Working Up

by Dwayne Phillips

Success can lead to failure. Sometimes great success can lead to great failure. See, e.g., Facebook.

There must be two social media companies out there named “Facebook.” There is this social media site called Facebook that many of my friends and relatives use. They show photos of the kids and the new babies and the new-baby-is-coming reveal party and such. I have found persons who were my high school classmates. Wow, they have changed, and so have I, and they love their grandkids like crazy just like me.

That Facebook is great. They hit on something there to let us all find one another and share our lives. Good stuff.

Then there is another Facebook company I read about in the news. They rigged they last presidential election by showing, of all things, advertisements. They show “fake news.” It seems that fake news is the stuff I used to see at the checkout counter of the grocery store, you know, some famous woman had an alien baby or someone was dating Princess Di and Marylin Monroe at the same time. All that was silly and adults knew the difference back then.

And this second Facebook has really rich people running the company. The really rich people, however, always seem to be in trouble. Is it fake news that the rest of us love to read about really rich people who are always in trouble? That is why we used to watch the TV show “Dallas” way back when we used to watch TV shows on TV.

And this second Facebook has these really rich people running the company appearing before Congress and all the European Parliaments and such and saying, “Let me get back to you on that,” even though the questions were, “Is it raining outside? Do I need my umbrella?”

Is it possible that the two Facebook companies are one in the same? Is it possible that the Facebook that allows me to find they guy who played trombone next to me in the  marching band is the same Facebook where the CEO is appearing before Congress without any sweat glands?

Is it possible that Facebook succeeded so much that the persons in charge became too rich too fast and weren’t able to handle the fame and fortune at a young age and…well, we know what happens in those cases.

There must be some older, not-as-really-rich persons sitting at Facebook close to those famous, really rich Facebook executives who made too much money too fast at too young an age. If you are one of those, please, please talk to the others.

Please ask them to stay out of trouble and not cause the collapse of Facebook. I do enjoy seeing how a former trombone player from the Loranger Wolfpack Marching Band is loving his grandkids and still playing the guitar.