Black (and Blue) Friday

According to http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/lifexpec.htm the life expectancy here in the USA is 77.9 years.  It must be true; it's on the Internet, right?

If one omits the first 18 years of life (when we don’t really know anything about anything) that leaves around 60 good years we are actually involved in the Thanksgiving feast. 60 celebrations with friends, family - and all who make life worth living.  That's 60 official days to celebrate things that we all take for granted. Not very many days, when you think about it.  What did you think about today? 

I thought about L-tryptophan today.

L-tryptophan is an amino acid, a protein building block that can be found in many plant and animal proteins. L-tryptophan is called an “essential” amino acid because the body can’t make it. It must be acquired from food. Like Turkey.

L-tryptophan is used for insomnia, sleep apnea, depression, anxiety, facial pain, a severe form of premenstrual syndrome called premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD), smoking cessation, grinding teeth during sleep (bruxism), attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), Tourette's syndrome, and to improve athletic performance.

How do I know all of this about L-tryptophan? 

I Googled it from my massage chair in the living room.  From my technology powered chair, parked in front of my big screen HDTV while watching (multiple) football games. I wanted to make sure that I was just feeling the effect of L-tryptophan and not suffering from something more interesting, like a stroke.  I’m all good - it is the turkey that is making me slip into a coma.

My two sons (and their friends home from college) are using their iPads from the living room, as we get ready for “Black Friday”.  I'm planning on joining my sons and their friends for Black Friday sales to buy (what else) more electronics and technology toys. Wal-Mart actually opens at 10pm tonight, and we have a “Super Wal-Mart” less than a mile from our home.  Then, our local mall opens at 4am. On Black Friday, you can buy technology gadgets that do magical things, like video chatting live in High Definition video with global friends and family who could not make it home for the holidays.  iPhone 4S anyone?

If I don’t go with the boys tonight (blame the L-tryptophan) I will send my debit card with them on my behalf. My debit card will email and/or text the results of every purchase.  I hope they are not thinking that I will be surprised by anything they buy for Christmas presents; my debit card tells all (in real-time) at the time of purchase.

Thanksgiving is the official “kick-off” of the holiday season.  From today until three days after the New Year, I am officially in cruise control mode.  For me, the annual effects of L-tryptophan lasts around 40 days.  It is not common for this feeling to last this long, but my Twitter followers and Facebook friends say is it not unheard-of.  I will rely on audio, web and HD videoconferencing for the next 40 days, as I travel the globe for mandatory Christmas and New Years "business" parties.

Great times with family and friends, this is what Thanksgiving is all about. How many families are like mine, playing football on Thanksgiving day, working up an appetite?  Get-off-the-couch fun whether you're 5 or 95 - that's why Nintendo Wii™ was invented, right? 

Here’s to hoping that you have a safe and Happy (Technology filled) Thanksgiving!

iWoz Impressed

On this past Monday, I had the pleasure of meeting one of my heroes: Steve “the Woz” Wozniak, Co-founder of Apple.

Before cell phones that fit in the palm of your hand and laptops that fit snugly into briefcases, computers were like strange, alien vending machines. They had cryptic switches, punch cards and pages of encoded output. When I was fifteen years old, a young engineering wizard named Steve Wozniak had an idea: What if you combined computer circuitry with a typewriter keyboard and a video screen? The result was the first true personal computer, the Apple I, an affordable machine that anyone could understand and figure out how to use.

Wozniak's life—before and after Apple—is a mix of brilliant discovery and adventure, as an engineer, a concert promoter, a fifth-grade teacher, a philanthropist, and an irrepressible prankster. From the invention of the first personal computer to the rise of Apple as an industry giant, the Woz ignited the computer revolution.

Personally, I'm intrigued by the science-based creativity that led to early Apple products, and also the psychologically-savvy thinking that went into making computers (and now phones) user-friendly. 

The Woz’s live presentation is for a specialized audience. You need to be interested in the early history of personal computers. You need to get a kick out of the amusing but sometimes unflattering lore that defined Apple's history and culture. You need to want to know about Wozniak's remarkably innovative engineering as well as Apple's entrepreneurship. You have to dig the views and personality of a successful but reclusive countercultural person. 


It probably helps if you dream about making innovative contributions to the world somewhere, somehow, in your own personal way.

