Of the many companies out there who have reformed their horrible customer service records in the past few years, Dell have really caught a wave. They like Apple figured out they don’t own their customer. The customer owns the interaction, and should be allowed to shape the products.

So how can we innovate within our sector, and company? Can we take lessons from Silicon Valley without appearing utopian and naive?

Every company outside of the ancient whales (AT&T etc) will have good management *somewhere*. In my particular case our Sales department wins more work than we can handle. By solving a problem in their world you grab attention, and maybe get yourself a very useful contact on the way.

Step 1: The Sounding Board. Until you find your key contact, who’s going to tell you if your ideas suck? This is where twitter and a good network comes in handy. Good ideas will prompt responses.

Step 2: The Nugget. Senior Management has a short attention span, and a PA sifting through emails. Ideally you want a killer nugget to throw in person, but if like me genius tends to strike at 3am, a punchy little email will do it. Something about the competition innovating, and how you could steal their clothes? A way to cut out the workload for smaller clients? The Nugget grabs attention and may lead to the meeting

Step 3: The Meeting: Take a book to be reading before the meeting, “What would Google do” is a good start. If you strike it lucky your meeting will be that mania filled “this is where the company should be” affairs. If so you have found yourself an ally with genuine stroke in the company.

Now you need funding and a business case for innovation. This is the fun part. Being Generation Z and very visually motivated that shouldn’t be a problem for you though

It would appear I’m on a roll, and that the answers to all our questions come from doing nothing all day. Or at least being a little anti social and reading, then writing all day.

We are as a species fundamentally pleasure seeking creatures. The dopamine reward response is so incredibly powerful, and gives you a binary choice. Pleasure now, or disappointment in not having pleasure now. There is no tomorrow as far as your reward circuits are concerned.

Even knowing you saved money, is something you feel immediately. When the moment passes you no longer have a connection to how you felt about the action a moment ago. This means we humans are capable of tricking ourselves, and so on a regular basis because it feels like the right choice.

The hard choice is usually the right one, but not always. Without any indulgence we either become boring or bhuddist, a byword for boring. Although maybe bhuddists do have it figured out. By not attaching to outcome, they enjoy simply being.

How can I apply this in daily life?

Enjoy making the harder decision, and see it as character building. I’ve done this before, and still consistently fall back into bad habits. Are there any other tools besides willpower to beat temptation? Preferably that don’t involve making lists or going out of your way too much. I need dopamine for avoiding temptation. Can I associate being happy with making the long term choice?

I have not signed up for an egg 0% card to transfer some debt balance, because I forgot my password and don’t use the email address I signed up with. So it probably won’t happen. It means ringing up, which is LONG. That “LONG” is like a fear of loss, or loss aversion, but what am I losing, comfort? Failure?

It always starts with a notepad, an idea and a spark.

Then the notepad gets unwieldy and the plain text is not good enough at formatting for my visually dominant brain. I can’t sing, my dancing is almost acceptable and my writing is nothing short of not bad.

There must be a hundred or so texts around of me ranting on my troubles with ideas. So forgive me if this comes off a little hopeless. Deep down the problem is that it feels like I should be better at this.

Do thoughts get lost in translation between the spark and the fully formed text? (Oh look I posed myself a question to answer in another paragraph, original technique there).

Crap, I write like the woman from Sex and the City.

Stephen Fry described his writing process as a traumatic marathon of early mornings, and mid 80s hardware purchases. I worry if mine is nowhere near as epic. Throw on some big sounding emo (yes emo) and leave whatever words feel right on the screen. All the sites teaching you to write say revise, replace and simplify. For some reason my stubbornness insists that these short bursts of creativity are the answer. In a couple of hours time it will be gone, and seem futile. Maybe if I could tie all these bursts together with some editing…

That said I’ve wanted outsource tasks that baffle and frustrate me for a long time. One of you out there has to be a brilliant editor missing a spark. Be the yin to my yang.

But you know what really pisses me off? If someone else asked these questions I’d have an awesome answer like. “Well it takes practice and discipline to get good at something, force yourself to do it until it works”. Yet I don’t want to feel like a part of history, the grass is greener on the other side syndrome.

