It's the education, stupid!

Yesterday was an amazing day. I watched my oldest son graduate from college. I’ll save my gushy emotions for the end, as I want to talk about something that I learned this weekend:

Education is the most important thing in the world.

I had flashbacks of my son’s entire education process. From learning how to walk, to learning how to read, to doing simple math problems. From birth it was all about the learning and mastery of new things. Non-stop learning, both formal education (K-12, High School, College) and education from summer band camps, scouting, organized sports - it has been non-stop learning and a continuous education process.

Learning to walk. Learning to read. Math, Algebra, Calculus. Chemistry, Biology, English. Computer programming, Accounting, Business Law. How to ride a bike, how to drive a car, how to cook, how to paint, or sculpt or draw. How to build a website. How to design, create, invent - anything - and everything. From the simple to the complex, life is a non-stop process of learning new things.

Life is learning, and learning is life. They are one in the same. The quality of one’s life is measured by the pursuit of lifelong education. Notice that important word - pursuit. It is this pursuit of education where things seem to become unfair.

As we get older, something happens with the education process. I don’t know when learning becomes a scarce asset connected to money, but it happens. At some point, the ability to “learn” is connected to how much money you are willing to spend in exchange for the knowledge. The more money you have, the easier it is to learn. The more money you have, the better the access to the material, to the instructors, to the source of the quality learning process. At some point, it starts to cost lots and lots of money to learn “the good stuff”.

I watched the faces of people during the graduation ceremony. Parents, Aunts, Uncles, Sisters and Brothers. I watched the smiles and the tears as everyone celebrated the learning process culminate into one of our most coveted prizes: a college degree. Many of these smiling, crying, laughing people borrowed a great deal of money to make this wonderful day possible. Many families worked two jobs, or went deep into debt to make the college experience a reality. And the student loans, let’s not forget the student loans!   

Life is learning, and learning is life. But why does this process become so expensive? Why does the formal education process hit such a division, where having (or not having) enough money determines your opportunity to pursue your passion?

There were many young men and women in my son’s graduating class who will become teachers, doctors, lawyers. They will become scientists, possibly inventing new drugs or changing the course of society. They have wonderful career opportunities because they were fortunate enough to pursue an expensive college degree attending an excellent accredited university. Some will carry college debt for many years, with or without securing jobs in their chosen field of study. Life is learning and learning is life.

Why would we not want as many teachers, doctors and scientists as possible? Why would we not want anyone with the passion and the drive to become a productive members of society via higher education? There was a time in this country where only those with money would ever learn to read. Everyone else was out of luck. What would the world be like if anyone who wanted to learn was empowered and enabled to learn? It should not matter how much money your parents have, or what part of the world you happen to live.  

Life is learning and learning is life.  It should not be connected to money.

I am very proud of my two sons. I want both of my sons to have the best of everything. Access to a quality education should not be reserved only for those with means. I feel that a quality education should not be based on your social status. It should be based on your passion, your work ethic and most of all, it should be based on your character.

Across the country there were many families celebrating a wonderful day - college graduation day. Lifelong learning should not be so damn expensive. Maybe the distance learning technology of today will continue to change the way we pursue higher education. The world can use all of the passionate, dedicated, highly educated people we can get. We should not let the lack of money get in the way. 

Life is learning and learning is life.

Congratulations, Tommy.  Now the real learning begins.

It's a Boy!

Necessity is the mother of invention. Meaning: If someone really needs something or has a problem, he/she will find a way.

Throughout the history of science, evidence has proven that necessity is the mother of invention. If you want to invent something, think about what people need or what problems they have.

Or: difficult situations inspire ingenious solutions.

Necessity is the mother of invention means necessity or difficult situations encourage inventive solutions.

When people really need to do something, they will figure out a way to do it. When the fan belt on Linda's car broke in the middle of the desert, Linda used her stockings as a replacement. Necessity is the mother of invention.

Inventiveness and ingenuity are stimulated by difficulty. For example, The first prisoner to tie together bedsheets to escape knew that necessity was the mother of invention. This proverb first appeared in English in 1519 in slightly different form, "Need taught him wit," and exists in many other languages as well.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet  You can read up on the History of the Internet here. The government had a need, and so, the Internet was born. The US government is the mother of the Internet.

