(via Hyeonseo Lee: My escape from North Korea | Video on TED.com)
This is North Korea. It’s not about a nuclear armament or Dennis Rodman, it’s simply about millions of people starving to death because a dictator does nothing and the world lets it continue. This is spreading the truth and demanding the world take action.
If you hate your iPhone/Android data plan, you should read this WSJ profile on Masayoshi Son, the dude who just bought Sprint, and cross your fingers.
I can’t come up with a good comparison for Masayoshi Son and maybe it’s just since he might be entirely in his own league so he certainly makes it easy to root for him. Just look at what you’re paying for text messages and you have to imagine he’s thinking it’s a huge opportunity.
Samsung shipped a stunning 57M smartphones in Q3 — twice as many as Apple | VentureBeat (via fred-wilson)
Regardless of how you feel about Samsung’s products vs. Apple’s, Samsung’s ability to pull out of a multi-horse race and make it Samsung vs. Apple is a staggering achievement.
It’s unclear how much longer this status quo will hold but right now, it’s all eyes on Apple and Samsung. Also, Samsung’s all out advertising assault currently dominating every medium easily eclipses the first Droid Does campaign and is unlike anything I’ve ever seen. Have you seen anyone unaware of a Galaxy S3?
(via fred-wilson)
Last week, I resigned to go co-found a startup that tackles local search. We believe that it’s done badly and we intend to do better. We will bootstrap, live on savings for a bit and build prototypes that hopefully can attract angel investors while treading above a real and striking possibility that we will fail.
About a year and half ago, I was asked to lead two things at Hill Holliday; the mobile practice and the emerging media practice in gaming. Last week, we won Adweek’s 2012 Media Plan of the Year for Branded Entertainment (a social gaming integration) and it spectacularly complemented our win last year for Adweek’s 2011 Media Plan of the Year for Mobile. While winning one national award is tough, the same team winning back-to-back across different categories is unprecedented.
But despite winning a second Media Plan of the Year, I also couldn’t get promoted and I now realize that even if I did, it wouldn’t have changed anything. I wouldn’t be richer, or smarter or better off, I just would have continued the same course for another round.
We are in the middle of a revolution with how we work, how we think, how we communicate and in a few years, what we did in the past will be unrecognizable. Like what the first telephone or the first television set meant to society; social media, the iPad, cloud computing, big-data and smartphones are all just the beginning. I am wildly optimistic about this future and I have always believed that the future was filled with opportunities to do things that might have seemed impossible in the past.
Our time is limited and my bitter disappointment has been a moment of clairvoyance that I have the best opportunity to escape from the known possibilities like the next promotion, the bigger office and more awards for something infinite and unknown. Jumping straight into the unforeseen let’s you dream that not only anything is potentially possible but literally you believe in your soul that anything can be possible. At this point you start sprinting into the unknown because it’s all you want to taste, breathe and smell and nothing you’ve ever been familiar with in your life feels important at all.
I do not know whether I will succeed or fail but I intend on obsessing on never settling since the possibilities are spectacularly unlimited. If you’re reading this and you feel unsettled with your finite possibilities, I suggest shaking things up.
Addendum 8/21
It was not my intention to get press for what I wrote (BI, MediaPost) nor was it my intention to embarrass anyone. I write things here to clarify my thoughts and express with conviction for the things I personally believe in. When I share my personal disappointments here, it’s because I think being candid is helpful and maybe someone in a similar situation can do better.
Fun facts:
— When I meant I was leading the mobile practice & emerging media practice in gaming at Hill Holliday and that it was unprecedented for a team to win back to back, I left out that I was a team of one. I was fortunate to work across lots of talented different groups within the agency but my equation was based on national prestige in proportion to resources. Without a doubt, it was an incredibly entrepreneurial experience.
— I’m thrilled Business Insider, the proud publication behind 50 sexiest ad-execs (I’m not on this list?!), could put together a story using the very best of what I’ve published on social media over the years. I am reminded that I have not had any Hello Kitty candy in years.
— After I resigned & gave my two week notice, and well before I had written anything that the press could even read, I was immediately cut off. This has compounded my disappointment but I know now exactly what kind of culture matters to build a great & interesting company.
— I’ve gotten dozens and dozens of incredibly supportive and inspiring emails, tweets, calls, messages, txts and more. I’ll say it again, if you feel like you’re dying a little everyday then you have a responsibility to yourself to shake it up. Hit me up anytime and I’ll convince you. Or be docile with your happiness and let me know how that goes.
What’s the single most valuable lesson you’ve learned in your professional life? - Quora
Quite an insightful answer.
In the advertising world, June means thinking about what will happen in the future. Our clients (big brands) essentially pay my salary to think about what’s coming next and come up with a strategy for what to do about it. So I was asked to come up with my vision of what will happen in the next 18 months and where we’ll be at the end of 2013. The strategy part is different for all our clients and confidential so that won’t be very public.
Instead of coming up with quotes and stats projecting where the numbers are predicted to go, I made more of a qualitative POV to facilitate a bit more of a thought provking discussion and place my own personal bets as to where I think things will be. I think it’s absolutely necessary to declare what you believe or else you stand for nothing.
If I were a VC this is what I would bet on, if I were a CEO or CMO this is where I would sprint towards and if I were making a startup then this is exactly where I’d focus on.
This is also mostly a list since this is how I sort my thoughts before I make this into a shiny presentation. The presentation of course would be backed up with dozens of stats but that’s the easier part. I’d love any feedback too: @johnnywon.
—
Media consumption that used to be thick will become very, very wide
Personal computing is changing from everything we’ve ever experienced
A Dramatic Disruption is Inevitable
Cars are essentially becoming a Smartphone Accessory
The Mobile Wallet will explode in usage
Sharing things socially will be almost entirely on smartphones
Everyone who wants to be social is already social
Consumption of video on mobile devices will eclipse all other devices
—
The next 18 months are going to get crazy. Everything as we know it will change.
I honestly thought this would be a bullshit post but I was totally wrong.
Marketing+APIs+Doing it
This really is a great case study and without a doubt, marketers suck at understanding how to promote through APIs.
Things To Consider Before Saying “I Do” To Investors | TechCrunch
Nice acronym to keep memorized.
Quite a good opinion piece in the New York Times about the day after North Korea falls. The question of when North Korea falls is insignificant when rebuilding North Korea will take decades upon decades. Shin Dong-hyuk’s “Escame from Camp 14” only touches upon the incredibly alien existence of North Korea.
