Dropping the Crypto Penny

Like a lot of people I know, I have only loosely flirted with crypto, blockchain and smart contracts over the past few years. This loose flirtation stopped recently when the crypto penny dropped, and I realised how everything felt like it was really about to change. Whether I was going to make any money or not, or whether I could buy a Tesla with Ether, was no longer my interest.  The thing that was suddenly more interesting was the fact that life could look very different in the near future. 

This feeling I have is much more intense than it was in 1998 with web 1.0, a time long forgotten when nothing was broken in the world and my peer group wrote internet business plans on an hourly basis, late into the night and met people to talk over them. Perhaps I was now more experienced? or perhaps transformation is possible faster than ever before? It doesn’t really matter, this thing, web 3.0, crypto or new, ‘new’ economy appears to be snowballing, and it is wickedly interesting and stimulating. 

There is something to learn here and this is plenty to keep me interested.  I will confess that I always have new things to learn, so I am also hedging this interest, but it’s surfaced, and it’s not going off my list any time soon.

The initial phase of crypto curiosity for me was to learn about this new shiny toy and the basics. What actually is it? This phase quickly moved to speculation, gold rush mentality and not much care for any deep-rooted structural economic change, as long as I was ‘out’ before the price fell and ‘in’ again before you were. 

Over time, my curiosity started to lead me to try and understand things a little better. Over the last year, I also went back to study and this decision was at the time unrelated to crypto. I used some lockdown hours to learn key parts of my Economics degree from a non-western perspective. I studied Economic thought from a Chinese and Indian perspective through a short online course with Oxford University. 

Today, my return to study and curiosity about all things crypto have collided. I get that there are parts of the crypto world that are about a speculation game, some about facilitating criminal behaviour and others about building products to service it, but I suddenly understand that there is a far deeper change happening. A deep economic shift that perhaps my old Marxist tutor would have called chaos.

There are three interesting features of crypto that I recommend you consider:

1. It is a widely established world that is difficult to police and has spawned sectors, organisations and products that are currently worth billions of dollars. It is diversified, smart and has support, energy and momentum.  It is not about one currency called bitcoin, it is about an entire economic environment that is established and evolving every day, with its own equivalents of banking, security, markets and even soul. It has different incentives, motivation and rewards. It is a place of new rules.

2. You can’t understand it by looking through your current lenses. I remember having to rewire my CFO and accountant brain when I joined a capital markets business 12 years ago. The value of a company was not entirely about the business fundamentals, this was a shock, stock price was about what someone was willing to pay for that stock being sold there and there. It’s a different lens, obvious now, but when you form habits and wire yourself one way it’s all you see.  For crypto understanding, I have had to change lenses again. Check this, you don’t need a company or bank account, no shareholder or payslip to be able to settle your bills, create revenue or fund ideas. It’s a different world that is only understood by changing lenses.

3. The technology, infrastructure and attitude are making it possible for a revolution to happen. Yes, it’s entirely possible that the way life is organised can change. When I studied my degree elements again, I realised that over time and often at the same time, it is of course possible for there to exist completely different ways that parts of society are organised with the same or different goals. Whether it is the pursuit of good health,  education, climate control, equality or better diversity – it is possible for things to be achieved in different ways and under different structures. Perhaps the most obvious contest is between the established capital markets and new coins. Coins are wrestling perceived control and power away from corporations and distributing this to the makers and customers. Decentralised machine networks are autonomously moving data around to incentivise, motivate and reward people to help shape a new world. It’s quite incredible to see people joining networks in a permissionless way and making lives for themselves. 

So a new way to reorganise life is right in front of our eyes and there are so many people experimenting, building, thinking and developing new solutions that if you are not looking closely will be a shock to you. Of course, it all needs work and this is developing fast.  There will be disasters, but there will also be new solutions.

We have a few projects in the Lab at Platform Worldwide that I am excited about ranging from the revolutionary to the highly amusing, ranging across the sector. The team, as always, are thoroughly enjoying making new things, solving problems, researching and tinkering. 

If you are new to this, I would encourage you to start to look through sites like crytoslate.com or coinmarketcap.com to see the vast array of sectors, organisations, and values of the market. Of course, there are lots of other, less fundamental unique opportunities, like NFTs for memes, or even brands like Atari launching strategies but I would encourage you to look deep – there is something very big, and real, and possible here, in the way that parts of our economic life can be organised. It’s something to learn – and that’s good enough for me – but it’s still very early, and if you want to make a difference, or have a side-hobby I’d encourage you to learn about it a little more. It might bring you an advantage, joy or reward.

Story of my Dad

Diwali Crackers

I’d like to tell you the story of my Dad, Ishwarlal Gokaldas Ruparel. My speech at Dad’s funeral.

He was born on 5th April 1946 in Uganda and passed away on the 1st May 2020. The 74 years in between are his story, during which he gave to the world a true demonstration of what it means to be loyal and a unique character with an intelligent mind. He was grounded by a love for his  family, friends, hinduism and the community. He also had a spark of joy and risk about him. Dad had 4 brothers and 4 sisters that he loved dearly, he took responsibility for them for a large part of his life. He had been married to Mum for exactly 50 years, a day we only very recently celebrated and he had 2 children (Mena and myself) and 2 grandchildren, Dhyan and Seva, who you will hear from soon.

