• by Michael Kubin , July 4, 2001

Let's turn to the poets, those of us touched by the Web. For no one else can describe what the heck happened in this train wreck of an industry that began with such wonderful hopes. And even though she didn't have a high-speed connection and never even set fingers on a keyboard, Emily Dickinson is always good for an insight or two. The Web began with great hope, glorious vision, and unprecedented potential, remember?

Hope is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul,
And sings the tune without the words,
And never stops at all,

And sweetest in the gale is heard;
And sore must be the storm
That could abash the little bird
That kept so many warm.

I've heard it in the chilliest land
And on the strangest sea;
Yet, never, in extremity,
It asked a crumb of me.

After a couple of years' worth of spectacular successes, the roller coaster began to drop for good. The Web game changed very suddenly from future to past, and a whole lot of people began to regret they hadn't grasped the golden ring when they'd had the chance. In other words... "Almost!"

Within my reach!
I could have touched!
I might have chanced that way!
Soft sauntered through the village,
Sauntered as soft away!
So unsuspected violets
Within the fields lie low,
Too late for striving fingers
That passed, an hour ago.

Unfortunately for many, "almost" became "never". The high hopes of just a couple of years ago turned to losses as investments-of time and money-evaporated. What remains is the wide gap between those who got on-and off-in time, and those who didn't.

Success is counted sweetest
By those who ne'er succeed
To comprehend a nectar requires sorest need.

Not one of all the purple host who won the flag today
Can tell the definition
So clear of victory
As he, defeated, dying
On whose forbidden ear
The distant strains of triumph
Break agonized and clear.

But as long as you're above ground there is hope; it is better to have tried and failed than to have failed to try.

Or, in the words of Rudyard Kipling,

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss;
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it.

- Michael Kubin is co-CEO of Evaliant, formerly Leading Web Advertisers, one of the web's leading sources for online ad data.