Fail. Deadpool. 0 visitors. Insufficient funds.

Definately the words a web entrepreneur would love NOT to hear in his career. But why failing is so bad? Ok, you probably lost some money but you have gained experience. If you can realize what lead you to deadpool, that’s a great advantage. Probably, now you know what to avoid, which of your colleagues did not try hard enough and whom to trust.

Experience is a great advantage. However, it does not come for free. There will be a moment when you will face a great dilemma. One choice drives you to deadpool and the other one drives you to success. Nobody can help you because nobody knows all the facts, all those small things that matter. And let’s be frank, would you trust someone else to take the biggest decision of YOUR startup?

There are 50% chances of taking the wrong decision, if it’s the first time you have to decide something. If you have been there before, you can value much better these small things that will point out for you the right decision.

To sum up, I strongly believe that failing is not the end of the world. In fact, it’s the begining of a new era, a wiser one. And as Randy Pausch said at his last lecture

Experience is what you get when you didn’t get what you wanted.

[photo via flickr.com, user thehappyrobot]

Hey, how are you? I just found that an e-store has a RAM module suitable for your macbook. Do you want to upgrade to 4 GB… FOR FREE?

That was what I heard from my dad one morning and, let’s be honest, I would have been stupid to turn down such a good offer. 2 days later, a small package arrived. The first thing I did, was to call my friend Bilou and ask him to come over. Bilou loves hardware stuff, so I knew that he would like helping me out.

So, let’s see what we did exactly.

First, what we need? Apart from a macbook and the new chips, all we need is a screwdriver.

Now, we have to flip the macbook and remove the battery.

Once we have removed the battery, a sticker is there with instructions telling us what we have to unscrew  in order to change the RAM modules. (Unfortunately, there are no pics of me unscrewing but there are 3 screws to be removed).

In order to remove the old RAM modules, we must push that two little triggers and.. here you go, the old modules are out!

After removing the old modules, we have to insert the new ones. Unfortunately, there is no indicator (like a click-sound) that confirms that the module is placed correctly, so you have to press as hard as you can.

Now, you only have to redo the unscrewing part, place the battery and you are ready. Enjoy your faster Macbook.

Some days ago, I started writing a blog post. I edited it like a million of times. I deleted it completely and then I ended up tweeting about that phenomenon. As it seems, many other bloggers face the same problem. It goes like that:

• start a new blog post -> don’t like it -> delete it -> start a new blog post

Cory Doctorow doesn’t seem to agree with that particular tactic. I am quoting him: 

Just publish and let comments do the rest.

Personally, I disagree completely. I mean, it’s ok to write a bad blog post if you think that is good, but what happens if you already know that your blog post sucks? Why let your readers down by delivering a below-average article according to your standards? Maybe some of your readers will find it “perfect”. Yeah, ok, but why are you blogging? For your readers or for yourself?

I strongly believe that a blogger is successful when he (or she) is blogging for him (or her). Writing comes normally, not because “I must write a new blog post”. Forcing yourself to do something you don’t really want, will have the exact opposite results from what is expected, a mediocre blog post that most of your readers will probably dislike. And when you write for your readers, that is even worse.

• bad blog post -> readers dislike it -> “I must to write a new article” -> forced blogging -> bad blog post

So, next time you have written an article, think twice before pressing “Publish”.

[Thanks to Nikos Anagnostou for inspiring me to write this article]

[image via flickr, user: cambodia4kidsorg]