Blockchain and personal data — my journey continues...

I can't help but smile about the journey that has brought me to Blockchain.

It actually started with social media and a fundamental core concern I had with it — I recall times I would get melodramatic and say, "People went to war and died for our freedoms and privacy, and we are just give it away on social media" (all rather ironic considering I'm in marketing). It's not that I didn't have a LinkedIn and Facebook page, I just never used them (not a single picture) — I was hell bent on holding onto my privacy despite myself.

One day I happened to hear Gary Vaynerchuk say, "Privacy is dead"; he was frank, compelling, and made a good argument. As I reassessed my position, I recognized he was right and that nothing was served by me spouting a conviction that wasn't real, that no one cared about, and had me stumbling backwards into "irrelevance". With the realization that at the very best I could try to control my data and privacy, I set about building a narrative for myself, reviewed which social media channels I would use, and went about developing my skills. Now I sit with a website, a couple of primary social media channels, and a couple of secondary ones for fun and learning. All of them used with the knowledge that my information can go everywhere and anywhere — with some consolation I can always be found in a sharp black suit. 

Though my blogging and social media efforts I was introduced to a new affinity network called beBee which offered an open and inviting community with no networking barriers or algorithms that influenced (or restricted) my reach. It's a great environment to share information, get constructive feedback, and build impactful relationships. Fast forward a little and I was talking to someone trying to raise money who said, "If the investment pitch doesn't include the word marijuana or Blockchain no one is interested"... a week later beBee entered into an agreement with a Blockchain company called Profede. Their pitch was to bring value (and security) to professional data by building beBee off of the blockchain.   

beBee is a smart entrepreneurial company so the question for me was what do they know that I don't? I jumped right in to understand Blockchain, what it can do, and can not do — and although I am only scratching the surface regarding Blockchain, I do see where beBee and Profede want to go with respect to building value for our professional data. I can't help think to myself that maybe this will all make me feel a little bit better about the compromise I made with privacy and social media a while back.

At this point I've focused my energy on social media and Blochchain, and I suppose I will try to make it an area of expertise in the big discussion that is Blockchain. In the mean time, I will keep doing my homework, set up a "myetherwallet", set up an account with the coin exchange QuadrigaCX, and with get involved with the Profede ICO. I see this as a real solution to a real problem, and although beBee and Profede aren't the only companies working on this, I do like what they've done so far.

And if by luck or universal design, as I was writing this I could not help but overhear two people discuss Facebook and their concerns about all of that private data that was released.

It has been an interesting journey so far...

iamgpe

PS — I still don't have a picture on my Facebook page and only one friend... (but it's a really good friend).

As a reminder — your agenda isn't necessarily everyone else's...

The world of late has reminded me of a "coachable moment" I offered up a lifetime ago... or at least it feels like a lifetime ago.

He stuck his head into my office with concern written all over his face; with all decorum set aside, he needed me to look at an email he just sent and wanted my feedback asap — he had a deliverable that was due.

Putting aside my own deliverable, I took advantage of this coachable moment and simply said, "You know, your poor planning and your urgent agenda is not my agenda". I then went on to offer a perspective on planning, time management and my thoughts on how to engage support. I told him I would read his email as soon as I could but he'd have to be patient. I then politely kicked him out of my office because I had a deadline (plus something else on my to-do list).

This "coachable moment" covers many areas as I alluded to, but recent events have me focusing on patience and the truism — "your agenda isn't necessarily everyone else's". The patience to wait is something evaporating by the minute with this app rich world but the truism is alive and well (maybe more than ever). Even when agendas do align, there are always the influencers that are Murphy's best friends (timing, a bigger boss, mother-nature, and the randomness of the universe) — the chances of you waiting are much greater than you not waiting.

There is a need to become comfortable with being patient, and more importantly, ensure you are being productively patient.

In other words, use this waiting time to be productive with other things (particularly something new). Of course you will use some of this time to influence what you are waiting for but in most cases that doesn't take more than a half hour — so do others things. Yes you are waiting for the "phone to ring", but you are also investigating a new business venture, taking a course, writing a blog, or networking to build your opportunity funnel. Being productively patient will have you increasing the number of agendas that you have on the go and developing out the number of things you need to be patient with. Because the more things you have on the go, the greater the chance the phone will ring.

Murphy will probably have them all ring at the same time.

iamgpe

Changing the narrative...

A recent event has had me reflecting and wondering if it all could have played out any differently — alas, I think I simply had no choice but to change the narrative, and I suppose I had to do it in a dramatic way.

Have you ever come around the corner to find yourself faced with "mischief" that suddenly increases your immediate possibilities exponentially? That literally happened to me as I rounded the bend with my pizza dinner in hand. This particular "mischief"  came in the form of three people, who moments before I passed them, had thrown something at a passing taxi. The taunts for pizza soon followed, and shortly after that the stomping of feet as if they were chasing me — an annoying but harmless narrative.

That was until one of them ran up behind me and jumped in front of me screaming. I then added my own narrative — and punched him in the head.

It was more of a symbolic punch because I had two work-bags over my shoulder and a pizza in one hand. Looking shocked he then screamed, "You hit me". After an exchange of bad punches and the death of my pizza, a Samaritan arrived and deescalated the situation. After some shouting I headed home with the proposition of having to make dinner.

I can still hear one of them saying, "We were just trying to scare him".

I will admit this post is somewhat cathartic but there is another important consideration aside from describing a very poor street fight.  As pointed out, their narrative was to cause "mischief" and "scare" people, and that narrative was only going to change if something happened that did not align (or feed) their story (and shift the paradigm). The narrative shifted from hassling a guy with a pizza to dealing with a poor street fight (and how to get out of it). The Samaritan offered that opportunity (with little resistance), and gave us a new narrative to continue the day.

All of this became a reminder that there are times that if you want to change a narrative, you really have to change the narrative... and sometimes pizzas do get hurt.

iamgpe

PS — I'm not advocating violence, but it's never a good idea to attack someone from behind.