You're Not Special

Over the weekend, a teacher at Wellesley High School in Massachusetts gave a rather controversial commencement speech to the graduating class of 2012. Slammed for repeatedly reminding the students “you are not special,” it’s fair to say McCullough’s speech was a bit of an audience-shocker and media stir stick. At the very least, it certainly was not the warm, fuzzy, possibility-filled, metaphor-laden tune we’ve become accustomed to enduring at such events. And while I’m not sure I would have been prepared to digest his message at the tender, wide-eyed age of 17, at 30, I am able distance myself from the shock factor to find some sage insight within. “You see, if everyone is special, then no one is. If everyone gets a trophy, trophies become meaningless. In our unspoken but not so subtle Darwinian competition with one another, we have of late, to our detriment, come to love accolades more than genuine achievement. We have come to see them as the point — and we’re happy to compromise standards or ignore reality if we suspect that’s the quickest way, or only way, to have something to put on the mantelpiece, something to pose with, crow about, something with which to leverage ourselves into a better spot on the social totem pole. No longer is it how you play the game, no longer is it even whether you win or lose, or learn or grow, or enjoy yourself doing it. Now it’s “So what does this get me?

I urge you to do whatever you do for no reason other than you love it and believe in its importance. Don’t bother with work you don’t believe in any more than you would a spouse you’re not crazy about. The fulfilling life, the distinctive life, the relevant life, is an achievement, not something that will fall into your lap. The point is the same: get busy, have at it. Don’t wait for inspiration or passion to find you. Get up, get out, explore, find it yourself, and grab hold with both hands.

The sweetest joys of life, then, come only with the recognition that you’re not special.

Because everyone is.”

This is a message for every business and brand. I speak on behalf of every marketer who has ever wanted to tell you this. Your brand isn’t special just because it is exists. You are not remarkable just because you ran an online promotion and garnered 10,000 new Facebook likes or gained a couple thousand twitter fans. You are not exceptional because of your clever advertisements, memorable commercials or the awards lining your lobby shelves and walls. These things are simply the qualifiers of a “what does this get me?” mentality. And “what does this get me?” is the question a client asks right before they doom themselves to fail.

Good, honest, real marketing shouldn’t be centered around what you gain as a brand, it should celebrate how you play the game, and how you learn and grow (or help other people learn and grow). It should be about how much you enjoy doing what you do. These things are real and genuine and true. The alternative is choosing to keep your eyes fixed on the scoreboard while the game is happening on the field.

Herein lies the truth: Your brand is special because of your passion. You are special because of the mission and cause you believe in. You are special because of the conviction that energizes you and gets you out of bed each day. You special because of the mark you want to make. The people you want to help. That thing you want to do. Your best imaginable day. You are special because of the thing (and people) you love, and your belief in their importance.

Success, much like the fulfilling life, is an achievement, not something that will fall into your lap. As McCullough says, the point is the same: get busy, have at it. Don’t wait for inspiration or passion to find you. Get up, get out, explore, find it yourself, and grab hold with both hands. Focus on genuine achievement, realizing that accolades will follow. Trophies tend to get packed away over the years, but a love letter never tarnishes. The scenic route is rarely the quickest route, but is often the road we remember.

Good, honest, real marketing won’t ever tell you what you want to hear. It won’t tell you that you’re special just to make you smile. Good, honest, real marketing helps you recognize and accept that everyone is special…and then gives you the tools, reveals the path and opens the door to becoming something truly exceptional.

6 Things Food Trucks Can Teach us about Social Media

Food trucks are all the rage. They’re popping up everywhere, embodying the principles of not only fine dining, but fine design on the go. There are food truck lunch breaks, food truck festivals, even food truck weddings. And now food trucks are teaching us a thing or two about social media.

This weekend I came across a must-read article: 6 THINGS FOOD TRUCKS CAN TEACH US ABOUT SOCIAL MEDIA.

Consider it an essential Monday morning read. Not only will it get your wheels turning, it may get your stomach rumbling, too.