When he claims to have "invented" the personal computer, he's not being too grandiose. He created some really beautiful early computers. These contraptions were the first to have typewriter based keyboards; the first to be useable right out of the box; the first low-cost computers to have color, sound, hi-res graphics, and floppy disks. He developed software that changed industry standards. Wozniak was the origin of these ideas, surrounded by creative geniuses like Steve Jobs and others. The Woz was one of the great "out of the box" thinkers of the Silicon Valley "revolution."  

The circuit boards of the early Apple machines were works of art and genius. The components were arranged in ways that defied conventional wisdom. Today the technology is obsolete but the beauty endures. Wozniak was primarily responsible for all of this great stuff. 

Meeting him in person helps to understand Wozniak's personality and thinking style. He was the math-science-electrical guy who works privately in the back while he implements the vision of what a product can be. (Wozniak is part scientist, part artist).

When he speaks, Wozniak shares influences, anecdotes and pranks. This is not the guy who habitually seeks power or the limelight. He's the guy who normally would toil in obscurity, surrounded by friends who let him do his thing and appreciate his skillful vision (and nutty sense of humor). He was able to work among the corporate power brokers for a number of years, on his terms, but was not the sort of person who will immerse himself in corporate culture for long. 


Steve Wozniak is a brilliant guy with a big heart and a wicked sense of humor. I can imagine how his sense of generosity, justice and creative thinking might make it hard to endure the growing pains of a company like Apple. 

The Woz offered his advice to technology entrapreneures: Don't waver; see things in grayscale; work alone; follow your instincts. His thoughts are worth contemplation. Keep in mind that he is speaking about his way; there's no one right way. 

Steve gave me his "metal" business card (he designed it himself) and he said that would be willing to speak to the students at UCONN and Quinnipiac the next time he is in Connecticut. Both of my sons were impressed as these are their schools. When you call his private phone number – you get the Woz – and he actually returns his calls - himself. I think this is the most impressive thing of all.  


Maybe I should have titled this blog “My Friend the Billionaire”.

If you want to see a multimedia presentation of the day with “the Woz” click here. 

Superpowers and the Grandmother Rule

Technology makes smart people smarter, and it makes dumb people dumber. Or better put, technology “allows” people to amplify who they really are, deep down inside.  Twitter, Facebook, YouTube – these technologies give the masses a voice.  Everyone with access to a keyboard or a webcam is now a writer, a blogger or video artist.

Technology has the ability to heal or harm. Distance learning can change the world, and provide amazing opportunities to the world’s youth.  But the same technology that powers distance learning can also spread a message of hate.

Who first said "with great power comes great responsibility"?

Despite what Marvel and the movies would have us believe, this epic and powerful quote does not come from a Hollywood script writing team but from the revolutionary ridden and passionate literary haven that was 19th century France. Credit has been given to Stan Lee (creator of Spiderman) Franklin D. Roosevelt and even Winston Churchill at various stages, however the first literary record of this can be attributed to Francois-Marie Arouet aka Voltaire. Much like Victor Hugo, Voltaire was disturbed by the sickening abuse of authority and privilege by those in power while the poor and deprived starved and suffered around him.

Technology changes lives.  Just as gunpowder changed modern warfare, the Internet and “near free” instantaneous global voice and video communication have completely changed the world.

This blog (once posted) has the capacity of having millions of people read it and comment on it.  It can be tweeted, reposted, forwarded, and it can circle the globe in seconds. The same goes for videos, emails and tweets that we all send every day. How many of us stop and think about the power that we possess, that we almost always take for granted?

The Spiderman movies of the past ten years have recycled the phrase “with great power comes great responsibility”. The technology of today has indeed given “superpowers” to all of us, without having to endure the pain a radioactive spider bite.

As this quote from Voltaire (and Stan Lee) reminds us, we all have the power to help or hurt, to do good or to do harm, every single day.

My advice, please use your superpowers wisely. One way to do this is to remember the Grandmother Rule. Before you blog about it, tweet about it, or upload it to YouTube, stop and ask yourself this question: would your grandmother approve?

Would your grandmother be proud of you, if she read your latest post on Facebook?  Or your wife, or your husband, or your kids?  Please - use your superpowers for good and not evil. 

Serendipity

ser·en·dip·i·ty

   [ser-uhn-dip-i-tee] 

noun

1. an aptitude for making desirable discoveries by accident.

2. good fortune; luck: the serendipity of getting the first job she applied for.

I try to walk our dog Bella in the park every day.  It’s good for her and it is good for me too. We are lucky to have several large parks where we live, where you can take dogs off the leash, and let ‘em run.

