What is Success?

I remember having this conversation with a friend of mine in University. The idea that happiness was paramount, and so long as we could enjoy what we are doing, that was all that mattered. He's now in culinary school, because he realized that it was what actually made him happy.

I'm lucky at this point in my life that I have the opportunity to do what I love to do, with two of my best friends. I've known both these guys basically my entire life, even though we all went in different directions for school, somehow we all ended up working together. Life's kinda crazy like that.

Life for me, has always been about the little things. I've never been one that wanted the crazy big car, or huge house, so when it comes to success for me, I think simply going to work, doing what you love to do, with people that are awesome, well, that's pretty snazzy to me.

Yes... that is corn. 

Success for me though, doesn't stop when the clock does. I was lucky enough to find someone that understood my sense of humor. Now, for some of you more clever folks out there, there may be an abundance of people out there that get your jokes; ask anyone that knows me, I only got one. So I married her.

Don't be fooled though; simply because my success isn't primarily focused on money doesn't mean I'm not competitive. The exact opposite is true. I am incredibly competitive, it's just I am competitive at doing the best work I can possibly do, and being the best at what I do. The problem is that I chose something that is ever changing. Digital strategy is something that changes every hour of every day. That's why I love it.

So I guess to me success is having a roof over my head, a home filled with laughter, work that is rewarding for its impact, and coworkers that are fun to work with.

My Hockey Story

My hockey story isn't like "The Hockey Sweater" or many other Canadian's stories of playing as a youth. I grew up in a hockey town, but didn't start playing hockey until after I moved away for university. My town was dominated by people who loved the Maple Leafs, but I liked the Red Wings, because my dad worked in Detroit, so those were the games I got to see.

When I started university I was seventeen, and not the most sociable. I maybe left my room in my off campus residence once during the first week. However, over time, I got to know the group I was living with, and that there was a shared interest among many of them; ball hockey.  Now, you might say ball hockey isn't quite as serious as the real deal, but trust me, these games got intense. There were lines drawn up, rivalries, and even fights during games. 

Now, I wasn't the most athletic person, I played soccer growing up, but I was always more a music kinda guy. So I didn't join the ball hockey team. Although I did play a couple games, and was asked as nicely as possible to not come back. 

That winter came though, and I was lucky enough to live with a guy who had taught little kids how to play hockey at his dad's hockey school. In reality, those little kids were probably better suited than I was for the task, however, he suited me up with a bunch of his old equipment, and we went to public skating to practice. I may have forgotten to mention that in addition to not playing hockey, I also had only skated a handful of times before. 

So my first year of hockey may not have been a huge success. I was the guy that everyone avoided because I couldn't stop, and even when they let me shoot, I would just fall over (I think this actually happened again this year too). However, I was determined to stick with it. I was lucky enough that I played with a bunch of guys that were fine with me coming, so long as I payed my ten bucks. 

My next year wasn't much better. I could now stop, but I was as slow as molasses, and I couldn't shoot or pass, or, well anything. This was the year in fact where my girlfriend (now wife) started taping our games, and where we all realized that while we felt as though we were moving at NHL speeds, we were actually moving at a quarter of their pace (and that's being generous). 

After university, I basically took a year off of hockey. However, I picked it up again through a summer, and then last winter I played twice a week. Hockey has been one of the funnest things I've ever taken up, and I think it's gotten a bad rep in some ways. When you are purely playing for the fun of the game (no fighting, no hitting, none of the clique stuff) it takes on a completely different meaning. You feel connected to all of the players before you, and you really start to understand why it is our national pastime. 

This summer I am playing in my first actual organized league. I am captaining my team by virtue of having a functioning email address. Although I'm never going to be the best out there, I am always happy that I stuck with it, and can at least contribute in some way to our country's great game. It's important to keep in mind I am the furthest thing from a "Jock" you could imagine. To quote Mitch Hedberg, "I'm not into sports. If I had athlete's foot, my first reaction would be, 'that's not my ... foot!". However, I think this experience has taught me a sense of competitiveness, camaraderie, and determination that I didn't know before. So whether you played as a kid or not, I would highly recommend trying out hockey, or whatever sport. You can never know if you like something or not without trying it.    

Why You Should Blog

There are a ton of reasons why you should blog, but here are my top five.

1) Keep up your writing ability

Every year at the end of school, I remember finding that my vocabulary would start to slip rapidly, until I picked up another book. I tend to notice that same pattern if I go a long period of time without writing, or, if I am just writing reports.

2) Show employers the real you

With resumes, and even cover letters it is often difficult to showcase who you really are, and stand out from the rest of the pack. Often times I include a link to my blog when I am applying for a job because it gives a more complete picture of who I am over time.

It also can show that you take pride in what you do. For instance, my friend Frank is a fisheries and wildlife specialist, and he writes  "Frank Kirkey's Wildlife and Aquatics Blog".