We Could All Use a Little More Pixie Dust

When I was little, I had a lot of fantastical ideas. I was convinced my stuffed animals came to life at night to protect the house from burglars lurking in the shadows. I tried to make a deal with the Tooth Fairy to keep her spare change and leave me a unicorn. Once I even pilfered an egg from the fridge and squirreled it away in my room, tucked snuggly in a knitted hat. Convinced that the egg would hatch within days, I hadn’t really thought through how I would explain a new pet chick to my parents, but I was sure they wouldn’t be able to cast him away once they saw his little fluffy face. (Note: My master plan did not result in a pet chick. It did, however, give me valuable insight into why we refrigerate dairy products.) Childhood is a time of imagination, magic and vast possibility. According to psychology researchers at Lancaster University in England, bringing magical content—everything from the Tooth Fairy to the witches and wizards that rule Harry Potter’s Hogwarts—into the classroom boosts student imagination and creativity.

The Study 52 children between the ages of four and six were divided into two groups. The first group viewed scenes from Harry Potter that included characters wielding their wands, using magic and talking to animals. The second group watched clips where no magic is used. At the conclusion of the viewing, both groups of students were asked to come up with alternative uses for a cup and create “drawings of impossible items.” The researchers found students who had watched the magical clips significantly outscored the other group on creativity tests. They concluded that exposure to magical thinking— which they defined as “ways of acting and reasoning about the physical world that violate known physical principles”—enables children to “create fantastic imaginary worlds.” That in turn increases student’s ability to “view the world and act upon it from multiple perspectives.”

Albert Einstein once said, “Logic will get you from A to Z; imagination will get you everywhere.” It seems there may be more truth to that statement than anyone realized. In the pursuit to find creative and innovative solutions for our clients, we must surround ourselves with magical props, people and possibilities.

On my desk you’ll find an adopted monster, a creativity voodoo doll and a tiny jar of pixie dust. Visitors often ask about them in passing. Truth be told, the monster isn’t that scary, I suspect the voodoo doll is defective and the pixie dust has probably passed its expiration date. These objects in and of themselves don’t make me any more mighty. They don’t give me superpowers. The do, however, serve as little reminders to take a few moments each day to let my head to float up into the clouds. They remind me of a rare and precious time in life when fairies made fair trades, stuffed animals were the best kind of home security system and a dozen peeping pet chicks were just a couple days in a warm hat away. Even a few brief moments a day in that magical memory makes me happy. And when I am happy, I am undeniably a better writer.

Last week I was taking a stroll through the BOF blog archives, and I came across a post from Greg Cordell inspired by his daughter, Kylie. Having known the Cordells for some time now, I am fully convinced that if you examined them under a microscope, you’d find pixie dust twinkling in the double helix of their DNA.

I was reminded of the power of super-sized dreams when I got home last night. As I walked into the house, I noticed Kylie, my nine-year-old daughter, sitting on a blanket in the middle of the backyard, talking to herself. I asked my wife what Kylie doing out there. She told me that our daughter had explained that she was gong outside to pray and she was going to need “lots of space.”

When Kylie came in I gave her a big hug and, of course, I asked what she was doing on the blanket in the middle of the yard. She told me she was praying. “What were you praying for?” I asked. At first she didn’t want to tell me. She said it was a secret. But, as big dreams often do, her prayer bubbled to the surface and she shared that she was praying for a pet dragon. That’s right, a pet dragon. Fully expecting her prayer to be answered, Kylie needed lots of space for the dragon to land, explaining the reason she was praying outside. I asked what she would do if she had a pet dragon. She told me the dragon would make popcorn for her. “Yes,” I said. “That would be very cool.”

During tough economic times, dreams and dreamers can take a beating. Dreams gets pushed aside and we just try to get through the day faster and cheaper. Rather than super-sizing, we can get caught up in “right sizing” and before you know it, we aren’t really dreaming at all. But maybe during tough times is when dreams need to be the biggest. Call me irresponsible or idealistic if you want, but I doubt I’ll ever see any magic in ordinary microwave popcorn again. Not when I can have a dragon in the backyard that will make it for me.

Wishing you a magical Wednesday.

——

Read more on the study here

http://www.good.is/post/could-harry-potter-and-the-tooth-fairy-be-the-key-to-boosting-student-creativity/

Growing Pains (and Pins): Should Brands Be On Pinterest?

“Pinterest really seems like the next big thing.”“I’m not sure how we can use [Pinterest], but I’m on it because it seems like we should be.” “I don’t know how it will add value to our marketing, but we’re getting on Pinterest because everyone else is.”

The above are REAL statements I have come across online or have heard in conversation relating to brands on Pinterest.

Let me be the first to say: Ick. Ick. And ick.

We’ve recently had a bit of casual BOF banter about whether Pinterest is a good forum for brand participation. The reviews have been mixed to say the least. Upon floating the question to the Twittersphere, feedback (mostly from kindred spirits in the marketing world) has been surprisingly split. Some feel it’s a great space for self-promotion, while others expressed that they feel it is a sacred space and marketers shouldn’t muddy the water.

As an early adopter of Pinterest, I appreciated that, until recently, it was a relatively marketing-free space. It felt pure and untainted. For me there was a rare sense of communal credibility in knowing the things people pinned were shared because they truly enjoyed and believed in them. NOT because they were trying to convince me to buy a $500 pair of leggings or a $70,000 car.

With the influx of brands racing to get on board now that Pinterest has gone mainstream, it has changed the Pinterest game a bit. I have seen fashion brands regurgitate and pin images from every page of their catalogs. I have seen advertisements pinned as though Pinterest is nothing more than a free marketing forum. And as a result, I have started to see the spirit of Pinterest shift from “Look at how great THIS is” to “Look at how great WE are.“

While I recognize it is within a brand’s right to play in the space, it leaves me with the same “ugh” feeling I experienced the first time I came across a T.G.I. Fridays in Europe. Sure, you can be there, but should you be?

THE GOOD It’s not all doom and gloom for brands on Pinterest. I recently spoke with our friend Ryan Morgan, Director of Marketing at Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams, and he redeemed my faith in brands on Pinterest a bit. Jeni’s is using Pinterest to give their fans and advocates VIP access to the brand.. Pinterest feels like a natural space for Jeni’s in my opinion. They’re not forcing their way into their fans’ lives, they’re inviting them behind the scenes and into their test kitchen. And that, if you’ll pardon the pun, is pretty cool.

So. What say you? Do brands belong on Pinterest? Is it an appropriate space to self-promote or should brands trust their fans to advocate for them in an organic, authentic way? Does it bother you to see brands working their way onto the pinboards you follow? And do you know of any brands that are doing Pinterest really well? Or no so well?

Step up and share your thoughts. We’ll be on pins and needles waiting to hear your thoughts…

Touchpoints Matter

Evelina Children’s Hospital was the first new children’s hospital to be built in London in more than a century. The hospital was designed with a goal of “making a hospital that didn’t feel like a hospital.” Accomplishing this required hospital designers and staff to create a patient experience that included touchpoints fostering a sense of inspiration and wonder – in addition to healing - for children throughout their stay. Perhaps the most remarkable touch point of all comes from an unexpected source: the hospital window washers. As part of their contract, Evelina requires that hospital window washers dress up as superheroes while cleaning the hospital windows. Bedridden, sick children delight in seeing Superman, Spiderman and Batman dagling just beyondf the glass. The window washers report the superhero visits to Evelina are the highlight of their week.

Touchpoints matter. To your customers. To your staff. To your brand.

Emotional Marketing: Speak to the Heart

There I was, standing in Target on an average Saturday afternoon - when I saw him. From down the aisle I could see his big, brown eyes staring at me, the corners of his mouth turned up with a hint of hopefulness from under his soft whiskers. The instant I saw him, I knew what I had to do. I had to put back the "on sale" dishwashing soap and buy Dawn instead.