On completing his early education, Dad quickly established himself as a teacher of typing and bookkeeping and supporting local businesses. He had his own small school, supported by local mentors like John and Rodericks. I am told that during his time in Jinja he was quite a charming gentleman who dressed well and was independently minded. That never changed. He sold up his interests before his move to London in the late 1960’s. I can imagine that moving to London in his early 20’s must have been quite a shock to the system – he initially navigated himself using the Monopoly board and it was from these initial days that he developed a love of London’s West End.

The initial five or six years in London saw dad lay down what would become the foundation of his life. A job working alongside Mr Harold Henley, a job that he never left, they closed it together, a marriage to mum, buying his first house, having two children and being there when they formed the Lohana community in South London. 

He spent most of the rest of his life nurturing, developing and supporting this foundation along with supporting and loving  his and my mother’s family whenever they needed it. Dad was a gentleman.

There are also lots of stories of fun, adventure and surprise within this. He travelled to many places, tried things that weren’t really him like huge roller coasters, riding camels and elephants. He also flew first class and stayed in incredible places but I think it was in Mumbai that I think he felt most comfortable with Mukesh Uncle and his family. 

He did return to Uganda later in life, I am not sure he had planned for that gap to be so long but Mr Amin got in the way after he initially left. On return to Uganda he met with his old friend John and tried to track down Rodricks who had moved back to Goa. He had since passed so they never met again. Dad had time for everyone, friendships meant something to him, he made lifelong friends in the most unusual ways whether it was a local shopkeeper, evening standard newspaper vendor, a solicitor on  a train or our loved TV repairman, the list goes on. He treated people like humans and had time for them. Dad was loyal, sentimental and was also human. Once he had made a friend, he kept in touch and treated them like family. I’d like to thank each of them for the time they gave him in retirement as it was this that kept his mind busy. In particular, thank you Ramesh Uncle, Naren Uncle, Satish Uncle and Ram Bhatt. I am sure there are many more I have not mentioned, forgive me but know I am grateful. 

Routine and habit were also important to Dad. This included staying up very late, being late for the office, watching videos, setting off diwali fireworks and putting presents under the  tree. He loved to give presents, play with new gadgets, read books and listen to music, eat the freshest and best samosas, enjoy mums cornflakes chweda for breakfast and sometimes indian sweets for breakfast too. He was romantic and loved to buy flowers.

Dad was there for me when I needed him even the most, when it should have been me looking after him. Not that he needed looking after for most of his life. He didn’t suffer, he passed away quickly with no pain and at home with mum. He had had a great day and was sending emails and whats app whilst he had dinner and watched comedy with mum. Dad liked to have his way, even with the way that he left us. It is how he would have wanted it. He was a lucky man in many ways and I am lucky to have a dad like him who showed me the right path and wrapped it with love.

My lasting memory of Dad is the joy that he had at our annual family diwali dinner where we would do fireworks in our small garden. He would buy gigantic fireworks and we would set them off far too close to the house, occasionally we burnt the shed or they misfired. It was dangerous but we knew it would be Ok, and it was. 

It was moments like this when all the best bits of dad would come together and never to be forgotten. It seems that history repeated itself. Sitting at Dad’s desk the day after he passed I found a letter that he had kept from 1969 from Rodricks. Rodricks was in Uganda, he was a lawyer and dad was in London. It discussed the army, the family and life in general but it was clear that they both knew that Uganda was changing and that maybe Dad had left for good. I can understand completely how Rodricks must have felt when he wrote to dad knowing that he was gone. 

“Well (Ishwar), Diwali is not so good as it used to be because the Crackers (Fireworks) and Cowboys of the town are missing.” 

I will miss you Dad.

Making next year count

 

Goodbye 2015, you were awesome and taught me a few things to hopefully make 2016 count. Over 50,000 miles traveled, projects in 10 countries from Miami to Clapham, Seville, Tooting, Dubai, Brighton, and Rome. We combined art, music, technology and the love to create marketing experiences everywhere. You taught me that I should not lose sight of original ideas, nor to expand the business when there is no need but to use experts and plugin properly to the world to make things happen. People and life today are beautiful and together I want to help make amazing things happen in 2016. This should be interesting if you are thinking of adding to do some extra freestyle projects to your new year’s resolution list.

It was an exceptional year for us where we worked with a handful of clients to raise awareness for different projects, all aiming to make people smile and tell their friends a few key things. We used multiple art styles, sculpture, LED, mobile, APIs, motion detectors, sound, and celebrities. We made videos, made adverts, created brand ID’s, logo’s, took photos, made websites, apps, and virtual and augmented reality experience, wore fancy dress and handed out leaflets and badges. It wasn’t all by accident but for sure Lady Luck played her hand but it was the core team that helped each other out to keep things alive and kicking to which we added over 100 experts on short-term contracts across the world. They all shared similar characteristics of being charming, being experts, working hard, focused and smiling (a lot), even when things were canceled, changed, hurricanes came and went and the previous night’s celebrations got the better of things!

I have built my business on the back of two key strategies. The first is those original ideas really matter the most and second that you don’t need to build an empire to deliver them. In fact, the empire can stop the former ever happening. The shift has happened and the world today provides all of the ways and means to be able to put your energy into the idea and build the team when required to deliver your best, minimizing unnecessary administration. During the year an incredible set of people came into my world to help and I am very grateful. We sourced trusted and known people across our network and the world to help us move stuff, build stuff, drive stuff and care for stuff (and much, much more). Everyone delivered and the culture was about getting things done because the project revolved around a great idea and we are nice people that even pay on time, most of the time ☺. This is so different from a few short years ago when accidentally the main priority was to look after and care for people first, worry about the idea and purpose second. This current way ensures that the client gets quality, faster, at lower prices and the team actually gets paid more than a traditional job.

