The Wine Man Goes Off and Why You Should Care

Last week I was interviewed by Startup or Bust. The question below is copied from the interview and is something I have been asked thousands of times over the past 12 years.

What words of wisdom do you have for someone wanting to jump into a niche that is dominated by one or more heavy hitters?

Get in there! What are you waiting for? The longer you wait, the tougher it is. And remember this saying from the Honeymooners, “Be nice to people on the way up, because you will see the same people on the way down.” Just because a “heavy hitter” is in the lead now, does not mean that they will in a year. So get out there and give it a try! Better to try and fail than never to have tried at all.

The bottom line is that whatever you want to do in life, it's critical to get your body wet. Jump into the deep end. Early in my life I was a wimp and was afraid to jump into the deep end. I would watch the people in the deep end having fun and a good time but I just sat in the shallow end with my floaties. So yes, do it and do it now. Don't worry a lifeguard is only seconds away if needed.

I noticed a highlighted video on Viddler today. It's an episode from Wine Library TV where the host, Gary Vaynerchuk goes off (more than normal) about someone asking about how to tell the different types of wines. I have clipped just the part where Gary explains passionately that the only way to really know which wines taste like x or y is to TASTE THEM. He goes on to explain that you can't be a chef without tasting the food and a few other great examples but rather than tell you what they are, just watch the video below. RSS you might need to click through to watch the video.

Editor's note: While this video might not be exactly related to Web 2.0, I hope it does a good job to motivate you to jump in the pool. And even if it doesn’t, just watch it to see an example of good online video entertainment.