EMOTIONAL MARKETING: SPEAK TO THE HEART

As I stood in Target toiling over the purchase of a dish soap refill last weekend, it occurred to me that I have become unusually loyal to my liquid dish soap. In reality, this loyalty has very little to do with dishes, and much to do with Dawn's turn-my-heart-to-mush marketing. Marketing that has been so effective, in fact, that every time I purchase a dish soap refill, I view myself as singlehandedly responsible for the well-being and survival of the baby seal (or baby penguin or baby duck...) featured on their packaging. In my mind, purchase of a competitor's brand = "I hate baby seals," while purchase of Dawn = "I have just made an investment in this little creature which will ensure he continues to live out his days happily sliding down snowbanks, getting into shenanigans with his baby seal friends."

TURNING "THEM" AND "ME" INTO "WE"

A quick glimpse at how Dawn is leveraging emotion to turn average dishwashers into animal-saving superheroes...(and consequently, inspiring people to get passionate about their dish soap.)

• As featured in their commercials, Dawn is a preferred partner in helping clean cute little critters after an oil spill. While the spirit of the commercial is undeniably philanthropic, it also subtly reiterates the message that their product works. If Dawn is tough enough to clean up a wriggly, oily otter and gentle enough for a baby duck, just imagine what it will do for your dishes and your hands. Instead of jamming an obvious "WE ARE SO GREAT!" message down our throats, Dawn appeals to consumer emotion, letting the message speak for itself - through their actions.

• As noted on the bottle, Dawn consumers can visit a website to enter the code found on the label. For each code entered, Dawn will donate $1 toward wildlife rescue. (And in fact they have - donating $500,000 in the past year.) By offering a way to actively participate in their philanthropic giving, Dawn positions consumers to become a hero before they've even opened the bottle. All they have to do is go home, log online and enter their code. Good karma at the click of a button, warm fuzzies between consumer and brand.

• As an animal lover, this philanthropic partnership between the brand and consumer sends a message to my mind and heart: my passion is their passion. And that makes it our passion. Instead of a "them" and a "me," we become a WE - working in harmony for a cause near and dear to my heart. I feel good about myself, my purchase and the brand. The brand gains a loyal fan in spirit. What does that mean? It means I talk about their brand and their mission with the people I know. I feel compelled to Tweet about, and hold htem up as an exemplary case study in emotional marketing. It means I find myself standing in Target unable to bring myself to purchase another brand of dish soap. And I think we can all agree that's all worth so much more than a Facebook "like."

THE LOGIC OF EMOTION

At the end of the day we're talking about a product intended to wash dishes - not save the world, right? So what is it about Dawn's marketing that compels me choose their product (and pay more for it) over another (equally effective) competitor?

In his article, "People Buy Based on Emotion and Justify with Logic," Brian Ahern explores the influence of emotion on action.

Feelings are incredibly powerful. No matter how much we’d like to believe we’re rational creatures who occasionally act emotionally, the truth is, we’re actually emotional beings who occasionally act rationally.

Why is this so often the case? Because of how we’re wired; how our brains work. When I say the word “elephant," you have a picture of an elephant in your mind. You may picture an African elephant with tusks, a smaller Asian elephant without dusks, the lovable Dumbo or perhaps an elephant toy you played with as a child. Whatever the case, you have a picture in your mind. That’s because we translate words into pictures.

Next in the process come feelings. The mental image of an elephant generates a certain set of feelings in you. Perhaps you have memories of an elephant you saw in a movie, maybe you thought of a trip to the zoo or you had feelings attached to memories of the toy you played with as a child. It’s those feelings that ultimately lead to action. It's a process; words create pictures, pictures lead to feelings and feelings culminate in actions. [1]

So let's take it back to the dish soap example. Logically, I realize that a competitor's brand will probably clean just as well as Dawn. At the end of the day, I will have sparkling, clean dishes whether I use Dawn or another brand. And the other brand will likely cost less. Logic says buy the soap on sale, save a dollar, clean the dishes and be merry. On the other hand, Dawn's marketing message has been deeply rooted in my soft, mushy, animal-loving heart. Emotion says: buy Dawn, support something you believe in, help them make the world a better place. Be part of something bigger than dishwashing.