I can’t name them all but these guys helped, inspired and gave my core team and project a very helpful hand. They were really special and awesome: Michael Farmula and Morris the dog, Simon the Sculpture guy, ‘Choppy’ Danny, Erin (who arrived like an angel), Multiple Carlos’s (!), Pia, Phil, Michael XO, Jordan (and Bright Bricks), Sophia FRESH, James, Peter, Rajen and Bravin, Mattie, Deborah, Maria, Jim and teams, Jessie J (!), Leona Lewis, Ellie Goulding, Izabella, Jareck, Pawel, Hugo, Szczepan, Sarah, Jazzy, Multiple Maciej’s, Simon, Santa Claus, Andrea and at times our friends and families.

Business feels much more real today than any point in my 20-year journey across multiple successful and failing enterprises. We don’t need to offer people fruity sparkling water, weekly free back massages, lunch tokens, and a free bar to get wasted each week to get the best from them. We need amazing ideas, projects, and purpose to be the main motivation and of course, you make sure each person is happy and cared for. I like this world, it kind of works and I see it manifesting itself in many ways, from UBER to pop up shops, everyone is deciding to take control, use or develop skill, plugin when they wish and make their primary goal and idea happen, with a smile.

There is a sense of freedom by choosing to get involved, being in control and having complete clarity. I remember talking to a trainee doctor who was driving a Lexus as an UBER Lux driver in Miami telling me that UBER gave him freedom, money, and fun (in the free-est of free countries!) and he was next going to become a part-time actor. Life is beautiful, right? But you have to plugin and if you do, you increase the chance that everything you want, can really happen.

So, if you are thinking about chasing new opportunities in 2016 as a freelancer, expert or small expert team, to make a difference, work on great projects and be in control … I would highly recommend it. The world is moving rather quickly in your favor and there is large and increasing demand for amazing people and their skill.  People like me are looking on forums, Facebook, Instagram, websites, and word of mouth to cut out the nonsense, make our time count and do really amazing things together for our client and the world in which we live.

Happy 2016, make it count together and again thanks to all who helped in 2015.

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Donate your heartbeat

 

I’d like to share with you one of my latest projects. It has been keeping me busy and I hope you will take a peek and share!

We have built an app that allows you to donate your heartbeat to raise awareness of heart failure. Once you have donated it, you can combine it with people that you love, like and follow and download a unique memory.

On the app you can also donate and soon combine your heartbeat with people like Ellie Goulding, Leona Lewis, and Jessie J (see her donation video here http://bit.ly/1KO9x1S ), who are all supporting the project. We wanted to give people something totally unique in return for a little help to get some key messages across about heart failure shared. It’s all part of a campaign called Keep It Pumping (www.keepitpumping.com) we’re working on with Novartis and some great agencies. It’s a worldwide project and has a number of associated experiential campaigns centered on encouraging people to donate their heartbeat.

We have produced some great content of the artists donating their heartbeats and you can unlock some amazing exclusive and live performances of Leona Lewis singing her song Heartbeat if you donate. It’s free and takes a few seconds and you can download it here http://apple.co/1MAww3r. We also hope it provides some fun in the office and home as you combine your heartbeats together.

I do hope this is of interest and worthy of sharing with your world. The prevalence of heart failure is not properly understood. Millions live with it – 1 in 5 over the 40s will develop it – but most people simply put the signs down to normal aging.

Happy World Heart Day! ><

A beautiful equation thing, hopefully

 

It may well be in the eye of the beholder but I think that there is a special beauty when math and creativity come together.

A thought entered my head a few years ago that has never really left, it helped me to recently work out a way to have gazillion new ideas in minutes. Read on if you would like to know-how.

The thought was ‘What if there was a formula for coming up with a good idea?’ and it has never left my mind.

Surrounded by dragon’s den on TV, $billion startups, marketing stunts jumping out of every billboard and a general move by all to seek out a good idea, this thought just sat there. Then one day I got a call from someone important at a very important publicity company. I call him Mr. Important. “Ravi, can you help?” We want someone to come to the office and teach our young ones about disruptive and creative projects, how to come up with good ideas and to make them happen? “Yup I can do that”, was my quick response. This was the accelerant I needed; the fuel for the rocket, the Chas for our Dave and my Kylie for your Jason moment I needed, ‘especially for me’. In a warped way, this was also the confirmation I had long expected, I am a little bit wonky but who really cares, right?

Within a few weeks, I had consolidated 10 years of thoughts and applied them to invent a game. Helped and inspired by my colleagues we made ‘the Cray game’; had it designed, made and delivered hot off a Polish press in three weeks (thanks to Maciej and Sophie). The walls of my office are now stacked with little brown boxes waiting for you. The game is made up of some math, a simple wipeable board, a dice, a pen and just my (and your) imagination (running away with me). We tried it with several other Mr. and Mrs. Important and they said things like this “A kick-ass way to bust out of boring brainstorms. Throw the dice and free your mind!” (Big hug, Nic McCarthy).

The game provides you with a format to quickly structure your thinking around a creative challenge (but can also be applied to planning your holiday or a naughty weekend away). It allows you to easily broaden your thoughts, add loads of inputs and gives you a lateral view of things, just like that. It forces you to think quickly so you don’t need to worry about confidence issues when speaking out your ideas. Most important, by complete accident it really opens up the ability to have a bucket load of ideas very, very quickly. This is where the math comes in.

