Mighty Are The Brave

OMG Steve, your like such a geek. lol

Well, not really…

Steve Jobs was much more than a geek. He was an extremely Brave individual who facing terminal illness and given only 6 months to live, not only lasted another 7 years but in that time made his mark on the world of communication and technology with such inventions as the iPod, iPhone, iTouch, and iPad among a multitude of software programs.

Steve Jobs was a visionary - a modern day Da Vinci or Einstein even.

I was very much taken aback yesterday when I heard of Steve Job’s passing. The only other time I felt such sadness about a person of such visibility not related to me, was when my boyhood hero Peter “Brocky” Brock was killed in a freak accident in 2006.

Whilst I was lucky enough to meet Brocky on more than one occasion, I never had the privilege or honour to meet Steve Jobs.

If Peter Brock was my boy hood hero, then Steve Job’s was my idol – btu not only to me, but to many others around the world.

Yesterday the world lost a true great of the modern era. What Steve Jobs did for not only the communications business as a whole, but humanity in general was something we will never see again in our life time.  

The outpouring of emotion has been unprecedented provoking the biggest online reaction of any event in recent history, with Twitter expecting official figures to come in at 10,000 tweets per second.

The huge reaction eclipses the previous biggest event, Beyonce’s performance at the MTV Video Music Awards, where it was revealed that she was pregnant, which generated a record 8868 tweets per second.

 

Other huge online events include Osama Bin Laden’s death (over 5000 tweets/second), the Japan earthquake and tsunami in March (5530 tweets/second) and the British royal wedding (3966 tweets/second).

Almost every Tweeter in the universe used Twitter as their preferred outlet to express their sadness at the passing of a great human being with a lot of those messages being received through a device Steve Jobs created.

My favourite tribute was the most simple though. It was from Google.

It simply read: Steve Jobs, 1955 – 2011 on the homepage.

There is much to be said about Steve Jobs and his amazing talent, vision, and determination. But I think it’s the mark he made on almost every human being on earth in some way shape or form that is the most significant.

You can scour the internet for thousands of Steve Jobs tributes, timelines of his success, his failures and contributions to technology and what that meant to the progress of the world.

But if I could send an e-mail to Steve (because who writes letters these days anyway) - good one Steve, this is what it might say.

Dear Steve,

Upon reflection of my 30 odd years (who’s counting anyway) so far, I wanted to take the time to thank you for the joy you have brought me with all your kick ass Apple products over the years.

It all started for me in circa.1985 and the mind boggling Commodore 64. My Mum and Dad bought it for me for Christmas and Wow Wee. It was even the Mach II with a sleeker streamlined design and Bone color scheme like the pro’s used in offices and everything! I played that thing non-stop.

It was sick man.

With games like Boulderdash, Ghosts and Goblins, Wizball, Stunt Car Racer, Pitstop, Leaderboard Golf, Powerdrift. I would have sleepovers at my friends place and I would kick hi ass at International Karate until we fell asleep form exhaustion!

 

I loved that fact I could cut little pieces out of the floppy disk to “write protect” them with silver tape. I thought I was so clever.

 

Then you preceded that puppy on me man, after only 12 months and bought out the 128. It had a built in hard disk drive and, did that have some graphics power, Phwar!

 

I never had one, but my mates did – they teased me about it. Looking back, they were real nerds!

 

Then something strange happened. Apple almost died and the new Atari 7800 was all the rage. Please forgive me for leaving a sinking ship Steve, but I was young and reckless. I know you understand.

It took me over 20 years to come back to you Steve, but I’m so happy I did. I bought my first ever iPod in 2005. It was the first one to hold color photos don’t ya know. It was the shit. 40GB of white hot tech greatness! That thing went everywhere with me and helped me through the bad times and also to celebrate the good times.

All the time I was in London, through Europe and then in Vancouver before some little Mexican f**k tard stole it out of my bag whilst I was sleeping in a dorm room! I was devastated!!!!!!!

It took me some time to come to grips with it but then I found lime wire and ripped all my tunes onto my new iPod over the Christmas Holiday period – it was cold and snowy outside and I was determined to get a new iPod with all my photo’s and tunes – I needed it.

