Why did Charlie Brown pick that crappy tree?

Guts, people!

Sure, he was a bit timid at first, having faced many challenges throughout Peanuts lore – “wah wah, wah wah wah, wah wah,” his parents and teachers would often say about him – but he had a vision, followed it, and everything eventually worked out. By the end of the classic holiday television special, all the naysayer kids were literally helping him decorate his tree and gathering around it to sing praises. It was Chuck’s critical mass moment.

While watching “A Charlie Brown Christmas” for the umpteenth time, it struck me that this simple approach is faring well (with growing frequency) for entrepreneurs and businesses using social media. There are a lot of horror stories and gaffes out there too, yet I have to believe that many online success stories have an ounce of Charlie Brown logic in them — that energizing mix of nervousness and optimism that drives one forward.

Following your vision instead of buckling to critics is making many people successful in the online world – more than you and I have time to absorb from a Google search – but here’s a few to support my point.

• Michael Buckley was featured in the New York Times earlier this month for his successful YouTube entertainment gossip show. The production cost for Buckley’s video endeavor? A couple grand for the camera, less than ten bucks for his backdrop and lighting, and basically the guts to go forth and do it. The Times reported that Buckley quit his day job at a music promotion company in September when his YouTube advertising profits exceeded his former salary.
• A LinkedIn success story has also been making the rounds this month. Jeff Ragovin says he’s used LinkeIn to generate “two to three million” in business for his company, Buddy Media, a social and digital media consultancy. Ragovin’s story has a little more elbow grease to it than others. He cites best practices in the LinkedIn Blog testimonial, and it appears through good LinkedIn networking, sound decision making, and some patience he’s been able to incrementally add revenue to Buddy Media’s bank account. Nice job.
• And finally, from a simple Google search I learned about Mark Siegel who, with the aid of blogging experts Patsi Krakoff and Denise Wakeman, can happily attribute $875,000 of new revenue for his Golfasian Web business to his Thailand Golf Zone blog. I really like this one. Highly targeted content to a very specific audience, that’s well rewarded for its differentiation.

These out-of-nowhere stories are quite inspiring when you reflect upon them. Even in a down economy there are great ideas out there percolating and looking for a home. Good grief… time I figured out one of my own!