Thursday 17 July 2014

Synchro-destiny, events and other people's launches.


  Deepak Chopra, a very wise man, now in his 60s, believes we can all get what we want. All we have to do is learn about what he calls Synchro-destiny …

It's a book I am reading and re-reading at the moment as I learn how to meditate (no laughing please...) 

The key to Synchro-destiny, says Deepak, is asking questions out loud without trying to find answers. This, he says, allows the Universe to provide you with what he calls “Synchro-destiny”.

Indeed. What Carl Jung called “synchronicity” and James “Celestine Prophesy” Redfield called “meaningful coincidence”, Chopra has coined “Synchro-destiny”.

All people that I loved reading and reading about - and Deepak's version for some reason is the one that has called to me the most. 

He says it’s “the key to getting you whatever you want out of life”. It’s the way the ‘Universe’ (aka God, Source, the Field) helpfully points us all in the right direction, with gentle hints and nudges.

I am wondering if I had one of them yesterday when I attended a conference in Liverpool, the games expo at the #ifb2014, on the way I bumped into a past work colleauge who was 'just thinking' about me, and then at the event I met many people that seem to be placing me onto a road.. of launching my own mobile games development company again. 

On the way home, something I had been chatted about at the conference, as something that might happen in the future - suddenly arrived in my inbox - and this is a BIG company that I have no control over.... so a lovely moment of spooky timing once again. 

To finish the night I then went to another launch party in Manchester, this time for an organisation called Nothing but Epic, where again more and more things happened that seem to be "nudging" me... 

Anyhoo... back to Synchro destiny. 

WHAT IS SYNCHRO-DESTINY?

 Synchro-destiny is when things “fall into place”; when events seem “fated”; when you feel as though the Universe is “trying to tell you something” and you “go with the flow”.

I pop here an exert from  "The Spontaneous Fulfillment of Desire" by Deepak Chopra. © 2003 by Deepak Chopra. Excerpted by permission of Harmony, a division of Random House, Inc.

To remind myself of the potential power of it all. 
 
"Most of us go through life a little afraid, a little nervous, a little excited. We are like children playing hide and seek, wanting to be found, yet hoping we won’t be, biting our nails with anticipation. We worry when opportunity approaches a little too closely, and hide deeper in the shadows when fear overcomes us. This is no way to go through life. People who understand the true nature of reality, those whom some traditions call enlightened, lose all sense of fear or concern. All worry disappears. 

Once you understand the way life really works—the flow of energy, information, and intelligence that directs every moment—then you begin to see the amazing potential in that moment. Mundane things just don’t bother you anymore. You become lighthearted and full of joy. You also begin to encounter more and more coincidences in your life.

When you live your life with an appreciation of coincidences and their meanings, you connect with the underlying field of infinite possibilities. This is when the magic begins. This is a state I call synchrodestiny, in which it becomes possible to achieve the spontaneous fulfillment of our every desire. Synchrodestiny requires gaining access to a place deep within yourself, while at the same time awakening to the intricate dance of coincidences out in the physical world.

When a coincidence arises, don’t ignore it. Ask yourself, What is the message here? What is the significance of this? You don’t need to go digging for the answers. Ask the question, and the answers will emerge. They may arrive as a sudden insight, a spontaneous creative experience, or they may be something very different. 
Perhaps you will meet a person who is somehow related to the coincidence that occurred. An encounter, a relationship, a chance meeting, a situation, a circumstance will immediately give you a clue to its meaning. 
 “Oh, so that’s what it was all about!” "
Next time I bump into a friend on the train I haven't seen for ages - I will think again. 
And by the by, I now know what Nothing but Epic do - it's kinda cool and fits in very nicely to my new idea - nice one Synchro Destiny. 

Read more about Synchro Destiny at http://www.beliefnet.com/Wellness/2003/10/Coincidences-Clues-From-The-Universe-By-Deepak-Chopra.aspx#Q3D1TSw0MMvdI63o.99

Monday 14 July 2014

To Uber or not to Uber - that is NOT the question.

Everyone has them. Moments when they realise they were / are wrong. Moments that form in the brain, when several synapses to their thing and shock us into a new thought / or a new realisation.

One of those happened to me this morning, just now, whilst I was reading a blog by Seth Godin about the future of self driving cars and in passing about what role Uber might play in this.

You see for a while I have been very much anti Uber (the American tech leviathan which will destroy the taxi industry - that we at Justaxi the Manchester taxi comparison app were trying to save.)

