One of the reasons Ashley and I are so interested in Touchstone is that in the past we have worked on ventures where we had to have sales teams that had to convince customers and partners of using our (usually fairly complicated) products.

With Touchstone we have decided to have a totally different attitude. We call it being 'xen'. We promised ourselves that we would never try to 'sell' people on Touchstone. If they got it by themselves then they were the people we wanted to talk to!

This is all fine and good and a surprising number of people have 'just got it' and contacted us out of the blue. It's been very gratifying. But sometimes the result of this approach is that you only hear 'yes' or 'that's so great' and never any real challenges to your ideas.

Recently I have been having a bit of a fun debate with someone about Touchstone and it's usefulness and viability as product or even an investment opportunity. I don't really hope to change their mind and I am sure they don't care if I change mine - but I think the debate is worth having - and its fun to have your assumptions challenged. It helps you clarify your decisions (for yourself) and re-evaluate your position.

The worst thing someone can do is stubbornly protect their own position out of fear - they should learn from the criticism of others.