Re: Bushnell 6500 industry inside joke Liberty Optic
Scott,
That's OK, bashing us is currently en vogue, some of it self-inflicted, some of it not. I need to take care of what I can control, and not sweat the rest.
You've hit on something for me.
Back in the day, the University of Florida football team had a history of being talented, but under-acheiving, with very few SEC titles back prior to 1990, what was earned was often stripped away for NCAA violations. But more often than not the Gators couldn't hold up to the other big dogs in the SEC, the Alabamas, the Georgia's, the Tennessee's. We were the cute, lovable little losers down in Gainesville. Then in 1990, the Ol Ball Coach, Steve Spurrier was hired. The 97 pound football weakling grew into a full fledged bully, kicking the crap out of the competition for many years in the '90s. When the Gators would visit other teams stadiums the level of hatred for them would reach fever pitch. They would say nasty things about Spurrier and the hated Gators. After one game, a reporter asked Spurrier why he thought his team would receive the venom and nasty name calling his team would be a target of. His answer was "because they can't call us losers anymore".
Back when I started, when I was getting my tail kicked on the internet and selling just a few scopes a year, other industry and competing dealer types would wink, slap me on the fanny, and give me all this cheap praise. They could give a rat's butt what I wrote or said. I was irrelevant.
Now, nearly 8 years later, I get emails and PMs from industry types, not happy (or real happy) with what I write or say, other dealers scream to the manufacturers about us, the sledding gets tougher, you get scrutinized, you make enemies, the drama hits a fever pitch. That comes with success, I guess, and I suppose it means we arrived. Because it is clear to me that people now care what I think. With that priviledge comes an awesome responsibility. I am sorry for the butthurt, but that is collateral damage. I need to see the downstream effects before I pull the trigger. Know your target, and what's beyond, right?
Take any pile of raw data (e.g., what I've written on the web the last 8 years) and anyone with enough time and an agenda can come up with any conclusion they desire, i.e., I'm GTG, I'm full of crap, I'm an expert, I'm a clown, I'm honest, I'm a snake, yadda yadda yadda. The only truth is that I'm no longer invisible.
Again, sorry for the slight, my committment to you and any that care is to exercise full judgement and consideration before the written and spoken word, and to take the responsibility you, the customer, entrust me with very seriously, to another level of maturity and perspective.
Not that this has been a huge problem the last year or so but the margin for error without consequences seems to be very small now. I accept that.
Scott