In the game, you have to map out 10 rows of things that are related to your challenge, with 6 items in each row (One for each side of the dice). You connect the things to create ideas. Simples, right? So how many potential ideas are there on this single side wipe board? Have a guess. 60, 100, 1,000? All wrong. The answer is more like 8.32098711*10^81 according to my cousin who really knows her math (and said it could be bigger or smaller depending on the order and other things (thanks Chandni)). Yup, it’s that big. It’s like a fazillion, bazillion. Seriously, wowsers. It’s to do with an area of maths called Permutation. Having played it with several creative teams now I have seen people literally have creative diarrhea playing it and some of the ideas have already been implemented and have led to not only more creative souls but original magic at work, for their clients.

We all want to have good ideas and sometimes it’s hard. I think I have come up with one way to help you have loads and I would love to deliver a version of the game to your desk. At this stage I need feedback, doors open and just play it with creative animals. I have 30 available for free and none for sale (yet! as I have sold the rest). I would love it if you would come and play with me. Drop me a line, like a tenner or brief (s). As a minimum, I promise to make you smile and you can always re-pack it and give it to someone for Christmas.

 

2015: Life is beautiful?

Watching Cabaret on Broadway during a recent trip to New York changed my perspective a little on what is important in life – I just couldn’t stop thinking about the meaning of the lyric ‘Life is beautiful’. It got me thinking about the extent to which I was being distracted by fun and technology, away from what was really important and how that could change in 2015. I want to place a bet on this and put it on record. I think life in 2015 will be further designed and inspired by insane creative technology that will amuse; unfortunately, this might completely distract a lot of smart people from the real economic and social challenges faced today. Let’s call it the digital hoodwink. It’s a hoodwink because I think we could actually start to do something about the challenges. I want to make sure I stay grounded and balanced across the fun and the real.

The last few years have seen huge advances and investment to connect the world in real-time, to fuse people, places, businesses, content, and events with digital, virtual and augmented infrastructure. Digital channels and platforms that operate at lightning speed, at little cost and have evolved from text to HD video in zero time. We have seen huge leaps in creativity, computer-processing power, and mobile phones together with widespread increasing digital skills to make things happen. These are all coming together to make inspiring, unbelievable ideas real in a matter of days, at low cost. Agile techniques, prototypes, visuals, reuse of open free code and cross border teams make project delivery and execution of things less risky, faster and lead to better products.  Expect to see new forms of personal transport, sexy wearable tech, virtual reality, illusion, and art everywhere on digital screens in every corner.

So let’s look forward to a beautiful year? a year we can tinder away to find love over and over again, get in the creative zone with 100 Instagram’s for breakfast, find a new job every 6 months through Linkedin with more pay, maybe by bitcoin – Yay!, share cat pictures, videos and maybe even holograms. Get smart playing games on our phones, ignore the tube crush – do you care when you have candy to play with? where is the 2048 tile? Why not learn to paint and speak 10 languages using animal sounds and pictures – better still use Google translate and drones to do it for you, there is an app for that! I want my shopping not just delivered but packed away and automatically re-ordered, my data to be analysed so that the world knows exactly how I feel and think, allowing me to be fulfilled when I need it most. This year will also be the year of YouTube – its all about the Y (YouTube) and goodbye to the X (X-Factor), nobody needs a show to make them famous when they can make money and fame from the video’s on YouTube. It’s about me after all? isn’t it?

It’s all about the Y, Why, why? I think that even children have stopped asking why at an early age as they have an iPad, Google and Siri to ask this question too, but the Simpsons, VEVO or cartoons or worse are a major distraction to them. Like children, adults seem to have stopped asking why and are constantly distracted and entertained by one of their 20 electronic devices.

I don’t remember ever being told by a teacher or employer the true purpose of things, it’s too difficult a thing to answer and they are not told it’s their responsibility – why am I here? I get it; it’s a tough one. I have just been told to be good, kind and respectful. As I gain more experience, I start to see a little clearer and am still kind, I hope. Without considering religion or politics, I think the point is to be part of a coordinated effort to progress life for all so that life really is beautiful and better. A world that evolves, progresses, where people are happier, people feel loved, they are helped if they really need it and we are each free and helped to be the best person and team we can be, together. Way too idealistic? I think not. You just want to be happy and the best you can be, right?

Have you thought about how many people didn’t eat tonight, were beaten, died without reason, could have been saved, had no one to speak to or had no support to make their health project come to life?

Do you know how many people (including politicians) played Candy Crush when they could have written a letter to someone in need or wrote a song that inspired a sick child? How many people spent the weekend shopping when they could have gone to a community centre to help a lonely person? How many accountants and advisors that could have thought about a fairer, better tax system to make education free and relevant. You get my point, I hope.

We have started to see how digital infrastructure can really help crowdsource, fund and make things happen in no time. We have seen how positive messages can go around the world and we can download apps for good health, monitor blood pressure, yoga, charity walks and runs as well as do ice bucket challenges that raised $100m for ALS. We have even seen hackers take out the film industry. However, this is still tiny in proportion to the money going into fashion, entertainment, transport, luxury, technology, etc. It is still tiny in proportion to the 1 billion $ to kick-starter projects for virtual reality things or tweet-able desktop toys. It can’t just be me that thinks that if we looked a little less at some things we could do something a little more powerful with our brains, time and money? I know there are a bunch of super-fly people sitting around disruption invite only supper’s to change the world but what about the rest of us? I want to survive and make a real contribution as well. Work hard, play hard and help.

