Richard Keith Latman - The Blog

And the Response is In...

I want you all to see a couple of responses I got yesterday to the BLOG posting. This first one came through just a few minutes after the posting was made:

From: Daisy Mao
Sent: Thursday, September 28, 2006 7:55 AM
To: keith@latman.org
Subject: absolutely hilarious

Why are all your pics on the internet taken from the side?  Is it because you have such big dumbo ears?  And you could really use some foundation, you have the ugliest skin, you must be a boozer.  How much do you pay your wife to hide your secrets?  Nice blog, all i wanted was to see if someone with half a brain had taken over microworkz so i could get my money back you ugly f*ck.  I wish all your new "clients" know that you're a thief and a phony.  Nice gut by the way.  Oh, and your children look like weird little monkeys. 

This is the kind of response that stifles innovation and makes people hesitant to take risks. It's very true that if you put yourself in the public eye then this is what you get in return when you fail. Two things Daisy:

1. Prove to me you have lost money and I will write you a check. I've written many checks over the past few years to help out folks hurt by Microworkz.com's failure. 213 people worked there Daisy, investors invested into the company and we tried as hard as we could to change the landscape of the computing world. It's important to note that even after the State and Federal governments looked into the collapse of the company I have never been accused of any kind of criminal wrongdoing related to Microworkz.com. Yes we failed; No we didn't steal money from you or anyone else.
2. You really should seek mental help to deal with what is obviously an extreme anger management issue. It's one thing to attack me and my lovely ears but when you hit at innocent kids it goes beyond normal.

The second email came from a company named Dealer.com that I mentioned in the BLOG who I think has tried to use this old stuff to win business. I felt it only fair to publish the response I received from them:

Keith,

I don’t know you (we met once) but I think your statement couldn’t be further from the truth as it pertains to my company. Also, considering that you push your words around the web and put in on display for the world to see and then go and criticize a company for one person who decides to share some surprising news with a client acquaintance seems very odd Keith.

You have never heard me or my people bad mouthing your company, if someone here at Dealer.com shared some news with a potential client than that’s what it is nothing more. For you to say we do not compete on merit when we have been doing so since 1997 and generated over 4000 truly satisfied clients in a space that really doesn’t compete head on with your company is really a stretch.

Just thought you should know my position on that.

Mark Bonfigli
President, CEO
Dealer.com, Inc

Truth is Mark you are right I have never "heard" it, but I've seen it in emails and trusted friends have told me of countless incidents of verbal inaccuracies spread from your team. It makes me work harder and reinforces my belief that there needs to be further work on our dealership web products. Funny how things can motivate someone, but we're motivated to compete directly with your offering and will be announcing some big plans at NADA. If at any time you want to chat, you know my number.

RKL Giving Back

It's amazing to me the amount of mail I receive and how much of it is supporting. Since the end of last month over 90,000 people have visited this BLOG, 2212 emails have been sent to me and we've served over 300,000 pages of information. Perhaps it's because this domain was so popular as Microworkz.com but it's strange to me that the numbers keep going up. In any regard, I've taken the 5 questions that seem the most asked and answered them below:

1. You have started a lot of businesses, why is iCarMagic different than all the other ones? - Nelson C - Tampa, FL.
   
   Nelson that's a great question and one that I get asked all the time. The truth is that being an entrepreneur is in my blood (my grandfather started Schwab's Pharmacy in Hollywood) and is really what I enjoy to do. As you probably know it's not easy to start a company and although there are mentors out there (www.score.org among others) I've never found a manual or lecture that provided much assistance. I learn from my mistakes, have made a more than my share, and I try very hard not to repeat them. You'll notice that iCarMagic (now www.imagiclabs.com) has nothing in common with Microworkz except that we have innovative ideas that have won the attention of our target customers. All the Microworkz mistakes (production, growth speed, over sales, etc) have been pre-eliminated from our model. We have built a scalable system, using open-source software as a back-end that can handle my ability to sell large quantities without adding an undue burden on the infrastructure. Don't forget that a couple of my business have been sold to major companies and continue to go strong even today. At the end of the day ideas are great, but execution is better and that's what we've done at iMagicLabs
2. Do you see yourself back in the hardware business at any point in the future? - Marjorie L - Seattle, WA
   
   This is a hard one to answer because hardware, as in consumer devices, is actually a product of software and physical equipment. While I don't foresee that I will ever try again to build an enormous manufacturing infrastructure, it is quite possible that I will again be involved in a major consumer electronics product. As when I started with the iToaster, my desire to empower lower-income people with computing devices has not gone away...
3. How has the criminal case and your guilty plea affected your life? Bill K. - San Francisco, CA
   
   Wow. When I first read this question I started to really quantify, perhaps for the first time, how this has changed me, the people around me and my business life. The case itself closed a long chapter of change for me on a personal level. The criminal conduct that I engaged in (which related to hiding assets on a personal tax return) occurred at the lowest moment in my life. My marriage was falling apart, Microworkz had just closed down and I was absolutely unemployable due to the extensive publicity. I am not making excuses here, what I did was wrong and anytime you sign a document or testify for any reason it should be accurate. All that I am saying is that well before this case started I began to learn the hard lessons that trials and sentences are supposed to teach. For the last 6 years while the government investigated my finances and conduct, I worked on why my life collapsed and what changes I needed to make. It took a lot to acknowledge that my crimes were not in the "grey" area and that I truly didn't respect the need for accountability. Finding out your problems and admitting them to yourself is the only way to start fixing them. So, to answer your question directly, the "charges" per se have not negatively affected me at all. Assistant U.S. Attorney Don Currie, my attorney John Wolfe, the U.S. Marshals Service and every person that I have encountered during the process have been professional and reinforced the changes that I have so desperately made. I am not saying this was fun, but it did provide closure for me on a chapter of my life and an event that I wish I never did. Just to be clear: I've been on "trial" for 6 years in my own mind and began serving my sentence long ago. These charges are the conclusion to the matter for me, not the beginning.
   
   Footnote: Half a decade later my life is completely different, my kids are healthy, I'm married to the most wonderful woman on the planet, have great friends across the country and my business is doing extremely well. I learned the hard and the painful way that being born with a golden tongue will not get you into the chocolate factory. Maybe somebody reading my story will look at their life and make the changes needed before it's too late (and that's the only reason I am writing this).
4. Do you think your past will hurt you in your future? Sabrina S. - Taiwan, ROC
   
   That's a good question because you can never run from your past or wish it away. I think the lessons I have learned and the person I have become could not have been achieved or absorbed in any other way. My competitors today (Dealer.com, Ralph Ebersole and various desperate folks who have trouble competing on merit) forward the news articles etc to every customer they can, but they still lose. I have a history of honesty and integrity in business dealings that spans back over 2 decades and my professional reference list is quite long. My biggest failure, Microworkz.com, crashed because I failed to plan for success effectively. This is not a mistake I will make again....
5. What's next Richard Keith Latman? How do I invest? - Brain L. - New York, NY
   
   Only two people know this, and my son Michael promised he won't tell anyone. Let me just say that I've got a few years left here at iMagicLabs finishing what I've started. We've built an amazing company, but we're far from done.

Sorry for the delay

As some of you know, it's been a bit busy in my life of late. We changed the name of iCarMagic to iMagicLabs, launched 7 new products and business is just amazing. That's not intended to be an excuse for me not BLOG-ing lately, well, OK its an excuse, but it's true.

I have a ton of your emails to answer and a lot to write, stay tuned until next week and things should free up.

Keith