“Being the richest man in the cemetery doesn’t matter to me … Going to bed at night saying we’ve done something wonderful… that’s what matters to me.” [The Wall Street Journal, May 25, 1993] Steve Jobs.
What an absolute legend! Steve Jobs was successful, not because he chased money, or a big business, he did not chase either fame nor money. Steve Jobs was hotly in pursuit of fulfilling his life potential. What happened as a result of that has impacted every household on the face on the planet.
More qualified people will write historical, accurate, detailed and inspiring blogs about Steve Jobs and I don’t feel a need to replicate them neither do I want to not do Steve Jobs justice. All I want to say is that Steve Jobs died at the age of 56 with the knowledge that his presence on earth contributed something powerful.
This is something that should inspire us all – we life life, once.
R.I.P Steve Jobs.
“Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything — all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure — these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.” Steve Jobs 1995
War fatigue. Charity fatigue. Famine fatigue. Compassion fatigue. Just like every other fatigue that is out there we can suffer from rioting fatigue. The images have been spread far and wide, I am currently in Australia where the rioting has been branded ‘civil unrest’. I have contacts in America who thought I was back in London and emailed to see if I was okay. We have had open letters to David Cameron’s parents. We have had the comedy of rioters vs photoshop. We have had the the angel volunteers via riotcleanup. We have had those who are raising money for those who want to raise money for something nice for Ashraf and those who want to Keep Aaron Cutting. So many people, have said so much that it is easy just to start to switch off but, seriously, what the hell is going on?
Like many I have heard the racist arguments referring to rioters as “ethnic dole-ite scum” (when a millionaire’s daughter and a school mentor got arrested for looting). I have equally read Nina Power’s Guardian article entitled, ‘There is a context to London’s riots that can’t be ignored‘. So much has been said and, in all honesty, there is an element of truth in most of it as people speak from their own perspective.
We can hunt these kids down and we can lock them up but, in my opinion, this will cause a greater number of young people to rise up en-mass with an even bigger revolt. Maybe not this week, or next week, but at some point. I have heard many comments referring to consumerism and greed and how are young people want what they can’t have or can’t afford as a symbol of status and so they take it. Perhaps it is even the taking of the object that adds to the status. Nevertheless, in my opinion there is this deep, deep feeling of dissatisfaction, of emptiness, a lack of vision, a lack of understanding of worth and potential.
It took a very personal, powerful event in my life for me to realise that we ‘live life, once’. I truly believe that if we can grasp the reality of the concept that we live this life only once then we will realise that our potential knows no bounds. This potential is not based upon what we have or have not got. Our potential is not based upon where we were educated, our upbringing or the mistakes that our parents or even government may have made. But when we grasp the reality of the fact that we are on planet earth, merely once – dreams are within our reach, ambition is endless and our potential is unlimited.
Imagine a country in which the very same young people who put effort, energy, attention, drive and focus into rioting and looting placed the same amount of energy and dedication into the discovery of their potential. We would see new businesses, new opportunities, new employment, new world records, new sports champions, new olympic hopefuls and on and on.
Of course these are my thoughts, based upon my belief of what could truly happen if understood that we are not futile but grasp the power of our potential with both hands and not stop. I don’t know how we get there, I don’t know how we educate, how re-educate, from the ground up. These things I don’t know.
The one thing that I do know is that humanity has been created with awesome potential and if we could just tap into that, in these young people then something damn well powerful could take place.
We all know Alex Tew, in fact, many of us are green with envy whenever his name is mentioned. Alex Tew is the guy who created milliondollarhomepage and made a million dollars in the process. Alex has also had a number of other viral successes including donothingfor2minutes.com
What some of you may or may not know is that Alex Tew has moved to American to become Product Manager of Monkey Inferno which, according to it’s website is a ‘place where we dream up cool internet projects, develop them, nurture them into successful businesses’. How cool?!
But there is more, Monkey Inferno, is self-funded by Michael and Xochi Birch who sold Bebo in 2008 for a cool $850million! Basically, what this means is that Monkey Inferno can a) never go bust and will b) never need investment.
Alex Tew is a genuinely nice guy who dreams up big ideas and ensures that they happen in practice. I cannot think of a more perfect fit for Alex to be working with Monkey Inferno. A massive congratulations to you Alex!