I know exactly how to make a short video for a new cool gadget that could get kick-started in 14 days but I don’t know where to start to use creative tech to improve education, make it free, reduce house prices, equalise the gap between rich and poor, help people live longer and healthier, make life simpler to digest and fuel creative community activity. I am certain that the world is ready to embrace the challenge of really making life beautiful and I would love for 2015 to be the year that we were not hoodwinked. I’d like to do it together with lots of people in the real and digital world and make it a beautiful New Year.  Mail me, let’s do something and don’t get me wrong, I want it to be fun and to smile and maybe dance and I will continue to be commercial and do the day job (really well!), I just want to reallocate some time, money and thinking to some real economic issues.

I’d love to hear from you if you have a world-changing project or amazing local community project. Changing the game is fun but it’s also time to make life really beautiful, together? Happy holidays and 2015 ><

Daddy, will you help me to make my app?

“Daddy, will you help me to make my app?” My inquisitive and bright 7-year-old son had designed a fully mobile game and brand whilst he should have been playing pat-ball, kiss chase or with trains or planes. I bring work home and I can’t stop my son’s curiosity about the work I do or of the world in which he lives. Like most children, he has learned to swipe early on and watches more TV on his iPad than on the Sony.  I am sure that like other parent’s, I am on email and mobile for business way too much and at all sorts of hours. This had led to my first big parent challenge, should I actually help him?

With hindsight, the answer seems obvious; of course I should. I should encourage my children to pursue their dreams and wishes however they may be conceived. As long as these are good, truthful and fun, why would I stop them?  His classmates are trying out for Chelsea, so why not make a game when you are young?  However, my first instinct was fear. I did not want him to grow up too quickly, to receive unnecessary early attention. I certainly did not want him to be a mini-CEO aged 7. He had heard me talking to my wife about this so suggested that this was not a business thing but for charity.  In the previous year he had organized a triathlon even though he could not swim, he did it with me holding him. That’s my boy.

Of course, I helped him to build his game. As the things progressed, he worked with the developers at Jazzy.pro in Poland and understood the entire process of launching a game on the app store. Today, he is being written about in the online press around the world and people are playing his game and donating to Great Ormond Street Hospital charity in all sorts of countries from Chile to China. His headmaster follows the game on Twitter and pop stars have re-tweeted the story.

It is all too apparent that the world we live in is changing quickly with new technology and communication. I want my children to embrace this and be aware of the need to be inventive as well have core values of family, education, faith, being kind and having fun. I fear more than not being inventive will be a disadvantage in the world he is growing up in.

Please do play his game; it’s called Greedy Ladder. It’s free to download, not for profit and helps a super charity.  You can buy ladders in cities for 69p each and the proceeds from apple got to the hospital. I also hope you take a moment to understand the reason why I helped him, why I feel that being inventive in the times we live is critical and should be encouraged alongside all the traditional things that dad’s and their children do.

You can download from a link here http://www.greedyladder.com

Letting balloons go

There they were, two metallic blue star-shaped helium balloons tied to a bench in Beddington Park.

I don’t know about you but I can’t help but look and stare at balloons. They have a hypnotic charm that fixates and draw you in as they dance their own dance in the air. Sometimes they appear in the corner of your eye, floating to the sky; either they are thereby accident or carrying a message. The heartbreak that follows a child’s balloon let go by accident or popped prematurely is hard not to feel. Today, they were tied to a bench.

I was out with my wife, parents, sister, brother-in-law and my children. We just had to go and see the two blue stars. I don’t think that any of us gave a thought as to why they were there other than they were balloons and balloons are fun.

These balloons had been let go for a completely different reason than any other I had met before. ‘Richard was a big man with a big heart’. His wife had been there earlier in the day and tied them to the bench. It would have been Richard’s birthday. We worked that out by the dates 1973 – 2013. He had died, a year ago and a week after he had turned 40. He would have been a week younger than me. The grief, emotion, and feelings of letting these balloons go, saying happy birthday and letting Richard go (‘until they met again’) are ones that none of us wish to experience but they are what life is about. I was reminded of the importance of the dash. 1973-2013. The dash is the story, the period you make your own and when you love and be loved. How lucky to be surrounded at that point by my family.

The potentially perilous journey of an Internet of things agent

“Is this your bag Sir?” asked the Polish police officer once my bag had gone through the X-Ray machine at the airport. Double drat, I knew that she would ask. I knew that this Internet of things lark was going to get me into trouble.

“She” was a police officer dressed in military clothes, blonde hair tied back, with black leather gloves and a gun wrapped around a holster. She was straight out of a movie and I think her name was Agnieszka. She opened up my bag and asked me “What is that?” and simultaneously summoned for back up. I agree it did not look good. It was a white box with a single red button. Inside was a large battery with circuit boards that were all precisely wired together and had an antenna sticking out at one end.

Ok, the above nearly happened…

At breakfast that same day I had decided to ship the white box with the red button instead of bringing it back to London in my hand luggage. I am actually disappointed that I did not even try but something tells me that this was certainly the right decision. I did bring back the smaller version that was less of a prototype (a lovely little burgundy fella in-front of the ketchup).