3) Connect with Like Minded Individuals

Since I started writing my blog, I couldn't imagine how many people shared the same views as me. It can serve as a way to connect with people you would never have met otherwise, or a blog can act as a catalyst for great conversations even with friends who didn't realize that you felt the same way as them. 

4) Inspire

There was a great blog last week by Shawn Adamsson (NSFW Title: Pardon the language):

How to completely fuck up your life: adamsson.ca/how-to-complet…

— Shawn Adamsson (@late2game) April 26, 2012

On days when you need that little pick me up, sometimes blog's can act at that motivator to keep you moving.

5) Because Its Fun

I remember even as a little kid I used to write tons of short stories, and even a couple of terrible novels (keep in  mind a little kid writing a novel means it is more than 2 pages in length). Then in high school when social media came around, I even wrote a few short stories and published them on Myspace.

It wasn't until recently when I started writing this blog, that I realized again just how fun writing can be. I always keep lists of things I want to talk about, and then I get to think about just how I'm gonna say it. I'm not sure if it would be fun for someone that always found writing painful, but I would encourage anyone to at least give blogging a shot. Everyone has valuable stories to share.

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If you liked this post, you might like some of my other posts like Anything is Possible, Your Living Legacy, What would my life be like without the internet?, and more.

The Penny: A Lesson in Collecting

With the death of the penny, it reminded me of the last time I saw a banknote's demise; the two dollar bill. 1997 was when the toonie was introduced, and thousands of Canadians held onto their two dollar bills, hoping that one day they might be worth more. 

T206 Honus Wagner

My brother kept his two dollar bills in a dictionary, to try to keep them as flat as possible. I actually know of several friends who did very similar things. What I find most interesting about this, is that fact that the two dollar bill is very far from becoming a collectors item.

The major determinant of if something will be collectible is supply and demand. The rarest of all baseball cards, the Honus Wagner "T206", has fetched up to $2.8 million dollars. That is because after 57 were printed, Wagner forced to company to halt production. There are now estimated to be only 6 of the original 57 remaining. Just last week, a near mint condition card sold for $1.2 million.

Going back to the issue of the two dollar bill. How many two dollar bills do you think are still in circulation? Do you think that collection you have been saving all of these years may be your ticket to fortune? Well, you better be prepared to wait a very, very, very... very long time, because there are still an estimated 109,271,483 bills in circulation. When you factor inflation into the picture, you were probably better off just buying a coffee with that two dollar bill then hanging onto it. 

So, before you go holding onto all of your pennies, thinking that they will one day be worth more than their face value, you had better think twice. Remember, that's the reason that the government is doing away with the penny already, that they cost 1.6 cents to make. 

Social Media: An Means to an End, or an End in Itself?

This is a question that I've often wondered. Is social media a means towards connecting individuals with each other with the goal of creating social interaction in a real space later, or is it the interaction itself?

I think everyone has been out when they look at see a group of people standing together, all on their cell phones. Has social media eclipsed real life interaction?

Surely there are instance where social media does serve that purpose. When I was in University I met tons of exchange students, or roomates that have simply moved far away, that I wouldn't be able to remain in contact with without social media. Social media becomes the medium of interaction, but when we are together, we always try to get together in person.

There are a lot of studies being connected now that are linking excessive social media use and depression. It's interested that although we now live in the Global Village envisioned by Marshall McLuhan, sometimes we forget about the village.

In Edmund Carpenter's "Oh What A Blow that Phantom Gave Me" he talked about the idea of "Media Withdrawl". He tells this as an example:

"Recently at a U.S. Army base in Germany, the commanding officer attributed the high divorce rate among his troops to the lack of English-language TV. 'That means a soldier and his wife have got to talk to each other in the evenings, and suddenly they discover that they don't like each other'".

That is from a book that was written in 1972.

As a digital media strategist, I work and research new technology constantly. However, I've always seen social media as a means to an end. Often when I talk to clients, the goal of their campaigns is to get people into their office for a real visit. Many of my biggest revelations come from sitting down and having a coffee with someone. While we can find all of the information we will ever need online, nothing can replace human interaction.

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You can get my blog's automatically emailed to you by filling out the sign up on the left hand side.

If you liked this post, you might like some of my other posts like Anything is Possible, Your Living Legacy, What would my life be like without the internet?, and more.

Anything is Possible

We live in a world where anything is actually possible. I truly believe that statement which has been ingrained into me my entire life. It becomes overly hard to believe when you see the unemployment numbers for London (8.8 percent) and the rest of Canada (7.4 percent), but imagine looking at that number for those age 15-24 (14.7 percent). That is a ridiculous number.

We are looking at a situation where people now fear for a lost generation. Can you imagine that, an entire generation lost? For what reason? Do we not have the skills of previous generations? The Intellect? The Ambition and Drive?

