Virtualization Nation: Pros and Cons of Hitchhiking

Rich Swier has just published a book, in which he posits hitchhiking as the only experience that encompasses the same elements of starting your own business: fear, ambition, blind-trust, risk and true self-exploration.

His blog has an interesting story from Adobe. According to him Adobe set out to build the wrong thing - a combination computer/printer sold as a solution for self-publishing.

Though both Apple and DEC wanted to buy the printing software, Adobe had raised $2.5MM in funding to sell the computer/printer combo. The board chairman told them to to ditch the plan and listen to the customers.

“You guys are nuts. Throw out your business plan. Your customers - or potential customers - are telling you what your business should be. The business plan was only used to get you the money. Why don’t you rewrite a business plan that is focused just on providing what your customers want?”

I've got an interesting meeting tomorrow. Watch this space for more details.