First, an update.
My products "PuritySoft Endeavor" and "PuritySoft Memento Jotter" are now all over the Net. Since last week, if you look up "PuritySoft" on Google, you end up with nearly 800 links. You should know that the quality of those links degrades as you click further --but they are links to my site notheless; in theory, this will improve my ranking. My website is being idexed about every other day. So, anything that I link to is also indexed. I've got lots of work to do on the website. I also need to put (or link to) more content related to the solutions that the software provides. I know this, and I'm working on it.
I'm writing about staying focused, and I will say that part of my nature is to keep my eyes open for new opportunities. Through the process of "building a Software company" I came to realize that 1)visibility is important and about 2)the power of news releases and 3)(again) content. This may cause me to stay off the writing for a few days, but I've got yet another idea that could be mutually beneficial to Puritysoft and any software company.
BTW, I have always been an idea guy and I've had several that could have made me rich --because the same idea made others rich :) unfortunately, some of the reasons include funds, time, and lack of focus. Before I get speared about the piece of honesty, I have to pull myself a bit by saying that I also can learn very quickly and introspect every day! I've learned and instrospected a great deal since :)
So, to keep things positive, I will keep my options open. I'm commited to Puritysoft, but I will find avenues that may be beneficial to it in the long run. For instance, Puritysoft can be the primary developer of another company that I found.
The question remains whether I should share these ideas in this blog. I just might...
As a professional, I recognize the power of staying focused and the consenquences of the reverse. Claris (now fileMaker), spent lots of resources in a program they called "Claris First Choice." The idea was that it would use its marketing might to bring to market promissing third party products. It didn't work too well. Neither did ClarisCAD or even ClarisWorks. In fact, no one would argue the fact that the company got rid of all its product lines to concentrate on FileMaker Pro. In fact, it changed its company name --in my mind, this move spells F-O-C-U-S.
While at Apple, I saw the same thing with so many technically "cool" products that didn't meet a market demand. One good example, of course, was the Newton. But there were others, probably half of its R & D in 1996! Many were axed at that time, including my project. It also spelled "Stay focused."
Another interesting spin on this issue is that which involves the decision to become a Service or Product company. Back in the mid 1990's it was commonly considered staying out of focus to go both ways. I was once asked by the CEO of a company I worked for what I thought about, and I said that both could be done: you need a product to survive the service down-periods, and you need products to nail down your service --it's simple and practical. Well, that has become today's mantra in the Open Source community.
