The A-Z of Inspiration & Motivation!

A – Aspire.

Never stopping aiming Higher and looking to the future, better yourself and work.

B - Be Positive

Focus on the positive outcomes, aspects of your career and your life. Positive things happen to positive people. Look for the best in every situation.

C – Confidence

Have confidence in yourself, knowledge and abilities. Confidence exudes Confidence!

D – Development

Never stop looking for ways to develop yourself both mentally and physically. It’s important to keep up to date in your career and personal life.

E – Excitement

Let yourself get excited about new projects, activities and events. This excitement will be passed on to others!

F – Feedback

Seek feedback for everything; this is the best way to motivate yourself into improving! Just be mindful to sift the constructive criticism from the pedantic comments.

G – Grab

Grab opportunities when they arise. Exciting things may not happen all that often, so given the opportunity, grab it with both hands!

H – Hard Work

Working hard is a motivator in itself, this will lead to higher productivity and drive through both work and life. Just remember to play as hard as you work!

I – Intuition

Trust your intuition, its often the best tool your have in decision making.

J – Join

Join in everything you can; you will gain encouragement, inspiration and motivation from others and their actions.

K – Keep Going!

Never stop looking, learning and starting again, things along the way will inspire and lead to new an exciting prospects.

L – Listen

Listen to what others are doing around you, listen to what people are saying, read journals, blogs and articles, their opinions may provoke and inspire you!

M – Modesty

Be modest. Don’t sell yourself short but a modest attitude will motivate others to believe in you and your work.

N – Never Say Never

Try new things; never dismiss an idea or notion as it may lead to bigger and better things.

O – Optimism

Be optimistic. Look for the good in all people and ideas before dismissing!

P – Patience

Be patient. Good things come to those who wait. Just make sure what you are waiting for is viable!

Q – Quotes

Read quotes and articles. This will lead to a deeper thinking!

‘Motivation is the art of getting people to do what you want them to do because they want to do it’ Dwight Eisenhower

R – Risk

Take risks, be brave and believe in yourself. Successful people fail before they succeed.

S – Spontaneity

Be spontaneous. Some of the most exciting and successful things come from spontaneous activity.

T – Time

Organise your time. Give yourself free time to have fun!

U – Understand

Take the time to understand what you’re undertaking, understand the ramifications, understand people and more than anything understand your motives and goals.

V – Viability

Make sure your ventures are viable. There is nothing more de-motivation than failure through lack of preparation and research. ‘Prepare to Fail if you fail to prepare’ Anonymous

W- Weakness

Identify your weaknesses, knowing where you can develop and improve can drive you to turn these weaknesses into strengths and positive attributes.

X – eXercise

Grasping at straws with the spelling, granted, but exercise is very motivational none the less. Find something active that you enjoy and run with it so to speak. This will help to keep a healthy mind and body!

Y – You

You have to be able to use the tools to motivate yourself to achieve all that is attainable and don’t forget to be yourself!

Z – Zest

Embrace your zest for life; think positive and positive things will happen!

iBetter?

Yesterday Apple announced its latest software update. The revision will include over 100 new features and benefits which will enable programmers and developers to create new apps for iPhone users. Some of the features promising benefit the end user will be MMS messaging, cut, copy and paste functions, the ability to sync Google Calendar with your iPhone, Bluetooth connections to other iPhone users, Push notification features, extra search functions, plus many many more.
I for one am waiting with breath that in baited, as an iPhone user, I think this is a great move for Apple. It will help to keep the existing customers and also attract new customer to convert to apple technology.

With critics labeling it as a ‘great gadget but a bad phone’, it is more important that ever for Apple to update the iPhone. The current restraints on the iPhone have been (for myself at least) very frustrating, with even the most standard of functions unavailable i.e. MMS messaging. With the advanced technology of apple devices and being market leaders in their field, there seems no logical reason for iPhones not to possess this level of functionality. Have Apple been purposely holding back on these in order create the hype and media coverage that they are obviously getting, and of which will only increase leading up to the official launch of the update?? I believe that this could be the case, and in my opinion a bold move, but one that has and will continue to pay off for them as the popularity and brand strength of Apple and the iPhone go from strength to strength. Philip Schiller, Apple's SVP of worldwide product marketing, has been quoted as saying ‘The changes would keep the iPhone years ahead of its rivals.’ I think that this statement is well founded, as long as Apple and the app developers keep on their toes!!

With ‘Jailbreaking’ technology becoming more widely available to users, it is increasingly important for Apple to keep ahead of the game, the new 3.0 update will give Apple the advantage and eliminate the need for most illegal ‘jailbreaks’. The increased availabilities of basic functionality, along with new and existing features apple will defiantly have competitive advantage and offer a near perfect range!! (In my bias opinion anyway).

The Strategy

I have begun to write my new marketing strategy today. Sales are on the decline (as they are for most people) and for the first time in company history people are starting to panic!

We are more than half way through the month and there have been no sales what so ever so far. People are starting to realise that something needs to be done to pull in new business - enter me! On closer analysis of the sales techniques that have been used in the past I immediately spotted huge gaps in the market and in procedures. I have rushed together a core marketing plan and strategy (which I will need to heavily expand on over the coming week) and was amazed at people reactions to the fact that half of the techniques I suggested had never even been thought of.

Writing the strategy is going to be a LOT of work. There has been no research, gap analysis, customer information, competitor profiling or geographic work done what so ever. I am actually enjoying to all the nitty gritty parts of the plan and am even looking forward to presenting this to the MD and starting off the implementation plan!

YouTube Cull & The Mixed View

I can understand the mixed opinion of the recent YouTube cleanup. On the request of more royalties being paid the songwriters and artists for videos submitted by YouTube users, Google have removed a large number of ‘Premium Music videos’ and privately made video including mainstream music. This decision came in response to PRS, who collect royalties for artists, asking Google pay charges to songwriters and composers. They could not come to any fixed deal, with Google calling PRS’s request as ‘too Prohibitive’ . In response to the removal bid Google have made, UK music has labelled the company as being ‘exploitative’.

I am in very mixed opinions on this issue, on one hand I agree that songwriters and composers are rightfully entitled to royalties when their music is used. The music business is seeing a decline as it stands, with an increase of illegal downloading and file sharing sites popping up all over the net, I can understand the perceived importance of demands made by the industry body. Refusal to pay sent out a message to the music industry that they do not agree with charges but the main sufferers of this exercise are the YouTube users…. Without the permissions of official music videos and tracks, the great success and usage of the site will fall dramatically, meaning a decrease in profits for the owners. The use of these tracks and videos are again a mixed bag, It could be seen as free advertising for the artists/ record companies etc, as people can review songs with removing them from the site, in this sense I disagree with UK Music for their actions.

So what is the answer? Do Google pay the charges laid out and risk having to charge users for the service or should UK Music re-evaluate their demands and come to an agreement with Google?