I stopped watching the show during season 2 but decided to watch this episode because of its entrepreneurship topic. In fact its summary reminded me of the "Ted Mosby : Architect" episode even if I wasn't expecting it to be as funny. The only thing I was afraid of was the usual Marshall dumb arc. To sum things up the episode confirmed I was right in the first place to give up on the show. First the whole Marshall story was as stupid as most of his lines. There's nothing interesting nor funny about him. Second the Ted arc was really disappointing and only a fifteen seconds long scene between him and Robin deserved our attention. At the beginning she said something about procrastination then Ted mentioned how hard it was to actually work freelance and was wondering if he would ever managed to realize his dream. The rest was dead boring and most of the scenes even pathetic. Last but not least I was amazed that the writers managed to turn the beautiful and smart Robin from season 1 into an empty shell. And what about Lily ? We saw her like two seconds and then she just vanished.
Considering how bad this episode was I really wonder why the show hasn't already jumped the shark. It's even sadder when you think of great episodes like "Mary the Paralegal". A few years ago I also remember posting on a forum about how watching it could be seen as a personal development therapy. It used to be so interesting and funny, even creative at times. It seems the writers just gave up on it probably like so many viewers. Enduring its twenty minutes was so painful that I think I will never go back to it, even if the story seems inspiring.
So I strongly recommend newcomers not to waste their time and long time fans to move on because there're far better series out there. What about Being Erica for example ? Its protagonist should help you remember how great our favorite Canadian reporter used to be !