Life is like "Moon Patrol" aka Fun with Grammar, aka Calvinists are Wrong!

There's a sentence that I agreed with the first time I read it. "Life is what happens while you're making other plans." The second (and every other) time I read it, I was just annoyed.

There is some truth in that statement. Case in point...

I moved closer to Boise a year ago to save on fuel and cut down on driving time to some of my customers. I didn't want to buy--the market was dropping then, so I rented. Guess what! The lease is up the end of this month and I have to leave. Doh!

The kids are already registered for school and I can't find a place in our town that meets our needs. Oh and August 1 was going to be the official roll out of our brand new, shiny, black, made from genuine naughas, content management system for www.acmetechworks.com. Or maybe not.

Too bad I haven't started pod casting yet--I could chuckle about the experience with my audience.

Back to that statement. Life isn't what happens when you're making other plans. Sure, it throws a damper on your dreams sometimes. But life is more like Moon Patrol. You jump over obstacles or shoot them if warranted, while you're on your way, doing what you're doing.

Perhaps it's clearer to say that life is complicated mash of your actions and reactions in the stream of events around you. Bah! Life is like Moon Patrol.

I know some people who believe in predestination. I guess for them, life is more like a movie, they're just watching it from a first person point of view. Weird. I love you guys, but definitely weird. From my perspective, a higher being did not make the grape lady fall.

My Moon Patrol view of life is a simile. I know that can be confusing for some, so let me shift gears and give you a metaphor.

Life is Moon Patrol. You have an array of actions you may use at anytime, some of which have negative consequences.

My best wishes to you! May you hit the up button and space bar at all the right times!

P.S. "naugha" is not in blogger.com's spell check. What's up with that?

Social Media: If YOU build it, they may not come!

I've been listening to a lot of marketing and social media marketing pod casts lately. A lot of what I've been hearing (with the exception of Marketing over Coffee) is this idea that being engaging in social media will garner traffic/business.

I understand why there are so many sources preaching this message, but I disagree.

I don't think that there is a deliberate attempt to mislead, I just think that there are some gifted people out there who don't realize the power of their strengths. They think success was just getting out there.

If you think about it, social media is a way of engaging people in a relationship. Like all relationships, some people are better fits than others.

I'm happy to say that my wife, Charity, and I are a great fit. She doesn't have to work at all to bring me contentment and fulfillment. Why is this? It's her personality, her gifts, her strengths. She just has to be who she is.

What if Charity was marketing some networking hardware. Her interactions in social media would bring about different results than my efforts. We're different people and we have different ways of managing relationships.

My conclusion is twofold:

1. Some people are going to have to work harder than others in social media marketing.
2. I'm lucky to have an amazing partner in life!

The Sputnik Moment

The inspiration for this post (i.e. credit or blame) goes to @dtapscott for tweeting about about a documentary on Youtube. It's called "The Sputnik Moment" and you can find it here.

The comparison and contrast to the present is my own. Frankly, this is a rant.

The movie describes the fears that motivated 1950s Americans to get in the space race. Americans were able to recognize a threat to their well being and to their standard of life.

I don't think that modern America has that foresight. There's a current threat to our well-being. It's about the dollar, where we spend it and how we borrow it. We also need to look at the choices we've made for the past three decades. We've sold our agriculture, manufacturing and banking to foreign interests.

This sounds like a blog about protectionism, but maybe it's a blog about networking.

There's a tech consulting company that has a branch in Boise. Their headquarters is in India. I understand that they're paying local people to do the work, and that's great. My question is, "What value is being added to the service by having headquarters in India?" They certainly aren't cheaper.

The Sputnik Moment shows a nation mobilizing its education system to produce scientists and engineers. There was a groundswell of support that pushed our nation into space. The push came from middle class America. Our middle class is a dying breed now. All the good paying jobs that require higher education and skills are heading out of the country.

What is causing the push? I think it's the investor. If a CEO of a publicly traded company doesn't perform annually, they're gone. Investors demand the best bottom line FOR THE QUARTER. Who cares whether the widgets could come from local companies that provide synergy for a penny more? Not investors.

Yet in my business, I'm willing to spend $30 more for a box of business cards because I have a relationship with the vendor. They'll throw me business and I'll do my best to do the same. As long as vendor quality is good, I'll pitch leads.

America's new economy may be the service economy. We'll provide bodies for call centers, outlet malls and fast food joints.

The moral? Every penny you spend is a vote. Spend them wisely, in the places that will benefit you and yours!

Social Media and Cycles

I started this blog because I have something to say...

and I don't want to mess up my business blog (acmetechworks.blogspot.com).

I just read an blog at scottberkun.com that was written about social media hype and those who are hyping (that's a word, right?) it. Scott's blog refers to another blog that he says has bias toward social media. I'm not going to post the other blog because it looks like someone researched a lot of SEO phrases and put them into an article.

I agree with Scott that marketing people are biased towards social media. I also agree that old marketing strategies still have value.

There are a couple things that have been nagging me about social media.

Firstly, social media are driven by the people. I think it was Justin Foster of www.thetricycle.com who pointed out on a podcast that audience driven agenda (crowd sourcing was what he was talking about) isn't new. Socrates (help me out if I'm wrong, Justin) referred to the people as "the polity", so what's happening now isn't new, we just have new tools to do it with. (I can end sentences with prepositions because I'm an American, and I'm celebrating Independence Day! Happy July 4th!)

The second thing that worries me is that things tend to be cyclic. I'm a latecomer to social media. I started a group on Facebook called "My Wife Made Me Join Facebook", and I was mostly joking when I did it. Now I have a company that has some great product offerings and I'm looking for ways to spread the news. Am I too late? I may have missed the wave.

I listen to a podcast at www.tengoldenrules.com. Somewhere in one of their interviews, the phenomenon of pop-up windows was discussed (not disgust, discussed). In the beginning, the pop-up windows were very effective, but the audience became hardened to them relatively quickly. I worry that social media may go the same way. There are thousands of us who are eloquent, erudite, etc. and we're all beginning to say something. I expect that people will start covering their ears after a while. This is especially true because social media are driven by the people.

Next time: Social media, Cycles and Seats