If you are an Indian IT outsourcing company do yourself a favor and hire an American sales person (or at least someone who can speak English clearly). If I can’t even understand a voicemail what would make me think we would have good ongoing communication. Someone translate this for me.
Listen to this Sales Call From India
I get about 4 of these a week from different companies. They drive me nuts.
Last Saturday morning I went for a 6 mile run. Later that day I went to my sister’s house to watch the FSU game. My right knee was killing me and I couldn’t stop rubbing it. My brother-in-law noticed my discomfort and told me he had just the thing. He whipped out a little jar of ointment called Tiger Balm. I had never heard of it before but decided to give it whirl. I have got to say it is awesome (thanks Patrick!). My knee felt great the next day and I went out to pick some up after my run yesterday. I looked for it at Target but they don’t have it, the only place I know of is CVS. If you have pain in your joints give this stuff a try, it works for me.
I have no relationship with the makers of this product, I just think it’s good stuff.
Some people dream of becoming an astronaut, policeman, doctor or pro athlete. I have always dreamed of being a businessman. As a boy I watched my father start several businesses, he would always bring me to his office and show me what he was working on. I helped my father tinker with early uses of lasers, wind energy, digital video and electric cars. He shared his visions and taught me things about business most kids are never exposed to. It always fascinated me how he could make something out of nothing.
Me as a kid during Christmas
That fascination lead me into business and becoming an entrepreneur (much to my mother’s dismay at first…but that is a whole other story). I don’t think I could ever do anything else, nor do I want to. I love the process of creating and running a business, it is my passion, it’s in my DNA. Through good and bad.
How about you? What is your passion? Have you always wanted to do what you are doing now? If not what lead your current job or role? Do you aspire to be anything else?
People like to think good ideas are some how formed by immaculate conception. Have you ever said to yourself “I wish I would have thought of that”? There is a reason why you didn’t. Most good ideas don’t just pop into someones head out of nowhere. Good ideas are part of an active and iterative process that can take days, months or years to get right. The big idea you envy wasn’t the first idea its creator had.
Whether you are an inventor, an entrepreneur or a photographer it all comes down to numbers. How many prototypes have you created? How many ways have you looked at tweaking your business? How many pictures have you taken? Rarely do we get it right the first time. Those that think they have nailed it early on are often just settling. Voltaire said, “Good is the enemy of great.”
Add wings to the car? How about a couple of jets? Yeah. I thought about those too. The big ideas aren’t the first ideas. Those are the ideas everyone can think of. Those are the average, practical ideas.
If you want to have more homerun ideas you have got to swing the creativity bat more often. Don’t be afraid to think beyond the obvious, let your imagination run free. Sure, you will generate a ton of bad ideas, but you also have a better chance of having a truly big idea.
Let’s try that exercise again, but this time force yourself to write down 15 ideas in the comments of this post. I bet you get beyond wings and jets.
Those of you that know me also know I am a huge fan of Gary Vaynerchuk. He is loud, passionate and dead on in my opinion. When I heard about a Mashable event featuring Gary after AdTech yesterday I was all over it. Apparently the bar wouldn’t provide Gary with a microphone, so Gary convinced everyone to take it to the sidewalk. He stood on a bucket and shared his thoughts with a crowd of about 50 people standing in light rain. It was awesome.
This video has a decent amount of profanity… suck it up… it’s worth it. I encourage you to snag the video and share it with friends, especially entrepreneurs. This is some inspirational content! Here is my question to you…what are your three take-aways from this video? Please share.
Sidewalk Rally with Gary Vaynerchuk from Ted Murphy on Vimeo.
Big ups to the guys at Mashable for putting this on. I really enjoyed it.
I have been blogging for a couple of months over at tedmurphy.org using Tumblr. While I love the ease of use of that platform it just didn’t let me do everything I wanted to do. I decided I needed to take my blog to the next level, so I contacted the guys over at Unique Blog Designs. Being a designer (but not a programmer), I created some concepts in photoshop based on my personal brand. I then handed them over along with some notes to Nate Whitehill, one of the founders. I have got to say I am really impressed with the work they did. It was so easy. UBD did the coding and install for me then provided the keys to my new WordPress blog.
I recreated a few of my posts from my old blog here but didn’t go too far back. The old blog will remain up for some time, redirecting people to my new address https://www.ted.me. I couldn’t be happier, I want to buy the guys at UBD some tequila shots. I am looking forward to blogging more often with more flexibility to do the things I want to do. What do you think of the new look? I need some comments here people!!!
If you are considering a blog makeover you have got to give the guys at Unique Blog Designs a call. Do it. Now. Call 1.870.619.4450. Ask for Nate and tell him Ted sent you. A new blog is better than sex…. well not really but it is still pretty cool.
If any of you travel to New York in the future stay as far away as possible from the Milford Plaza. Not only is it a total dump with small rooms, the staff cannot be trusted. My iPod was stolen from my room yesterday. Apparentlty this is a common occurance in the hotel. Stay away if you can.
I have been pretty vocal about my lack of faith in both candidates this election. I ultimately made the decision to side with McCain, primarily over my fear of socialization of this country. With the election now over I want to congratulate Obama and his supporters on an extremely well run campaign. I had little doubt that Obama would be our next president, but I didn’t realize how decisive the vote would be.
My hope is that Obama leads this country forward in a fair and balanced way, understanding the needs and desires of all citizens. He has a tremendous opportunity to change this country, that change can be accomplished if he remains true to his word and governs as an American, not as a democrat. We need both parties on board working together to pull out of these difficult times.
I stand proud of our country and our new president. I look forward to the end of the war and economic prosperity.
Check out my room at the Milford Plaza in NYC. You know you are jealous. Randy gets here tomorrow, should be interesting. If he snores again I am sleeping in the bath tub.