The quarter life crisis was supposed to end with the illness and introspection. The arrogance of it all doesn’t escape me, that the number one topic I blog about is me. But then it’s the key battle too. Being a success in the eyes of most just kinda happened. The apartment, car, and career.

I am not my apartment.

I am not my car.

I am not my job.

Who am I? Right now the only answer comes back, is a potentially talented nobody with good ideas but nothing to show for it but half finished, almost brilliance.

Maybe it’s a pessimistic outlook, but it feels right. I need to learn this lesson. It takes forcing yourself and working to get results. Here I am holding on to the hope, that usually when you’re about to give up something good happens. Although, I’ve held on to that one a few times for it not come through.

Fundamentally I bought into the idea that I could achieve greatness. Head above the parapit, Mark Zuckerberg world alerting brilliance, or just reverence in my field. The guy who hired me at work told me “You are the most exciting talent I’ve seen in a long time”. Not good enough. Why should I believe middle management? Give me something to believe in myself, something that is real.

Something I can point to, in a moment of reflection and say “I did that”, without having to explain what it is. Tim Ferris lives the 4 hour work week. A fantastic utopia of life balance. I could actually spend more time working, if I found something I loved enough and could STICK at it. Instead of once a week, or every two weeks.

Reality is what we know, plant a seed and watch it grow. We live in a world where the sun rises and sets. Our life is timeboxed into beginning middle and end. The seasons flow, the tides ebb small things become big, live, grow and die.

So why then is it still so very heart wrenching when you get a phone call saying “Your mum has just had a heart attack, she’s on her way to hospital”. How do you deal with that information? My reaction was intense anxiety, followed by my usual frontal lobe calm. Ok go tell the boss and just go.

This of course didn’t stop me shouting at traffic in my way en route the hospital. Nor did it stop me eulogising my mother’s brilliance. When you start thinking what you’d say at someone’s funeral, and it makes you emotional then you have some stuff to tell them. I’ve tried to live my life by this rule, never leave things unsaid. Sadly when the sunshine is the sky, and we feel aright, we have no reason to tell people how we feel. There will always be tomorrow.

Then it rains, and it rains hard. No matter how strong you are, the little things always get in your way. The travel, paying bills, staying still.

All of this stress came, not because of the activities themselves, but from guilt. I felt like I haven’t spent enough time with my Mum, or thanked her for the wonderful job she did raising me. Yes, typical only child right? Add to that the fact my Mum was never supposed to have children. I am literally a miracle. I’ve been made to feel that special every day of my existence, and the act of breathing makes my Mum happy.

No more though. I’m 25, lay down your worries Mum. I got this life.

I love you motherbear.

I needed to write, but for the first time instead of words streaming out of my conciousness, I’m actually bothered about the quality. I want to do this emotion justice. It seems having very strong critical instincts is paralysing for creativity, especially when trying to express how you feel at your core.

Still; I want to record how I’m feeling, in the hope that maybe I’ll look back and take something from it. Or that by writing it down, and pressing publish it will help me understand.

I prefer dogs to people as a rule. So losing Aggy has been really really tugging at the tear ducts. Not that I’ve fallen about in angst since I heard the news, but that large skull below was my confidant. The one living thing that knew everything about me. I mean its that it’s only when I saw Aggy that I felt well after the cancer in 07.

There is something about the calming reliability of a dog. They are there, they are staying with you and are furiously loyal to you. Which I guess is something we humans don’t grant each other very often. At the risk of sounding cynical, I’m observing how often humans sell each other out even to relative strangers. If it’s talking the ear off a stranger about a best friend who wronged you, or if it’s the dance of wanting to be wanted… We are a species who just can’t commit to anything.

I read an interesting article about how our conciousness is actually something our emotions manipulate. Sure we’re pretty convinced the reason we dislike the traffic warden is because logically they are parasitic in nature… but the real reason we don’t like them is because they feel like they are a bit mean.

We can’t use that language of course, that would risk feeling embarrassed, and self preservation dictates we cannot feel anything… but controlled bursts of melancholy or joy shared in a group.

So then society runs to its drugs, its rollercoasters and its art. It runs because it can’t face itself. We have wonderful tools of expression and yet cannot say hello in the pure, and simple way an animal does. With all of ourselves. I’m as guilty of this as anyone. As an empath I’m just as likely to reciprocate awkwardness as I am openness.

