New Year, New Goals…

Turn off your smartphone’s email notification feature and discover enlightenment.

For years I’ve been glued to a mobile device. I got my first cellphone in 1995, before I was in high school. After circumventing my mothers opposition to such an idea, I got a job and the mobile store. Having a cool new gadget that let me keep in touch with my friends, at the same time, was too good to be true. In 2003 I jumped on the BlackBerry bandwagon, before the days of the expected instant email reply. The thing looked like a video game with a pager built in.

So the addiction started young. I was even scared to migrate to the iPhone because I didn’t think I could live without the instant email.

Two months ago that all changed. Emails’ constant push against my normal life caused me to hit a wall. I had to make a change.

I hit rock bottom while enjoying a few after work pints with friends at the neighborhood pup. I subconsciously and instinctively checked my email. It was nothing special, just your average overly emotional message from an overly emotional business connection. Yet, it was all but instinct for me to go into response mode. How do I put this fire out? What’s the best time to send a response.. etc, etc…

It was not till later that evening, in a burst of post happy hour genius, that I realized even having read that email was pointless. I’m not managing a presidential campaign, Matt Lauer won’t be asking me questions in the morning. Merely wasting the brain power to read that email, let alone think about it while I should be relaxing and focusing on having some downtime was horrendous.

Later that evening it all came to me, the obvious, that this instinct to check email, to stay on top of things, was causing me to do anything but. In a fit of frustration I turned my iPhone’s notification sound off and sent the thing to only check email every hour. Aside from having a battery that lasted through noon I slowly began to work away from my addiction. I didn’t have that worry of what was happening with work, when I wasn’t working.

Effectiveness is not constant, it comes in bursts. I don’t think they are completely controllable. But, if you no longer realize that your A-game is won’t happen all the time, you will lose understanding of where the bar is. You can train yourself for instinct, how to defend yourself, how to respond to a crisis. You can’t have your creative, business best all the time, and all to often that is what email is about.

So, stop, slow down. Check the email twice a day, not constantly and I think you will see that you ability to convey your thoughts goes up.

Ignite Tulsa

After much work and preparation next week is Ignite Tulsa! Be sure to sign up!

If you had five minutes on stage what would you say? What if you only got 20 slides and they rotated automatically after 15 seconds? Around the world geeks have been putting together Ignite nights to show their answers.

Ignite was started in Seattle in 2006 by Brady Forrest and Bre Pettis. Since then 100s of 5 minute talks have been given across the world. There are thriving Ignite communities in Seattle, Portland, Paris, and NYC.

Clouds or Fogs

The cloud has had an amazing impact on the growth of web based businesses. The likes of companies from 37Signals to Gmail have accomplished amazing things. Yet, yesterdays Gmail outage coupled with other issues (my label feature has not worked with a month) are beginning to make me wonder.

It is a bit of a fog… not having control of your corporate email with Google Apps. While I will continue to use cloud apps in my businesses and personally yesterday certainly reminded that you still have to be prepared for that 1% failure rate.

Great TV Ads

I’ve been working a few production products lately that have led me to so some research on great TV ads. I though I would share a few that I like.

It’s a random mix, but they all stuck out to me and I thought I would share.

Don’t bitch about where you live.

We spend a lot time talking about community in our field of work. It came up multiple times at SXSW, it’s a legit concern for those who run business, and something that is on my mind a lot as we grow. Are the cost advantages of operating in Tulsa greater then being in the VC/media/tech savvy Valley. There’s an interesting new book
about what city is best for an individual.

I’ll be the first to talk about the advantages of one city over another. I’ve had friends who have had to move their whole companies because of the business implications of one city over another. Yeah, it drives me nuts that Tulsa does not have more direct flights, I wish we had mass transit and less red necks, etc… But you know what, who cares… I love the things we do have and in particular that I’m close to my family.

I’m sitting on a flight back to Tulsa with a lady seated in front of me who has been flat out bitching about living in Tulsa for the last 30 minutes. In the row back, I am sitting next to a soldier. (Who after talking to, told me he was flying back from his base to meet his then in labor wife!) All I can think of is how totally pathetic this woman is right now. Be happy you don’t live in a desert hut worrying about being shot.

As American’s we take for granted so much. Even if she lives in Tulsa’s slums (she doesn’t) her quality of life is better then most everyone in the world. Appreciate that.

While this woman is an extreme example of my point, she has left me with the question of how much brain power and time is wasted worrying about crap like this. I have to stay aware of our corporate presence in multiple markets and its implications, but I am left asking myself if I’ve put more time into worrying about that then connecting through O’hare.

Something to ponder.

Viral Virus

So I’m on a business trip in Nashville busy working, networking, etc…

About 1:51pm I get a text message from a friend who happens to be a Tulsa Police office (Trusted Source) with info about an Amber Alert. Text had details including a local Tulsa park and had a license plate number. I quickly forwarded the text, posted a tweet, and shot out a bunch of emails before going back to work…

My tweet got RT’ed probably 100 times even someone in NYC actually retweeted it.

