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The Problem With Keeping A Secret

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Nobody knows about it. The successful people who have great ideas for products aren’t promoting their products when they’re up for sale. Those people are promoting their products months or even years before the product even comes out.

This actually allows people to know about the product. When some people know about the product, they tell their friends, and more people get the message. Soon, you already have a giant fan base waiting to buy your product, and you haven’t even put it up for sale yet.

Apple gets so many sales for all of their new devices. One of the reasons they get all of those sales is because we know about the devices well in advance. Months before the actual device comes out, everyone knows what the device is and what it does. The iPhone 5S was trending on Twitter well before it was actually released.

Apple doesn’t make the release dates of their devices a secret. Everyone knows when the next big thing from Apple is coming out. If the next iPhone came out at 8 p.m, everyone would be on their computer at 7:59 p.m ready to click the “Buy Now” button somewhere on Apple’s website.

 

Apple’s New Commercials Are Too Long

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Most of the commercials for Apple are about 30 seconds long with few words. Those standards were consistently met with each commercial.

The new commercials for the iPhone 5 breaks the consistency. The new commercials is a minute long, and there are almost 20 words said in those commercials. The word count may not be a dramatic change, but going from about 30 seconds to an entire minute is a dramatic change. It’s similar to me (or another blogger) publishing 5 blog posts at the same time. It breaks the consistency. Some of the most passionate readers may read all 5 blog posts in one sitting, but most readers won’t read 3 of those blog posts.

The old commercials for Apple’s iPhone 5 were 30 seconds or so. I was one of the many who enjoyed the short but meaningful commercials about the iPhone 5. They were nice, sweet, short, and to the point. It doesn’t take long to figure out Apple is promoting the iPhone 5 in their latest commercial (or any for that matter). It may take 10 seconds at most for someone to figure out Apple is promoting their iPhone 5.

However, the new commercials simply drags on. The new commercials aren’t the 30 second short and to the point commercials. They each last an entire minute or so to the point where I want to stop looking at how more people are using their iPhones to take pictures (or something else) than any other camera. Some people probably mute the commercial or turn off the TV before they even hear the words which are essential to the commercial.

Breaking consistency is one thing. Making something simply drag on too long is another. Both acting together is horrendous. I don’t like Apple’s new commercials. What are your thoughts about their new commercials?

Better Than Expected

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Some things are expected. A person who pays for coaching expects to be coached. A person who pays for someone to mow their lawn expects their lawn to be mowed efficiently. Those are expectations.

When the coach in that session decides to give a free book to you, that’s better than expected. In order to be effective, having an extra surprise will help you out a lot. This is the concept of over delivering which is important for your business.

The problem for most people is that they give everything away. We knew everything there was to know about the iPhone 5 before it was sold. We knew the price before we paid. Those are expectations, but these people aren’t over delivering.

They’re just delivering. The iPhone 5 is an incredible iPhone (as they all are), but people are quick to say that the only difference is a bigger screen which we all knew about. Maybe a surprise could be more space on the phone, applications getting installed as soon as you press the install button with no hassle.

Apple will continue to succeed for a long time because they create quality products. For most products, it is very difficult to have a surprise. For Apple, the media revolving around the iPhone 5 could have been the reason there weren’t any special surprises.

The advantage of being an entrepreneur with your own business is that you can easily have surprises. If you coach someone and receive $50, surprise the person you coached by giving them one of your free books (or something like that). You still get a profit, that person is happy because you gave them a surprise (over delivering), and in this case, the person would read your book. They’re even more likely to remember who you are.

The surprises and extras you hand out will only result in one giant surprise waiting to be given out to you. Free is better, but only for the consumer. If you can give someone a product for free while making a profit (similar to the coaching session), that is your gold mine. Exceed expectation!

Two Great Quotes From Steve Jobs

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With the Steve Jobs movie coming out in August, I decided to look at some of Steve Jobs’ inspirational quotes. These were the two that I liked the most.

 

“Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle.”

 

“I didn’t see it then, but it turned out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything. It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life.[…] It was awful tasting medicine, but I guess the patient needed it. Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick. Don’t lose faith.”

Steve Jobs loved what he did, and he was able to make a comeback when Apple fired him. That takes a lot of talent. The message in both of his inspirational quotes are accurate.

We all work for a long time. Some people work more than others, but working will take up a lot of time. We have the option to enjoy what we do or grunt as we work. Choosing something to work on that you like will result in you having fun with your work.

People with bad jobs go through the days of work and talk about their bad job with other people. That is not the right way to live. We only live once. In fact, the thought of death motivated Steve Jobs to do more work and make an impact on the world.

There aren’t many people who like getting fired from their company. Getting fired from the company you started is a horrible punishment that Steve Jobs had to endure. Sometimes we will have to step out of our comfort zone. Everything will start to look different.

Steve Jobs didn’t lose his faith. He created Pixar which Disney later bought for $7.4 billion. Steve Jobs also regained position as Apple’s CEO. He lead the company from near bankruptcy to billions.

Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick. When that happens, just get up and continue.

Expect The Unexpected

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When people are constant, we keep on expecting that same consistency. If someone doesn’t do enough work for a long period of time, we can expect that person to continue in his or her path. If there are no thunderstorms for an entire week, we can expect that there won’t be another thunderstorm the next day.

Sometimes, you should expect the unexpected. The thunderstorm may happen. The unproductive person may go from bust to superstar.

The porcupine can float on water, and Apple can go from near bankruptcy to a multibillion dollar company.

Turning Your Fears Into Ideas That Lead To Growth

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Apple has become a powerful company because it was able to create a lot of great products and sell them. There are many devices Apple has sold such as the iPhone, Mac, iPad, a mouse for the Mac, and others as well.

There are a lot of things you can say about the devices Apple produces such as reliable, fast, easy to use, or incredible. I use 2 devices I got from Apple every day (my iPhone 4S and Mac Book Pro). However, when people describe Apple’s products, few will say something about the number of buttons.

The iPhone has only 1 button. The iPad has only 1 button. The Mac has a very small power button at the corner. The mouse has only 1 button as well. Apple’s competitors had buttons all over their devices, so why did Apple do things differently?

Having less buttons in my opinion allows me to do more on my Apple devices. I am able to find the exact button I am looking for since there aren’t many buttons to choose from. This could have been the reason why Apple avoided using a lot of buttons, but after doing some research on Steve Jobs, I figured out the answer.

Steve Jobs had button phobia. He couldn’t stand buttons. If you look up pictures of him doing a Keynote presentation about the newest Apple products, you won’t find any buttons on his shirt. As the CEO of Apple, his fear of buttons made an impact on the designs of Apple products.

Apple products have few buttons, but that doesn’t mean Apple’s devices aren’t useful. I use them every day, and I never have to worry about finding the right button to click.

Steve Jobs had a fear of buttons, and one of the many reasons Apple is a thriving company is because there aren’t many buttons on their devices. If Steve Jobs did not have a fear of buttons, more buttons would have probably been added to Apple devices.