So what is it you ask? Its working name is SIR, the ‘Smith Invisible Ranger’. It is a prototype and has a little brother that is much smaller. SIR is the latest innovation brokered by pl.atform (atform.pl) for Curb Media. SIR creates a hyper-local area within which you can quickly set up an insane amount of interaction between all the people in the range (via their mobile device) and any other connected device (screens, lights, sound, electronics). I can’t wait to help execute the endless opportunities it creates in the Digital Outdoor, Social, Local and Mobile world (something I call DOSOLOMO) I will save that story for another day. It will soon be distributing content, allowing people to change content, collecting and mining data, redeeming coupons and much, much more.

I look forward to fighting another day to augment and change the world through electronic innovation. So in case you are reading Agnieszka, I will be back.

The one about the CFO and CEO

I noticed a few friends sharing a short exchange between the CEO and CFO. I feel it is unfair and feel this is a better reflection of the relationship.

A CEO throwing a party takes his executives on a tour of his opulent mansion. In the back of the property, the CEO has the largest swimming pool any of them has ever seen. The huge pool, however, is filled with hungry alligators. The CEO says to his executives “I think an executive should be measured by courage. Courage is what made me CEO. So this is my challenge to each of you: if anyone has enough courage to dive into the pool, swim through those alligators, and make it to the other side, I will give that person anything they desire. My job, my money, my house, anything!”Everyone laughs at the outrageous offer and proceeds to follow the CEO on the tour of the estate. Suddenly, they hear a loud splash. Everyone turns around and sees the CFO (Chief Financial Officer) in the pool, swimming for his life. He dodges the alligators left and right and makes it to the edge of the pool with seconds to spare. He pulls himself out just as a huge alligator snaps at his shoes. The flabbergasted CEO approaches the CFO and says, “You are amazing. I’ve never seen anything like it in my life. You are brave beyond measure and anything I own is yours. Tell me what I can do for you.” The CFO, panting for breath, looks up and says, “You can tell me who the hell pushed me in the pool!!”

[Affectionately reproduced without permission from the Internet]

Lessons from Hero’s on how to move on in life – Tendulkar and Flintoff

Freddie picked up the ball and threw it at the wicket to run out Ricky Ponting, the Australian captain. He raised both arms in the air to celebrate and simply stood there as the world applauded. England went on to win the Ashes that day in 2009 and Freddie Flintoff MBE retired from English cricket. That was a mighty fine way to go and I will never forget it as it was also the first live full test match that I had seen. He knew that that was exactly how to say goodbye. I remember making a mental note to myself that it was always important to go out at the top and to go out in style.

Another hero retired from cricket this weekend. He is known as the Little Master. Sachin Tendulkar. There is a great quote from Flintoff on him:

“When you bowl at him you are not just trying to get him out, you are trying to impress him. “I want him to walk off thinking ‘that Flintoff, he’s all right isn’t he? I feel privileged to have played against him”

After his 200^th test game for India in Mumbai against West Indies, Sachin retired from cricket. He is the only player in the world to have hit 100 International centuries and is a fine ambassador for India. I have also been lucky enough to meet him and he is a true gentleman.

After this last game he played in Mumbai, two things happened. The first is that he joined Mother Teresa and Nelson Mandela to be awarded India’s highest civil honour – the Bharat Ratna. This award is for the performance of highest order in any field of human endeavor. It is not handed out too often and makes for a very special moment in the incredible career for the Little Master, the finest and most loved cricket batsman of all time.  Mental note number 2 is that the best awards are the ones that you don’t enter, are highly selective and are truly earned.

The second thing that happened is that he gave a speech. I can hear his Indian family and friends shouting “Speech, Speech” as they probably did at every birthday party and family function. This was not, however, an ordinary speech. He stopped to say goodbye properly. He stopped for twenty plus minutes to go through a list of people to thank and he started with his father and said he had simply followed his advice to ‘chase my dreams but make sure you do not find shortcuts.’ These are familiar words of most Indian parents. He went on to thank family, friends, his wife, children, coaches, and managers. He spoke about people fasting and making a sacrifice. He spoke about the responsibility of serving the sport and representing the nation. He meant it, you could tell.

The third and final mental note I made on this topic was that the Indian way of life that I have remotely lived in London, that Sachin described, combined with modern English cricket in the style of Freddie Flintoff means I really do have the best of both worlds.

Together, the lessons from these Hero’s to help us move on in life are to go out in style, at the top. Chase the quality things that matter, take no shortcuts and fuse the best of your influences together.

The amplification of toilet humour – a poemy song thing

It used to be a Victorian toilet and it is now a place where Gillian and Leiah had a mother and daughter date (2013). It is a place where Will was waiting for his wild rose, someone else declared their love for Stalin and another thought that James is a cock. Nice.

Welcome to the attendant, the most amazing underground coffee shop in the world. It really used to be a toilet and has been lovingly transformed, serves great coffee, has a graffitied door and free wifi.

I remember watching the uber-cool barista when he was hanging up the pens on the plain white door to encourage people to write down their thoughts. I remember thinking to myself that this will be interesting to read and sure enough, it is.

The study of social conversation, emotional engagement, and online/offline experience are at the core of my current business interests. I really want to know how to best engage with people and naturally encourage them to share their feelings for a variety of marketing and business purposes. I want marketing to really mean something, to really move people and to be highly effective, encouraging positive word of mouth to travel across facebook and twitter. Technology and innovation offer a huge opportunity for brands. I believe it can be very powerful when combined with something of meaning, something that touches emotion.

