Startup Strategy: Sometimes, There's No Right Angle Turn

The fall has been kind to many startups and with the Thanksgiving Day Sales around the corner, you may be thinking it's time to upgrade your wardrobe. Think carefully when you see these things in your shoe department.

I'm all for man comfort, but a sweater is a sweater. It cannot be a shoe. As the holiday shopping scene comes upon you, resist the urge to buy things like these. The salesman who shows you these will probably try and sell you a cravat, too.

Sometimes in life, right angle turns can be made. For example, Nortel could turn from telecom to internet, even with John Roth at the helm. Other times, not so much.

You cannot make CLEC service provisoning tools cool, and you can't make a cableknit sweater cool, either. It's a basic tenet of man clothes that your armpits and your feet should not have textiles in common. I'm just saying.

Thanks, Manolo.