I refuse to believe that. A band called the Sloppy Meateaters once said, "I don't like how you're running things, but I got no solution". While certainly not the greatest grammar of all time, I think it has been one of the most influential statements of my life. I don't blame the government for the youth unemployment rate, with a recession they need to make sure families are getting fed. I don't blame the employers who are hiring for the experience that my generation simply doesn't have. When you look at it, you might be able to hire someone young for less, but you might spend more time training them. I understand that argument. I may not like how things are being run, but there isn't a clear solution to me. So what to do?

There is another option in my opinion. Start it yourself. I know that this isn't the safest or easiest route, but doing nothing under the threat of a lost generation is more dangerous. You think you have a good idea? Do it. Do you see a gap in the market that you think you can solve? Solve it. Say you start something and in a couple years when that great job you've been looking at is looks at your resume and sees that you have been actively honing your skills, at a job you created. I think that looks pretty good.

It's incredible to me to see the generation of people in this city and around the world that are from my generation are are solving problems. Look at things like "Palm Pass", or, I'm gonna toot my own horn here, "LondonMusic.ca"; these are things started by young people offering their services to the city.

I think for a lot of people while it is easy to wallow about the lack of jobs, I think it's important to seize this opportunity as a chance to reflect on what it is you really want to do. Take this chance to take a breath and make sure that if you are putting the effort into a job, that you are happy when you get it. Know that every single person has something that makes them special to contribute to society. And just because it takes a little longer for society to figure that out, doesn't mean that it is any less special.

And for any of you that are interested, here's the song I was referencing earlier. It's appropriate as I always keep a picture of Kurt Vonnegut in front of my desk to remind me of the fact that, while he was selling Saabs in the 1960's, he was also continuously reading, and writing, and honing his craft, into something that has made my life immeasurably better. I owe a great debt of gratitude to that man, for never giving up on his dream, and I would encourage you all to do the same, because you'll never know the impact you could have on future

generations otherwise.

(The connection is that Kurt Vonnegut wrote a book called Slaughterhouse Five which the song references)

The Math of Marketing

Often times when you sit down and look at two products, they seem remarkably alike. In fact, when you look at the makeup of a product, two products can have all of the same characteristics, but something, this unknown factor makes them different.

This is where the math of marketing comes into play. It is really a very simple equation.

Let’s look at two identical car dealerships. We will call one Old Macdonald Dealers, and the other New Macdonald. Clearly, these companies offer the exact same product, but how to market them? A car from Old Macdonald, and a Car from New Macdonald are the exact same in every way, so when you are coming up with a marketing strategy, what to do you do?

Well, let’s do a little back story here. Old Macdonald is a family run company. They have been part of the community for several generations. Most likely they sold your parents their first car. They pride themselves on customer service and satisfaction, and will go the extra mile to make sure you are happy.

New Macdonald just opened. They have a state of the art showroom, and the highest quality tools to make sure your car is kept in tip top shape to the newest in industry specifications. New Macdonald uses all of the tools at their disposal, a cutting edge website, mailing list, search engine marketing and optimization, social media, and a multitude of other mediums.

You can start to see a clear picture here, possibly because I wrote the stories that way. However here is a simple equation:

Idea 1 – Idea 2 = What Makes You Marketable

Seems simple enough doesn’t it? Well yes, Old Macdonald needs to sell cars; they also need to sell what makes them different than New Macdonald. For them it’s all about customer service, longevity, and loyalty. It’s the safe decision. They market that, they were your parent’s company, and they are the safe choice.

While that might work for Old Macdonald, New Macdonald looks and says, well, ok, subtracting what makes us the same, we might not have the history and track record, but we do have all of the cutting edge equipment to make sure that your car is taken care of in this generation.

I know this seems very simple, but a lot of time I find it’s forgotten. What makes you different from your competitors?

Old Macdonald                        New Maconald                         Mustache

One of my favorite journal articles has always been “On Popular Music” by Theodor Adorno. While many ideas are shared in this article (which I highly recommend reading) the relevant one to this article is the idea of pseudo individualization. This was the idea that all bands are made of similar components; think bass, drums, guitar, and singer. On top of that, they share similar influences. While these bands may plead to the ends of the earth that they are not at all alike, and that they are the most individual thing to ever happen to music, it’s the slight difference in between these bands that make them marketable.

Let’s use a band like Black Keys for instance. They are playing what can best be described as blues rock and seem very different from anything else on the radio today. Not only that, they are a duo. Radically different than your standard four piece. However, what they share with other rock bands, and pop bands, is similar song structure, they use the same instruments; you aren’t really surprised by where they are going. Although they are giving you something new, it’s familiar enough that you aren’t scared off. That’s the idea of pseudo individualization, and its appeal. People like what is familiar to them. If you can make something “like” something people have heard before, but tweak it ever so slightly, that is what makes it marketable.