I still have that new iPod today. You really have come a long way haven’t you. It’s the slim silver 120GB video model. I still use it sometimes but only for special occasions and parties.

Speaking of parties, I waste a lot of time putting together that ultimate playlist in iTunes – I’m not a fan of your social experiment – Ping though. And I give everything a chance. I’m actually even the only person in the whole wide world that still uses My Space!

Oh, and you know what, you really have to do something about being able to retrieve a playlist form iTunes when you accidentally delete it.

I hate that!

I also have a this little cool shuffle for the gym.

That’s three ipods I have now. And I like the fact that one iTunes account can sync all three iPods and that when you connect it to the iTunes on my PC at work it doesn’t wipe your device.

And that you don’t have to own a mac to have and i-device. I never really got that whole left click thing….

My i-phone 3G is my life now. I’ll never forget the day I got it. I was blown away! That touch screen LCD display and wicked user interface was truly epic. I can’t wait for the 5!

They all follow you – but you will always be a true leader, that’s why you inspired so many Steve. Especially MZ – he’s taking over the world (and puppy dogs) Did you know that little shit has 800,000,000 users on FB now? WTF!

I get emotional when I look at my iphone now, because it is not just another evolution of Apple products and my whole life wrapped up into a cool little mobile device that just kicks a**!, but it is your legacy and I will keep it forever, no matter what iPhone comes out.

There’s a girl at our work who keeps losing her iPhone but it keeps coming back. It even came back in a taxi the other day. Unbelievable Steve, you make great shit!

We all forgive Apple for releasing the 4S just the other day, because now we know why.

So thank you Steve, for what you have done for me over the journey and the world at large, I look forward to the day when the world will celebrate your life and Twitter will go into melt down again!

t - #iSad, #thankyousteve

P.S – They say ‘you will be remembered like Einstein’ – Nice!

Drawing the Line Between Bravery and Stupidity

 A few days ago I remembered reading this article about The Renovators on Channel 10 in early July. In particular, when asked if Channel 10 had a Plan B if Renovators failed, David Mott-Chief Programming Officer replied “No. We’re actually so certain about the series. We’re very happy with the way it looks, the opportunity it brings for clients and for advertisers and for viewers – there’s something in it for everyone.”  

 

Now don’t get me wrong, I’m all for being confident in the work you do and it’s very  easy to sit here in my armchair, looking back with hindsight and note, well that was a stupid thing to say, especially when every day we see The Renovators pulling audience numbers that are on par with Deal or No Deal or Hot Seat but I think something we need to consider when “Being Brave” is being calculated in Bravery. 

 

There  is a pretty clear line between Bravery and Stupidity and it’s important to consider all possible outcomes. Don’t let this limit how you challenge what has gone before you, just way up all the possibilities before you say or do something that may come back to bite you on the bum later. 

What do you think? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YoSNbeFLgVU

And on The Renovators, it actually is a good show and unlike The Block the contestants actually do some physical work- definitely worth checking out.

 

Remember my Mantra - Sacrifice = Success

It’s taken me a while to two do things recently.

1. Be BRAVE enough to actually put something into the public domain for all to see - and possibly criticize. (YET I AM NOW BRAVE)

2. Have something worthy of writing something that meets the Brave requirement. (MY SUCCESS – Read on)

It started on Thursday last week. Having a look around at the high level of participation for Christmas in July, there was an enormous amount of bravery within the confines of our agency. Thursday morning was more of a testament to that than you think. Not just from a physical point of view, but challenging one’s self to break out of their shell and do something they wouldn’t normally do.

I myself am not a fan of choreography, wearing costumes, dancing to music etc. - especially when it’s on ice! But I still did it. I actually didn’t even want to participate and the word forfeit had been bandied around a few times in a half hour period.

But Rando said it wasn’t like me to quit, and I guess she was right. She knew I didn’t want to do it but still I did. However dismal, there was some effort there! I’m sure that I wasn’t the only one thinking that though. Wayne was in a slight panic about hitting the ice, but he still got out there with us. That was his sacrifice for success.