 What a gift then it is to be able to read and analyze the free thoughts of visitors to a central London coffee shop that used to be a toilet. A toilet is, after all, a place that people have always felt comfortable writing on the walls, in private. I believe that the insight is an understanding of what is really on people’s minds, what needs to be tapped into if you want to engage with the feelings that matter most.

From the picture, you will see many words and thoughts. There is a complete lack of hashtags, only two twitter addresses, no web addresses and no phone numbers – just a glimpse of what people are thinking, right there at that point in time.

A quick analysis suggests the top 6 things people think about are:

1. Love
2. Humour, feeling happy, smiling
3. Saying something, having an opinion, being seen
4. Gratitude
5. Politics
6. Giving abuse

The team that works at the attendant are the nicest and most genuine that I have met in a very long time, the coffee is brilliant and the toilet humor needs to be shared, amplified. Most important, this is a place where you can be understood.

I would like to take this moment to cross off another item from my very long bucket list. Here are some words directly from the door of the attendant, compiled loosely into a poem/song thing.

I like Cheese

Here from Berlin

“Wot” – no toilet!

2 cool 4 school

First time I’ve drunk coffee in the loo

Shit Hot! Coffee!

You can’t sit with us

Sarah loved it! Hahaha!

Booby Boob Boob

 Go and pay a visit … http://www.the-attendant.com/

Not just a Bus

“Excuse me, is the England football team staying here by any chance?” This was my question to the flat-capped hotel porter at the swish hotel that I had just arrived at. It was on the day of England’s big match this week against Poland, a massive day for English football. “I am not allowed to say, Sir” he replied.

I was spending the day at the country golf club hotel to assist a management team with their company plans. Parked nearby to the reception, and trying to hide behind some bushes was a big blue ‘luxury liner’ of a bus. It had the words “ENGLAND” emblazed on the side together with all the official FA and sponsor markings. Bit of give away huh? It was the England team bus.

I had a Clark Kent of a moment. I whipped out my Samsung S3 and snapped a photo. I had an idea. I opened up my laptop, fired up my Facebook like page that I manage for my football quiz app (footballbraingame.com) and posted the picture of Mr. Blue Liner, the bus. I was curious, would the world connect and engage with the bus or was it just a bus?

I uploaded the picture and posted “The England bus this morning. ‘like’ it? show some support!” I loaded up £30 to boost my post to fans of the page, friends of fans and people in the UK. I had a feeling that this might pull at some heartstrings, get some likes and it did just that. My previous 5 posts had gone ok, I knew people liked photos and I had 1,000 fans but I was still surprised by what happened next. It confirmed to me three things:

1)    It was not just a bus.

2)    Emotional engagement is everything. As Luther Vandross said – a house is not a home when there is no one to hold you tight. A bus is not just a bus when the England football team travel in it.

3)    I really love performance marketing. I am not sure if the media value is efficient (I suspect it might be) but I really loved being able to control it. Turning it on and off and increasing the spend was a lot of fun.

Over the next 12 hours, the post had an incredible 26,926 people views, 1,069 clicked to see the photo, it had 129 likes and 16 comments. Some of the comments were classic and I have to share them with you. My favourite was “I am from Poland but I know they’re gonna lose cuz they have no coordination or good tactics so COME ON ENGLAND #England” and I was amused by “hey Look. a bus full of overpaid pricks.”

The blueliner is now on it’s way to Brazil. If you see it, give it thumbs up, like it to show some support. It’s not just a bus.

The disruption of the start up industry

‘This weekend, I am participating in a Hack-a-thon.’ I felt so Shoreditch sexy as I said this to my colleagues last Friday afternoon.

48 hours later my life has changed. OFG, is the world ready for the Polish fireworks? An outrageously ambitious agency based in Gliwice, Poland set up the Hack-a-thon. I was the international owl that had volunteered to check-in and see if I could lend a grey hair or two.

Let me press fast forward. The team started and completed several projects. One, in particular, made my heartbeat, literally. The tutorial for the product (an app) instructs to get two sheets of paper, roll them, tie a band around one end on both and there you have it – paper drumsticks. They had built a product that I had named ‘DRUM air’. A drum pad that you can play on the thin-air in front of your laptop. Wow wee is this cool. It is based on the new Leap Motion product that I have now ordered and you should too.

Not only is the application brilliant, but the future of motion control is also confirmed. Much more importantly my life has changed. The modern-day Hack-a-thon risks unsettling the entire startup industry. Angels, seed funds, business plans, prototypes, tax relief, culture books and meetups are all potentially past their sell-by date. All that matters is a time box, human energy, the idea and best use of available communication channels, platforms, and devices.

I managed to get both my children in on the hack, my three-year-old daughter joined me on a couple of the calls and my seven-year-old son had designed his own app called ‘Greedy Ladder’ by Sunday night. I think he wants me to build it for him over the next few days. How do I tell him that I am really just an accountant and not a java ninja?. Further, even if we were to do it, over here we need 31 days of user research, 23 days of wireframe sketching, an away day, ten stand-ups and a month of A/B testing?

So, hats off to Blazej – he even has a rock star name -and the team at Jazzy. I hope the airspace store (remember where you heard that first) approve DRUM air soon.

This is exactly how it should be done, how things should be made.

