Inspiration

Find Your Passion And Succeed

by Admin on October 10, 2011

In his Commencement Speech to Stanford, Steve Jobs said:

Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma – which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.

I think Steve was fortunate enough to live up to this ideal. He set out to change the way we did things, and he succeeded: first with the personal computer, Macintosh and iMac, then with Pixar, the iPod and iPhone.

Steve’s passion was to make technology easy to use for the consumer. He was fired from Apple in 1985 by Apple’s Board of Directors. For the next 11 years Apple lost its way under the direction of CEOs from business and the computer industry. They all lacked the vision and passion of Steve Jobs. After he left Apple, he started NeXT Computer and bought what would later become Pixar.

Steve later said his being fired from Apple was the best thing that could have happened to him, “The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything. It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life.” Maybe this is why he got into so many different industries (computers, movies, music, cell phones)- by getting into a new industry, he was a beginner again.

In 1996, with Apple floundering, Apple announced it would buy NeXT and bring Steve back to Apple. Steve became the de facto CEO after then-CEO Gil Amelio was fire in July 1997. Under Steve’s guidance and passion, Apple went from a company on the verge of bankruptcy to the largest corporation in the world.

If that doesn’t show you the power of one’s passion, I don’t know what will. What’s your passion?

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Keep Your Eye On The Goal

by blogmistress on September 12, 2011

keep your eye on the goalSetting goals for your internet marketing is an important step towards success. If you don’t know where you are going it is hard to get anywhere. Sometimes, however, we meticulously plan and work and set goals, but then become distracted. Of course, it is very easy to get distracted. Even with our best laid plans, the world can fog our view of the finish line. The struggling economy can be a distraction, news of a world that is restless can be a distraction. We may have personal distractions as well. It can be a challenge to keep moving towards a goal and not give up.

I am reminded of the story of swimmer, Florence Chadwick. Chadwick was the first woman to swim the English Channel. She swam it both ways. She then wanted to be the first woman to swim the 26 miles between the California coast and Catalina Island. She set out to reach this goal in July of 1952. As Chadwick swam, a heavy fog set in. She had been swimming for 15 hours and was having difficulty seeing the small boats that were accompanying her. She began to doubt her ability. Her mother, who was in one of the boats encouraged her to continue. She swam for another hour in the thick fog, unable to see the coastline of Catalina Island. Finally, in exhaustion, she asked to be pulled from the water. It wasn’t until she was in the boat, she discovered that she was less than half a mile a way from her goal! At a news conference the next day she said, “All I could see was the fog.…I think if I could have seen the shore, I would have made it.”

We are the same way. When we can’t see our goal, we become distracted and sometimes even give up when it might have been just the next little bit of effort that would have gotten us to our goal. Chadwick didn’t let her failure stop her. Two months after her first attempt, she went back and completed the swim to Catalina. She said that as she swam, she kept a mental picture of the Catalina shoreline in her mind.

Think about your goals. What kind of distractions do you need to overcome. Keep your eye on your goal and keep moving towards it!

Need help setting goals and planning strategy to help your business succeed online? Contact us [email protected]. If you are in the North Central area of Arkansas, sign up to attend the Website Strategy seminar to find out what website mistakes you cannot afford to make. Hope to see you there!




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I don’t want good. I want your best.

by blogmistress on August 29, 2011

I recently watched an interview with John Sculley who was telling a story about an incident that happened while he was working at Apple. A sleep deprived software engineer who had been working tirelessly on a project came up to Steve Jobs and said, “I think I’ve completed the project.” Steve asked him, “Is it your best?” He said, “No, but it’s pretty good.” Steve told him, “I don’t want good. I want your best. Get back to work. When you bring me your best, I will look at it.”

Are you settling for pretty good or are you giving your best to every project?




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Steve Jobs – Think Different

by Admin on August 25, 2011

Steve JobsSteve Jobs resignation as Apple CEO got me thinking about how he and Apple have influenced our lives. I’ve followed Steve’s career over the years. You could call me an Apple Fan. I was first introduced to Apple and the Apple ][ while earning my MBA in the late 1970s. My first computer was an Apple /// which I purchased in the early 1980s. I have used Macs almost exclusively since the original 128K in 1984.

While Apple did not invent most of the items they sell, they did perfect them. Here is a list of some of the things we use that Apple has influenced:

  1. The Personal Computer (1977)- Before the Apple ][, most personal computers were sold in kits to hobbyists. With the Apple ][, there was nothing to assemble.
  2. The Graphical User Interface for the masses (1984)- Before the Mac, GUI was only available on $10,000+ computers. It took Microsoft another 11 years to come out with a halfway decent GUI in Windows 95. Steve Jobs saw the work done by the engineers at XEROX PARC, got XEROX to invest in Apple and hired some of their engineers to work on the Mac.
  3. iPod (2001)- Before the iPod, MP3 players were difficult to use. Apple came up with a different interface and iTunes. The iPod still owns 75% of the market.
  4. iTunes (2002)- Before iTunes, people were stealing music on the internet. Apple got with the Music Industry and convinced them to let Apple sell music over the internet. It has change the way we buy music. iTunes has an almost 80% market share in the digital music industry.
  5. iPhone (2007)- Before the iPhone, SmartPhones were not nearly as smart. You had to listen to all previous messages before listening to the one you wanted to hear. Browsing the internet was archaic. Apple changed that with (you guessed it) a new user interface. And while Apple’s iOS doesn’t have the greatest market share, it does own 67% of the profits in the smartphone market.
  6. iPad (2010)- Before the iPad, tablet computers weren’t much smaller than laptops. One of the reasons was previous tablets tried to use operating systems from laptops which required more horsepower to run thus bigger motherboards and batteries. Apple decided to use the operating system from its iPhone (iOS) to run its iPad. And once again, they changed the user interface so that a keyboard and mouse were not necessary. Apple currently owns 80-90% of the Tablet Market.

All of the devices I have mentioned were created while Steve Jobs was at Apple. There was a 10 year period from 1987 to 1997 when Jobs was not there, and nothing great came out of Apple. Steve Jobs’ genius is his ability to take a device and make it easier for us, the consumer, to use.

How are you making your product or service easier for your customers to use? Let us know.

By the way, if you had bought 100 shares of Apple stock when Steve Jobs rejoined Apple in 1997, it would have cost you around $1,300 and today would be worth around $150,000.

 

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Inspiration for the Day

by blogmistress on August 19, 2011

Okay, after a week full of internet marketing information, it is time for a little inspiration:

Watch your thoughts, they become words.
Watch your words, they become actions.
Watch your actions, they become habits.
Watch your habits, they become character.
Watch your character, it becomes your destiny

~Motto, Metropolitan Milwaukee YMCA

Let’s watch it today and be awesome!

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A Little More . . .

by blogmistress on August 12, 2011

Thought for the day:

Do a little more than you’re paid to.
Give a little more than you have to.
Try a little harder than you want to.
Aim a little higher than you think possible,
and give a lot of thanks to God
for health, family and friends.

~Art Linkletter

Be awesome today!

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