The baby was born unto us all and we shall call him “ARPANET”.

Today we have eBooks, Facebook, Twitter, eBay, Amazon.com and many (many) siblings of ARPANET. The world will never be the same because of that one, singular “birth” of an invention traced back to a government need for secure and instant communications. 

And now, just look at how our baby ARPANET has grown into a hormone driven teenager. What would the world do without Facebook and Tweets and grumpy cat videos? Thank you, ARPANET.

I wonder what “Mom” thinks of her little baby boy ARPANET today? Born from scientists to service science, the need was great and the world would never be the same. Kinda brings new meaning to "My son, the scientist".

This is a great place to stop, so that we can all send Mom an email or a tweet or a post or a video or a gift card or flowers or make reservations online - Happy Mother’s Day!

Do you wanna bump?

"Do Ya Wanna Bump" is a dance song recorded by American recording artist Sylvester. The song is heard briefly in the movie Trading Places, a comedy-drama movie starring Eddie Murphy and Dan Aykroyd. Doing “The Bump” was a big dance craze in the 70’s. I think I did “The Bump” at my Senior Prom.

I just came back from the best business trip ever - the USDLA National Convention in St. Louis. Sadly, I could not find anyone who wanted to bump with me.

The bumping of smartphones: "The best digital business idea that does not work."

While in St. Louis among the world's leading technologists and education digerati I noticed the that everyone remains stubbornly dependent upon paper: paper programs, paper posters, paper flyers and paper name tags.

And, Paper Business Cards. There was no smartphone bumping of business cards in St. Louis.

I must have passed out (and received) 250 business cards at the event. Nobody offered a "digital" card and nobody asked for one, even though the "bump" technology of transferring data from one mobile device to another has been around for a few years. I found this odd ... especially when I returned home and scanned all of my collected cards. Doesn't that seem like the biggest waste of time? "Bumping" a business card is such a great idea. But it never worked.  

Why?

Many reasons: Habit, and the fact that paper cards offer subtle benefits that the bumping of two phones just can't match. But we must also remember human nature.

Offering a "bump" requires a conversation between the parties to learn that a) the receiver of the data bump is amenable to this method, and b) that he or she possesses the necessary bump technology (yes, people still carry not-so-smart phones).

That extra step alone is enough to dissuade this non-bumper. But there are other considerations. Some new contacts may acquiesce to and accept your bump even though they really would prefer a physical business card; too polite to ask, they leave the encounter slightly unfulfilled and maybe even irritated. And should you make the offer to someone who either doesn't bump or lacks the bumping technology, well, you've added the possibility of embarrassment to the possibility of irritation.

Such potential irritation is not good for business. And why take the chance when going old school (paper business card) carries no risk whatsoever.

What about the bumpers who hate paper cards and are irritated by the failure of most of us to get with the bump program? 

That's their problem. And that is their irritation, unlike the type they risk causing, this irritation cannot be directed at specific individuals or else they'd be irritated with virtually everyone. 

And if you don't want to bump a business card, are you ever going to want to bump money? Ah yes, this is bad news for tree lovers: paper business cards are going to be around for a long time.  

< Admit it. If you are over 50 you have that song “Do you wanna Bump” playing in your head right now, don’t you?  See, Disco is not dead... it has just been on life support. >

It is written all over your face!

That didn't take long.

For a moment, the manhunt into the Boston Marathon bombings seemed as if it would last a while. But an amazing combination of police work, citizen involvement and technology yielded big breaks in the case and brought the manhunt to a quick conclusion. And now, the investigation begins - who knew what? Did they have help? Where does all of this lead? It is hard to think that such evil could make its way into the mind of a 19 year old kid, without lots of help.

Within hours of the Boston Marathon bombing, investigators were already overwhelmed. Bloody clothing, bags, shoes and other evidence from victims and witnesses were piling up. Videos and still images, thousands of them, were beginning to accumulate.

Quickly, the authorities secured a warehouse in Boston’s Seaport district and filled the sprawling space: On half of the vast floor, hundreds of pieces of bloody clothes were laid out to dry so they could be examined for forensic clues or flown to FBI labs at Quantico in Prince William County for testing. In the other half of the room, more than a dozen investigators sifted through hundreds of hours of video, looking for people doing things that are different from what everybody else is doing.