I will miss my dog because pushing my face into the big skull of that rottie made me feel alive, made me feel welcomed and gave me that release that very little else in life (besides yin) can provide. The lesson I’m trying to teach myself by articulating this is to take more risks not less. Maybe I’ll take a few followers on the way too.

To get what I want, I’m going to have to keep changing, and challenging myself on things I held dear. Doing so will require being way out of my comfort zone. It’s strange then, that at the top of the mania cycle, making friends is easy, humour is natural to me and creativity happens. You can’t force a fate you think is right, but perspective will always, always win the day.

With that I’m going to step back, and list some of the good times and memories I had of Aggy, in a log file, stored away on my pc. I miss you Aggy, you were such a good dog and my life is better from having known those big brown eyes and that fat head. xxx

Hi I’m Simon, how are you?

My skill has always been spotting value, and linking two desperate ideas together.  In the day job that means trying to cobble together credit cards with social networks.  In life that means, helping friends with their career.

My goal is to work with you, find out why you get up in a morning & what makes you passionate.  From there we know what your personal or business brand is, we just have to figure out how to provide that.

This blog chronicles my journey through the Social Media space, which is possibly the most misunderstood & incorrectly sold buzzword out there in the wild.  Hopefully I can make it a bit less scary, and a bit more profitable for you personally.

That overbearing guilt of not living your life the way you feel you should. Yeah that, you know it? I’ve had it an awful lot latley, working all day, to come home from the gym and collapse into a heap. All these ideas end up as useless reminders on my phone, and dreams for tomorrow. Think they better wait til tomorrow, gotta make sure it’s right, so til tomorrow goodnight.

The only way out of a cycle like that is travel. It sets back my financial goals, but it helps my soul, so on balance it has to be a good thing.

So I’m going to Amsterdam in two weekends time with my favourite little person (full grown, just small, and funky), in the form of Cat. I love internet comparison sites for allowing me to book this jaunt into an amazing city, and stay there for £28/night. Now my only task is to pack as much fun into is as possible, after I’ve loaded the Mp3 player with sunshine friendly music.

I’m still thinking, and can’t possibly communicate through this blog all the thoughts running through my head. But, I’m happy and that’s what matters. I hope you are too. Wherever you are.

That noise dogs make when they are excited. It sounds like OMFFF HARUMPHHHH OFFLUGHM, AFFLUM. It makes no sense whatsoever if you don’t have a dog. But if you do, well that’s just a magical way of saying hello.

I love getting phone calls from excited people too. Annie wins in the excited phone call wars. “I’m just riding my bike, it’s so exciting!!!”. Maybe it’s because its Spring time, maybe it’s something to do with the economy, or maybe its pure coincidence… but there seems to be an abundance of happy around at the moment. Kudos to Karma.

The new Star Trek film got the Heroes / Lost makeover from JJ Abrahams who is brilliant at the human side to a story, but I’m pretty glad they didn’t let his imagination run wild and kept to some canon in there. Reliably, Sorah informs me that it is to the Star Trek franchise what Begins was to the Batman franchise. The key for me was the casting of Pegg, who doesn’t take bad roles unless he wrote it.

The SCIENCE album by Incubus doesn’t get enough love. It’s been one of those weeks where you need new music in your life (and by new, I mean music you haven’t heard before, or in a while. Instead of whatever tripe some children in Kent just came up with). Currently digging asleep in the bread aisle by Asher Roth (who must be named after Asteroth the Soul Calibur character). As well as Deadmau5′s album, which is both funky, and chunky sounding.

This has been my stream of conciousness.

Looking through old photos on facebook in the sunshine is me savouring the after taste of great moments.

Listening to some amazing music over the top is quite possibly my favourite thing except clouds. Travelling back from London last Friday was one of those train journeys where you end up making stories out of the cloud formations. Don’t get me wrong, GQ was perfectly interesting, with its amusing lists, and facts about bears going crazy when you give them toothpaste. It could not compete with the cloud, and Mp3 player combination.