One of the reasons I was against them is ideologically and another political and very sensible.

The first - is that should we really be building tech which simply replaces industries so that someone somewhere can make more money.

The leveling of the market place being great for those that profit from it, giving them (but no one else) more and more money.

The second - is that Uber and many of their like i.e. massive billion pound corporations that use clever tech to make even more money, pay their shareholders millions, and ruin small parts of the
economy - do so without paying much (or any tax) to the places their are exploiting  i.e. Uber will take billions out of the UK economy and not pay as much tax here as many would like or see as fair like many others like Amazon etc.

As Amazon, bless it, over the last four years, Amazon has generated £23bn in British sales - how much does it pay in tax? Around £10m through corporation tax in a decade. 

According to the Guardian, the £4.2m Amazon paid in tax in 2013 is just 0.1% of Amazon's UK revenues in 2013. For the whole piece and more about figures - read here. 

The tax argument is therefore a good one. But the reason for my change of mind / heart is nothing to do with now or with tax but with the future and which version of it I would rather we got.

In Seth's Blog he puts it this way

"Like all innovations, the death of the non-autonomous vehicle is not all upside. The car industry gets mostly commodified, jobs are shifted and disruptions occur. Privacy for teenagers, ordinary citizens and bank-robbers-making-an-escape disappears. The suburbs become even less attractive to some people. But just as you can't imagine a city scene where just about everyone isn't looking at their smart phone and swarming in the virtual cloud, it's going to be a whole new cityscape once cars retreat from their spot at the top of the attention/command chain.
One way this might happen: Certain models will be labeled as Uber-compatible (or whatever network is in place). Buy that car and with a few clicks, the car starts earning its keep. When you're at work or asleep or otherwise engaged, it moonlights and drives other folks around. The combination of security cameras in your car and rider registration pretty much guarantees that your car isn't going to come back wrecked. It's not hard to imagine organizations building fleets to profit from this (a medallion replacement) but it also becomes economically irresistible to the individual as well."



Now suddenly the whole thing makes sense. The end game comes in sight. 

Which is one that I rather like. The idea that your car can make money for you, be shared by people, you can become the taxi company, you can make money yourself from the outlay of transporational expense. Now that end game seems a lot more social - almost socialist... i.e. the means of production is placed purely and surely in the hands of the worker (e.g. us.)

Whether or not it is Uber that runs the network or Google (who owns half of it by the by) is really not important.  

What is important is that I realise that the end game might have to be worth the problems of today.

Oh and thanks to Tom Auld, a good and old friend of mine, who started my realisation with a good old fashioned discussion over a beer or three last weekend. He started bending my thoughts with some solid reasoning. Seth just did the rest. Uber aint that bad after all - now if we could just get them to pay tax in the UK.  

Which is a decision that we all would take with the government. If they ever let us. 

Friday 11 July 2014

Why are so many things broken?

This entertaining talk – on video here – was one of the favorites of Gel 2006 - gelconference.com/c/gel06.php and in it Seth Godin gives a tour of things poorly designed, the reasons why they are that way, and how to fix them.
He only ever did this talk once – which is a shame but I can see why.
It is funny but perhaps too funny for him. Or for teaching.
One of the key things it did teach me was that “It’s broken because I say it is.”
The customer decides NOT you. You have no voice in this. “If I think it’s broken - it’s broken.”
Which when designing or re-designing mobile apps we all have to think about and take more seriously. The feedback from analytics is vital to this - so is being agile.
But back to Seth Godin's story...
This is broken. 7 reasons why…
  1. It’s not my job.                Usually when you see a warning sign for something.
  2. Selfish Jerks.                 Spamming and bad marketing for short term goals.
  3. The world changed.      A business model for now might not work for later on.
  4. I don’t know.                   The person who made it never uses it.
  5. I am not a fish.                I design things but not for me.
  6. Contradictions.              Without realising it internally things oppose each other.
  7. Broken on purpose.      Jimmy Choo shoes aren’t for walking in.
He uses lots of visual examples - here is one of them...

The amazing and thought provoking / leading career of Seth Godin

I put it here to remind myself (and maybe inspire others) that the road is long with much feedback.

And with many visionaries - they only really become famous after a 10 year struggle / investment.

Overnight successes are very rare and most probably an evil unto themselves.

For my part, and shame, I only started learning from the master himself after 1997.