Few minutes later I start getting texts and tweets from people in the media asking where the heck I’m getting this info… So then I start digging… My cop friend heard it from another cop, who heard it from another cop… etc..

I checked with some media sources I have here in Tulsa and its totally false. At this point no one knows where it all actually started, though the same thing happened up in Utah the other day.

I’ll update later when I get back to the hotel…

Update Check out this Twitter feed for updated Amber Alerts.

Welcome to the new blog/portfolio!

Hey everyone, I’ll be setting up my new blog and portfolio over the holiday!  Hold tight, it’s going to be a great site.

-Happy Holidays

Ice Storm [life in the dark]

So you may or may not have heard about the big news last week in the fly-over state of Oklahoma. It’s been nothing short of an Ice Crisis. Last Saturday night we were hit with the biggest Ice storm I have ever seen.

Over 600,000 Oklahomans were left without power, it took us more then a week to get back online and I still do not have internet access from home. (hence why I have been camped out in an internet cafe for over 6 hours today).

I was going to write a post about what I am calling the “Ice Storm Idiots,” and I still might, but I think for the most part people know this is nothing even close to Katrina and the power company is not racist.

I do have some interesting posts on the way… Including… Core to Shore [OKC’s kicking our ass again] and How to survive in the dark[life w/o a flashlight sucks]. Also note the new feature of our blog, cool comments in [these things]. It’s totally stolen from Vallenwag, the Silicon Valley gossip rag.

Below are some images form the crisis of the last few weeks.

Veterans Day

I find it sad that during this time of war most Americans are not more aware of the significance of Veterans Day. Being the son of a Vietnam Veteran I have grown up with a small glimpse of how war can affect someone in the smallest ways years later in life. From the subtile comments made when a firecracker goes off, to the slight tear that may drop after seeing a soldier in uniform at the store. I know its something I will most likely never understand.

For many today is just another Monday. Many will fall into their normal morning routine of guzzling coffee on the way to work, while tapping away at their blackberry. Only after a fit of frustration as they realize the post office is closed will they remember that this in no normal day.

I fear for my generation of twenty somethings, as we graduate from college and begin our term to lead this nation. We have no Edward R. Morrow to paint the airways with the pictures of bombs dropping on London. We have sensationalized and categorized our journalism into a right and left, which the common man no longer trusts or listens to. Few of us feel this day or the truly comprehend its significance.

For all of us who have never been to war, we can never know, we can never understand, and we must acknowledge we have a naivety that no media or history book can ever fill. We must continue to humbly give thanks and continue to strive to understand what we most likely never will. Thank You.

For more on Veterans Day head to Wikipedia

BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
A PROCLAMATION

3071

Whereas it has long been our customs to commemorate November 11, the anniversary of the ending of World War I, by paying tribute to the heroes of that tragic struggle and by rededicating ourselves to the cause of peace; and Whereas in the intervening years, the United States has been involved in two other great military conflicts, which have added millions of veterans living and dead to the honor rolls of this Nation; and

Whereas the Congress passed a concurrent resolution on June 4, 1926 (44 Stat. 1982), calling for the observance of November 11 with appropriate ceremonies, and later provided in an act approved May 13, 1938 (52 Stat. 351) , that the eleventh of November should be a legal holiday and should be known as Armistice Day; and

Whereas, in order to expand the significance of that commemoration and in order that a grateful Nation might pay appropriate homage to the veterans of all its wars who have contributed so much to the preservation of this Nation, the Congress, by an act approved June 1, 1954 (68 Stat. 168), changed the name of the holiday to Veterans Day:

Now, Therefore, I, Dwight D. Eisenhower, President of the United States of America , do hereby call upon all of our citizens to observe Thursday, November 11, 1954 , as Veterans Day. On that day let us solemnly remember the sacrifices of all those who fought so valiantly, on the seas, in the air, and on foreign shores, to preserve our heritage of freedom, and let us reconsecrate ourselves to the task of promoting an enduring peace so that their efforts shall not have been in vain.

I also direct the appropriate officials of the Government to arrange for the display of the flag of the United States on all public buildings on Veterans Day.

In order to insure proper and widespread observance of this anniversary, all veterans, all veterans’ organizations, and the entire citizenry will wish to join hands in the common purpose.

Toward this end, I am designating the Administrator of Veterans’ Affairs as Chairman of a Veterans Day National Committee, which shall include such other persons as the Chairman may select, and which will coordinate at the national level necessary planning for the observance. I am also requesting the heads of all departments and agencies of the Executive branch of the Government to assist the National Committee in every way possible.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand and cause the Seal of the United States of America to be affixed.

Done at the City of Washington this eighth day of October in the Year of our Lord nineteen hundred and fifty-four, and of the Independence of the United States of America the one hundred and seventy-ninth.

DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER