Over the last year or so I iPhone has subtly moved from its already idolatrous position on my bedside table to actually just staying on my bed with me as I sleep.  How is that for intimate?

Aside from the potential health issues that we don’t fully understand yet I actually find it pretty embarrassing to say that I don’t want it to be out of reach for even 1 minute of my life!  Then in the morning, I check Facebook, Twitter and worst still Emails before even thinking, praying or looking out the window.

I think this is bad for my health, wellbeing, quality of sleep and social life, I am trying to change.

I just read 35% of us check our phones before getting out of bed in the morning so at least I am in good company

I think sucking in what is going on ‘out there’ on Facebook, Twitter and Emails before even thinking in the morning is a terrible way to set the vision for who I want to be that day, creating a reactive rather than proactive posture.

In my lucid waking up state is when I often think most creatively, peoples names pop into my head, or I remember a dream I had which leads to an Idea.  This all happens before I clothe myself with Logic, lifes limitations and most of all the outside impetus of what the rest of my world wants me to do on that day.

2 mornings ago I woke up after dreaming that Bill Gates had invested heavily into @giveyUK.

After being mortified when realising that it wasn’t actually real I actually thought “Well he is a philanthropist now and he is losing his old tech battle to Apple so why not try and get hold of him?” That Is what I am attempting, So Bill if you are reading I would love to talk about working together

Anyway the point is from the moment you get up and out of your room the world is going to bombard you hard with “stuff” you gotta do, buy and be so why trade in that pure creative 15 minutes in the morning for the sake of reading another flipping Groupon email?

Her integrity and dedication has encouraged and inspired me and she has advised us in our  understanding of the inner workings of the UK political system.

Myself, Anna and the @CubateMobile team are proud to share the first stage of our “Mobile for Development” Research Paper.

I am currently in Johannesburg about to speak at MobileWebAfrica.com and will be asking them the same question I am you now…..

If you have an understanding of developing economies please read the paper and feedback to me on era (at) me.com before we reconviene to draw our conclusions from the research.

I hope you enjoy it

Mobiles for Development – Research

This blew me away!

It is like no-one told this guy the rules of playing the guitar.

He has just looked at it and in a caveman type way just thought ‘how can I get sound (value) out of this thing.’

Looking holistically at the instrument he has created something beautiful that others confined by the convention or prior art would not have seen or been able to create.

He would have looked like an IDIOT when experimenting and practising! HAHA, but now he is an inspiring badass!

The world is changing FAST. Mobile, Social and Local are the dominant change agents and so many brands I work with are struggling to engage and monetise new and existing customers even though they still have strong brands.

I believe the key to change management is looking more holistically and objectively at the business assets and unlearning the platforms and tools and strategies that have been implemented until now.

This means getting back to basics, putting the relationship of the consumer and the brand in the centre and then TOTALLY rethinking the touch points used to engage and then monetise that customer.

If your brand doesn’t manage to decouple itself from the platform it is used to being delivered on then I fear for its survival over the next 5 years.

Some clean chirpy startup will probably come in and eat your lunch!

Thanks @DHS for showing me the music.

I don’t watch any TV but somehow I have become shamefully addicted to X factor.

I have been thinking about it and I think the real reason deep down is that I am jealous of the contestants.

Not that they are on TV etc but that they are taking a REAL risk on their musical dreams, dreams that run deep in them that they have held for years.

I am good at risk taking in other spaces but music is one I hold dear and thus scares me more to make myself vulnerable.

We all watch, read or listen to stuff to switch off which is pretty normal and probably restful and helping keep us balanced.

I guess the danger is if we live our dreams through others we are not actually writing or telling our story at all. 

I am challenging myself to go and write or practise after I watch X factor so I don’t just become a stuffed monkey!

PS. Misha B is obviously the winner

It was really fun and we designed GetGiving

I learnt about PayPal’s Adaptive Payments system in its Alpha release and realised that a Mobile Payments revolution was on the way that would change EVERYTHING.

With so many companies trying to become your mobile wallet it can be hard to know which basket to put your eggs in.

I decided 2 years ago that PayPal would probably win due these factors………

- They have Appox 100 Million users unlike finance startups.

- Their brand is built on primarily on commerce unlike Google.

- They are still young enough as a business to innovate. unlike the Banks.

- They are platform agnostic unlike Apple.

- They are approachable and have committed to empower developers to create the future through X.com

- There is no barrier to signing up for small businesses unlike PDQ services.

So I threw my eggs in their basket and have never looked back.

After Apple blocked our donation app. We went back to the drawing board and designed Givey which is a FAR deeper reaching product so I am pretty happy they forced us think harder to solve the Mobile Social Giving problem.

We also designed Mosho and TouchCart from the lessons we learnt hoping that our bet would pay off……

Thankfully PayPal  are beginning to make big strides into the real world.

With a REAL  pop up store in Manhattan to showcase their new innovations like the one John Lunn showed us the other day at the PayPal offices in London that brings a whole new meaning to the term window shopping

And then the icing on the cake was this morning when my good friend @LukeAndrews sent me a picture of his bill from Pizza Express from the other day, which no doubt he cashed in on the Taste London card

So PayPal is getting out of the building and out of eBay and this is only just the beginning.

My guess is to get on board or get out of the way.

I have made many terrible guesses about the future but I still back this one.  :-)

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