Gosh I've been around this block a bunch of times -- I've over 20 years in the services business, and I've worked like a dog trying to launch a product business

Gosh I've been around this block a bunch of times -- I've over 20 years in the services business, and I've worked like a dog trying to launch a product business. I've worked with the big consulting firms, and I've worked with companies who were selling dynamite products. There's so much for me to say it's difficult to limit the scope. Most of this was dead-on. For me, I find the services sector to be a huge weight around my neck. Yes, those in the services sector look longingly at the product guys and get easily seduced over there, but the story is a bit deeper than that: if you're in services, you either scale by adding people, increasing rates, or adding something else to the mix. Running large groups of people may be fine for some guys -- I've never been a fan, at least in the services environment. Quality is always an issue, as is divided loyalties. Prices can only go so high, so you're left with either hiring more folks or selling a product. That's the situation whether your Andersen with a huge workforce or Daniel Markham with his mom-and-pop consulting shop. I know the people running the 50-person shops, the 500-person shops, and larger. It doesn't look like so fun from where I sit. Every person you send out to help somebody is a potential stick of dynamite waiting to go off and ruin your reputation. Clients say they want one thing but actually need something else. Any time you have lots of people, you have lots of headaches: sickness, death, family issues, personality conflicts, life values conflicts, etc. As you grow, either in income or in people -- or worse, in both -- the government gives you more and more hoops to jump through. Meh. So the allure of products is not limited to the big guys -- there are logical reasons why anybody in the services business needs to augment their income. But the core of his thesis is correct -- products are a completely different world. What looks like an easy switch is anything but.