Working Up

by Dwayne Phillips

Success leads to different things. One disturbing trend is that it leads to suspicion.

1. Google is a rather successful business.
2. The Federal Trade Commission is investigating Google.

Why is it that (2) often follows (1)?

Google offers a free service to Internet users. Come to our site and search the Internet. I find nothing on Google.com that tells people that the results of their free searches are guaranteed to be impartial, objective, no-agenda-attached, or anything of the sort. I find nothing on the computers of Americans that forces them to use Google’s free service. There are other free Internet search engines available. Some of those search engines owned the market before Google appeared.

Google succeeded by giving away a service that people wanted and like. Google also found a way to make money at the same time. They have hired thousands of Americans at high salaries. They have hired thousands of people in other countries as well. They are a successful multi-national company based in America. Sounds good to me.

On a personal level, have you ever wondered why some person you know succeeded far more than me? I have. I write books, but none have sold millions of copies (none have sold tens of thousands of copies). I write short stories. To date, I have earned a total of $5.93 from fifty short stories I wrote (not $5.93 from each story, $5.93 total).

Why is it that other writers make more money than me? Would the FTC investigate these all-too-successful writers for me? They must be doing something worthy of a regulator’s attention.

Then again, maybe not.