The man on the tight rope stepped easily off the taught metal wire stretching out behind him. Laying the pole down carefully, regretfully, he took a slow sip of water. He looked distant from the rest of them.

‘So why do you do it?’, the interviewer asked. He didn’t look up straight away and the question hung in the air. Carefully he knelt down in his own time and touched the concrete surface of the tower block with his palm. ‘Life isn’t as easy as walking a straight line.’ She looked at him confused. He wasn’t like her other assignments.

‘Life is always moving, we’re never still. Things go up and things go down. When I walk it reminds me what I really am.’

I thought about that tight rope walker looking over a list of top brands the other day. Some names jumped out. Yahoo. Amazon. e-Bay. Google. They were names that amazed us once with their sheer crazy brilliance and daring. Now they seen like older stories. I couldn’t help noticing that three of them had all slipped down the table. Such a shame.

Web brands come from a place all of their own. They’re a bit special, they didn’t go to school with the older ones. They played different games and had different dreams which made them what they are. They have their own stories and needs. There’s so much they can do. If only we could get them up on that high wire, they might see.

Image credit: Bounder