Right Don... RT is politically correct... NOT!
If we write it, it will be a "tell-all" expose that would let all know about the struggles and the fun. But what it will not do is embarrass or punish any for the mistakes we have made along the way. One can never do a thing like Ross-Tech without failures. And when we failed, we found ways to pick ourselves up and go on. We licked our wounds and kept (and still keep) going.
Sounds to me Don that you would like to read the soap story of RT. That is not something I would ever participate in. It serves no purpose.
Yep, I just admitted we have our differences and fights - just like any other real family. And we are a family. We do care about each other. That does not mean we agree 100% with one another. But I'll be damned if I will participate in airing our dirty shorts in front of a forum audience. I hope others at Ross-Tech will agree with me.
Again I ask: to what end Don? What possible good purpose would it serve to read the detail of conflicts that exist in all businesses or in all families? Surely we have enough of this in the media today!
Bruce: - my words were said tongue-in-cheek (well kind-of). It doesn't surprise me one iota that a successful company like RT has a corporate family ethic! I think that I recall that someone there (it might even have been you) said in the past that there was a high ratio of long-time employees @ RT - which speaks volumes about the company ethic and as a consequence, the people that work there.
Nothing wrong with failures I agree - it's by far the best route to success in the corporate world (). As for embarrassing others - that's not at all necessary in a deftly written biography that steers an honest path through the maze of personalities that Ross Tech must have encountered over the many years. Lot's of well written and truthful (read, uncensored) biographies find a way of telling the "warts" part of the story without the necessity of embarrassing anyone - (they use tools like fake names, talking in the first-person, omitting names entirely etc.)
"to what end?" - well it's entirely up to the writer's style and the target audience - but mostly, it's about the objective of the expose. "An enthusiastic success" (very nice - thank you for posting!) reads like was a marketing exercise. Nothing at all wrong with this - it was an informative and very interesting piece. If you were thinking of another similar exercise, then I'm sure that it will be equally interesting. But there are so many other threads that can be weaved into the life story of a young inventor, struggling in his parent's garage to turn a hobby into something that other folk might want to buy and then to to have that tiny seed germinate and grow into what is now an industry standard!
Sure, I guess my post was a suggestion for something different - this forum is mostly about technical stuff and it serves it's purpose well. But there is a world of difference between writing a rude and offensive story that embarrasses others - and a tale that honestly describes the rich tapestry of personalities that must be pivotal to the telling of the Ross Tech journey.
But hell - the singular privilege of being the author is that you get to decide how and what you write!! I'm sure that it will be an interesting read, regardless of the decision!
Don