you’ve learnt from the web, and carry them forward into your next task or project.
“Small Business, Big Vision provides a framework for you to unleash your driven and relentless passion to achieve unprecedented growth.”
Awesome points, Adnan. And it’s great that you read The Economist. That makes a total of 1 persons I’m aware of who’s read that publication BEFORE university.
You’re wiser than your years.
Awesome points brought up there Adnan! I can definately relate to them.
Lol. Tony Blair has gone on record as saying he is technophobe. So, I guess he will never make a great internet entrepreneur.
I think I would still be staring at my Mac had it not been for a few people willing to help me get online and to start writing and sharing information.
I can use all the help I can get with the web development. This blog is just the first of many sites I intend to develop.
Interesting points, is there anything else you can say about it?
Hey Mate, just read your article on Tony Blair, and I wish, I could agree, with your sentiments, however, I feel exactly the opposite.
Esp points 2,3,4.
He followed George Bush like a poodle an as a result we have the debacle that is IRAQ.
Thanks though for giving me the space to disagree.
Great points!
Hey Guys – Brian, Josh, Stephen, Brian A and Alwitt, thanks for the encouragement and for dropping by.
@ aton: lol damn, I guess we’ll never get to see the true Blair blogging potential though. He could make an awesome alliterative domain name though…
Don – thanks for your views and I could go into so much more detail about Iraq. But as mentioned this is a business blog, not a politics one, so I shan’t venture further. This article was really meant more light-heartedly, but it would be interesting to see how he fares online amongst us young’uns. ;) Lol no probs!
Sorry I was a bit late on the comments guys, have had a lot of exams recently, revision is a bummer :(
It was alleged that Blair’s infamous “dodgy dossier” from before the Iraq war had been plagiarised from unattributed sources online. So with this track-record of web scraping, maybe some Made For Adsense scraper-site could be his first attempt at internet marketing?
How do you think you faired on your exams?
How would have Blair done? LOL
LOL – yeah nice one Rob. Definitely some RSS feed scraper plastered with Adsense, I didn’t know that about the dossier. Maybe he could be a Nigerian Scammer as well, to get some easy cash?
@ Stephen – LOL as well. To be honest I reckon Blair would have made mincemeat of my exam – Gordon Brown would have destroyed it as an economist. I found it OK, hopefully will get the “A” I need.
You guys crack me up lol ;) I think we should hold a funniest comment competition here.
Great post, and interesting topic.
I think one skill Blair missed recently was knowing who to trust. It doesn’t seem like Blair got much in return for the trust he put in the United States in the run-up to the Iraq war.
Thanks Ed. Yeah that’s true, Bush did seem to mislead Blair into thinking that Iraq was ready for the taking and that there were indeed weapons of mass destruction there in the first place.
But, as a Brit, I think that he’s done an OK job, considering the amount of atrocities that have occurred in his reign. I’ll always have a positive memory of him.
To be fair, I’m not sure Bush misled Blair. Blair is an enthusiast for the interventionist foreign policy, and most intelligence services around the world believed Iraq to have WMD. The disagreement between various nations (notably France) was not as to whether there was a threat, but on the way to deal with it.
lol….and this was why I didn’t want to write a post on politics! :)
But fair points, I’m not going to argue/come back against your point, as this is how all blog fights/court cases start – but thanks for your input Rob – I’m sure someone else will comeback to your argument :)
Thanks for dropping by Buddy.