Everyone is Expendable

Okay, not the cheeriest post title, but with the firing/quitting of Amanda Congdon from Rocketboom, it speaks volumes. And, it says something I have said to people about themselves, their blogs, and their jobs: everyone is replaceable.

Yes, it's not a cheery thought, but think about it. At the end of the day, it comes down to the client/company. Do I know what the problems were with Congdon and Baron? No, not at all - and none of us are privy to those discussions. But, we can all agree that 51 trumps 49 in percentage.

And, the fact is that I was never a big watcher of Rocketboom, so this does not affect me much. If I want my pretty vloggers, I have Rachel at 88Slide and AmberMac - and I think they both are much more talented than Rocketboom (I was alive in the 80's, so I already saw those skits, thank you). I almost forgot to mention the hottest - and one I've known the longest - Irina Slutsky of Geek.tv. But, man, I always try to keep the personal out of the blog.

But, you can be macro ruler of a vertical space in the blogosphere, but you make one mis-step and you can find yourself with a pink slip. You can wear one or 1000 hats at a job, but if you piss off the wrong people, you are shown the door. You can be that lovable scamp, but getting the job done is more important than blogging.

I had this discussion a year ago. During the dotcom era, there were superstar CEOs that became the story. They probably thought they were irreplaceable ... until they were replaced by the VCs. And, while bloggers are making a name for themselves, at the end of the day, many of them answer to another master ... the paycheck.

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Comments
8 comments
  1. Jeremy,
    I'm really sorry but "you can be a macro ruler in a vertical world" just went right over my head...is there any way you expand that please?
    Nothing like finding out two years of economics really was wasted after all!
    Thanks,
    Ed

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  2. No problem Ed. In the blogosphere, everyone seems to be an expert on something.

    So, the large ruler of a small space was the point.

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  3. Thanks Jeremy!

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  4. She had to of quit. I don not think they could have fired her if they wanted to. And I sort of doubt RB would classify her as expendable--I mean she "was" Rocketboom.

    It will be interesting to watch them try to replace her--and wither into nothing.

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  5. Everyone is expendable. Everyone can be replaced. It's just a fact.

    Will RB continue on? Of course. Will it have the same audience? Likely, if not a bigger audience because of all the people tuning in to see who is the new face.

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  6. I was once told the day you believe that you are irreplaceable is the day that you are! And I still beleive that is true..... thats why blogging has a role, it self-corrects, and it helps you to continue to learn....

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  7. I blogged something similar a while ago, when Scoble quit. I do believe that everyone is expendable, and that paranoia is my daily booster shot, baby.

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  8. Well, I'm a little late to the blogging party here, but here goes...

    True 'nuf, Jeremy...everyone is expendable. And to tell you the truth, you probably want to be -- at least if you're at the helm, or close to it. You don't want to align yourself too closely with a company -- at least if your goal is to sell or eventually retire or bring in new blood to further growth. You want to be a little more replaceable -- you want to delegate and help make other people the stars, the assets. Believe me, when we sold ClickZ in 2000, I was happy to be expendable....

    Now if you're working on developing your personal brand, that's a whole other thing...which was probably more of Amanda's focus.

    In other words, for her - it was all about Amanda, not Rocketboom. Which is fine. But that's when being so thoroughly "expended" can hurt....

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