Robert Scoble Goes to Fast Company

Disclaimer: I consider both Robert and Rocky personal friends, so I’m biased. They are an incredibly talented team.

I’ve spent many months trying to figure out where Robert Scoble should go next, and I confess I was with Om Malik and Mike Arrington in thinking that he should start a company of his own.  That’s because I am a lifelong entrepreneur. However, when I read his post this morning about why he is going to Fast Company, I realized he had done well to disregard my advice. He’s doing the right thing FOR HIM, and that is one of the most important takeaways from his decision.

One of the things we tell entrepreneurs in our FastTrac programs on the first night is that it takes a certain cast of mind to be an entrepreneur.  You have to want it enough to give up everything.  This isn’t always smart.

This became apparent when, last night, on the first night of our spring program, two participants who co-own a business burst into tears while discussing it.  This was not a Hillary Clinton moment, but a real sense of frustration they had about their ability to continue.  When we talked to them further about it, it turned out that both of them had worked for the business, and indeed managed it, for years before buying it.

But in the two years since they bought it, they had come upon problems they didn’t foresee, and they were emotionally crushed by the problems. Further investigation revealed that they just simply aren’t the temperament to be entrepreneurs right now. It’s not a criticism, but for them it will be, in the coming weeks, a revelation to which they will have to accustom themselves.

Fortunately, Robert has used his previous experience to look closely at what is involved in entrepreneurship, and has decided it isn’t best for him at this moment, with a new baby and a teen-ager. He puts a high value on family, for which I respect him enormously. He doesn’t like numbers, and he doesn’t want to manage, and who can blame him for that?

This doesn’t mean that at another time, he can’t change his mind. But one of the reasons we all love him is that he comes to l ive with intelligence, joy, AND self-awareness.  How many of us can say that?