I recently passed the Ayn Rand section in the bookstore and saw her book I had read a long time ago. I also thought if she lived today, given her libertarian views, she would bristle against how many businesses take advantage of us.
Let me cite some examples
a) A friend who has recently authored a book commented “the first draft was fun. The second draft was work. The 6th draft was a royal pain in the neck”. He is pointing to a truism in publishing. Even though book publishers keep 80 to 85% of book revenues, the majority of editing and marketing (and of course 100% of the writing) is done by the author.
b) A few years ago airlines started to allow us to self-serve boarding passes. Nice, but instead of thanking us for saving them on labor and printing charges, RyanAir and other airlines piled on and dreamed up another fee if we did not print them at home. Self-service has been hijacked.
c) Another friend of mine refuses to join social networks. He is not a Luddite by any means, but worries about privacy issues and about losing the personal touch to his relationships. But even more so he makes the point, why should I unless they compensate me? Think about it. 750 million of us make Facebook what it is, but will we see even a dime from its $ 100 billion valuation?
d) An event organizer calls me for a speaking opportunity. I ask him to call my speaker’s bureau which negotiates my fees, travel etc. He bellyaches about not having much of a budget. I take pity and tell him if he lets a blog sponsor also get a speaking slot, I will do it for free. He brazenly says the sponsor would need to pay for the whole event while expecting me to speak for free!
e) I talk to someone about SAP’s community, and I point out unless it has changed over the last 5 years it is fuzzy who bears the cost and who gets the benefits as I wrote here.
Even more than Rand, I feel the need for all of us to (re) read Dr. Harris’ classic I am ok, You are ok.
Way too much of today’s business is unfortunately driven by “I am ok, but you are a chump”
