<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes"?><oembed><version><![CDATA[1.0]]></version><provider_name><![CDATA[Scobleizer]]></provider_name><provider_url><![CDATA[http://scobleizer.blog]]></provider_url><author_name><![CDATA[Robert Scoble]]></author_name><author_url><![CDATA[https://scobleizer.blog/author/scobleizer/]]></author_url><title><![CDATA[Robert Fripp on&nbsp;business]]></title><type><![CDATA[link]]></type><html><![CDATA[<p>Robert Fripp is a famous guitarist. He&#8217;s in the audience aggregation business. Same business that Google, MSN, Yahoo, and many companies that appear on TechCrunch are in, by the way. <a href="http://www.dgmlive.com/diaries.htm?entry=2860">He has a lengthy post on why he chose to do business with Microsoft</a>. It&#8217;s a must read for businesspeople, particularly with all this venture capital talk that&#8217;s been going around lately. Here&#8217;s a key line:</p>
<p><em>&#8220;In business, personal connections are not everything; just, nearly everything.&#8221;</em></p>
<p>Oh, I grok that. It&#8217;s why my cell phone number is always going to be on the home page of my blog. You can call me anytime (if I&#8217;m sleeping I may not answer, particularly <a href="http://www.dgmlive.com/diaries.htm?entry=2337">if Maryam is throwing my phone against the wall</a>. Heheh). At Microsoft you always have a personal connection (or you can build one).</p>
<p>I&#8217;d go even deeper than Robert Fripp. I do business with people I know and can read and can find in search engines. If you can&#8217;t be found in Yahoo, Google, or MSN&#8217;s engine, well, how about fixing that particular bug?</p>
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