Will Blogging Too Openly Hurt My Future Business Relationships????

Blogging that I’m closing my first e-commerce business was a little hard, and as an active blogger I had a few choices:

• I could have either not bloggeed about it, hoped no one would ask
• Transferred it to someone else and maybe said it was sold for something big, or merged. And then have to train / transfer the new team.
• Blogged “lightly”, and not get into details, or numbers, or people, or emotions.
• Blogged about it, the real deal, no B.S.

I’m not allowed to share the below person’s name. Actually he will get upset I am quoting him on this blog, he has again and again requested I modify what I say and who I talk about on this blog.

Hey, I think it’s good that you’re moving on from nybs. However, including all those details about the company like profit and emails w andrew are not cool. Going forward, your future business partners may read this and they’ll be scared to work with you. I’d seriously consider taking this down man. At least take down and finances portion of the business. The world doesn’t need to know that. This may not seem like it but I’m just trying to help out a bit. Again, exiting this biz is a good thing.

Now, I have complied in the past with removing last names about him and people he may know. But do I have to comply? This is my life.

I don’t want to modify the last blog based on his recommendation and email.

A few others have approached me and also advised the same.

Maybe these people will not want to engage in business relationships with me because I blog openly.

Well, then I prefer not to engage in business relationships with them either.

This is the future. I get emails on my blog all the time of PEOPLE WHO CONNECT WITH WHAT I SAY. And like others say, its the hard stuff, its the blood, sweat, tears that people like to see the most. And what people learn from the most.

Another business friend of mine said “Steve Jobs was extremely secretive” and that he would not do business with me, as he would not want to risk me revealing his business strategies to the whole world.

I believe the future of the world is social media, is being open. I may as well say it rather than someone else say it about me. Everyone will have their side of the story, I may as well have mine for the record.

I am actively discussing new business deals, and those people read this blog. I receive emails regularly from this blog from people who want to do business with me, and they like the real-life stories….the numbers, the stuff that is so hard to admit and say.

We learn the most from our failures, and people connect most with honest, open people.

I’m sure I’ll be receiving some angry e-mails from this blog post.

But thats what keeps it interesting.

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I get a lot of private messages, and this one I will share, and keep private the person who sent it , at his/her request.

Liked your blog post about Will blogging hurt your future Business…

Just wanted to weigh in privately. I think social media is wonder thing however, I think one must be careful about just what information they put on the net. The Internet has a very large, deep collective memory. I can find articles and interviews I’ve done as well as the very first web page from my first internet company in the early 90’s. Actually in magazine archives I can find interviews going back to the mid 80’s and my very first company. Scary thought that, as I’m defiantly not the same person I was 30 years ago…

You must have read recently about all the controversy about employers wanted to check out potential employees Facebook accounts. Couple that with ready ones twitter posts as well as good old google search and you can build a profile of a person as they are (or were) that they may not want to show a potential employer or client. Ethical? Perhaps not, but a reality none the less in todays always on, connected world.

Also, peoples view of failure, or what even constitutes failure, defer from person to person, culture to culture. Here in Asia I find people to be generally less accepting about failure then those in the US who may view it as a great learning experience, not that I view your shutting down you Bar business as a failure, sometimes things just don’t work out to our expectations.

Any way just wanted to give you my two cents worth, just be careful what you post because you can bet that 30 years from now someone will be able to find an archive of everything we’ve ever blogged about, tweeted or facebooked…

My reply

I have been meaning to reply to this email thanks so much for taking the time to reach out to me. I love social media, I believe it allows us to more powerfully connect with people all over the world.

I guess I am taking a risk, but I will be honest, I just got an email from Wall STreet journal in their NY offices about running a business in China. I talked to the reporter, and she said she really liked this specific post about my failure the most. She likes it because its real, its raw, its on the ground.

I guess this is my style, and what I am known for, I blogged in 2011 about closing my China office, and a lot of my Chinese friends told me to be careful and not to post about that

but its these hard to post blogs that get the most connections and reactions….

Maybe in 5, 10 years i’ll get some negative reviews from some people, but then again, i think a lot more positive will come from it rather than negative.