After University when the real learning begins. 

By then he had done so much - and what amazes me is so much before his time i.e. pre web web stuff, pre processing graphics VR stuff.

A friend and I were laughing yesterday about how I do the same with my eco fashion idea (10 years to early) my public and private sector blend events (5 years to early) my augmented reality development (probably 3 years to early...) hopefully my next one - mobile gaming to do good will not be too early or too late for that matter ;)

My favourite part is "During this seven-year peak period of making over 100 books, my team and I got about a dozen rejection letters a week, or 500 a year, relentlessly, year after year." Amazing. 

But more importantly back to Seth and all his good work!

1984—Telarium, a huge project that started my path with a flourish. I was incredibly lucky to be given the resources to create something magical by David and Bill. A story for another day, but it took me a long time to again come close to an experience like this one.

1985—Tennis and golf on VCR, British video games on floppy disk and other Spinnaker projects.

1986—Business Rules of Thumb, my first book. Followed by 900 rejections in a row, 30 projects dead, including The Fortune Cookie Construction Set and How to Hypnotize Your Friends and Make Them Act Like Chickens.

1987—The Select Guide to Law Firms, an ad-supported directory of fancy law firms given to the most elite law students in the country. I learned an enormous amount about direct mail, rejection and lawyers from this project. It ran for three editions and kept me in business during several really lean years.

1988—Isaac Asimov's Robots, a VCR mystery game. Siskel and Ebert gave it two thumbs up... This one was a leap in complexity, involving Doubleday, Kodak, Asimov, game designers, packaging designers, an editor, a union cast, and yes, robots. Or at least people in robot costumes.

1989—Score More Points, a series of VCR tapes that taught kids how to cheat at Nintendo games. I was certainly waiting for the web to arrive, but it hadn't, yet.

1990—Guts, an online game for Prodigy, launched. It was one of the most popular online promotions of its time, and it contained thousands of hand-built trivia questions incorporated into several different editions of the game. This was a chance to see how much content added to technology, and how it could leverage and spread ideas.

1991—The Worlds of Power series. It took me more than three years to get all the licenses I needed to launch this series of novels, each based on a video game that was popular on Nintendo. We sold more than a million of them.

1992—One day, I saw that Cliffs Notes had published a list of their most popular notes. Using the 80/20 rule as a guide, I realized that the top 30 titles probably accounted for more than 95% of their sales. Hence: Quicklit, a book that should have been incredibly popular, but wasn't. Betting that high school students would plan ahead was a bad idea. I also had the delightful opportunity to work with a giant, Walter Dean Myers, in creating a series of novels for overlooked young adults. Walter died last week, and his impact on millions of kids can't possibly be overstated.

1993—In between multi-year, complex projects, we found time to do things a bit more lighthearted. The Smiley Dictionary started as a phone call with my friend and colleague Michael Cader, was sold the next week and finished a week after that. Without a doubt, my time would have been better spent building a search engine.

[During this seven-year peak period of making over 100 books, my team and I got about a dozen rejection letters a week, or 500 a year, relentlessly, year after year. They were rejections from people who reject things for a living. I wasn't spamming people, I was submitting proposals to people who wanted to get them. This is a useful lesson for project creators...]

1994—This one stretched my philosophy of scaling up to take on bigger book projects. The original Information Please Business Almanac was almost 800 pages of densely-packed facts, advice, resources and more. Five full-time editors worked together (in my attic) and we built a desktop publishing system to collate and manage all the data we organized and presented. Too bad the web made us obsolete, because we were the easiest way to find the phone number for the Honolulu Public Library (open late!). We did this at the same time we built The Guerrilla Marketing Handbook.

1995—For more than five years, I patiently courted Stanley Kaplan (the person) about turning his iconic brand into a series of test prep books. After an arduous development process, we finally launched with five titles (the best part were the cartoons from Bizarro)...

1996—At Yoyodyne, we built an organization that excelled at inventing and launching projects. We created the first million-dollar online sweepstakes, as well as a growing series of promotions from American Express, P&G and others.

1997—The Bootstrapper's Bible was a great idea, and after a few years, I got the rights back and decided to share an abridged edition online for free.

1998—This was a peak year for project craziness, with books and online projects coming out at a feverish pace. At one point, I did project presentations in three different states in one day. I finally (and painfully) realized that entrepreneurs were different from freelancers, sold my companies and shifted gears.