Yesterday, we went to the “boat launch” park which I believe to be her favorite, as Bella is a water dog.  Just a few minutes after we arrived, Bella spotted a black lab named “Cooper”. This is where it gets dicey; sometimes all goes well and everyone is friendly. And sometimes the Doggie Détente goes bad. 

Bella and Cooper bonded quickly, as did the couple and I.  We started walking together, chatting about everything from dogs to the weather. After around 30 minutes of walking and talking, we came to the point in the path where Bella and I usually peel off and Bella and I normally head off into the woods.  I took out a business card to give them, thinking that if they ever wanted to let Bella and Cooper have a play date, they should give me a call. But, as a consummate salesman, I never miss an opportunity to exchange business cards, just on general principles.

“Thomas Capone?  Hey…. are you the Tom Capone speaking at Quinnipiac University this month?”

Whaaaaaaattttt???  I know what a heart attack feels like, and this was just an anxiety attack. 

It turns out that this couple (specifically this gentleman) graduated from Quinnipiac University in Connecticut in ‘82.  He now works for Quinnipiac University as the Regional Development Officer. The couple lives in Mountain Lakes, New Jersey. Both of my sons graduated from Mountain Lakes High School (which is around a two hour drive from QU).  This is the same University in Connecticut where my son Tom Jr. goes to school, and where I will be presenting to the students of the Quinnipiac School of Business this month.

Well – we then spent ANOTHER hour walking and talking.  We talked about kids in college today, about getting jobs, the global economy, helping students with job placements, the recent passing of Steven Jobs, and everything in-between.  I have made a successful sales and business career out of “meeting people” and turning such chance and innocent encounters into deep, profitable and rewarding long-term relationships. 

Cooper may not be aware of this just yet, but he will be seeing a lot of Bella in the future.  

When I got home I told my wife the story, and then we called my son at Quinnipiac (he was at the QU hockey game but he could still hear me). One does not need a master's degree in statistics to see that this is all pretty freaky.  What if Bella and I went to a different park yesterday?  What if we simply went to that same park - but at a different time of day?  What if the dogs were not friendly?  Think about it – had Bella walked just a little faster, or a little slower, we would have never met Cooper or his “parents”.

And - what if I never took out my business card?

When I speak to students at colleges and universities about jobs and careers, I stress the fact that you must “make your own luck” in this world. I received an email from Cooper’s “Dad” yesterday.  I showed him everything that I am doing with Rutgers University, and what I hope to do with Quinnipiac.  He said in response to my emails: 

“The simple fact is a college diploma today is a starting point not an end point.  The more we expose/train students to understand the broad range of possibilities only increases their opportunity to reach a high quality end point.” 

I like this guy – he sounds like me!

When I speak to students at various colleges and universities about jobs and careers, I will be adding another important item to my list - I also think that you should get a dog, preferably a lab.

Pick a number, any number.

I would like to share with you a magic trick that I came up with. It will take something that you do every day, and turn it into something, well, “magical”.

Our neighbor is in the Boy Scouts and he was selling popcorn to raise money for his pack.  The total came to $30.  Instead of writing a check for $30 I wrote it for $33.  PS: I am convinced that the kid who lives next door will become President of the United States one day (fodder for a future blog….).

I gave a presentation to college students the other day, regarding their futures and careers in business. Afterwards, some of us went out for pizza. When the bill came, I added $0.33 to the end to make sure that the bill had a “3” in it.

Whenever I go out to dinner with friends and family, I pay. They know not to fight for the check.  And, when we go out we almost always have a great time (even when the food turns out to be less than great).  I always make it a point to “round up” the tip so that the bill ends in a 3, or at least has some form of “3” in it.

Every year at Christmas and Easter we give a little something extra to our Church. I make it a point to write a check for $333 (and not $300).  Same goes for the local soup kitchen; there is a “3” in the check guaranteed.

What is going on here, besides the fact that I might have obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD)? 

Online Banking is a part of our lives, and it is not going away anytime soon.  So why not make those online statements more useful?

Every day we have the opportunity to do things – things that will make a difference.  And, every day (just about every day) we spend money.  Sometimes the money is on something very simple like buying gas, or paying a toll to cross a bridge.  But sometimes when we spend money it is connected to “a moment” in our lives.  A perfectly documented and permanently archived online moment in our lives.

That kid in the Boy Scouts next door is going to be someone great one day, I can just tell.  I will see the $33 on my bank statement and for a minute I will think of him (and other kids like him).  Seeing $30 would not ring any bells or make me to pause, but seeing $33 on my computer screen will make me stop and think - and also remember my own two sons who were once in the Scouts.