It’s still unclear exactly how law enforcement officials zeroed in on the two figures in surveillance footage suspected of carrying out the deadly bomb attack at Monday’s Boston Marathon. But it’s likely that investigators used some form of facial-recognition software as part of their effort. These technologies remain in their infancy, but law enforcement is relying on them more and more.

The FBI is rolling out an ambitious, billion-dollar biometric information system that will include iris scans, voice recognition, and facial-recognition software, developed with Lockheed Martin, IBM, Accenture, and BAE Systems, among others. Law enforcement authorities are uploading mugshots into an image database, which can then be searched against images from crime scenes, like the surveillance camera footage of Boston’s Boylston Street.

The Next Generation Identification (NGI) program won’t be fully operational until next year, and although the images it uses will be mugshots, the software - think of a more powerful version of Facebook image search could be used to match any two images. Civil liberties advocates worry it could be used to track people on the street regardless of whether they’re suspected of a crime. The Pentagon’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (Darpa) and the NYPD have also expressed interest in more exotic technologies, including one that analyzes people’s gait for clues as to whether they’re carrying a bomb. Programmers are developing machine vision techniques that can link images of the same person across different video cameras or spot behaviors that are out of the ordinary for a certain setting (e.g., leaving a bag unattended in a public place).

Anything that you Tweet, Post, Blog, Video or share via the Internet (in any way) is fair game for analysis. The government scanned “millions” of phone calls, listening for any words that might have been linked to the bombing. If you called home and said “Did you hear about the Boston Bombing” there is a very good chance your phone call was analyzed. But now, simply walking the streets of a major city puts you (your face) into play. This is the world that we now live, and this will continue to get more complex and more intense. I would think that everyone who attends the upcoming Super Bowl in New York will have their face scanned dozens of times, long before even entering the stadium.

Mass surveillance is the pervasive surveillance of an entire population. It has been widely criticized on several grounds such as violations of privacy rights, illegality, and for preventing political and social freedoms, which some fear will ultimately lead to a totalitarian state where political dissent is crushed. Such a state may also be referred to as an Electronic Police State. According to what I see on prime time TV ("the machine") mass surveillance has been going on for some time. 

The technology of “big data” is here, and the Genie will never be put back into the bottle. Google and Facebook’s billions in revenue are all based on big data, algorithms, and super-computing. I love the idea that facial recognition is being used to combat terrorism. But to think that this same ever-improving technology can track people with past due parking tickets, or any other minor civil violation simply by taking a picture of their face makes me pause. 

We have no privacy - none, zip, nada.

Yes, that didn't take long at all.

Slap Shots and Moon Shots

PITTSBURGH, Pa. – The Quinnipiac University men's ice hockey team lost to Yale, 4-0, in the 2013 NCAA Frozen Four Championship Game in Pittsburgh, Pa. The Bobcats finish the year at 30-8-5 overall, good for the most wins in program history.

Man's landing on the moon in 1969 was our greatest technological achievement. The Apollo 11 mission was truly the stuff dreams are made of. For the first time the human species walked on a celestial body other than our own. Even more remarkable was their ability to make it back.

Few people know how close Apollo 11 came to being a disaster. The President had a well-crafted speech all prepared, to inform the world that the men who landed on the moon would not be coming home. Thankfully, that speech was never read as the Apollo 11 mission had a happy ending, and the rest as they say, is history.

The Quinnipiac Bobcats' had 30 wins this season. Their 17-2-3 record in the ECAC Hockey is also a program-best. Their success in conference play garnered Quinnipiac's first Cleary Cup, given annually to the ECAC regular season champion. The Bobcats also made it to the NCAA Tournament for just the second time ever and closed out the season as the National Runner-ups, a first for any Quinnipiac athletic program. This Quinnipiac squad will also say goodbye to 11 seniors who helped bring the program to newfound heights this season. Last night was the end of the “best season ever” for Quinnipiac men’s hockey. 

BEST EVER. The young men on that hockey team have just experienced the biggest event of their lives (to date). Many who were on the ice last night will find themselves playing in the NHL. Some might even win a Stanley Cup one day. 

