5 Internet billionaires succeed thanks to 'unreasonable'

Ignoring the skepticism and criticism, they persisted in driving the company in a way unlike anyone, like Mark Cuban, founder of HDNet, declared: "My decision is based on what I think is right but not." care what other people think ".

Mark Cuban, co-founder of HDNet: " When everyone agrees with you, don't invest if you don't want to waste time. "

Rarely has anyone bravely broken any management principles like the Dallas Mavericks club basketball boss. Since owning this team in 2000, Mark Cuban has been called the "biggest mouth" in the NBA professional league. Outbursts of anger cost him at least 1.6 million fines, but he did not bother.

Cuban is also known for its incredible ideas. When the personal computer was a hot topic in the 1980s, Cuban decided to invest in this field even though he was blind about informatics. That gamble earned him $ 2 million after reselling Micro Solutions to CompuServe.

In 1995, the Web became a fever and Cuban came up with the idea of ​​streaming sports tournaments at schools. Four years later, he sold Broadcast.com to Yahoo for $ 5 billion. Then in 2001, when the high-definition HDTV was in the US, he built the HDNet network, which now attracts more than 4 million subscribers.

" Obviously, if other people think like me, drawing conclusions like me, I won't waste time investing in that anymore, " Cuban revealed the secret of success.

Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon.com: " Want to make money, give nothing you have "

In 2001, Jeff Bezos began sharing free virtual booths with competitors, allowing them to do business right on his website. Wall Street financial experts think he is going insane. Even close people are confusing, especially when Amazon.com pursues a "hot" expansion plan - not just selling books but everything from household electronics to supplies. raising cheap . And still not earning a single profit.

" People seem stressed. But the fact is that if you give customers what they want, like reasonable prices, rich choices and fast delivery capabilities, sooner or later you will have more orders , "Bezos said.

That's exactly what happened. Revenue of Amazon.com increased 34% in 2003 and reached more than 5 billion USD. Later that year, after nearly a decade of losing business, the company also announced it had its first profit.

Now Bezos continues to be more "crazy", and again makes Wall Street more worried about him: moving from sales to web services. The Simple Storage Service repository, also known as S3, will charge users 15 cents / gigabyte / month. While far from the traditional business model of Amazon.com, the service is very attractive. Linden Labs has hired the Second Life client software space and "grandfather" Microsoft also signed a contract to save the Direct Student Download program.

Craig Newmark, founder of Craigslist: " Leave some money on the table "

You build one of the most valuable websites on the Internet, attracting 17 million people from 50 countries every month. You can collect $ 1 billion per year if you charge a fee for using the service, or collect advertising banners. Instead, you are satisfied with the small amount of USD 30 million.

This is what Craigslist founder is doing. Analysts say Craig Newmark left behind too much money. Nearly every item on Craigslist is free and this classified site never installs ads. They only charge $ 25-75 for recruitment notices in 7 major cities in the US and $ 10 for a housing advertisement in New York.

This helps Craigslist embrace classified information that should have been published in hundreds of American newspapers. " Respect customers, they will not turn away ," Newmark said simply.

Jim Lanzone, CEO of Ask.com: " It's okay if you're not the number one "

At General Electric, Jack Welch is still famous for saying that their company should only compete in areas where they are capable of holding a unique position. Ask.com's CEO doesn't think so. " You absolutely can own a search engine ranked fourth, like us, but still works very well ." (Ask.com is behind Google, Yahoo and MSN).

Establishing Ask Jeeves in 1996, Lanzone's website struggled to find a foothold in the world which had so many similar searrch tools. Until 2005, Ask.com proved successful when acquired by InterActiveCorp (IAC) and invested on Lanzone's principle: focusing on improving search results, rather than neglecting other issues such as provide e-mail or blog services.

Huffington turned the blog into a billion business

When Arianna Huffington launched the Huffington Post (Huff-Po) in May 2005, no one cared about her ambition: making money from political blogs. For them, blogs are for sharing, not for profit.

Two years later, Huffington proved his wisdom. Huff-Po became the fifth most popular blog on the Internet according to Technorati's review of 3 million monthly visitors and attracted a lot of great funding. "Huffington is building a new model of news websites with information updated in style," said Eric Hippeau of Softbank, an investment company for Huff-Po.

Huffington said she's famous for picking the right time and bravely ignoring criticism. " I don't intend to go against the wisdom of the majority. But if I'm pushed out, I don't see it as a big problem ."

Hai Nguyen