Gasconade, Geezerhood, and Other Big Words from a Would-Be Competitor
If you have been reading my blog for any length of time you know I like a good fight. When I’m sure of my position, and defending my own turf, I say “Bring it on!” It’s just good entertainment, and GREAT sport!
Today I am responding to a blog post by Lenin Srinivasan over at Vembu Technologies. Here’s a link to the post.
The post starts out with a stock photo of a shirtless man relaxing on the beach smoking a cigar, with a satisfied grin on his face. As you’ll read later in this blog, my competitor has less regard for legal copyrights than I do, so rather than simply copying the picture from his website, I paid to license it for this blog from the photographer, Lev Dolgachov.
Rob Cosgrove, CEO Remote Backup Systems
I’m pretty sure this picture is a response to one of my own commonly used pictures, shown at right. I like my picture better. It looks like I’m not working. It was taken on a hillside veranda deeply off the grid in Costa Rica at sunset, while I was watching the erupting Arenal volcano eight kilometers away. I was supposed to be on vacation. However, what you don’t see in this picture, other than my glass of single malt whisky on the table, is my Macbook Pro plugged into a portable satellite ground station connected to the Internet. I’m working, as usual.
I think using quotes from famous people in a blog entry is pompous. Sure, I’ve done it, once. Lenin’s blog entry has two quotes. The first was written by an almost forgotten author, one of the MANY who STILL specialize in recycled Buddhist and Hindu philosophy, regurgitating it for the West to spoon-feed on. Lenin ripped it off from a website appropriately titled, brainyquote.com. It makes him sound brainy like this paragraph makes me sound like an asshole.
Here’s the first quote.
“Success is not measured by what you accomplish, but by the opposition you have encountered, and the courage with which you have maintained the struggle against overwhelming odds”. – Orison Swett Marden
I’ve studied Buddhist and Hindu philosophy since I was 20. I’m a former “New Ager” who was into Marden’s New Thought forty years ago. I’m a positive thinker from WAY back. I understand the foundation philosophy behind this quote, and Marden has it wrong.
It is ridiculous to measure success by opposition, courage, and struggle. Success is measured ONLY by reaching ones goals. Period.
I’m a big guy. I can’t run five miles. If I set out to climb a mountain to its top, and I fall off the mountain and die, I have NOT succeeded, even though I have struggled mightily, and I have had great courage, and I have been opposed by snow and gravity! I have failed to climb the mountain to its top, pure and simple, and have NOT succeeded. I have failed. Marden is wrong, and Lenin is wrong.
The second quote is a funny limerick that I suppose is meant to insult my intellect. I like it, though.
To be fair, Lenin properly busted me for a product and company comparison posted on my web site. Here it is. This page used to mention that our competitors “barely speak English.” That was mean and childish of me, and I removed that text today. He called it, “gasconade gibberish,” and “Geezerhood talk.” If I knew what that meant, I might agree with him.
I also got busted for claiming they weren’t open during U.S.A. business hours. To verify, I telephoned their business office at 10:25AM this morning and got an answer, and spoke with a live person. So, I was wrong again, and I further corrected my website.
I will be more than happy to quickly verify and correct any claim I make in comparisons with my esteemed colleagues. All they need do is to let me know about a problem. But, I’ve been trying to talk with someone over there for YEARS and have been rebuffed.
Then the sky darkened and storm clouds rolled in…
Lenin then quoted a paragraph from one of my private emails that had been posted by permission on a CLOSED forum belonging to another company, membership in which is limited to the Service Providers of that other company, which (by the way) is NOT one of mine. It looks as if Lenin is guilty of some kind of espionage for breaking into the closed forum; or at the very least, complicit in disclosing privileged information obtained illegally for the purpose of damaging my reputation and business.
The quoted paragraph explains why my company operates a closed forum, while Vembu operates an open forum. It isn’t a complete explanation, because it is one paragraph taken completely out of context from a series of emails in which I explained the difference.
Here’s the difference.
Vembu’s forum is used for technical support, including support of evaluation customers and those who are not Service Providers. Mine is not. Vembu relies on help from their few service providers to offer support. I do not. My forum is specifically intended for my own Service Providers to swap ideas and resources about marketing, business practices, pricing, and yes, some technical issues. But it is not used for technical support, and the conversations therein are private and privileged among RBS Service Providers only, and not the general public. Therefore, my Service Provider’s Forum should be private. My customers like it that way, and actually pay to have access to it.
Lenin, I’m so sorry it’s lonely up there at the top, in that rarified air that makes you believe you’re at the top. Clearly you are not, but you just keep believing that, ok? I’m sorry for writing “stuffs” about you. (OK, I’m not.) Unfortunately I do not know what you mean by having my “daily bread and butter watching [our] forums and press releases,” though. That stuffs is all automated. I just scan the updates I get every morning in my email. I try to stay away from the butter and the bread. I’m too fat already.
Some day maybe I’ll be as svelte and satisfied with myself as that lucky guy in your picture on the beach. As you can see, I prefer maduro cigars, though, in case you’re planning to send me a box.
Rob Cosgrove, CEO
Remote Backup Systems
(800) 519-7643 | (901) 405-1234 | FAX (901) 861-8075
London: 0207 993 2054 | Dublin: 016 571 749
http://remote-backup.com
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The company and product names used in this article are Service Marks or Registered Trademarks of their respective owners.
Rob Cosgrove is the President of Remote Backup Systems and founder of the Online Backup Industry.