The road to failure is lined with many good intentions

In the New York times on July 22nd Ron Nixon wrote about Greg Wyler, a 37 year old tech boom millionaire, and his honorable efforts to bring the internet to Rawanda. He was unsuccessful.

Three points are worth taking away from his experience:
1. Understand the infrasctructure of the system in which you will work and what pieces can be manipulated. Recognizing that the rules are different from the rules you are used to is a critical step.
2. Pick something small and changeable if for no other reason than to establish credibility
3. Operators must operate. Get your hands dirty or find someone who is more talented to do it for you. Especially when an infrastructure doesn't currently exist, it is frequently necessary to create one or leverage another system. America is a rare environment in that if you create a compelling product; the laws, distribution systems, talent, and eager consumers are all waiting for you. The same is not true in emerging markets. While they both offer potentially attractive rewards, each presents a different set of challenges.

One final closing note": as Roosevelt said,"it is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena..."