How Do We Measure Greatness?

Earlier this week I posted an article which opened up the topic, “Who is the Greatest Domainer?” From feedback, it became evident that there was a problem around the whole definition of “Greatest” and over what period of time. I hope to outline my thoughts on this topic here.

To define “greatest we need to first ask, “Greatest in what aspect of business?” When a domain investor buys a domain name they typically have one of four ways they plan to make money from the transaction:

BUSINESS MODEL

1.       Traffic – the domain has traffic that can be monetized.

2.       Stock item sale – where the goal is to sell a lot of low value domains each year.

3.       High value sale – typically sell a few high value domains each year.

4.       Development – building a real business on a domain(s).

When we look at “greatest” then we need to consider in what business models is the individual regarded as being great. For example, Rick Schwartz is amazing at selling high value domains but last time I checked he doesn’t do development and certainly doesn’t optimize his traffic. This doesn’t mean he isn’t great (I think he is) but it highlights what he is great at.

The second area that needs to be considered is community. What has the individual done for the domain community and how have they represented the industry both internally and externally.

COMMUNITY

1.       Openness to share – Is the individual willing to share their thoughts on domain investing for the benefit of everyone? This may be through a blog, in a forum, conference etc.

2.       Represent the industry in a positive light – Does what the individual positively promote the industry to those within and outside of it? It would be very easy to openly share negatively and create a lot of trouble for the industry. In many respects, can the individual constructively criticize others in a manner that it is both received and welcomed?

3.       Tackle the big issues – Is the individual willing to stick their neck out and raise big industry issues. For example, transparency, renewal costs, hidden commission payments, traffic quality etc. Or does the individual remain silent?

The third area has more to do with the business ethics of the individual and how they hold themselves up before the industry.

INDIVIDUAL

1.       Is the individual ethical? – When a person conducts business with the individual can they be trusted or is there a certain amount of nervousness with dealing with them? If a deal goes wrong will the individual help to make amends? Are they straight forward or do you always wondering if you will discover a knife planted in your back?

2.       Personal sacrifice – Has the individual demonstrated they are personally prepared to put themselves on the line for the betterment of the industry? Have they tried to “right wrongs” where another person has been accused incorrectly or have they remained silent?

3.       Respectful - Does the person speak highly of others or attempt to make themselves look better by pulling others down? When you speak to the individual do you come away with the impression that what you say will be kept confidential or suddenly blasted across to the Internet? Are they a bit of a loose cannon with their mouth as the barrel?

If we were to score each of these ten points on a scale of one to five then I believe we would be closer to a working definition of overall “Greatness”. There are many other categories that will help us define what is “Great” but these ten points could be used as an adequate summary of an individual’s activities and behavior.

An additional benefit would be that we could identify individuals that would otherwise be overlooked that shine in a business model (ie. 1-4).

The second point we need to tackle is over what time frame. There can be Greatness over all time or over, say, a single year. I think that it would be beneficial to think of the last year and possible aggregate the totals across time to identify individuals that really rise to the forefront over many years.

I hope this article assists in defining the community’s thoughts on “Greatness” and that we can continue to positively identify those individuals that go above and beyond for themselves and the industry.

Haver a great weekend!