• by Michael Kubin , Op-Ed Contributor, February 14, 2001

By Michael Kubin, co-CEO, LWA

Wow... the dot-com industry is looking a lot like one of those 54-car pileups on a foggy highway. And while it's encouraging to read about the coming recovery, and how the strong will survive, and how the Web really is the advertising medium of tomorrow, let's face it-there's a ton of pain out there.

There are no easy solutions. This industry grew far too quickly, was wildly overbuilt, and must now settle back to a more realistic size and growth rate. And it's going to take time to get there, time in which many more people's lives will be painfully disrupted.

No words of wisdom from me, but I can offer words of wisdom from a whole bunch of other folks. Hope it helps:

If you've got to eat a toad, it's best not to stare at it too long. -- Texas proverb

One of the symptoms of an approaching nervous breakdown is the belief that one's work is terribly important. --Bertrand Russell

Nothing will ever be attempted, if all possible objections must first be overcome. -- Samuel Johnson

Enthusiasm is the best protection in any situation. Wholeheartedness is contagious. Give yourself, if you wish to get others. -- David Seabury

If I am not for myself, who is for me? And if I am only for myself, what am I? And if not now, when? -- Hillel

Imagination is more important than knowledge. -- Albert Einstein

Pain is inevitable. Suffering is optional. -- Anonymous

Life is what happens when you are busy making other plans. -- John Lennon

There ain't much fun in medicine, but there's a heck of a lot of medicine in fun. -- Josh Billings

Even on the most exalted throne in the world, you are only sitting on your own bottom. -- Montaigne

You never make peace with friends. -- Yitzhak Rabin

Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like bananas. -- Groucho Marx

There's as much risk in doing nothing as in doing something. -- Trammell Crow

No one ever achieved greatness by playing it safe. -- Harry Gray

If you think your boss is stupid, remember: you wouldn't have a job if he were smarter. --Albert Grant

Victory goes to the player who makes the next-to-last mistake. -- Chessmaster Savielly Tartakower

Whether you think that you can, or that you can't, you are usually right. -- Henry Ford

Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake. -- Napoleon Bonaparte

A clever man commits no minor blunders. -- Goethe

You got to be careful if you don't know where you're going, because you might not get there. -- Yogi Berra

The illusion is that this is not the critical moment. -- Dwight Eisenhower

It's much easier to ride the horse in the direction he's going. -- Werner Erhard

-- Michael Kubin is co-CEO of New York-based Leading Web Advertisers (LWA) - http://www.web-advertisers.com - a comprehensive Web advertisement monitoring service. He may be reached at mkubin@web-advertisers.com.