I’m sharing this experience specifically for the benefit of a friend who told me over IM yesterday that he needed more guts.
A number of years ago while I was in college at Arizona, I received an email from a certain Om Malik. He identified himself as a writer for Red Herring magazine, which I have heard of but never read. He wanted me to help him design a website. It sounded like a blog.
I was in the middle of my undergraduate education. I was on a scholarship which required me to maintain relatively good grades. I had already put some time in creating websites for the Singapore Student Association, the Management Information System Graduate Assocation and the Mentoring for International Students Association. I wasn’t sure if I could help Om out.
I did the Singaporean thing - the thing my mother would have asked me to do, which is to concentrate on my studies. I declined Om’s proposal.
I’ve regretted that decision almost everyday.
Om Malik’s website GigaOm has become one of the most popular websites among techies. His vision, which I had so casually dismissed as his wanting to start a blog, has met with excellent execution and produced a site with compelling content, giving the rest of us the inside scoop on what goes on in Silicon Valley. He garners more visitors than established blog brands like Kottke and Dooce. A lot more visitors.
The GigaOm brand now runs a network of sites including Web Worker Daily, New Tee Vee, Found + Read and Earth2Tech. Om has, of today, launched The GigaOm Show.
I normally try not to dwell on what could have beens, but I cannot help but wonder: what if I had been a little less Singaporean (uber-conservative) and a little more adventurous? I’m not saying that I’d be Om - he’s an absolute genius at buildling content spaces - but the chance to have worked with Om would have taught me so much.
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