Hardly a memory, stories of it told in hushed tones to the younger generation, holograms played for recall, a special segment of Cirque de Soleil after the trapeze artists, jugglers, dancers, manipulators of body parts, magicians and all the others have performed…it will be called “Speech” and the audience will gasp. Maybe 20-30 years from now but it is coming.
People do not talk much to each other any longer. They e-mail and text, transmissions of Biblical length down to one word. It is a weekend in New York and two of my incredible granddaughters have joined us for the weekend, armed with mobile weapons. That is, after all, what they are. Their thumbs move at the speed of light and are the envy of astronauts and jet fighter pilots. When I asked Sydney and Marissa, two of my many grand-daughters, what they were doing that was so important, they quickly and somewhat politely, albeit slightly fearful, that they were talking! Not texting, not communicating, not e-mailing…just talking!
These are the same girls that broke down with laughter and dismay when told that I once, as a youth in New York, had to get up and change the channel on our TV set. I held off describing the “rabbit ears” (still cannot figure out why they were dubbed so) and large magnifying glass that had to be placed in front of a … shhhhhhhh!…black and white picture and often network logo and pattern, nothing else. I was not in the mood to become the butt of their tales of the past, the impossible teenager “really?” as they described what they were told to classmates with a grainy picture Photoshopped on Instagram.
Many years ago, with the advent of the mobile phone, I … without any credit for same in the fashion of George Orwell or Jules Verne … it up for my then audience and proclaimed, “This is the weapon of the future!” It was, and is. Not genius…just foretelling the inevitable.
It speaks to you, has as much data on it as your laptop, maybe more, pays your bills, carries your boarding passes, starts your car, locks your home, contacts your world, carries your content to the world at large, comes in all sizes, has all the photos you can take…from selfies to others, maps, weather, GPS, calendar, calculator, voice conversion, notes, flashlight, videos, reminders and working on replacing rubber female blow-up dolls!!! If the mobile phone is not an integral part of your business and/or personal life – where you watch live sporting events – you are living in a cave in the outermost regions of Antarctica.
Whatever it is you do, save for growing food, feeding the herd, flying from one location to another, having an interlude with your loved one, becoming pregnant and raising children, the phone now can have a 401K of its own (in the works), and baby-sitting the kids (soon to come). The mobile phone has become part of the family.
There is no magic to it, no Aristotle-like words or wisdom. The mobile phone has to be part and parcel of everything you are doing in the world of business today, the universe of gaming. It is the element that has to be inclusive at every planning session, every business meeting review to determine if you are doing all you can to succeed. You must watch what the competition is doing and improve upon it. You must set the pace and, when others catch up to…emulate what you have put forth…you go to the next level. It is unending, the challenge never stops.
Is this sermon-like? Could be. Motivational? Of course. It is the breakfast you have each morning, the shave and shower you take, the clothes you don, the family you call your own and protect to the death, the “edge” you can achieve over the competition…and widen every day.
Take a walk down the street of any major city, go into the lobbies of the best hotels in town, glance around the subway/underground station and tell me how many public pay phones you see. They would be best used as slot machines that are outdated and just continue to return the coins deposited each time…nothing won but nothing lost either. Good way to play. Find one and you have a collector’s item, growing in value every day.
I know without your telling me, that you are focused on mobile applications and uses. Understood but no applause. It is like a beautiful woman that does not use her God-given “assets” to full advantage and just watches life, and competition, pass her by. Grow, expand innovate, create, experiment, dedicate staff to the expansion, to study and pursue it daily, to cover and know the markets where experimentation and advancement are being pursued.
The mobile phone is the weapon that can, will, spell the difference in your stature, future, value, growth and early retirement.
Think you know it all, have a handle on it, grasp the breadth and scope of it, not much more you can be told or taught? Guess again. That breeze you just felt is the competition flying by.
About Mickey Charles… While an attorney by training, Mickey’s background includes a wide range of interests including newspaper syndication, talk show host, feature editor/telecommunications to travel, panelist, moderator and chairperson at conferences worldwide. He is a pioneer in the audiotex industry and is President and CEO of The Sports Network, www.sportsnetwork.com, an international real-time sports wire service with customers throughout North America and Europe.
More recently, he and his wife, Roz, have founded www.oldernotdead.com, focused for the baby boomer generation and premised upon the adage that “You’re just older. You’re not dead.” This market is 75 million strong, growing at the rate of 10,000 a day as the fastest growing demographic online, representing over 25% of the population, 65% of the net worth of all US households and over $2 trillion in disposable income.
He has been a guest on a number of network and cable shows and is the author of numerous articles and features that extend to the communications industry, gaming, travel, radio and television, cartoons and humor. He and TSN were the cover story (photo featured) of Sports Activated Internet magazine inaugural issue – January, 2011… http://www.sportsactivated.com/Magazine Mickey was featured on Chinese network TV (NYFP) in July of 2012, following a feature piece on him in Fortunelife (China edition) in January, 2012.
He created The Walter Payton Award, Eddie Robinson Trophy, Buck Buchanan Award and Jerry Rice Award for college football’s FCS Division (formerly IAA) with The Payton being the most prestigious and sought after award in college football, other than the Heisman.
