Posts tagged innovation
Entrepreneurship, innovation and your will.
Mar 10th
I’m at SXSW, the annual Spring Break for geeks and in past years I have written about my observations from this intense and crazy world where technology, innovation, and hope collide. But this year I decided that I just wanted to kick back and take it all in rather than concentrate on developing content.
But I did hear a talk yesterday that pretty much blew me away.
The keynote speaker was Elon Musk, a founder of PayPal, the CEO of Tesla Motors, and the CEO and CTO of SpaceX. Oh yes, he also runs a company that installs solar systems and he has five kids.
Elon Musk is certainly on a different level of human civilization. He thinks, acts, and processes as if he is taking his direction from a newly-evolved strand of DNA.
But he told a story about why he started SpaceX that got me thinking.
Elon said that he has always believed that the human race should keep exploring space and thought that we would colonize Mars in his lifetime. But when he searched the NASA website, he couldn’t find any plans to do so. He kept searching, kept questioning, and was disheartened that he would not see a person land on Mars in his lifetime.
He originally started SpaceX to inspire people in hopes that NASA funding would be approved for a Mars mission but realized that it wasn’t going to happen. Somebody had to make it happen.
Here was the quote that captured my attention and imagination:
“We can figure out the technology for an interplanetary mission. But we needed the will to do it. Somebody needed to have the will to make it happen.”
And so that became his mission, to provide the will for the human race to move throughout the solar system.
So with no experience in the field, he has now created and assembled a private company that just sent a payload to the International Space Station. He also showed a video during his talk that demonstrated a successful test of a re-usable multi-stage rocket that could dramatically change the economics of space flight.
I had not considered this idea of “will” in a long time. It’s fashionable on the social web to talk about following your interest, your passion, or creating your art, but having the will to drive significant change … isn’t that the realm of something deeper?
He mentioned in his talk that he invested everything he had in his vision. Every penny he made from Paypal, his personal fortune, as well as everything he could leverage from every friend and business connection he had. “I’m all in,” he said.
This was both inspiring and disconcerting. If I had to be “all in” on a venture that could change the world, what would it be? Would I ever take that chance? What is the role of “will” in my life? Is “will” an under-tapped resource for all of us or something that only be activated by a super human entrepreneur like Elon Musk?
Any way, I figured if this story captivated me it might be interesting to you too.
You might have a dream, you might have the passion, but do you have the will?
Lean StartUp Movement turning some heads
Mar 14th
Click here if you cannot see this video interview with Eric Ries of The Lean Start-up.
I had the pleasure of catching up with Eric Ries, author of The Lean Start-Up after he was just coming down from an amazing day of success at SXSW 2102. You get to hear about this first in this video interview!
I first heard about Eric Ries when he was interviewed by Mitch Joel on his excellent Six Pixels podcast. I immediately became a fan of Eric and his concrete ideas about business start-up strategy.
Ries is a Silicon Valley entrepreneur and author recognized for pioneering the Lean Startup movement, a new-business strategy which directs start-up companies to allocate their resources as efficiently as possible. He is also a well-known blogger within the technology entrepreneur community.
Ries coined the term “Lean Startup” in 2008. His new-business strategy developed a following among Silicon Valley startups as well as entrepreneur groups which meet regularly to discuss his methodology. The Lean Startup espouses starting small, designing products with the smallest set of features to please a customer base, and moving products into the marketplace quickly to test reaction and make more changes after that.
Ries released his book, The Lean Startup, in September 2011.
Are you the executive producer of your dream?
Jan 29th
Last week I attended a premiere of a wonderful film called That Evening Sun. I live in Knoxville, TN, which is 2,191 miles from Hollywood. We don’t attract too many premiers around here. This one was special because the film was produced and filmed about 10 miles from my home and the making of it is a story that may inspire you.
That Evening Sun was the first film by a new company, Dogwood Entertaiment, and executive producers Larsen and Adrian Jay. Like so many triumphs, it was born of tragedy. In 2007, Larsen, a successful media executive and entrepreneur, sustained severe injuries when he fell off of a roof. Being confined to a wheelchair gave him a lot of time to think about his life and what he was really accomplishing. “Life is too short,” he said in an interview. “I know that all too well now.”
After multiple operations, he arose from his wheelchair with a new passion to achieve his dream of making a feature film.
