Why I Didn’t Buy Shares of Facebook

A month or so a go Facebook did its IPO and made a killing (big surprise). Many people became instant millionaires or billionaires, but for the most part everyone else got screwed. At the moment Facebook stock is trading at about ½ it’s initial price the day it went public. 

I thought long and hard about buying shares, or even 1 share. I’m sure many people had dreams of Apple or Microsoft and how cool it would have been to buy shares in the early days, but a couple things kept me from jumping into that pool. 

• As a user of Facebook, I don’t understand why they want me to pay to advertise my business page while my posts are never seen by all my followers. Shouldn’t all my followers see everything I post?  Isn’t that the reason you follow someone? I get that companies need to make money, but can’t they think of something else. Feels kind of like extortion to me. 
• The complete lack of attention to a mobile app blows my mind. People are racing to get smart phones, iPads, tablets, etc, but for some reason the Facebook app on my phone and iPad crashes constantly (when it’s not freezing or doing other unexpected things). With the amount of money and resources Facebook as, why don’t they have the best app on the planet? It seemed to me that any social media company that doesn’t want to devote (enough) resources to the mobile market either doesn’t care or just doesn’t get it. Maybe they all spent too much time writing code and never stick their head into the real world (where their users live). 
• Of course there’s the tired old stories about Facebook using people’s data and making weird policy changes without letting users know. I guess I’ve come to expect that by now. 
• We’ve seen other companies that were big and awesome, like Yahoo and MySpace. I suspect the next ‘big thing’ is sitting out there right now in some kids’ brain.

I was on the fence right up until trading started, and that’s when I read an article on the internet that Warren Buffet was an adviser to Facebook, but that he wasn’t buying any shares. I figure if he wasn’t jumping in, I wouldn’t either. Turns out he was right. 

The Upcoming Election

With the 2012 presidential election in sight, I find myself once again wondering how much it matters who is president. I know the president is the most powerful person in the free world, but given the construction of our government, does any 1 person really have that much power?

I guess President Obama’s biggest accomplishment so far has been healthcare reform, but even that is stalled in many ways and no one really seems to understand what it will really mean in the future, assuming it survives that long. 

The President clearly has clout and pull, but can he really change the course of history or dramatically change the USA? I guess going to war is one way or enacting some crazy policies might be another, but by and large it seems like the government is designed to keep any 1 person from doing too much harm (or good). 

I know the media and the political parties like to make us think that the election is potentially the end of the world depending on who wins, but when I think about it I can’t really remember any earth-shattering things happening from president to president. I remember Ronald Reagan as more charismatic than most, but I’m not sure how much he accomplished (I mean really accomplished, not what his supporters want you to think he accomplished). 

In no way do I intend disrespect to any president, in fact I am comforted that our government is set up to keep a tyrant from gaining control. I think the founding fathers devised a brilliant system that has kept the USA from every having to deal with 1 crazy person who ends up with their finger on the button. 

I’ll be glad when the election is over as I hate all the rotten things that are said and the lies that are told, but I’m also very grateful to be living in a place where a peaceful election is held and a nut won’t be able to take over (even if he is elected). 

200 and Counting

During the night our Workingmenshealthandfitness.com Facebook page grabbed its 200th like. I know 200 is meaningless to many people, but to us it’s really an honor. We don’t advertise or push anything on anyone, these results are 100% organic and the result of posting quality information and interacting with people.

It’s been a very educational process and it’s also been fun getting to know people. Along the way I think we’ve helped a bunch of people and we’ve begun to establish that we know what we are talking about and we care about everyone that we come across.

Building a following on the Internet is both frustrating and exhilarating where some days are filled with great interactions and conversations and other days wondering if everyone has left the internet.

Of course the continued challenge is to provide more value to people and to make a bigger impact in people’s lives. I have some new ideas to try out and some new content that I’m working on.

We’ve come a long way in 6 months and we have a long way to go, but so far we’ve learned a lot and made our share of mistakes, but we keep plugging away.