And am I going to say no to THAT?

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YOUR TURN TO CHIME IN: When was the last time emotional marketing won over your heart (and/or dollars)? Was it the delight of receiving free samples with a Sephora purchase? Or the emotional reward of knowing your Chipotle burrito helped support local, family farms?

A Year for More Picnics: Logging Off to Live Better

According to a 2011 Nielsen study, Americans spent 53.5 billion total minutes on Facebook last May. Collectively, that factors out to roughly 101,720 years - in a month. On a per user level, that means each user spent about 6.5 hours (roughly a full work day) of their life each month scrolling through status updates. Our newest Brains on Fire client hails from the DIY world. As we have delved into their universe, it has given me pause to consider the ways in which I use my hands. Along the way, I have come to the conclusion that I spend entirely too much time typing, scrolling and clicking, and not nearly enough time creating, exploring and doing.

A few months ago, I blogged about my predictions for the future of Word of Mouth Marketing: The Art of We. As we continue to put increased value on personal time, real life and real time, I expect we will also begin to consider the things we do (or don't do) with our time and our hands, and how those choices add to or detract from our quality of life.

You often hear people wish for "an extra hour in the day." We could do a lot with 6.5 extra hours per week. Meet a friend for coffee. Write and mail a real letter. Take the dog for a walk. Opt for the scenic route. Go on a picnic. Visit a library.

I am willing to bet there has never been a person in history who reached to the end of their life and wished they had taken fewer picnics. I doubt any of us will wish we had spent more time tweeting.

My Klout score is about to take a big hit, because this year I am making a commitment to spend less personal time online - and start making better use of my minutes and my hands. I want to create more and click less. I want to experience things as they happen - instead of retrospectively through the social media lens. I want to document my life in precious memories and present moments, not scrolling backwards through a virtual timeline.

Your turn to chime in: How do you find balance between your real life and social media life? Do you feel your use of social media hinders your ability to enjoy your real life to the fullest? What would you like to do with your time and hands in 2012?

More Than a Feeling: Message Matters

http://youtu.be/Hzgzim5m7oU Message matters. That's no big surprise. But "They will never forget how you made them feel" may be truer than anyone realized when it comes to marketing.

Turns out, purely emotional marketing outperforms purely rational marketing by nearly double.

Yesterday I was hard at work re-painting my home office. When Pandora decided to play Sarah McLachlan's "Angel" (all you animal-lovers will understand) I had an immediate response. My emotional trigger was pulled. Within three seconds my thoughts went from "This color paint color is gorgeous!" to "Save the puppies! Help the kitties!" As I started reflecting on the types of things I have passed along and shared with friends over the past couple years, I realized nearly all were strongly emotional. (Last Christmas a Dyson vacuum drew tears!)

So what makes emotional marketing so effective? In this article, Susan Gunelius takes a closer look at 10 common emotional triggers...

