The success equation

Apropos of absolutely nothing, I was thinking while on my bike the other day (I do a lot of thinking on the bike) about an equation for success. On the ride I distilled it down to:

Ability + Opportunity = Success

But I’ve since realised that there’s something else needed. After all, plenty of people with both the ability and opportunity have failed to succeed. I think it’s either perseverance or perhaps commitment. And given the former’s more difficult to spell, I’m going with the latter:

Ability + Opportunity + Commitment = Success

It’s difficult if not impossible for an individual to control all these things. In fact you might argue that the individual can only really control their commitment to something: ability being largely genetic and opportunity environmental.

From a societal perspective, we should be concerned about giving more people with ability the opportunities to succeed. The commitment, of course, is down to them.

Brainstorsms

Deliberate typo in the title.

I had a brainstorm over SMS today. It was great and I reckon there’s something in it. Here’s why:

No geographical barriers. I contributed my first idea in one country and my last in another. Enough said.

No technological barriers. SMS is about the most democratic of communication technologies. Low cost, doesn’t require access to wifi or any expensive kit, mobile.

Reduced time pressures. More often or not, a brainstorm forces the participants into being creative within the time it takes place, usually an hour. My SMS brainstorm today lasted more than five hours in all. You just need to sow the seed and give some rich creative thoughts the time to grow.

It encourages brevity. Nobody’s going to tap out a 300 word explanation of their idea. And a good idea succinctly communicated is halfway to being sold to a client I reckon.

Uninhibited thinking. You’re less worried about looking silly on SMS because nobody can see you.

Fewer red flags. You either can’t be bothered or don’t want to be the one to commit criticism of another person’s idea to an SMS.

You can all talk at the same time. The clever technologists sort it out.

You’ve got it all recorded. There it all is, on my phone in its nice little speech bubbles. Nothing gets lost.

I wish I could show you a screen grab…

Try it for yourself. Let me know how you get on.

Bordeaux Airport

I’m a bit of a sucker for an airport. I’m not sure why – they can often be a pain in the arse to navigate. But they’re often quite interesting from an architectural perspective, which might be a bit surprising given they serve exactly the same purpose wherever they are. Or maybe that’s why they’re interesting architecturally. And despite the fact that air travel has lost most if not all the sense of glamour that it might have once possessed, I’m still a bit of a romantic about travelling: the journey as much as the destination (which is one of the reasons I’d recommend Alain de Botton’s The Art of Travel).

Anyway, one of the two airports I might consider as my ‘home’ ones is Bordeaux (the other is La Rochelle which is anything but interesting architecturally. Though it has other charms). I like Bordeaux Airport. It’s big enough to be a proper airport – really well connected – but you can walk from one end to the other in about five minutes. I also think it looks great. With its wavy roof and palm trees, it might be better placed on the Cote d’Azur. I also like the way you can see right through it, as the front and back walls are glass, and there’s nothing in between (you can *kind of* see that in the rather fuzzy picture I took at dusk a few weeks back).

I’m no expert in architecture, but I love the way it can improve the most mundane, functional things.

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Media relations…still got it

As featured on The Media Blog (and Twitter, obviously).

Narcissistic Personality Disorder

I read an incredibly interesting article in the FT Weekend magazine about narcissism.

It includes this list of character traits which are typical of a victim of Narcissistic Personality Disorder.

Strikes me that it might be pretty common…

NPD – the diagnosis

A victim of narcissistic personality disorder will exhibit at least five of the following traits

1. A grandiose sense of self-importance

2. A preoccupation with fantasies of unlimited success, power, brilliance, beauty, or ideal love

3. A belief that he or she is “special” and can only be understood by, or should associate with, other special or high-status people (or institutions)

4. A requirement for excessive admiration

5. A sense of entitlement – unreasonable expectations of especially favourable treatment or automatic compliance with his or her expectations

6. Interpersonal exploitativeness – taking advantage of others to achieve his or her own ends

7. A lack of empathy and an unwillingness to recognise or identify with the feelings and needs of others

8. Enviousness of others – along with the belief that others are envious of him or her

9. A tendency to arrogant, haughty behaviours or attitudes

Source: Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders IV

The Cool Hunter – It’s Time To Do Your Own Thing

via thecoolhunter.co.uk

Like this a lot. Great sentiment.

@OhDoctah vs. @OldSpice

via youtube.com

Just love this. Brilliant.

Today’s great idea

I just had a brilliant idea after a to-and-fro with @wonky_donky and @CMRLee on Twitter.

Why the hell hasn't Panini done a "Panini yourself" iPhone app for the World Cup?

It would be simplicity itself. Take a pic of yourself or a friend, select a hairstyle (mullet, naturally), tracksuit (Denmark '78), generate a suitably European name (Marcus Pinshofster), send it to your mates.

Easys
(New social media catchphrase. Just watch, everyone will be using it soon.)

My new favourite iPhone app

I caught the Gadget Show on TV last night and the team named their five favourite mobile applications. The only one I could remember this morning was the Photoshop Mobile app for the iPhone. It's free and it's a beauty, allowing for a decent selection of very quick and easy tweaks to photos taken with the iPhone (or stored on it).

Mucking around with a pic I took on the phone a couple of weeks back near Leicester Square (my little boy loves Minis, particularly racing ones) I quickly knocked up the different versions you can see here. The original pic is the first.

Lovely little application.

See and download the full gallery on posterous

Back on the bike for Cancer Research

This a picture of my son and his good mate Jack. Jack’s known as Big Jack round these parts because my lad, Jacques, is the little one.

Yesterday, February 4th 2010, Big Jack was diagnosed with cancer. He’s only 9 years old. It’s devastating news and we’re all still reeling from it.

Looking on the bright side (and you have to) the doctors are relatively positive that two months of intense chemotherapy will stand a good chance of dealing with the tumour and that surgery will not be necessary.

I’d already been planning this year’s charity bike ride (many will know that for the past couple of years a bunch of mates and I have hauled our sorry middle-aged backsides onto unforgiving racing bikes and pedaled across various bits of European countryside for charity). However, I hadn’t, as yet, decided on which charity to support in 2010. I have now and, unsurprisingly, I’ll be raising money for Cancer Research.

You can donate online here and anything you can spare would be greatly appreciated.