I was pleasantly surprised with the level of thought, commitment, details and skill that was shown. I think these sort of days are great for our culture and what sets us apart – even though there are some of us that might not entirely feel comfortable, they still take us out of our comfort zones – that’s what our behaviours are all about. They challenge us and they also reward us – OUR SUCCESS.

It’s funny how much we’re BRAVE each and every day. Life throws at us many challenges, and many times we have to have to bite the bullet and take a chance on something or someone. Dip your toe in the water – have a real crack.

If you think about our day to day activity, we as human beings, will do little without reward. There always has to be a payoff. It’s human nature. No matter how little. From leaving your apartment on a freezing cold winter morning so you can have your Sunday Breakfast at your favourite café to putting your life on the line to save a friend in a life or death situation. Sounds drastic but it happens.

Sometimes it’s BRAVE – sometimes it’s DUMB. Know the difference…

I have a mantra that I use in my everyday life.

“Sacrifice = Success” it’s being BRAVE.

That sacrifice however comes in many forms. Some small. Some not so small.

What’s your sacrifice for making a breakfast meeting on time? As small as it may look on the surface, it’s actually quite a lot. It starts with a half hours sleep you miss in the morning. In order to get that half hours extra rest, it means not having that last drink the night before. The sacrifice of that is not being with your mate who is about to jet off Overseas. You may never see them again.

But you have to go. You have a breakfast meeting. That meeting could have you finalize a great piece of work for which you may win an award. That award could help your career and so on and so on.

So, you can see everything is a sacrifice. But attached to every sacrifice is a success.

One thing I get a lot, is when people ask me how I coped with leaving leave Australia for 5 years. My family, my friends, my security, my everything. But for me it wasn’t hard at all. I was optimistic, enthusiastic, and proud of what I eventually achieved.

However there are many people that shudder at the thought. Was I BRAVE? Maybe. Perhaps WONDROUS is more a fit. Maybe both… Relationships are the biggest for anyone I think. They’re incredibly tough – exhausting at times. You have to be very BRAVE to share yourself with someone, but there is a reward. That also comes in many forms. From now to sometimes eternity.  

Everything we do has an element of BRAVEry to it each and every day. It’s in our DNA it’s what makes us Human.

“We dream, we aspire, we act. We are BRAVE”

Trenna

Brave Tactics Required to Save High Street Shopping

Though the beans haven’t all been counted just yet, the Australian retail industry is expecting the 2010 financial year to be its worst in two decades.

 

With a recent Morgan Stanley report indicating brick and mortar stores will continue to suffer at the hands of online retail growth, high street retailers must find bold new ways to enhance the shopping experience.

 

Brisbane retail media company Yeahpoint reckon they’ve come up with a novel solution in their ‘MiMirror,’ claiming it will translate the online shopping experience to in-store.

The MiMirror allows shoppers to view images of themselves wearing different clothes alongside each other so they can compare the products.

“One of the biggest problems facing shoppers is that once they move on to the second or third pair of sunglasses they can’t remember what they looked like in the first,” Yeahpoint CEO John Anderson said in the Australian.

“With this technology you can record up to six images and even ‘shortlist’ two images of choice to see which was better.”

 

Shoppers can even use the MiMirror to email images to their friends or post on Facebook for a second opinion.

 

The $64,000 question is; will any retailer be brave enough to fork out for a MiMirror given Yeahpoint are yet to sell a single unit?

Scott Bampton

Risking your (online) life

How much do you value your virtual life?  Is your facebook profile a vast repository of shared memories with friends, a photo album, your main way to stay in touch with the people you love, old and new?  Is it a part of what makes you “you”, or is it just something you started because everyone else did that you only check on your birthday?

Are you brave enough to risk losing it all in the blink of an eye?

In a campaign for Russian Standard Vodka, two students from the Miami Ad School Europe in Berlin presented the idea of a Facebook russian roulette game.

4 friends enter, and a random spin will delete one of their Facebook profiles forever.  The other three enter the draw for a luxury trip to Russia.

It’s a great brave idea, and going toe to toe with Facebook to be able to do this would be the battle of a lifetime.  But it also raises very interesting questions around how much a part of of your life, and how valuable to you, your online presence has become. 

How little or how much would it take for you to risk a 1 in 4 chance of losing your Facebook profile?