Flickr photo of the day: iPod saves soldier’s life

Well, actually it is from a couple of days ago – but I found it today. Here is the caption:

My wife’s uncle works in a military hospital and told me about this. Its pretty amazing. Kevin Garrad (3rd Infantry Division) was on a street patrol in Iraq (Tikrit I believe) and as he rounded the corner of a building an armed (AK-47) insurgent came from the other side.

The two of them were within just a few feet of each other when they opened fire. The insurgent was killed and Kevin was hit in the left chest where his IPod was in his jacket pocket. It slowed the bullet down enough that it did not completely penetrate his body armor. Fortunately, Kevin suffered no wound.

Good days and bad days

Everyone has good and bad days at work. What I’m learning is that good days feel better and bad days feel worse when it is your company.

When the business is your idea there is no distancing yourself from it when someone doesn’t like the concept. And when you get a compliment you can’t help but take it to heart.

You learn a lot about yourself when you start a business. I think, like any challenge, it provides you some good opportunities to become a genuinely better person. I hope I can take some of them :).

PS – I wonder if this is the first in a series of contemplative posts written late at night after a long day at GigPark?

Our business cards arrived today

Completely insignificant, but it feels nice to have cards again.

They were designed by the talented Erica Godfrey and printed by WIZBOT, who did a great job.

Well, I wouldn’t use it.

When I joined my first advertising agency at the tender at of 18 I was given some great advice that has guided me through many situations in my career. It came from a seasoned copywriter named Carl. He said the definition of a professional in the advertising business is someone who can reach beyond the kinds of people they are familiar with and create ads that appeal to people that they would never normally come into contact with in their daily lives.

Carl said that when he first started out he wrote great ads for young men and lousy ads aimed at anyone else. The day he realized he’d become a good copywriter was the day he wrote a great ad aimed at teenage girls in the morning and a great one for dentures in the afternoon.

I think this is a fundamental insight into business. Just like creating ads, you become good at creating products when you can create something compelling for people who aren’t like you. I spent 4 years working as an Account Planner in London and this was something I needed to remind myself of every day. I had to stretch myself to get inside the heads of different types of people and understand how they see the world and why they make certain decisions. It’s a great exercise.

The other implication applies to when you are assessing the merits of something.

When I explain our business, GigPark, to people the first reaction I usually get is either:

1. Cool, I’d use that. I think you’ve got a great business there. Or sometimes…
2. Hmmm, I’m not sure I’d use that. I don’t think you have a business.

This is a completely natural reaction for most people. What surprises me though is how many people who’s job it is to asses the merits of a business react this way. Surely, these people would be better served by assessing which groups a product might be targeted at, understanding what motivates them and deducing how they might react. Will a person planning their wedding use the product, or a couple who have recently moved into a new neighborhood?

Having said that it is always the job of the person presenting an idea to make the audience do as little work as possible. If I’m explaining a concept and someone can’t easily understand who the product would appeal to and why, then that is my fault, not theirs. I’ll keep practicing!

Rent your games, DVDs and now parking spaces

Two cool companies I came across over the weekend (via Springwise). I guess you could add these to the Companies I Wish I’d Thought of Starting list, but I’m so wrapped up in GigPark I don’t have that reaction anymore ;).

1. I Let You

Basic premise: Set up your own NetFlix style store and rent your games and DVDs to anyone that wants them. The company aims to give us access to the estimated 10 billion DVDs in American households. They are in private beta mode at the moment but I love the simple idea behind I Let You. People have, and create, a lot of value and this seems like a great tool for letting you monitise some of it. Which leads me to the second company…

2. Peasy (Parking made easy)

Basic premise: An online marketplace for parking spaces. Again, all of us have certain things that are worth money, in this case a parking space, and Peasy is a tool to help us monitize it. The company is based in the UK and, from what I can see, only offers spaces in England at the moment. I expect they’ll export the idea to the US soon if they aren’t cloned by someone else first. The business model? – Peasy tasks 12% commission on every spot rented, which works out to a pretty penny in a place like London where a space can cost thousands of pounds per year.