1999—Permission Marketing was, after creating and launching 120 books, seen as my first 'real' book, a solo effort that was marketed the way most books are. I also started writing columns for Fast Company, a monthly launch discipline that suited my need to invent and ship.

2000—Unleashing the Ideavirus was launched, no publisher, no bookstores, no revenue. I went on to quickly create and self-publish a hardcover which became a bestseller, proving to me that the world of projects was going to be different from now on.

2001—I spent ten hours a day, just about every day, researching and writing Survival is Not Enough.
2002—The CD patents were expiring, and Sony launched SACD but forgot to produce original music in that format. I launched Zoomtone records as an experiment with some passionate and talented musicians. Alas, the high-end stereo community wasn't interested.

2003—My first TED talk, Purple Cow in a milk carton and Really Bad Powerpoint all shipped.

2004—This is the year, a decade ago, when this blog really hit its stride, and when it became clear that connecting people online was a useful and powerful platform. I launched the Bull Market ebook as well as Free Prize Inside, a book about how to make a purple cow. The book came in a cereal box, which probably gilded the lily and certainly didn't make bookstores happy. Also! As a summer project, launched Changethis.com, which thrives to this day.

2005—All Marketers are Liars is published, a lousy title for a really important idea. We started Squidoo as a summer project.

2006—This is Broken, a talk I gave exactly once, took months to create. I'm glad Mark filmed it.

2007—The Dip, my shortest book, with the most impact per page by far, launches.

2008—Launched Tribes, a significant shift in my writing focus. If marketing is everything that an organization does that changes perceptions, then leadership is the most important marketing tool. Doing the right thing is at least as important as knowing what the right thing is.

2009—The six month MBA. What a project, one that continues to weave a web of friends, passion and change. We sat together in my office every day for six months, and it directly led to significant shifts in thinking for all of us. Also, unrelated, mini me went to the Minnesota State Fair.

2010—Linchpin was published. This might be my book project that has had the biggest impact. Followed it up with a self-organized event in NYC and then Chicago. Once again, the world says to the project creator... go ahead, pick yourself.

2011—Started as a summer project in 2010, 2011 was devoted to launching a dozen Domino Project books. Each was a bestseller, with special editions, letterpress and experiments in design, pricing and distribution. Publishing the master, Steve Pressfield, was one of my all-time career highlights. After a year of launches, the books remain, but new work goes elsewhere.

2012—The key project of the year was my Kickstarter project, launching four books at the same time (this is not recommended). I learned a lot in closing the circle and turning the reader into the middleman. Writing, designing, marketing and trafficking the four books required most of what I've learned in thirty years. If you're considering a Kickstarter (just one book, please), I hope you'll read this first...

2013—On time, The Icarus Deception, V is for Vulnerable, Watcha Gonna Do With that Duck and the behemoth shipped. The craft of a project is sometimes daring to write a short little book about Smileys and let someone else print it, ship it, promote it and keep it in print for a decade, and sometimes it's about touching every element of the project by hand, hauling boxes, renting storage units and making sure the box got to New Zealand... Thanks to Bernadette Jiwa and Alex Miles Younger for being critical elements of this insane plan. Also, as a bonus, I worked with a fabulous team to build and launch Krypton Community College. (Here's a curriculum on shipping, the heart of the project life).

2014—My Skillshare courses on Entrepreneurship and Marketing both launched and became Skillshare's most successful. The HugDug project launched, raising money for charity: water, Acumen, Save the Children and other worthy causes.

---------------

Truly amazing and a testimony to his work and perseverance.

I am off to watch This is Broken as never seen it... very excited.

What do you take from the last 30 years of his work? What lessons does this teach you?


Wednesday 9 July 2014

Change your team at your peril - the shocking 7.... and no it's not #BrazilvsGermany....

There has been two very different days for two of the big boys - and no - I am not talking Brazil vs Germany (or #BraGer as it is now known... ) but rather Linkedin and Twitter.

 However, the #worldcup2014 game was indeed amazing and has broke twitter records for tweets during a match....35 million!!

But this didn't save Twitter - or my shares in her - which took a tumble... by around 7%...

You see the "shocking 7" from the hooked up title... 

This title actually might be quite well suited as the reason for the drop in value might have been for the same reason that Brazil fell from grace too. i.e. changes in the squad! 

As reported by TechCrunch, following more executive changes, Twitter’s shares are down sharply, sliding nearly 8 percent in morning trading. The company, which saw its share price soar following its IPO to more than $70 per share, is back under the $40 mark.

