How is Xenophobia best cured with a plate of popcorn lobster and a beer?

In the tradition of East meets West ...Active Rain Get Together, I had the opportunity to meet my online nemesis, Jeff Corbett, for dinner this evening.  Now, Jeff is really not my nemesis.  We did a little blog battle a month ago but had some opportunities to counter-blog and counter the counter blogs to gain some better insight about our respective opinions.  A few e-mails into the deal, we recognized two things:  we both want the same things (more of mo' better business), and that we had an opportunity to meet face-to-face when he traveled to the Coast for business.  I'm really glad we did.

Jeff Corbett is categorically guilty of not explaining his virtuous and revolutionary ideas to people behind the learning curve.  Now, I'm using this term "guilty" here because I want you to experience the affirmation of my early conclusions about Jeff. I suspected that he was probably correct in his concepts of transparent mortgage origination practices, was deploying a provocative marketing message to call attention to the deceptive practices in our industry , and was WAY ahead of me on this Web 2.0 thing.  I was right on all three counts.

Let me explain this "learning curve" thing to you.  I started blogging in August here on Active Rain. "Web 2.0 " to me was something you saw on a Rawlings baseball glove .  "Consumer-centric" to me was the under 10 items line at the grocery store.  The education I've received in this three month experiment has been invaluable; tonight's dinner was the cherry on top of the frosting on top of the cake. Tonight, I can effectively explain what "mash-up technology" is and what "RSS feeds" are.  The Villanova School of Business, a fine institution, never could have moved me along a learning curve as quickly as Active Rain has.

So what have I learned from this experience?  Don't be scared of the unknown.  Don't feel embarassed or stupid about asking questions about the unknown.  Don't be scared to tell some of the Web 2.0 big-thinkers that they need to "dumb it down" a bit so you can understand their message.  Don't be scared to ask someone to dinner.  Don't be scared to pick up the phone. 

Jeff Corbett is actually a pretty shy man.  He's unassuming, unfailingly polite, and a true gentleman.  Get him talking about what we do for a living and his eyes light up, his hands start moving, and his animation grabs you and transports you to a better tomorrow.  It was like watching Ronald Reagan make the Shining City Upon a Hill speech in 1974.  Jeff made a great comment about Active Rain tonight.  He described the Active Rain Real Estate Network as one filled with forward-thinking people who voluntarily exchange good information with absolutely no ulterior motive other than to improve the way we do business with the consumer.  That is pretty cool.

Jeff Corbett is definitely guilty.  He's guilty of having the hare-brained notion that people with ethics and a keyboard will change the way that mortgage origination is done in this country. He thinks the consumer AND the ethical originator will benefit from that hare-brained notion.  He wants YOU to get in line behind him....

...right behind me.