Behind Business Blunders

In a rare podcast appearance, hosts want to know who is the intended audience for Business Blunders, and what is my goal for this publication? Like I know?

Today, I’d like to introduce you to an insightful podcast called Monday Morning Radio – or at least this one episode that features me.

We talk about how I came to write Business Blunders, why I write it, who is the intended audience, and what the heck am I going to do with it in the future.

I’ve previously laid out some of my thoughts in this post: “The Wonders of Blunders. It’s all about learning, and laughing, at the mistakes of others – so we don’t fall victims to the same follies. But after 14 months of publishing, and amassing about 5,500 subscribers, I’m still figuring out the big picture.

Monday Morning Radio wanted to know more.

The podcast has cranked out nearly 650 episodes since 2012, featuring interviews with business experts and innovative entrepreneurs who are far more accomplished than I ever aspired to be.

Award-winning journalist Dean Rotbart and his son Maxwell, author of “All You Can Eat Business Wisdom,” do a brilliant job hosting this show. They bring a mix of insightful questions for a roster of impressive guests and they add some salient commentary of their own.

In one segment, they asked whether I’d like to write a book (not a bad suggestion), go on a speaking tour (maybe, anyone interested in a talk about blunders?), and what are my goals for this thing, anyway?

Everyone in business expects you to be goal-oriented, but I’m just not these days. I am at a point in my life where I can do what makes me happy and leave room for serendipity, which is how Business Blunders got started in the first place.

In January 2024, the startup news organization I had been working for shut down and laid everyone off without notice. Serendipitously enough, I got a call from a Substack recruiter and got talked into starting this newsletter – overcoming my doubts about its viability.

My first Substack was a rant about my lost job. Woe was me. But to this day, it has been the most read post so far: My Latest Blunder: Lessons from an epic failure at The Messenger.

Media mogul Jimmy Finkelstein had blown through maybe $50 million trying to build an internet-age news organization with no clue about how the internet actually worked.

Finkelstein also committed a series of rookie blunders, including promising far more than he could deliver and failing to control expenses. Topping it off, he left 300 employees high and dry – no severance and medical benefits practically nixed overnight.

Finkelstein also shuttered the website that everyone had worked so hard to produce. All our work, turned to digital dust overnight. I couldn’t show you a single story I wrote for The Messenger.

Employees, of course, sued Finkelstein, and he recently agreed to settle for $4.5 million, which should give us some recompense for what we suffered, even after lawyers’ fees.

Finkelstein, in a serendipitous sort of way, was the massive blunder from which Business Blunders was born.

Thanks to my paid subscribers who help keep this thing going, and to my free subscribers who cheer me on with your “likes,” comments, “restacks” and shares.

I am having a blast writing Business Blunders. I hope you are, too.

That’s, at least, my goal for now.

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