Life ain't easy when you're living on the edge

I've had an email dialog going with Jackie Huba at Church of the Customer related to some issues they're facing over the task of launching their podcasts on iTunes. I want to subscribe to them and can't.

It's not a huge problem and they'll have it fixed soon, but Jackie's most recent email was sprinkled with a small amount of frustration and I was reminded of the hassles we all faced back in the early 90s when business started using email.

Do you remember what a pain in the ass it was just to log on to the world wide web? Not to mention the instability and complexity of communication software. (We fired an IT manager over problems he had with Lotus Notes - and there's no way it was his fault).

Here's my point:

The roughness we all experience now and then when dealing with new ideas (or technology) is the price we pay for leading the pack. Being on the edge carries certain frustrations that those further back on the trail will never have the joy of experiencing. These days, I'm off-put when my email server goes down for even a few minutes because it's so rare an occurrence. Just a few short years ago I was amazed when I connected on the first try.

So, as you head into the weekend - raise your glass and toast yourself for foolishly hanging off the edge. When stuff doesn't work the first time, or the second, take heart in knowing that someone is working on a solution to make it easier and you'll soon have new hassles to overcome - which makes it all worthwhile.

By the way: Here's a link to the podcast I was trying to get on iTunes - Church of the Customer Podcast