In true Social Media fashion, I want to share a fascinating article that I came across about someone who sold his fate to investors. A publicly traded person.
He decided he was valued at 100,000 shares ($1 apiece), return on profits was made outside of his day job. He sold shares and the reality of his funding venture hit. The idea of what was best for him was best for the shareholder didn’t hold. His girlfriend bought shares to have better voting rights about the decisions they were making and to stave off the shareholders who were concerned about their ‘stock’ being distracted by his girlfriend. She became a shareholder activist. Other shareholders came on board, others cashed out – they even managed to change the way he voted and decided, in such an event, they should benefit from his insurance policy.
Things don’t always work out as planned, change happens and, with less money available after the financial crash, big business and brands had to push even further to be noticed, they reached out into new digital spaces (without ever having to hug a customer in reality). There’s many a large Corporate who tries to entice their product with the idea of friendship, but companies aren’t friends, friendship with a corporation doesn’t exist. And, here was someone reaching out to (initially) friends who respond in a corporate way.
Sometimes contracts need amending; things don’t always work out as planned.
