TALKING TECH

The amazing thing about this video is that AT&T predicted all of this technology back in 1993 and today, almost everything in the video is now in existence. The reason why corporations such as AT&T have been able to survive for such a long time lies in the fact that they are always thinking ahead to predict what the market will eventually need.

Humans are restless; give us an internet connection speed that loads pages in 2 seconds and soon we will be complaining that it’s too slow. The world is ever-changing and nothing survives without a plan for the future. To succeed, your ideas must be vast, life-changing, and adaptable.

“In times of change, learners inherit the Earth, while the learned find themselves beautifully equipped to deal with a world that no longer exists.”

I play a game called Cube Runner on the IPhone. It’s a simplistic game involving your little ship which moves left and right as you tilt the phone. You dodge boxes and try to last the longest in order to obtain the best high score possible.

So why do I continue to play this simplistic game? Because, each and every single time I play, I try to beat a previous high score. If my roommate Charles beats my score, then I’ll keep playing until I beat his high score. The process is never ending; we compete to beat each other’s high scores to a point where we lose sight of why we started playing in the first place.

Everyone compares themselves to other people. It’s human nature. We all want to be the best at the game and have the highest score in life. But what does that mean? Everyone has a different definition of a high score. For some, it’s money. Others fame and power. Either way, if all you do is spend your life trying to beat everyone else’s high score, you’ll probably never get there.

A lot of startup companies didn’t get where they are now by trying to beat the high scores of well established corporations. Rather than play the same game, they played another game. They had different business models and different target markets. Look at Ebay. Facebook. How did they manage to topple Amazon and Myspace, the dominant players of the market? They found different opportunities, different strategies, and at the end of it all, it was these differences that let them reach their own high scores.

So don’t waste time comparing and competing. Make your own high score and do everything you can to get there.

That commercial never gets old, no matter how many times I watch it.

We often find ourselves seeking security in careers very far off from our passions. Why? Because we don’t think differently. We follow the norm. We do what is expected of us. Even if all you cared about was making money, I guarantee you that you can still follow your passion and do just that.

How many times have we just lay awake in our beds at night thinking about our purpose in this world. I’ll tell you what I believe. Your purpose is to follow the things you love and make the most out of them. Be great. Be amazing. Find a way to change the world doing something you love. Every single person featured in that commercial LOVED what they did and that’s why they were able to change the world. Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr., Einstein, Bob Dylan. They might have been considered crazy in their early stages of life for pursuing the things that they did but look at them now. They are etched in our history, forever part of this world. You want to live forever? Then leave a legacy; let people a thousand years from now remember your name, and that is how you will live forever.

Defy the norm. Think differently.