
                        Microcomputerata

Go placidly amid the noisy trade shows and remember what fun may 
be had at the parties.

As far as possible, be everybody's friend;  only do no favors for 
that guy who screwed you last week.

Speak you truth only after receiving executed nondisclosure 
agreements;  and listen to others, even the dull and ignorant, 
especially when they've had a few.

Avoid loud and aggressive persons, unless they can provide 
necessary backing for your projects.

If you compare yourself with others, the publications may refuse 
your advertising and the FTC may question your claims;  for 
someone is bound to have a product better than yours by next week.

Exploit your finished products (if any) as well as those that you 
have announced but not completed.

Keep interested in your own career, however unfulfilling;  it is 
a real possession, at least until you become obsolete (week after 
next).

Exercise paranoia in your business affairs;  for the next guy 
knows tricks you've never dreamed of.  Pay your attorney, if no 
one else, well and promptly.

But do not fail to take advantage of what virtue there is;  many 
persons strive for high ideals and are ripe for the plucking, and 
everywhere life is full of potential new products.

Be yourself, taking due care with whom you are yourself.  Do not 
feign affection when a businesslike approach may seem more 
impressive.

Neither be cynical about love;  only restrict ownership of your 
company's stock to blood relatives, if possible.

Be not afraid of every teenager who knows a little assembler, but 
surrender gracefully the things of youth:  eight-bit processors, 
cassettes for mass storage, the ability to innovate.

Nurture your own savings account to shield you against whims of 
the marketplace and vagaries of financial manipulation.

But do not distress yourself with tomorrow's problems, which will 
find you in their own good time.  Whatever your troubles, they 
would only be worse were you overstocked with 4K RAMs or trying 
to write another word processor.

Beyond the appearance of discipline, make full use of the 
corporate expense account.

You are a child of the industry, only slightly less than the 
better-established vendors;  you might as well sell ill- 
conceived, unfinished products when everyone else does.

And even though it will never be clear to you, no doubt the 
industry is unfolding as it must, moving majestically toward the 
twin poles of Armonk and Japan.

Therefore be at peace with your customers, even those who take 90 
days to pay you.

And whatever your development lag, in the mismanagement of your 
affairs, keep looking out for number 1.

With all its five-pound magazines, unusable products and 
bewildered users, it is still an explosively expanding market.

Be cagey.  Strive to make money.

Found in an old INFOWORLD dated 1983.
