Tag: success

Tech Will Save You

Posted by shane at 8:43 PM on October 10, 2008

I see all this junk happening in the news from bank failures to foreclosures. And I admit it is disturbing & can be disheartening if you allow it to be. But what I hate to see is people making excuses for why their life sucks. We all do dumb things, maybe me more than most. But it is better to own up to stupidity & try to fix it and do better in the future. One thing that really bothers me is when people complain about not being able to get a good paying job. I know it is tough out there. I really do but that is no reason to give up & expect someone else to take care of you & you life. You are in charge of you. No one from Washington is coming to save you.

You may be thinking what does this have to do with tech. Well I believe this time we are living in is the best opportunity to succeed in life. The low cost of computers and the availability of the internet makes it possible to educate yourself as much as you want to. There is the equivalent of millions of tons of data right at your fingertips online. That is how you make it. You educate yourself and make yourself more valuable to a company or make it possible for your small business to become successful. I just found http://www.scribd.com/ , a website that has many free books to download in PDF format and of course Google has many books available in the public domain.

I know it is easy for me to say & hard for some to do. “Pull yourself up by the bootstraps” as they say. The single mom with 3 kids will have a harder time than a guy right out of school with no kids to provide for each day. It is harder to GET OUT of a hole than to STAY OUT so I do sympathize with people having a hard time. I just don’t want people to give up especially when economic times are truly tough right now. Did you know that more millionaires were made during the Great depression than during any other time in US history? Me either until I heard it on a podcast last week! That means it is possible to “make it” even when things around us are seemingly in bad shape. Another reason I am optimistic is that I read (online for free about) about people with great disadvantages who would not be denied a good life. Helen Keller was blind and deaf yet she is known everywhere as a great poet & writer. Type Helen into Google & the first choice they give is “Keller”. We should be ashamed when we complain about our little problems compared to Ms. Keller’s. What could she have accomplished with today’s technology? If you could bottle what made her tick & sell it you would get rich quick.

Time is our best friend & most valuable resource. If you are worried about the affairs of the country & your finances then how are you preparing? Are you spending 16 hours a week watching TV or reading about your passion that you can turn into a business? How are you using the vast library called the Web to make you more valuable to your boss? I’m not preaching to the audience anymore than to myself. I know I can do better & be more productive as well. One of my favorite books is The Fountainhead which shows what determination & self-reliance will do for you. Mark Cuban has said that book is what motivated him to succeed in business. I wish it was required reading in high school as it truly has motivated me to help me. Download it for free here if you need inspiration. http://www.scribd.com/doc/6315480/Ayn-Rand-The-Fountainhead

Tags: business, economy, finances, success, using the internet to learn

Posted in Technology

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How You Know You Made It

Posted by shane at 8:03 PM on August 24, 2008

Do you know how you can tell when your product has “made it” It is when other products that are similar are called your products name. For instance when most people ask for a tissue they are just as likely to say “Kleenex” as anything else. Of course when people are talking about an mp3 player they will call it an ipod even if it were made by Creative or Sansa. I am guilty of this as well and I even have a bias against ipods because I don’t like the way they lock you into just their services. I make an effort not to call my Zen an ipod but I do it about 60% of the time then have to correct myself. I think I do it because subconsciously I know the person to whom I am speaking will likely not understand what a Zen is but will know what an ipod is most of the time. It must really be a tremendous help to your marketing team when the product you want to sell is promoted every second of everyday by so many people using them and using the product name even when it does not apply.

The iphone has not reached this pinnacle yet and I doubt it will. There were many cell phones before it came out so it is just very, very popular. It did not start a tidal wave of cell phone use. Apple did not invent the first mp3 player but they certainly did invent the most popular one. Think about how big your company would be if your main product’s branded name replaced the generic name for a device or material. It does not happen often. Even some of the most popular brands in the world have not reached ipod status. John Deere is a beloved product but people still say “tractor” instead of I need a new “Deere”.