I know someone that reminds me of Dave
 

Good Old Dave

Morris walks out into the street and manages to get a taxi just
going by. He gets into the taxi, and the cabbie says, "Perfect
timing. You're just like Dave."

"Who?"

"Dave Aronson. There's a guy who did everything right. Like
my coming along when you needed a cab. It would have happened
like that to Dave."

"There are always a few clouds over everybody," says Morris.

"Not Dave. He was a terrific athlete. He could have gone on
the pro tour in tennis. He could golf with the pros. He sang
like an opera baritone and danced like a Broadway star."

"He was something, huh?"

"He had a memory like a trap. Could remember everybody's birthday.
He knew all about wine, which fork to eat with. He could fix
anything. Not like me. I change a fuse, and I black out the
whole neighborhood."

"No wonder you remember him."

"Well, I never actually met Dave."

"Then how do you know so much about him?" asks Morris.

"Because I married his widow."

Why Dave Aronson is like a Wang Word Processor....
 

Heheheh.... Thanks Richard! That was a good story.... :)

I think there is a depth of meaning to that story.... :)

Dave Aronson represents clinging to the past in a way which stops you from embracing the future. If you're always thinking about Dave (like the widow seemed to be), you may not realize what a great thing you have in the present!

In the 1980s, a product which many businesses bought was a Wang Word Processor. This was in reality a dedicated desktop computer just for word processing. Wang had revenues of billions of dollars - their business was booming!

Then, times changed.... People lost their fear of "computers," and realized that with a fully fledged desktop computer they could do word processing, and a whole host of other things too in addition. But Wang didn't see it coming.

As a result, as businesses switched to using more standard desktop computers, Wang's business dropped and dropped with every year. But they didn't change what they did - they were still clinging to their own particular type of "Dave Aronson" -- the dedicated desktop word processor.

And as a result, Wang's profits kept falling. I think that in the end, the company may have been sold by the son of the founder for a tiny fraction of what it used to be worth (but I'm not completely sure).

It probably didn't have to end that way. But that's what can happen if you cling too much to your own Dave Aronsons, so that you don't see the grand opportunities around you!

And this brings us to ebooks.... Some claim that dedicated ebook readers are like the Wang word processors of the 1980s. That these dedicated ebook readers will give way to more general hand-held computers which are not limited to just reading ebooks, like the Palm Pilot and other possibilities. I don't know what the future may hold, but it sounds like a good argument....

I'll stay tuned to ePubAdvisor to find out! :)

Thank you Richard for that great story....! I felt it was a great lesson! :)

Best wishes,

Dien