1. Fear: Fear is an emotion that can be used in a wide variety of marketing messages. Insurance companies often appeal to the emotion of fear with messages like "Don't get caught with too little insurance."
2. Guilt: Consumers are easily affected by messages that trigger emotions of guilt. Nonprofit organizations use the guilt trigger effectively in copy such as "Don't let them suffer anymore."
3. Trust: Trust is one of the hottest trends in marketing, and every company seems to be trying to jump on the trust bandwagon in their marketing messages. Financial companies are leading the way with messages like "no hidden fees."
4. Value: Value is another hot trend in marketing, and many promotions appeal directly to the emotional trigger of getting a good deal. For example, promotional messages that say "If you find a better price for the same product, we'll match it" are effective in piquing feelings related to value.
5. Belonging: Few people truly want to be alone. Human nature dictates that most people want to feel like they belong to a group, and customers often purchase products in an attempt to feel part of a specific group. Many companies effectively appeal to consumers' desires to belong, using copy like "You're part of the family."
6. Competition: The old adage of keeping up with the Joneses is an adage for a reason. Many consumers are affected by a competitive desire to feel equal to or better than their peers. Copy like "Make them drool" is a great example of a message that elicits feelings of competition.
7. Instant Gratification: We live in a world where people expect instant gratification in all aspects of their lives. Messages that cater to a sense of urgency are well-received by consumers who already desire instant gratification. Use words like now, today, in one hour or less, within 24 hours, and so on to appeal to the emotional trigger of instant gratification.
8. Leadership: A lot of consumers want to lead the way in trying new products, and this audience responds strongly to marketing messages that appeal to their feelings related to leadership. Messages that make them feel like they're first or in control are powerful for this audience. Phrases such as "Be the first on your block" effectively appeal to the emotional trigger of leadership.
9. Trend-setting: Many consumers want to feel cool or trendy, so appealing to those emotions in copywriting is fairly standard. Variations of "all the cool kids are doing it" are commonplace in copywriting and can be used to market a wide variety of products and services to an even wider audience. The famous Gatorade ad featuring Michael Jordan and the copy "Be like Mike" is a perfect example.
10. Time: In the 21st century, people are busier than ever. As such, they desire more free time to pursue personal interests, spend time with family and friends, and so on. Marketing messages that appeal to that desire for more free time are extremely effective, such as "Cut the time it takes to vacuum your house in half."

And now for the fun part. I have compiled a mini-list of links to handful of commercials, companies, organizations and people doing emotional well. Their message is sticky. Pass-onable. It gets people feeling, which gets people talking - and doing.

• Pedigree "Shelter Dogs"
• Google "Dear Sophie"
• Optimus "The Text Message"
• Budweiser "Thank You"
• Love 146: The Story of Love 146
• The Girl Effect "The Clock is Ticking"

The heart is the first feature of working minds. | Frank Lloyd Wright

YOUR TURN TO CHIME IN: Who do you think does emotional well? What (or should I say who) is tugging at your heart strings?

Touch Points: Give 'em Something to Talk About

Let's talk about touch points. There is a lot of conversation going on about touch points out in the great, big world of the interwebs. People telling you how to do them. Why to do them. Where to do them. How to outsource them. (Really? Really!?) There are graphs and charts and calculations estimating touch point ROI. There is advice on how to reduce the cost of your touch points, how to speed them up and get them in front of more eyeballs.

And while (much of) this is fine and dandy, I take a much more simplified stance on touch points. It's less science, more art. It has far less to do with calculations and 20 point bullet lists, and much more to do with surprise and delight.

Every touch point is an opportunity to start a conversation.

Google and you will find that there are thousands of sites listing nearly every possible touch point you could ever hope to employ for your marketing purposes. I often suspect, however, some of the best examples are (literally) right under our noses. Baristas have been doing an amazing job with touch points for quite some time, simply by working with what they do and love - in order to give their customers a remarkable experience. With just a little extra care and effort, they elevate "good enough" to "wowza" - and you better believe it not only gets people smiling, it gets them talking.

A few weeks ago, I received a pack of mini-cards from Moo.com (courtesy of Klout.) The set I received has dozens of designs with clever messages and drawings on one side, contact information on the other. When contact info alone would have been good enough, the cards took it up to wowza. With messages like "I like my artsy with a little fartsy," images of jars with beards and, my personal favorite, an illustration of a pair of underwear claiming "I have the worst job in the world," they became an instant hit. We spent a good 15 minutes crowded around my desk, selecting the just-right card for each person. If you walk around our office, you will find them displayed - like teeny, tiny works of art.

What I enjoyed even more, however, were the touch points Moo.com employed before the box ever arrived. Upon placing my order, I received an e-mail from "Little Moo," assuring me he was going to keep an eye on things and stay in touch throughout the process until my order arrived at my desk. When a simple confirmation e-mail would have done, they wowza-ed it up - and it has kept me smiling and talking about it long after my order shipped.

