Open letter to Censored

[LittleOldLady]

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LoL,

Simply put, Mason has done a terrific job at building a publishing company and is very successful at that. On the other hand, as a business, twoplustwo.com is at a miniscule fraction of its potential and as a profit center, is pretty poorly run. I don't care to get into that, but you are welcome to have Ed forward you any of my emails to him regarding opportunities twoplustwo.com is missing. However, as a marketing vehicle for the publishing company, it seems just great. Mason has chosen not to focus on monetizing this website and instead focusing on publishing great books. That's his decision and I for one have no problem with it.

In a business sense, Mason actually reminds me of someone I know, David Allen. David is incredibly successful, creator of one of the most successful productivity methodologies in the world. However, David Allen has passed up on countless opportunities to increase his wealth by an order of magnitude because he would have to be much more flexible in his advice to people. As long as he can make enough money to be happy, David is not going to change his philosophy in even the slightest way, even if that means passing up a ton of $$$.

In terms of qualifications to judge these things, LoL, I am friends with a number of tech publishers who are significantly larger than 2+2 and have been involved as friend, investor, or advisor to many content/community-oriented websites that have sold or are worth 10s to 100s of millions of dollars.

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I think, El D, that your post is very much on point. Mason's goals drive Mason's decisions, and that's as it should be IMO. A different person might have different goals and therefore make different decisions. Most 2p2ers are in the early stages of their careers and see the 2p2 business from that perspective. I am retired, and Mason (and David too for that matter) is just a few years younger than I am, and things look a little different from our perspectives. Mason has no stockholders or mutual fund managers to please, so he is free to set his own goals, proceed by his preferred means, and evaluate his results accordingly. Not a bad position to be in....