The launch of WeReward has kept me pretty busy. So far we have been in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal and Fast Company. This morning we were on FOX. You may see this segment air in your area over the next couple of days.
Special thanks to John Raser, Jamie Brooks and Jaimie Gossett for participating in the spot.
This morning I woke up and found myself blessed with super natural powers. Anything I wished for suddenly became a reality. I wished for a coffee… and the lady at Starbucks handed me one. I wished for silence… and my radio broke. I wished for freedom… and looked down to see I wasn’t wearing pants.
Amazing? Yes.
I am pretty much like a genie… but I hope I smell better than a genie because I imagine genies smell pretty bad from being couped in a bottle for so long.
Anywho – I want to share my powers with you. Simply leave a comment on this post with your three wishes and I will do my best to grant them. I cannot promise that all wishes will be granted… but if you don’t leave a comment I can promise it won’t be granted (by me anyway).
Before you read this post let me say that I am happily in love with Tara. Sorry ladies… I am taken : ) I am simply trying to help out my single buddies.
Last week I finally got my iPad.
I picked it up from the office Sunday night so I could have it with me on my trip to California. From the second I got it I couldn’t put the thing down. I suddenly needed even more email, more tweets… more web content. I was alone on my trip and had a lot to do so I took it along with me when I went to eat. The first place I went the waitress said “ohhh… is that an iPad?” and proceeded to ask me a bunch of questions about it. I didn’t think much about it until it happened again at a different restaurant the next day. I chuckled and thought to myself it must be a California thing.
Then it happened again.
Yesterday Tara and I went to grab a burrito at Tijuana Flats. I brought my iPad along because we wanted to do some planning together (and Evernote for iPad rocks). The waitress walked up to deliver our food and BAM! “Is that an iPad!?!” — No freaking’ way! I told Tara what had happened earlier in the week. Who knew that the ladies would be so amazed by a little computer. It is the ultimate conversation starter.
Single guys do all sorts of stupid things to meet girls. We all know the puppy trick… but that is so 2009. If you are a bachelor and really want to meet girls I say get yourself an iPad. I am going to have to hide mine so I don’t feel awkward.
I have put my second work of art up for sale (see the first here). I started this piece in January and it has taken me until now to finish it. I worked on it little by little each night (I was home anyway) and I am really happy with how it came out. If you like Where’s Waldo you will like this piece. Hidden in the detail are 100 faces… some happy some sad.
In the social media age everyone thinks what they are doing or saying is newsworthy (guilty as charged). We are shouting our news through our Twitter streams, blogging our hearts out and vying for attention from anyone that can validate the worthiness of our announcement. The problem is that 99.999% of this “news” doesn’t really matter in the long run. It isn’t going to change the world and it is inconsequential in the grand scheme of things. Will anyone care social media marketing 10,000 years from now? Will it change the way in which all of us live that far into the future? Maybe…. but probably not.
You want news? How about this?
- It’s estimated that by 2050, the number of centenarians worldwide will reach nearly 6 million. And some say that half of the babies born in the U.S. today will live into the 22nd century.
- Today, humans speak to each other in nearly 7,000 languages; it’s estimated that 90% of those languages will be gone by 2050, displaced by English, Spanish, or Chinese.
- In 1971, President Nixon declared “war on cancer.” In the forty years since, the U.S. has spent some $200 billion on research, but we’ve only cut the death rate by 5% (measured since 1950). Cancer still accounts for 13% of deaths worldwide.
- In 2040, the Chinese economy will reach $123 trillion, or nearly three times the economic output of the entire globe in 2000.
The above news is from longnews.org, a site dedicated to sharing the news stories that will still matter fifty, one hundred or ten thousands years from now. In other words it is the news that REALLY matters.
I gave up cable television some time ago in favor of an all-internet entertainment lifestyle. As a result I have been downloading a lot of content via my AppleTV. While I still enjoy the occasional Hollywood blockbuster I have found myself drawn to documentaries as of late. Here is a short list of some of my recent favorites (overviews provided by the film studios).
Objectified (5 Tongues)
Great for : Design Junkies
Objectified is a feature-length documentary about our complex relationship with manufactured objects and, by extension, the people who design them. In his second film, director Gary Hustwit (Helvetica) documents the creative processes of some of the world’s most influential product designers, and looks at the creativity at work behind everything from toothbrushes to tech gadgets. What can we learn about who we are, and who we want to be, from the objects with which we surround ourselves? (Buy on Amazon)
Food, Inc. (5 Tongues)
Great for : Health and animal lovers
Food, Inc. lifts the veil on our nation’s food industry, exposing how our nation’s food supply is now controlled by a handful of corporations that often put profit ahead of consumer health, the livelihood of the American farmer, the safety of workers and our own environment. Food, Inc. reveals surprising and often shocking truths about what we eat, how it’s produced and who we have become as a nation. (Buy on Amazon)
Tapped (4 Tongues)
Great for : Anyone who drinks water or cares about our planet
Is access to clean drinking water a basic human right, or a commodity that should be bought and sold like any other article of commerce? Stephanie Soechtig’s debut feature is an unflinching examination of the big business of bottled water. From the producers of Who Killed the Electric Car and I.O.U.S.A., this timely documentary is a behind-the-scenes look into the unregulated and unseen world of an industry that aims to privatize and sell back the one resource that ought never to become a commodity: our water. (Buy on Neoflix)
Disclosure : I am an iTunes and Amazon affiliate.