When I see the $333 in our bank statement, it is a trigger.  I will remember that I live in a country that allows me to worship the way I want, when and where I want, and to believe what I choose to believe, and to have the religious freedoms to financially support my beliefs.

The holidays are almost here, and that means that my two sons will soon be home from college.  This will also mean that my debit card will be getting a work out, usually from around mid-November through sometime after the first of the New Year.  This year, the three Capone boys will be going to the mall on “Black Friday”. Which will mean getting up at 4am, standing in lines with other crazy people, and getting ridiculous discounts on many things. My sons and their college friends (and my debit card) went to Black Friday last year without me, and they had a blast.  This year, I will not miss out on the fun.  And this year, there will be some receipts ending in $0.33 to be sure.

Mobile banking, eWallets from PayPal and Google, and various forms of electronic statements are the future of banking; it will only get even more automated and ingrained into our lives.  And, all of this ecommerce technology creates an archived “electronic diary” whether we realized it or not.  Electronic parking receipts, restaurant receipts, receipts for holiday purchases, medical bills, they are all a bunch of “digital breadcrumbs” and journal entries into the diary of our lives.  My little trick of embedding my favorite number into these electronic entries becomes a visual trigger for my brain and an easy way for me to remember the important moments of my life.  When I see the online receipts from Walgreens each month, it reminds me that it is a true miracle that I am still alive, as I beat “the widow maker” last year.  It is also a safe bet that I will be adding $0.33 to end of the receipts when I pick up my PLAVIX® for quite some time.

My favorite number is 3.  I think that is because I have a wonderful wife and two great sons and the three of them make my life worth living.  Maybe it is because I am Catholic and it makes me think about the Christian doctrine of the Trinity which defines God as three divine persons.  Or maybe it is because my wife makes it public knowledge that she has to ask me three times to do just about anything. 

We all have magic numbers in our own lives; memory trigger numbers worthy of embedding into our archived digital breadcrumbs and electronic fingerprints. 

Why not put your own magic number to work for you?  Three pennies for your thoughts on this blog…

Rolodex Watches

I own a Rolex® and I also own a Swiss Army® watch.  The Swiss Army watch keeps perfect time, and it never needs winding as it has a battery.  If I do not wear the Rolex every day, it stops working and you need to set both the day and the date (which is a pain in the ass). And, the Rolex does not keep perfect time.  The Rolex is worth several thousand dollars and the Swiss Army is only a few hundred bucks, brand new. 

One is a tool that helps me to get to business meetings on time.  The other is a tool that helps me to look successful and important in said business meetings.

Yesterday, my wife and I went shopping for a new kitchen. New cabinets, new appliances, the works.  We are overdue for a new kitchen, so I am cool with all of this. My wife is a miracle worker when it comes to shopping. She found online a family in our neighborhood that was moving from a brand new home, and they were “selling their kitchen”.  I did not know that you could do this, but I have since learned that this is not uncommon.  I knew all about garage sales, but kitchen sales?

We took a drive with our dog Bella in tow, to check out this slightly used kitchen for sale. *neither the wife nor the husband were cooks; the range was never used except to boil eggs.  I’ll speed up this tale: if you paid retail to duplicate this entire kitchen from scratch – all new cabinets, all new appliances, etc. it would be around $50,000 plus the professional labor of plumbers, carpenters and electricians to install it all.  Here’s the kicker: the Sub-Zero® refrigerator (alone) would be $14,239 if you bought this make and model of refrigerator brand new. 

Now, I am not qualified to compare or contrast the pros and cons of one brand of refrigerator vs. another.  But I do know watches, and I know that my Swiss Army watch keeps better time than my Rolex. I know that my Rolex is not as much a watch as it is a “billboard”.  I have caught myself many times in business meetings, making sure to hold my arm in such a way that people could see my expensive watch.  I don’t do this as often when I am wearing my cheap watch.

We currently have a Kitchen Aid® refrigerator, which new from Sears cost less than $1500 installed and delivered. It works fine; keeps the food cold and it never needs maintenance, except for a water filter that needs changing every three months.  I learned yesterday that the Sub-Zero brand also requires annual “check-ups” from the Sub-Zero doctor – who of course charges for house calls. 

Our three year old Kitchen Aid keeps the food at a constant 39 degrees, and it has just enough digital bells and whistles to remind me that it is a modern appliance.  For an extra couple of hundred dollars, we could have purchased the model with an Internet connection, and a TV screen in the door.  But spending more money on a refrigerator seemed quite silly at the time.

