SLentrepreneur of the Year Award Show Ends

...and the winner is... Mimi Juneau!

Yes, after year of interviewing Second Life entrepreneurs and writing articles, the grand climax came today as Mimi Juneau was voted the 2008 SLentrepreneur of the Year. The second runner up was Saffia Widdershins and third was Rusch Raymaker.

Truth is, all the entrepreneurs deserve awards because they represent something good about the Second Life environment. I know that I can be annoyingly cynical about life, real or second, but I still cling to the fragile hope that good things can happen. As pundits and poseurs pontificate about the impending decease of Second Life, some folks actually get their fingers out from their asses and try to create something of value.

Here are some excerpts from my script that summarize my thoughts.

"When we first talked about the idea of an award for entrepreneurs, I had only one contribution that helped us focus on what we wanted to do. It's a quote that comes from Mark Twain and I’d like to simply read it to you:

'Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.'

And that is really how we see the entrepreneurial spirit. It’s not about being the richest, the biggest, the most powerful, or the most successful. It’s about people who are prepared to dream, explore their potential, and discover new things about themselves.

Every one of you who has been nominated has caught the trade winds and set sail. And even if you’ve been battered in storms, scrape a few rocks, or lost pieces of cargo, you have done more than many many other people, who chose to stay at the quayside and watch others set sail."

This is no bull. I really believe that doing something is always better than doing nothing. Armchair quarterbacks, back-seat drivers, keyboard pundits, are all ten-a-penny and it takes no effort to complain and criticize. But it takes effort to create, build, do, and persevere. That's surely worth celebrating.

If any one of these entrepreneurs were to go belly up, that would be tragic, but it wouldn't be a failure. Every one of them has tried to make a mark and to me, that's all you can do in an existential world that has no meaning. Make the meaning.

Do something!