Right Place, Right Time
A personal perspective on the evolution of the Internet
by Lawrence Mott, December 1995
Before the end of this century, all businesses and most Americans
will be using the Internet for some reason or another. But the
truly remarkable success stories will be about those entrepreneurs
who are tapping into the electronic marketplace right now. These
are men and women smart enough to recognize that they are in the
right place at the right time.
To put things into perspective, you can compare the evolution
and development of the Internet with the historic period of the
Industrial Revolution. Let me try to illustrate this through the
experiences of someone who had exactly the kind of realization
that I am talking about.
At the turn of the century, before the invention of the automobile,
travel was pretty difficult for most people. A journey of any
major distance was impractical because it took a person away from
the farm or his work for too long a time. The travel/vacation
industry was simply not a reality, the world just wasn't ready
yet.
Because of new industrial machinery that became available to him,
a man called Henry Ford started up an assembly line which began
mass producing something called an automobile. Ford was using
new technology to make cars at a price that people could afford.
The problem was that most people didn't understand what he was
selling.
Garnering his life savings, a Quaker immigrant from Iowa descended
on Ford's plant to buy one of these newfangled contraptions. He
saw that the mobility that the auto offered was an empowering
new opportunity for Americans. He was one of the first to buy
and own the infamous Model A Ford.
This Quaker immigrant, like most of the eccentrics of his time,
was laughed at and chided with comments like "get a horse."
But he was not to be dissuaded. Not only did he see the Model
A as his ticket to freedom, he knew it would become everyone else's
too.
After a long and arduous car trip to the east coast, the oddball
gentleman settled in Atlantic City, a quiet little seaside town
in New Jersey. He got a job as manager of a small rooming house.
Sick people from the large cities of New York and Philadelphia
came there to get a prescribed dose of healthy sea air. A small
number of wealthy people also came to enjoy the coolness of the
ocean breezes during the stifling months of July and August.
The owner of the rooming house was an elderly man, ready to retire,
and he wanted to know if the Quaker would be interested in running
the rooming house in exchange for ownership rights instead of
wages. The owner knew how little the rooming house had earned,
and he needed to keep the manager's salary for himself as a pension.
He offered to throw in a room and three square meals a day into
the deal. He was completely surprised when his new employee agreed
to his terms without any hesitation.
Then an amazing thing happened. More and more of those newfangled
contraptions began showing up in Atlantic City. Mass produced
cars brought vacationers in by the thousands. Within two years
Henry Ford was a household name, and Joseph Walton Mott, my grandfather
from Iowa, had expanded his small rooming house into the Traymore
Hotel. He successfully built one of the first high-rise, ocean-front,
grand hotels in America.
Having become wealthy very quickly, he later used that same Model
A to get away from the hustle and bustle of the modern Atlantic
City. He regularly drove to his mansion and private lake tucked
away on a 4600 acre estate in the Pocono Mountains. When asked
what he attributed his success to, he'd wink and say, "The
Model A." He'd go on to say that he simply saw that he was
in the right place at the right time.
My grandfather's fortunes were a consequence of the technological
developments occurring at the turn of the nineteenth century.
Almost one hundred years later, as we enter the third millennium,
an even more powerful technological breakthrough is taking place.
Although you may be admonished by your peers for spending so much
time in cyberspace, the moment may come when someone will ask
you to what you attribute your success. You'll wink and say, "the
Internet," and go on to explain that you were smart enough
to recognize that you were in the right place at the right time.
(This article originally appeared in
TrailBlazer.)
Lawrence Mott is an Internet training and marketing consultant, Web site designer,
and newspaper columnist.