The slide comes on the heels of news that the social company has made Katie Jacobs Stanton its new global media boss, and made Gabriel Stricker its new chief communications officer. Twitter has a history of management changes. Investors could be skittish at the latest shifts.

On the other hand Linkedin - seems to be doing rather well. A little like Germany - a bit boring, defensive but normally a winner.

Joff Redfern, as reported in VentureBeat, Linkedin’s veep of mobile strategy, offered these fascinating tidbits yesterday morning as Twitter's shares dropped at the MobileBeat Event.

According to Redfern:
  1. LinkedIn is adding two new members every second of every day. Its user base is now stands at 300 million plus.
  2. In 2009, only 8 percent of users were logging in with mobile devices.
  3. So far this year, mobile users now account for 43 percent of traffic.
  4. By the end of 2014, in about 5 months, the number of mobile users will surpass 50 percent.
  5. Last year, LinkedIn “mobilized.”
  6. When Joff started at Linkedin in 2009, they employed just eight engineers focusing on mobile. 
  7. LinkedIn now employs 5,000.
  8. LinkedIn now offers six different mobile apps.
  9. 1.5 million users look for jobs on the site every day through mobile devices. 
  10. LinkedIn is now vigorously pursuing a “multi-app” strategy.
LinkedIn started as a professional networking site. They are now quickly moving to become an indispensable job search destination - especially on mobile. According to VentureBeat - "This will likely translate to increased revenues. And at this point, for LinkedIn, its all roses."

But it is? According to Insider Selling, CEO of Linkedin Jeff Weiner sold 37,206 shares of the company’s stock on the open market in a transaction dated Thursday, July 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $175.02, for a total value of $6,511,794.12. Maybe more people are leaving?

Worried? Look what happened to Brazil! 

Never change your team too much - unless you can help it !
Actually now I am worried - I'd best go have a look at them there Linkedin shares too. 

OUCH - looks like you should never even think about the coach leaving either....


Friday 4 July 2014

From today - What I will have...


What I will have:

The foresight to do what is right mixed with an appreciation of innovation and creation encircled by an attitude of gratitude.

Vision:

To empower people through gaming and gamifaction to change their lives.

Mission:

To grow a technology business by helping other people change their lives through the power of new technologies and ideas.

My Values are:

CREATION:

- Creation is the opposite of stagnation and decay (not destruction.)
- Relate everything back to the creative process. 
- Everything we do has to add value.
- Action is more important than planning.
- There is no try.
- Engage in the process of creation.

INTERGRITY:

Which means being soppy.

- Self          (be true to myself.)
- Others      (always be honest.)
- Personal   (live with integrity.)
- Politics     (remember every action is political.)
- Yourself   (remind yourself every day.)

LOVE:

- To love yourself, before others and after others.
- To give with love and to receive with love.  

- To love the process – to love change – to love innovation in all forms.

Happy 4th of July. Happy #indepenceday to you - whatever it means to you. For me it means....

Today is a great day - it's Independence Day in America.

It's also my last full official day for Justaxi - Manchester's taxi comparison and booking app. 

It's been a great time and an amazing experience, which has taught me a great deal. 

I truly appreciate everything that in just six months this start up has taught me about marketing, about myself and about the wider world around us. 

So it is with this thinking I am going to do something to use my skills in marketing and start my own company, which will  specialise in mobile games and tackle some big ideas for society whilst doing so.  

The plan is to make games which help people become better people. Whatever that means. 


Mia as Elsa in nursery. 
Anyhoo - as I was listening to the words from a song from Frozen this morning (and singing along with my daughter Mia) I realised three things: 

1. Mia is the inspiration for the company / new start. 

As I want her to be great and learn through games. 

And I want her to learn to be independent as well. 

2. Mia is already great. 

She is already becoming a character. 

And I want her relationship with games and technology to be a positive one.... 

Not one which will make her sick or overweight. 

3. That the Frozen sound track rocked. 

And that this song was great too. 


Here are the words to part of it :) 


"It's funny how some distance,


Makes everything seem small.


And the fears that once controlled me, can't get to me at all


It's time to see what I can do,


To test the limits and break through.


No right, no wrong, no rules for me.


I'm free!"

(Listen to the rest here - go on you want to) 


Kinda sums up me for today. So Happy Independence Day to you... 

Whatever it means to you. 

To me it means quite a lot this year.