Last year was my first year ever running a marathon. I started off pretty slow but managed to complete 5 full marathons through the year without stopping once during any of them. My best time was 4h 07m 58s in Atlanta on Thanksgiving day, with times for every race coming in under 4h 20m. I can honestly say that I am in better shape now than I was in my 20s and I feel great.
My 2010 New Year’s Resolution is to run eight full marathons and one ultra marathon. Here are the races I have have booked or will book as soon as registration opens.
January : ING Miami Marathon
February : Jacksonville Marathon and Gasparilla Marathon
March : ING Georgia Marathon
April : Charlottesville Marathon
May : Cincinnati Flying Pig Marathon
June : Newport Marathon
July : San Francisco Marathon
August : Extraterrestrial Full Moon Midnight 51k (Ultra Marathon!)
September : TBD
October : Steamtown Marathon
November : NYC Marathon and Chickamauga Battlefield Marathon
December : St. Jude Memphis Marathon
Commit to Success, Plan for Obstacles
You may have noticed that I have more than 8 marathons listed above. I have done that for two reasons : 1. I fully intend on shattering my goal. 2. I realize that I may get sick or have to deal with an emergency causing me to miss a race. I had scheduled the Disney marathon earlier this month but had to punt because of illness.
Big, audacious goals require upfront planning and milestones along the way. You can’t just say “I am going to run 8 marathons” or “I am going to lose 30 pounds”. When and where do you plan on running each race? When do you intend to lose your first 10 pounds and how? You need to break up big goals into smaller, achievable pieces and create a clear path to success.
Quick Tip
I find that blogging my goals helps me really stick to them. Once they are on public display it is hard to take them back or make excuses.
I have been overwhelmed by the support for earthquake victims in Haiti. The country has been torn apart by the disaster, but the world is coming to their aid. From concerts and telethons to text messages and twitter campaigns these past few weeks have been a testament to our global humanity. I am especially proud of America, no matter where tragedy strikes our government, companies and citizens provide relief like no other.
I am trying to do my little part too. 
I have decided to sell a one of a kind piece of art that I have been working on over the past month or so. I didn’t start the project with Haiti in mind, but when the disaster struck I knew exactly what I needed to do. The artwork is black ink on paper, about 8.5 inches square. It is a peace symbol that appears to be almost solid when viewed from a few feet away but reveals intricate patterns and objects when viewed closely. It is for sale on Ebay, all proceeds go to the Clinton Bush Haiti Fund.
This artwork would look great in a frame sitting on a desk.
I had a dream last night that included domesticated miniature camels (bonzo size), Gary Coleman, a flying hot dog cart and my unborn son. While I was impressed that the camels could use the toilet and Gary Coleman was taller in person, I woke up most excited about my unborn son. No, I am not married and no, Tara is not pregnant (that I know of anyway), but in my dream there was a bun in the oven and I had just scored a major victory for branding freaks and taco lovers the world over.
I have talked about personal branding quite a bit in the past. I believe that it will be an area of growing importance in the future as the global economy becomes more competitive. A strong personal brand can make the difference between landing a job, winning a client or even finding a mate. Most of us start with a disadvantage… our own name. Do you know how many Ted Murphys there are in the world? It is much more difficult to build a brand around a name when other people have the same name. That is why corporations trademark and protect their name and celebrities adopt new names they can uniquely call their own.
In my dream, I convinced Tara to name our son Taco Murphy. Partially because I love tacos, but mostly because the domain name and trademark were available. Yes, the name Taco Murphy is a little crazy. I’m not sure that I would really name my kid Taco, but the concept is more important than the execution in my dream. When I do have a child, I want to make sure I can secure their domain name, trademark and, possibly, some social media profiles (though I am not sure they will all be relevant by the time they grow up). I want my kid to be able to “own” their own name from day one and use that name to propel their personal brand.
We are all products. We are all selling ourselves to one another. A memorable brand name is a key component of any successful product development strategy. Why not apply the same principle to “human product” development?
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After an initially difficult childhood Taco Murphy grew to become the CEO of a vast Taco empire. His breakthrough was taco shells made out of bacon that somehow didn’t make your hands greasy. He named his children enchilada and chimichanga.
Yes. I bought the domain. Just in case.