The curiosity shop of recycled ideas

 

“Did they like my idea?” This is almost always the question I get from one of the teams when I return from a pitch. They want to feel like a winner and make those late-night thoughts really count. They want to tell their family how the game changed and to look out for shares on Facebook, soon.

Of course, the odds are stacked against them. We have hedged our bets and put forward several, different ideas to give us a fighting chance; including one wild card idea and one safe bet. With all of them ticking as many of the client’s boxes as we possibly can. With photo-realistic images to visualize the idea and copy packed with neuro-programmed language to give it our best shot. Chances are that their idea didn’t make it for one of 100 reasons from stakeholder management, nerves, budget or it was just a bad day.

It doesn’t really help that as a business we have developed our own logic and process to come up with lots and lots of ideas, really quickly and regularly overdose on mad and sideways thoughts. Filling up our heads with impossibles and distractions. Expanding your headspace to think about lots of different things and to connect them to create lots of possibilities is the exact opposite of trendy mindfulness but it is the way we roll. It’s also fun and makes your heartbeat.

Anyway, I hate to see that look in their eyes when they hear that we won’t be going ahead with the idea. It’s not good when ideas evaporate and go unused. As with all agencies, we try and see if we can adapt them for different challenges and that sometimes works. We have gone a step further, we like to experiment and we love to make stuff together, we have our own art studio for this very reason. Call it team bonding or call it a wonky pursuit of really seeing things through, it’s a trait I like to develop and encourage in the team.

We decided to take the ideas that are rejected or not even put forward and turn them into products (unrelated to the prospect or opportunity they were intended) that we can use our self, sell or give away. We would like to sell them, of course, we hustle like that. We think the personal story of how that product came to be, it’s a source of life and DNA is interesting and we think it’s unique and different. This is what has given life to our very own curiosity shop, where all the items are made from the offcuts of a rejected idea we once had. Initially, our shop can be found on http://etsy.me/1T42cDu on ETSY. We would love it if you were curious about our first product.

Our first product is a pillow that we have screen printed with a technology feather design (it doesn’t do anything like sync to your iPhone, it’s just a pillow with a pattern. Old school, you know!). We developed this design to communicate the soft and gentle way that technology can assist us to be better for something different, something intangible and it’s ended up here as a real-world pillow. To bring the real and digital together we have called this product ‘REST’. You have to love your APIs to get why we have called it that and we hope that you do get it.

We hope that you are curious.

 

Pitching in your funeral suit

 

I have a client suit that I wear for ‘special’.

I keep it in the cupboard freshly pressed and clean.

It’s made to measure and fits really slick

people always say it looks lean.

(Ok, end of the poetry attempt, this is a real story).

This suit makes me feel good, you have to take all the compliments you can.

I flew out to see my client this week to discuss the New Year plans and to pitch my ideas and thoughts. I wanted to make sure I made a good impression. It’s an important client and they always look smart. One is even a fashion blogger in his spare time.

So, I grabbed my special suit and held it tightly all the way to the airport to change into. Knowing that I would soon be rocking my best look. It was about halfway to the airport that the lights went out and I realized I had picked up the wrong suit. It was dark and I had made a simple mistake and grabbed the black suit, not the dark blue one. This one, for a different kind of special and a different kind of impression, was my bloody funeral suit. Balls.

I was too far from home and too close to the grim reality that I was about to pitch in my funeral suit and pitch I did. In that suit jacket (and jeans). Eek, how lame. I am still to find out how it really went.

So what is the important moral of this story? What big lesson can I share with you to brighten up your day? I have been scratching my head on this a while and have now concluded.

In order to avoid accidentally pitching in your funeral suit, your pitch suit should be bright or multi-colored. Think Lenny Henry on Comic Relief or ASDA green. Life throws up so many random moments, I wish I had the Kahuna’s to go rainbow. It would make for a better pitch, I think. Fingers crossed and Paul Smith here I come.

 

A shameful thing

A shameful thing happened to me today after 24 years of traveling on the London Underground. It’s inspired me to do something about it.

It was 8.55am, I was late and in a rush to get to work along with several million people that travel to work on the Tube. I was standing in the gap between the seats, writing out emails and it was at Stockwell that a seat became free – I sat down and carried on writing emails. It could have been a minute that passed or maybe 30, I had not a clue as I was writing an email.

“Would you like a seat?” Said the lady sitting next to me to the woman in front of me who must have been about 8 years pregnant. I had not noticed. The shame.

Immediately I said in my squeaky, I have been naughty voice, “No, take mine” and apologised to both ladies. She didn’t take the seat and I was Mr. Unpopular. I have played my seat strategy correct for all these years, knowing it is important. Today I failed.

So, what can I do? My new year’s resolution is to make Life Beautiful, do things of real value. Good start huh?

I had a think and have invented something that could possibly work and solve this problem. I need your help to make it happen if it’s a goer.

I think that the ‘Baby on Board’ badge that expectant mothers wear should have a chip inside them (Cost £1) that triggers a light/sound effect/speaker in the tube that alerts that there is a “Baby on Board” So the mother has no awkward moment and Mr. Unpopular knows to get up, pronto. Simple. Technology today allows it. Surely there is a brand out there that would want to be associated with this? Pay for every badge and modification to the Tube to make life a little better for all? It could be extended to all sorts of places.

The original badges were a marketing collaboration with an online store (notonthehighstreet.com), this is a simple thing and I know the cost and ROI would be super for the right brand.

Let’s do this if you can help.

Finally, I am sorry pregnant lady. I won’t do it again.