Someone has to come in second place, to make it a contest. 

In life, in business, and in sports, it’s no fun if you don’t keep score.

The Space Race was a mid-to-late 20th century competition between the Soviet Union (USSR) and the United States (USA) for supremacy in space exploration. Between 1957 and 1975, the Cold War rivalry between the two nations focused on attaining firsts in space exploration, which were seen as necessary for national security and symbolic of technological and ideological superiority.

The Space Race sparked unprecedented increases in spending on education and pure research, which accelerated scientific advancements and led to beneficial spin-off technologies. An unforeseen effect was that the Space Race contributed to the birth of the environmental movement: The first color pictures of Earth taken from deep space were used as icons by the movement to imply that the planet was a fragile blue marble surrounded by the blackness of space.

The USA won the race to the moon. How must they have felt in the Soviet Union on July 20th, 1969? I’ll bet the men of Quinnipiac can relate to how it must feel to be so close to the prize and to come up short (like the USSR). The USA was losing the space race, but then the USA came back from behind and was the first to reach the moon. I remember it all like it was yesterday.

During their regular season, Quinnipiac University men’s hockey team beat Yale three times. Last night, Yale beat Quinnipiac. The big difference was that last night’s hockey game was for the National Championship.

Life is a series of wins and losses. In business and in sports, you win and you lose. You have your moments in the sun, and you have days where you have to settle for the silver and not the gold. There can be no first place winner, without a worthy competitor who takes second place.

There would be no iPhone if Steve Jobs had not been fired from Apple. Blackberry was the market leader in Smartphones for many years; today not so much. When I was growing up, IBM completely dominated the computer world. It is the race itself that makes life (and business) interesting, winning or losing is not as important. Competition is what makes life worth living.

I hope that the parents, the coaches and even the President of Quinnipiac University have already seized the opportunity to properly address the men of Quinnipiac Hockey. To come so close to the prize and to come up short is a life-changing moment and a teaching moment.

It is the competition that makes us stronger, not the victory. It is the challenge of the race, not the race itself that molds us. Last night was a teaching moment for everyone, winners and losers. Yale lost to QU three times this season but they won last night. Quinnipiac beat Yale three times, but not last night. And so it goes in sports and in business.

Every young man that was on the ice last night (both teams) are winners, and they have been winners for many years. Their parents know it, their coaches know it, and hopefully after a few days, the men of Quinnipiac hockey who might be feeling a little sad this morning will know it too. History shows that winners can get lazy, but those who come up "a little short" tend to come back even stronger. Some will be in the NHL, some might go into business. 

I would hire every single one of them.

If the USA needs to get men into space today - guess what - we have to hitch a ride with our good ‘ol friends in the former Soviet Union (USSR). Ah yes, they must smile every time we ask them for a ride. Competition is indeed what makes life worth living.

Congratulations to everyone at www.Quinnipiac.edu for a great season! What’s your next challenge?

My Son Tom Jr. in the Quinnipiac Pep Band

Prime the pump!

Do you use Amazon Prime? I've been an Amazon Prime customer for a long time now, and I am still wondering how they came up with the amount of $79 per year for the service.

Prime works like this: For $79 annually, you get unlimited movie and TV streaming, one free borrowed eBook per month, and automatic two-day shipping on nearly everything you buy (with no minimum dollar amount). Awesome, right?

Let's start with the streaming. Amazon has vastly expanded its movie and TV show libraries over the past year, to the point where it's much more competitive with Netflix. However, not everything I found on the latter was available on Amazon Prime. But there is plenty of good stuff to watch, and Prime streaming has expanded to more devices -- including, most recently, the iPhone and iPod Touch. If you're already a Netflix subscriber, there's no reason to join up with Amazon Prime - if you're motivated (solely) by the free streaming.

What about the book deal? Although the Prime Lending Library now includes over 280,000 titles, including the Harry Potter series, they're mostly older reads. I think in my Prime membership, I've found exactly one book I wanted to borrow. And Amazon still makes it a pain to browse the catalog, especially on your PC. So as much as I like the e-book loans in principle, for me the book lending is of no value. If you are a student, this might be a great value.