A final though on touch points. They don't have to be fancy or expensive. They just have to be meaningful. A couple years ago I ran into a local photographer at the Farmer's Market. After a brief conversation, I asked for his business card. Instead of plucking one card from his pocket, he pulled out a stack. Each card had his contact information on one side and one of his photos on the other - each one different. He fanned them out, text side-up, like a deck of cards, asking me to choose one at random. Whatever photo was on the back would tell me something about myself, he assured me.

I plucked a card from the stack and flipped it over to examine the photo on the other side. (It was this.)

That business card has a place of honor in my home. It has been with me through three moves. It continues to elicit questions from guests. When "here's my business card" would have been good enough, the photographer gave me something remarkable to remember. And you better believe I'm still talking about it.

>>>Your turn to chime in: What touch points have captured your attention lately? What do you think makes a touch point effective vs. ineffective?<<<

ps: Looking for more touch point examples? You may want to check out this previous post for a few ideas from Method, Virgin Airlines, TOMS and Hell Pizza.

An Apple a Day: Thoughts on Steve Jobs

The entire world is talking about Steve Jobs this morning. And rightfully so. Last night I sat in front of my Twitter stream - from the first tweet breaking the news to an unreasonably late hour - watching people from all corners of the world come together to celebrate an innovator who changed human communication forever.

Confession: until just over a year ago, I wasn't an "Apple person." After another run-in with a PC "blue screen of death," I finally decided it was time to jump ship and shell out the cash for a MacBook. When I brought my MacBook home in July of 2010, I spent the first 24 hours seriously considering returning it to the store because it didn't have a delete key. Sure, it had a <em>delete </em>key, but the MacBook delete key functioned like a PC backspace key. How could I live without a delete key and a backspace key? Furthermore, where was the left click button?! A few days (and keyboard shortcuts) later, and I was in love. Turns out... I <strong>am</strong> an Apple person.

Flash forward a year. The tidbits and nuggets of my life are captured, stored and preserved in the form of photos, documents and videos in two places: my MacBook and my iPhone. My MacBook and my iPhone aren't my life, but they <em>are</em> tools that help me live better, think better, work better and communicate better.

If I could share one story with Steve Jobs, this would be it.

24 years ago, a 5-year-old version of me sat at Epcot Center, listening intently as the narrator's voice described a vision of the millennium ahead. He explained that one day we would find ourselves eating from flavored tubes of food like astronauts, bidding farewell to vehicles and skateboards in exchange for flying cars and hoverboards. From all the visions of the future I caught a glimpse of that afternoon, the one that has always stuck with me was the promise that one day I would hold a phone and be able see the person I was speaking to on the other end of the line.

I remember filing that promise away in my head. I remember making a conscious mental note, that if that day ever came, it must really be true that anything is possible.

Last month I connected to Facetime for the first time. On the other end of the line? My father. 800 miles away.

In the flurry of tweets last night, someone said it simply and eloquently (two qualities I think we can all agree Steve Jobs would appreciate): <strong>He was our Edison. </strong>

As for his legacy, I don't think I could sum it up any better that this passage from the Brains on Fire Book (page 14):

<em>If your company were (heaven forbid) to be hit by a bus tomorrow, would you brand live on without you? In other words, is your customer's brand loyalty so strong that it's self-sustaining? Are you the main drive of what your brand stands for? Is it in the ads that the marketing department prints in the monthly pubs? Or does it live in the hearts and minds of your employees and customers? </em>

<em>Brands that truly matter can, without a doubt, answer this question in a heartbeat. The culture of fans is so loyal that the brand they love so much will live on, even if it's not there to feed them anymore. And if something happened to you (or your company) there would be an outcry from your fans. Calls would be made. E-mails would circulate. You would be mourned. But, in your absence, those who love you would pull together and somehow continue the word you'd begun.</em>

<strong>We don&rsquo;t get a chance to do that many things, and every one should be really excellent. Because this is our life.</strong> | Steve Jobs