We’ve all heard the term “practice makes perfect.” Many of us have also heard the rebuttal to this that says “practice makes permanent.” The reality is that practice alone does not create change. This is because practice really only relates to the time spent doing something. Work however relates to the amount of effort that is put into an activity. The saying should be “work makes perfect.” It is only through a conscious consistent effort that we find true change and improvement in our lives.

“Out of sight, out of mind” is no truer than when it comes to the arena of self-improvement. The effort we make must be conscious, we must understand what it is we want and how we plan to get there. Planning is a big part in bringing our desire to change into our daily consciousness. Without it, our mind is likely to wander to the pleasures or problems of the moment which quickly drown out other thoughts unless we provide time and space for those thoughts, which only happens by planning.

Our effort must be consistent because after all, change takes time. Humans are naturally unbending creatures. We often adapt because we have to not because we want to. Climate, circumstance, environment and other external factors are the typical catalysts for change in our lives. So if we want to change because of an internal desire, then we must be consistent in that desire. If we are not consistent, then these desires are like footprints in the sand that are quickly washed away by the waves of other external factors. We must embed those desires deep in the burning fires of our hearts. They must be compounded by the weight of years of consistent work. Then we will find that the raw and dirty coal of our desires for change have truly become the invaluable, unbreakable diamonds of our character.

And yet, I still can’t get my wife to do the dishes and she still complains that I never put any of my food away.

Someday. Maybe.

My hat goes off to you, Dawes. Check out the song on YouTube:

Leadership Portfolio from Ryan Hightower on Vimeo.

A country like Japan, however, has a very robust economy, a large population and a landmass a little smaller than the state of California (World Factbook, 2010). They have much less area to cover and therefore can more quickly and cheaply set up infrastructure to offer services to a large percentage of their customer base. This means that more of their resources can be devoted to upgrading to new technologies and providing new services than US companies can afford.

I think mobile technology also fits the European and Asian culture better than it does the U.S. culture. The U.S. is big. Living in the U.S. is big. We drive big cars and have big houses with big yards. It’s a lifestyle of excess in many ways. In Japan, open land is scarce and people are closer together. Technology is quickly adopted as it allows people to do more with less. A small device that can do so much fits right in with that high tech culture because of its convenience and versatility.

A: I personally look at mobile banking the same way I look at having mobile access to the internet. I do 90% of my banking online and have been for about the past 5 years. I handle all my checking accounts, savings accounts, business checking, and personal investing all from my computer. For about the past 2 years or so, I’ve been using a very handy tool called Mint.com (recently bought by Intuit Inc.) which pulls my transaction data from all of these accounts into one convenient interface and helps to keep track of budgets and spending trends.

With the speed of mobile access increasing, it is becoming progressively easier to access tools like Mint.com, or online account access to manage your money from your mobile phone. Many banks have also created mobile sites optimized for mobile screens making it even faster when you’re accessing their site on your mobile phone. I think as people continue to be increasingly more to the internet via their cell phone, their interest in having online access to their money will naturally carry over.

In my opinion, the biggest benefit for investors isn’t necessarily access to their accounts as much as it is having the internet in their pocket. With our lives becoming increasingly busier, there are many points in a day when we’re waiting in lines or on a train or otherwise have a minute or two that could be productively spent looking at news or reports on investments that one may be considering purchasing. Internet enabled mobile phones can allow you to receive alerts on new news about a particular stock and then instantly look up what that information is. Maybe that one piece of information is what you were waiting for to buy. The fact that you have access to your account is a by product of having the internet.

I don’t see a problem with security as long as the banking companies continue to encrypt the information being transferred. Other than that, it’s up to the device owner to use discretion in order to ensure they aren’t handing their password out to the people around them. The browsers on mobile phones typically won’t retain any password information unless you tell it to, which would be unwise considering how often people lose their phones.

A: Textlive has an obvious appeal to the young singles crowd in night clubs, dances and public parties. This demographic is already mobile-savvy and in an environment where they are looking to get noticed and enjoy attracting the attention of their peers. DJ’s and venues that implement these technologies have the opportunity to gain a huge technological advantage by becoming early adopters of the technology and thereby gaining a reputation for the entertainment they provide.

The appeal of the technology is found in its ability to connect the individual directly with the DJ, host or even the entire room. I remember during high school at a dance or on the radio how exciting it was to request a song that was later played and even more so when the DJ would announce it as a request from me. This text message system is the DJ request line on steroids, with the ability to give a shout out to the whole room or to interact with the DJ directly in a very easy and intuitive manner.

Q: How can this software benefit marketers and advertisers? What concepts from the Keynote slides and reading material are being utilized by this form of marketing? Please cite if necessary.

A: This software can definitely be useful to marketers. By capturing their numbers as the audience interacts with the software, they can send opt in messages to request permission to send timely messages, discounts and other text marketing messages to their phones. In the moment of interacting with the business, I can see how many of those people would be much more likely to respond positively to those messages, because they have already given them something of value – the opportunity to interact with their friends and peers in a new and exciting way.

I believe cell phones will indeed become a more prominent means of marketing in the future. With the way that the mobile web has exploded now that full HTML browsers are supported and data speeds are increasing AND GPS tracking and location aware applications built into these devices, the possibilities for delivering relevant content are near limitless. In the iPhone 4.0 additional accelerometers have been added to now track a phone’s rotation on all 3 axises. I wouldn’t be surprised if we soon find augmented reality applications being built and distributed for these devices that could provide a whole new way to market on mobile phones, using the camera, GPS and rotation tracking to overlay information about what one is looking at. Smartphones are definitely the next frontier, not only in technology but in marketing as well.

Resources:

iPhone 4. (n.d.). Retrieved on June, 30 2010 from http://www.apple.com/iphone/design/