Compared with even a year ago life is so much better. I mean sure the economy went to shit, and I have more debt than I did, but things are going well. So well that during the train ride I mentioned above the following idea hit. Why on earth aren’t major coporates delivering content over IP solutions? There are risks being first to market, but c’mon, Apple proved so long as the interface is right it will sell, even if it lacks features.

Geeks inherited the earth, and ruined it. Well ok, so movies got better, but the way we market technology is all numbers. Men in their 30s used to be playing their commadore 64 as kids, and now have marketing, or software jobs. So the geek has changed, and gone more underground, bitching and whining about how every movie isn’t the same as the comic or cartoon. They must now compete to be more of an outcast, to be geek cool.

I want a new phone. The LG arena looks pretty.

That’s about how much thought has gone in to it, that and I really like thier Michael Jackson remix on the advert. So yeah, Content-over-IP google? You can buy the idea off me (even though I just gave it away, and it’s probably been thought of and has technology / lack of investment issues). But Google can fix it. They’re like Jimmy Savile for the post .com era.

Buying a new watch and 3 new shirts made me feel badass. There is an argument that says as a result I’m fickle. But if I feel better, and look better, and can afford it… is it a bad thing? Materialism does go too deep with some, but the high minded outrage it provokes is painful.

I’m in limbo between capeable, experied 30 something who has been there done that, and quite content to raise a family & a raging party animal. The duality is interesting to experience, and just as interesting to step back from and go “woah”. I mean Asher Roth is 2 years younger than me! I’m getting old by social standards, and if not certainly by media standards, yet I feel like I’m only just hitting my stride. Late bloomer WHUT.

So the lovley Christina Z sent me a message saying “Struggling to subscribe”, and I noticed, I really don’t get how all this blogging lark works. I mean, sure the whole posting thing is simple enough, and I got a twitter feed quick enough. Yet when it came to really digging in the underbelly of blogger I got confused.

So now not only do I have a PC that is infested with Mac OSX and slowly killing the memory of my beloved Vista. It turns out I’m behind the times with this 2006 phenomeonon known as blogging. Am I getting OLD?

It’s way more likley that I’m becoming retro cool. No?

Approaching my 25th is strange. Old people who used to be cool when I was younger are now older people who have kids that find them uncool. I always knew this cycle happened, but witnessing it happen is a whole new experience. Honestly, I don’t quite know how to feel about this observation. Key candidate for being one of those. Mr Ryan. This “kids today don’t get it” thing is big.

It seems people turn thirty, realize they are becoming uncool in the eyes of offspring, but no longer care because their life has moved on. But in their own world, there is still a high school hierachy. We humans are strange.

The definition of cool even changes. We live in a world where men in their 30s, were the MTV Generation. They are no longer cool, but have the exact same culture. In their world they still are too. It’s madness. I now get why OAPs love the slow dance thing. That was their rock and roll. Wait, it kinda was rock and roll. Colour me spooked.

Life Eventful?

Yeah. It’s reaching the point where I’m activley trying to manage my life. Turns out it’s a big freakin task. Lifehacker only helps so much. Can’t I outsource that kinda stuff? I actually can’t wait for technology to take up my human weakness caused slack. I have a terrible memory. It can only be improved so much by brain training and list making.

Give me a life extension. Like a firefox extension, I just install it into my face, and everytime I want to remember something, I just set the reminder. Can you imagine how much better life would be if you never forgot stuff?

Ahh we can dream.

Last Bank Holiday was MESSY. There are terrible photos, good memories and smiles. Catching up with people is fun, doing it in the sunshine is funè.

I guess it’s because life is really good at the moment, and I don’t want it to end. Like all things I enjoy, in the midst of enjoyment is the horrible brittle feeling that the emotion will pass soon. Nothing is permenant so we just chase the feeling again.

Words running through my head:

• Bromance.
• Cool new LG Phone
• Aggy is large
• Blame it on the boogie.
• ADD is difficult to manage
• Lots of people in my life at the mo woo.
• Still people I need to catch up with
• Need a PA.
• Wow that was almost coherent.
• Scrubs is shit.
• Need to get into southpark.
• God I wish I could focus.
• The Wii Fit is not a legitimate fitness product
• Annie Parker is the greatest little goo face
• Sunshine feels good to me, plants must love it
• Morrisons has some surprising DVD offers.