I’ve had my cat, Pepper, for around 13 years now and to say that she’s a part of the family is actually not quite true. For a start, the previous statement is completely incorrect. Pepper has decided to grace our family with her presence for the past 13 years and we are a part of her life would be a more correct statement. For those of you that have a cat, you will completely understand the not so subtle shift in those sentences and who actually runs the household.
Pepper has the entire world figured out. She has servants that feed her, give her a regular massage and she sleeps for about eighty percent of the day. The house is hers and she only lets the family live in it because we play a necessary part in her hedonistic lifestyle of eat, sleep and lie in the sun.
As all cats will confirm, they are absolute geniuses. For example, Pepper has saved me from spending untold thousands of dollars on completely irrelevant domain names. When I get excited about a name and I’m about to press the “buy now” button she just looks at me in a disapproving manner and that’s all it takes. I abandon my misguided shopping cart with a sense of relief that once again I’ve been saved by my beloved feline.
After a particularly intense day of work she graciously lets me pat her head and give her a bit of a scratch under the chin. The stress seems to leave me with each passing minute and Pepper just looks up me with a knowing smirk on her be-whiskered face that once again she’s manipulated me into getting what she wants.
Every now and then she has to whip her underlings into shape and demand the attention due her status. On one particular day her bowl wasn’t brimming over with delectable delights so she calmly entered my study and started chewing on my iphone 6 USB cord to let me know her displeasure. Within half a second I had bowed to my master, filled her bowl and asked if there was anything else that I could do for her.
I sometimes think that if Pepper deemed it worthy of her station she could have the entire domain industry whipped into shape in no time. Google would be transparent, monetisation providers would soon have the flexibility to really innovate and some registrars wouldn’t “accidentally lose domains. They’d all be terrified that she would pay them a visit to truly express her displeasure at their actions.
Even as Pepper dictates this blog, I’m feeling a little intimidated by the forcefulness of her purring. It’s almost like she’s decided to place the entire domain industry on notice. Then again, what would a cat really know? Oh, oh, she just growled at me for writing that!
Have a great weekend.
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Michael Gilmour has been in business for over 32 years and has both a BSC in Electronics and Computer Science and an MBA. He was the former vice-chairman of the Internet Industry Association in Australia and is in demand as a speaker at Internet conferences the world over. He has also recently published his first science fiction book, Battleframe.
Michael is passionate about working with online entrepreneurs to help them navigate their new ventures around the many pitfalls that all businesses face. Due to demands on his time, Michael may be contacted by clicking here for limited consulting assignments.