And yet, our good neighbor paid well over $15,000 for their icebox.  Yeah, I called it an icebox because no matter how you slice it, the purpose of today’s modern refrigerator did not change that much in the past 100 years. Food goes bad sooner or later, but if you keep it cold, it will last longer. That’s about the extent of it; not a very complex process, and not that many moving parts.  In fact, should a dishwasher with all of its complex moving parts and various cycles not cost more than a refrigerator? 

The new kitchen “relocation project” did not work out; their range was gas and we need electric. We could have bought the entire kitchen for around $4,000 delivered; we would take it from there.  This of course was including the Sub Zero.  This morning it came to me; how do we get enough people into our kitchen to see the new Sub Zero to make it all worth it? What good is a “billboard” if no one ever gets to see it?

I feel that all technology purchases are like this as well. Think about it: is the cell phone that you use a useful communications device, or a status symbol?  Do the people that stand in line to purchase the absolute latest iPhone® or iPad® keep it hidden away in a protective case, or do they go out of their way to show off their new purchase? Is a new tablet PC a smart purchase and must-have business tool, or will your three year old laptop do just fine? Maybe a $50 upgrade in RAM and a good cleaning is all you need to triple your speed.

When I get dressed in the morning, I still catch myself thinking about which timepiece I will wear for the day – do I need to dress to impress?  Will I be in any business meetings with materialistic people who will judge me and judge my company by my brand of wristwatch?  What if I bought my Rolex at an estate sale (used and cheap) how would they judge me then?

I don’t want to bash any brand, but I wonder if the name “Sub Zero” is trying to make some sort of reference to temperature, or the IQ required to make the purchase of their brand.  On the way home from our new kitchen “safari” my wife pointed to a billboard from McDonalds® that said “$4 for a cup of coffee is dumb”.  And then I paused and thought about why I decided to wear my Rolex on a Saturday afternoon where the only “business” meeting I had for that day was to check out the used kitchen. 

Especially since I started out my day wearing my Swiss Army. 

Remembering Steve Jobs

Like many other corporations across America who benefit daily from the technology that he helped create, we at MTP were saddened to hear of the passing of Apple founder Steve Jobs. 

As a foremost visionary, he led a mobile computer revolution with the creation of popular devices such as the iMac computer, iPod portable music player, the iPhone and the iPad tablet - all of which changed how digital content is consumed.

But in addition to teaching us better ways on how to use and implement modern technology, Steve Jobs will be remembered for teaching the world some hard-hitting lessons about the realities of life.

He Wasn't Afraid Of Rejection

Steve Jobs was given away by his biological mother as a newborn infant and adopted by an Armenian family living in California. Later in his career, Jobs was ousted as the CEO from Apple by the very same Board of Directors that he brought in to help the company expand.

But despite these two life-changing forms of rejection, he didn't let these setbacks get to him. Rather, he took an optimistic approach to it all. In fact, Jobs claimed that 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," he said. "It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life."

He Believed In Following His Dream

Jobs gained a reputation as a driven and stubborn person who oversaw almost every detail of Apple's products and rejected prototypes that didn't meet his exacting standards.

But that wasn't because he was a nasty human being; it was because he was brave enough to think differently, bold enough to believe he could change the world, and strong enough to follow his dream all the way through, despite the criticism and scoffing of naysayers.

His far-reaching visions created industries that many thought would never exist, including the iPod and iTunes which radically transformed the consumer electronics and music distribution industry; and the iPhone which completely changed the way consumers interacted with mobile phone devices.

He Didn't Concede To Failure

The life of Steve Jobs life was marked by many successes - and numerous failures as well. 

He enrolled in Reed College in Portland in 1972 but dropped out after six months. He was thrown out of Apple during the 1980s. His following venture, a pricey computing system called the NeXT Workstation, never caught on with consumers. His personal life was also fraught with failures including a divorce, a liver transplant and the lengthy battle with pancreatic cancer that ultimately claimed his life.

But despite it all, Steve Jobs forged ahead with his chin up and never let the failures of life extinguish his spirits. He went on to build the revolutionary Apple empire that has permanently changed modern technology and the world we live in.

What We Can Learn From Him

"Those of us who have been fortunate enough to know and work with Steve have lost a dear friend and an inspiring mentor." Apple said in a statement on its corporate website.

As for the rest of us in the world of small business, we've lost a person who has shown what it means to make the most of every situation and utilize complex challenges to achieve the highest pinnacles of success.

Think different.