Now, let’s talk free two day shipping.

Two-day delivery, with no minimum purchase, no weight limits is the best thing ever. I buy a lot of stuff online, especially around the holidays, and Prime makes this kind of shopping pure pleasure. Not only does it rescue me when I'm late to buy a gift, it also makes impulse shopping a lot more fun.

Recently we made a list of all of the household items that we buy weekly. All the non-perishable stuff like paper towels, soap, dog food, cereal, canned foods, etc. Guess what - you can get all of it from Amazon, shipped to your door, with free shipping and save the sales tax. Now going to the grocery store is a breeze - more than half the shopping list is taken care of with free delivery and automatic built-in savings. No more “coupon clipping” as Amazon does this for you as well. If you find something cheaper, they give you a free $25 Amazon gift card. Sales tax here in New Jersey is 7%, so we are saving $7 per $100. The government might change that one day, but for now, no sales tax for online purchases is 7% off the weekly grocery bills. That 7% makes up for the $79 annual fee fast!

I see a book or a video that I want to watch, I have it in seconds on my iPad. I need a gift for someone, they have it at their door in 2 days, gift wrapped and via free shipping. I have saved untold hours in shopping for groceries, and we never run out of toilet paper.

Got a kid in college? Elderly parent living alone? Amazon Prime makes it easy to setup automatic delivery of goodies to those that you love (like your dog or cat).

Is Amazon Prime worth $79 per year? I say hell yes.

Why is everyone not doing this?  If you are looking for a great gift to give someone, give them a $79 Amazon Prime membership. Why Amazon is not spelling out the guaranteed savings (like the free shipping and the built-in savings in both time and money) is beyond me. Someone in the Amazon marketing department needs to be fired, in my humble opinion.

Maybe I should write an eBook on this topic and sell it on Amazon.

Fight! Fight! Fight!

Business Easter Eggs

Winston Churchill is known for saying “Never, never, never give up,” but it is another one of his quotes that may be more meaningful during difficult and somewhat depressing economic times: “Never give up on something that you can’t go a day without thinking about.”

Easter is the time of green grass and bright blooming flowers, and it might be the same for your business. Spring always promises the rebirth of budding green leaves and blooming colorful flowers; thus it’s important not to give up on a renewal of sales growth as well.

For me, winter and the lack of color is depressing. I’ll take green grass over white snow any day, thank you. No matter how down and dejected you may have felt about the slow-down of your business growth, it’s important to focus your thinking on the potential business you have an opportunity to generate going forward and simply not give up.

Maybe what you need are some brightly colored Easter Eggs for your business!

Stop focusing on the negative and begin picturing the positive daily. This actually works. It’s what athletes call “mental rehearsal;” seeing things as you want them to be and picturing them vividly in your mind. If you start this exercise every morning before calling on customers and every night before going to sleep and maintain the process for just one month, you will see positive results begin to manifest.

Control what you can, dismiss what you can’t. Whether it’s trying to change an individual who can’t seem to see things your way or a policy that you heartily disagree with, give it up. Focus instead on the many other things that you can control. Your time will be much better spent and your attitude will greatly improve.

 

Smile more. Become extremely conscious of the amount of time you smile. Without even realizing it, people all too often walk around looking way too serious and glum and at the same time expect people to respond positively to them. Wake up and take a reality check. No one likes to do business with someone who appears to lack confidence and seems down on life. Remember the old adage that when you smile, the whole world smiles with you. There’s more truth than not to that.

Avoid hanging out with negative people. Sure, it’s realistic that during difficult times like this there will be discussions involving the problems that may be encountered. But don’t get bogged down in negative, woe-is-me conversations. Spend the majority of your time with people who are positive, looking for alternative ways to hurdle the problems and being innovative in their thinking.

 

Finally, take time to treat yourself; be good to yourself. Maybe that’s going to a movie; abandoning adults and hanging out with the kids; pampering yourself with a suit or buying that new pair of shoes. Get yourself a new iPad, Smartphone or laptop. Most of all, take time to take care of you so you are in the right place to take care of those who depend on you—your loyal customers.

Easter and springtime always brings forth new life in fresh and magnificent ways. Leverage the advent of spring and let it be a time of renewed confidence in your business!