Larsen and Adrian made their dream come alive with fierce determination and keen business maneuvering. They raised the necessary capital, partnered with executives in Los Angeles, and filmed a feature-length film in 22 days. Best of all, they delivered an award-winning film that has legitimized their venture and launched a bright new company.
Larsen and Adrian inspired me to think a little bigger about my own life and career. Heaven forbid it should take a life-altering injury to be a catalyst for change.
What if you viewed yourself as the executive producer for YOUR dream? Could you assemble the resources and create it in 22 days? Could I do it? Would I do it? How about you? Would it take a catastrophe to even give us the time to dream these dreams?
P.S. Click on the picture to see the movie trailer, and don’t miss a chance to see it. Hal Holbrook deserves an Oscar nomination for this!
Twitter Tip: Geo-tagging. What is it, how to do it, and for God’s sake, “Why?”
Jan 19th
I wanted to write a post on the ability to “geotag” on Twitter but my friend Frank Podlaha is so much smarter than me and gratefully he contributed this guest post:
What the hell is it?
Twitter Geo-tagging is simply attaching your exact location to an individual tweet. Not only does a tweet contain its message, it also contains the name of the person who sent it, when it was sent, etc. That’s obvious. Recently, Twitter has allowed additional attributes to be tacked on each tweet, specifically your latitude and longitude coordinates of the tweet’s location.
Your Earthly coordinates are your “geo-tag.” It’s a very specific point on a map, ex: 35.9550,-83.9249 (paste that into Google Maps). To use geo-tagging on Twitter takes a few steps. First, the feature must be turned on for each Twitter account under the “settings” menu. It is turned off by default. Second, the geo-tag can only be attached to a tweet by third-party Twitter applications. The main Twitter website does not attached a geotag. Mobile phone applicationsare the most likely to attach geotags. Ubertwitter is a mobile app with this feature. And once a tweet is geo-tagged, you will need an application that can display this map point. Tweetdeck, a popular Twitter desktop interface application, has this feature (look for the tiny yellow pushpin icon under certain tweets).
Why in the world would I want to do that?
“So let’s get this straight. I turn on the geo-tagging feature on my Twitter account. I’m in the coffee shop and send a tweet from my phone that I’m laughing about a girl in a purple blouse that has a long piece of toilet paper stuck to her shoe. She reads that tweet, sees the geotag for that coffee shop, figures out she’s in a purple blouse, finds me sitting in the corner, and whammo – I get hot coffee thrown at me. What are you insane? This is the craziest feature I ever heard of.”
Yup, that’s what it can do in all its creepiness. But let’s stop for a second. Twitter is a public broadcasting system, really. And a public message is so much more relevant when you know who, what, when, AND where. Does it help to tell your friends which restaurant you’re in (like in the game @FourSquare)? Sure, sounds like fun. Could a travel tweeting app help you find the next gas station with clean bathrooms? That would be nice. Could I brag in a tweet about robbing a bank and the police track me down? Yes, you dumbass.
The business of geo-tagging
The business possibilities for geo-tagging go well beyond individuals spouting nonsense. Twitter is that public messaging system, remember? Many use Twitter for actual communications, oh my God. There are numerous websites and applications that search specific cities to find local tweets. These tweets are often displayed as content on their websites. A tweet that is geo-tagged to that location will appear in that search. In this way, tweets can be broadcasted to a small region. Ah-hah, the light bulbs should be going off. Take a look at the tweets from @LocalChirps with a geo-tag-ready client (like Tweetdeck). Each message contains a different geo-tag specific to the message in the tweet. One of these tweets may end up in a search for that specific city. It’s like sending banner ads directly to a targeted audience.
How about a trucking company tweeting status and location of your package? How about a restaurant giving away a free dessert for the next person who tweets from within their store? I could go on, but Mark asked to keep this post under 600 words. Now it’s your turn, what ideas can you think of for geo-tagging?
Frank Podlaha is a brilliant technologist, an inspirational entrepreneur and creator of LocalChirps.com
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You’re in marketing for one reason: Grow.
Grow your company, reputation, customers, impact, profits. Grow yourself. This is a community that will help. It will stretch your mind, connect you to fascinating people, and provide some fun along the way. I am so glad you’re here.
-Mark SchaeferFollow Mark
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