Om’s just posted a pretty interesting infographic about Michael Arrington’s rise to fame (and, now post AOL acquisition of Techcrunch, to riches) [1]. People will undoubtedly speculate about and attribute Mike’s “road to millions” to many things good and bad - some by respect and admiration, others by what could be considered some form of jealousy.
Having been around in the very beginning of Techcrunch, I can say this: Mike’s success was in the books. Regardless of whether you like him or not ( many people don’t), you’ll probably have a rough time trying to find someone who is as dedicated to what they do as he is. In the beginning, Mike sucked at writing, but he was pretty good at spotting neat ideas. He aimed to improve constantly. More importantly, however, he was (probably still is) relentless and f-cking dedicated.
And let’s put it this way: if you’re dedicated to something enough to put your heart and soul into it for 5 years, despite death threats, insane stress and sleepless nights, it is only poetic justice that you get rewarded. Mike was. Kudos.
[1] Fun fact: on the infographic at GigaOm, I’m in the very first photo, next to Jeff Clavier of Softech VC and Keith Teare (who I was working for/with on Edgeio back then, parallel to my work for Techcrunch)