I am pretty sure that Alex Tew + Monkey Inferno will = a shit load of cool stuff!
All of the above, must be true, it is on Alex’s Twitter bio: @tewy
Media used to be a top down thing, you could listen to the radio, watch TV or newspapers and the only time that you could share your voice on such platforms was when the gate keepers allowed you to do so – whether this be a letter to the editor or a radio phone in. Well, with the advent of the internet this has all changed and has significant and far-reaching consequences, consequences which I believe are greater than we currently understand.
Let’s take two contemporary cases:
The Murdoch Empire - Rupert Murdoch, as well all know, is a media mogul who is worth a cool $5billion. In no way, shape or form did anyone ever think that the foundations of this empire would shake and his media business would start to crumble, but it has and to me, this points to one thing… People are fed up of the way things are, with the way things have been and they want to see change. The internet provides a platform to voice these feelings, for good or for bad.
I am not making any startling revelation. We have seen the powerful results of WikiLeaks and we have seen the voice that the internet has become which has aided country-wide political revolutions. In Murdoch’s case the internet does not play any part in the revelation of the information. Nevertheless, people, in their droves hit the internet, tweeting, increasing their Facebook status and discussion on forums their dislike of the whole News of the World situation which resulted in advertisers pulling their marketing budgets, the public boycotting the newspaper and, ultimately, the closing down of the whole operation. A growing disillusion with the way that things are + the power of the internet to spread a message has resulted in the foundations of a worldwide media empire start to crumble = powerful consequences.
Google: The second media company that I want to discuss is Google. Google has traditionally been good at what it does, enabling people to effectively “search” the internet to find information that the need, fast. Google has launched a number of businesses that quite simply didn’t take off. Jaiku, a Twitter equivalent, launched by Google and subsequently failed, is one example. Google have always wanted to get into the social networking space and launched Google Wave, in an attempt to take a chunk out of the power and influence of Facebook.I remember speaking to Google’s PR team when Google Wave was launched and he was championing the impending success of Google Wave and how it was going to be adopted by future generations. Great idea, awesome ambition but the public did not take to it and ultimately it was closed down in August 2010.
Recently, Google went for it again and launched Google+, this time the public adopted the social networking site and within weeks it was announced that there was 10million users on the site. Some of the Google+ features have caused Facebook to panic leading to an announcement of an integration with Skype. The public are really going for Google+ and it has left Twitter, Facebook and Linkedin trying to raise their game.
The point that I am trying to make is that people have power and as people talk, share and engage online it brings about a confidence in others to share what they seek, what they think and what they feel. The News of the World ‘phone hacking case could only be held off for so long, people talk.
I believe that this is only the start. People are getting restless and fed up with the unacceptable behavior and now, more than ever they have a powerful method to share their views. Murdoch’s empire is only one foundation that is shaking, many more businesses will shake. However, at the same time, when the public get behind something, like Google+ they will do.
People are talking, about good and bad and the consequences of both are set to be significant.
I would love to hear your thoughts.
A few weeks ago I made a grand statement that I would write a blog every day, but, it did not happen. For some strange reason I made this passionate declaration a few days before I knew my friends were coming over from abroad in order to spend some time with me and so I would not get much time at the computer.
Over the past few weeks I have been to Berlin, to Liverpool, Manchester and Blackpool. I have seen some incredible sites, I have met some amazing people, I have ate heaps and I have learnt even more. I have had so much fun, even whilst holding down my day job!
The sites, the smells, the people, the laughter and the fun reminded me that there is a whole world out there. I was reminded that there are new things to learn, new dreams to chance and new friendships to make. I really was reminded about something that I am so passionate about – that we live life once and so, I had made a concrete decision to do more living and, to chase my wildest dreams so, stay tuned.
However, it is now 11pm, I am staying in some crazy guest house (that reminds me of Fawlty Towers) in Shepherd’s Bush, London as I am covering the launch of the Gumball Rally in Covent Garden, across social media tomorrow.
Now it is time for me to sleep but I fall asleep with a new energy inside me and fresh reminded that life is so precious and so awesome and so we should go out and live it!