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The Names Game on Inside Indiana Business

Inside Indiana Business featured my Names Game iPhone app in a short segment presented on WFYI in Indianapolis, the public television channel in Indianapolis.

Gerry Dick is a great host of the popular local television program that features interviews with business people from around Indiana.  It was an honor to be on his show!

Here is how Inside Indiana Business described the game:

NEW APP AIMS TO IMPROVE NETWORKING 

Hoosiers Produce iPhone Game 

If you need help remembering names of business connections, and Indianapolis entrepreneur has an app for that. Kim Brand has co-developed Names Game, which incorporates Facebook and turns name and face memorization into an iPhone game. Brand recently discussed the idea to launch the app during and appearance on Inside INdiana Business Television.

I'd like to give credit for the software development for the game to John Holtkamp.  John is a talented programmer and has been a valuable partner throughout the process of launching my first iPhone app.  His experience and insight belie his youth!

Business Ownership Sales & Marketing Links

I am proud to be on the Board of the Business Ownership Initiative.  At this time in a poor economy, entrepreneurship will be one of the principal drivers of prosperity and job creation.  I'm glad to play a small part in the economy (aside from owning three businesses.)


Meanwhile, I present short seminars to BOI clients on Sales and Marketing.  There are millions of resources on the web - the vast majority are free.


I collect the information I present primarily in two places:


My Entrepreneurship Wiki is located here (which is hosted for free by PBWorks - a WONDERFUL resource.)


My Entrepreneurship Bookmarks are located here (which is hosted for free by DELICIOUS.COM - VERY COOL!)


Check them out.  Let me know if you have any questions or comments.

Cosmic matter distribution & talent diversity

The distribution of talents in a person may be compared to the distribution of matter in the universe.  We have gotten much better at visualizing this matter over time – and a person gets better at recognizing what he is good at as he gets older.

This picture sums it up:

We start off with talents that are fuzzy.  Some boys are good at sports.  Some girls may be good at music.  Either sex may have talents commonly associated with the other.  I believe the brain is predisposed to some talents at birth, but that doesn’t preclude learning to be better at anything.

The point is that as we get older we figure out where our talents lie.  We accept that we are naturally good at some things and, while we can develop a weakness into a strength, there are so many areas where we are just naturally better; Why invest the energy to do so?

Recognizing and accepting ourselves as who we are simply acknowledges this prenatal organization of brain stuff.  We ought to consider it a gift.

Schools simply reflect society’s priority to develop general individual utility for the sake of general prosperity.  In an increasingly interconnected and complex society, the role each of us play can be more granular.  Unfortunately it is not economical for schools to produce individualized curricula – so we settle for generic education ill suited to the individual talents of students.

Perhaps in some enlightened future educational system we will enjoy new capabilities being developed in pharmacology: to custom engineer drugs to suit the unique characteristics of human molecular architecture at the DNA level.  Some education leaders are advocating the same for schools.

As the noted education expert Sir Kenneth Robinson has criticized: The principal organizing characteristic which determines the education of our youth should not be their date of manufacture.

Advice

The late Richard Holbrooke used to give the essential piece of advice for a question-driven life: Know something about something. Don’t just present your wonderful self to the world. Constantly amass knowledge and offer it around.

How has the Internet changed the way you think?

Just yesterday, my son asked if he should take Huxley's Brave New World on a flight with him to Los Angeles.  The book is a dark portrayal of a dystopic future.  I guess the questions and my mood made be a bit more sober than usual.

Then, a friend (Bruce Frank) was reading from a compilation of articles published on Edge.org which answered the question: "How has the Internet changed the way you think?"

Here is my response...

The ability to connect 24/7 with media has affected everything.  I'm sure a book could be written, but in a sort of recursive way (like the way Escher painted,) the answer is 'infected' with the Internet.  Like defining a word using the word.

The first thing I did was Google it.

I read an article recently that claimed one of the changes is the way we remember information.  Why do you need to remember anything if you can find the answer on your mobile phone?  I used to pride myself on my memory of clients' phone numbers.  I can honestly say I don't know my mom's phone number: it's in my cell phone along with (I was aghast to learn when I backed it up) 900 other contacts.  HOW CAN THAT BE POSSIBLE?

And why would kids want/need to learn anything?  They all have iPads (or will) and the answer to any question will be delivered by Google.  And if Google can't find it - how important can it be?

What about spelling, grammar or punctuation.  Seriously, when I'm texting you and using Ur, 4, 2, sup? and :) to communicate, who cares about apostrophes, possession, conjugation or tense agreement?

You've all chided me for my multiple e-mail addresses.  I recall creating them.  Each was an escape from the torrent of messages.  It used to be Spam.  Now, the Spam is gone - but the torrent remains!  Good messages from important people I should read, file, respond to or just think about.  It's like getting 50-70 pieces of mail a day!  How can you deal with that?

The Luddite movement responded to the onslaught of automation with violence.  John Henry supposedly died competing with a machine.  And now Chess and Jeopardy are proving that machines are as smart as they are strong.  No less, the Internet?

Of what use are humans?  To keep the lights on?

Otto Wichterle, my new hero

This guy beat the odds, kicked their ass and invented something hundreds of millions of people use - but you don't know him.

I volunteer at Business Ownership Initiative in Indianapolis, an SBA funded Womens Business Development Center. We help mostly women and minorities start businesses.

When I counsel these startups I try to convey what it takes to be successful starting and running a business. Persistence is at the top of the list. (My favorite quote on the subject is from former president Calvin Coolidge.)

I always enjoy using examples from history of scientists or entrepreneurs who exhibited remarkable persistence to become successful. There are many. Today's news media too often makes success seem like it comes out of a microwave.

I came across this story about Otto Wichterle, the inventor of contact lenses. His picture spoke to me: It was like: "I kicked their asses, and I can kick yours too!" I LOVE THAT IN AN ENTREPRENEUR!

But unlike The Donald, this guy had a brain.