“Mobile security is treated like safety in the early days of the automobile.  Nobody thought about seat belts or air bags as long as every generation of cars was faster and cooler than the last one.”

     –     Karsten Nohl, founder, Security Research Labs (Berlin, Germany) – quoted in Bloomberg BusinessWeek feature on Mobile Security

A couple random thoughts on technology, our kids and these times in which we live…

There is no such thing as on-line privacy and you can’t trust anyone, at least not to interpret your intent.

According to the article cited above, 23% of mobile devices are exposed to security attacks in the first 30-days they’re activated, and “free” wi-fi hotspots are often the culprits.  That’s pretty much one out of four.  In the first 30 days!

Also, a schoolteacher brilliantly posted a “private snapchat photo” of herself holding a sign saying, effectively, “share this photo as broadly as you can so I can teach my students a lesson about privacy.”  By the time it got to me on Facebook, it had been shared several thousand times.

There is no such thing as on-line privacy, and you can’t trust anyone, at least not to interpret your intent.

Suppose I text my buddy Lance and say that our mutual pal Chris is “a dope,” a term that we use for each other pretty much interchangeably.  Suppose Lance gets mad at me and decides to teach me a lesson.  A cut here, a paste here and and edit there, and my 28-year friend Chris might not understand that the context was originally very much within the bounds of our 28-year friendship.

Extreme example?  Perhaps, until you consider it from the worldview of a tween or teen or any other young person with a device (all of them), but little perspective (again, all of them).

If our job is to make a difference for the next generation, teaching these lessons — something our parents could have never imagined — becomes table stakes in the game of life.

There is no such thing as on-line privacy, and you can’t trust anyone, at least not to interpret your intent.

“People do not change when they see the light.  They change when they feel the heat.”

–     Freda Lewis-Hall, EVP and Chief Medical Officer, Pfizer (quoted in Bloomberg BusinessWeek’s “How Did I Get Here?”)

As my old friend, Dr. Tom Graf often said, “Change will only occur when the fear of change is overcome by the pain of remaining the same.”  Seems to me like that’s “the heat” Mrs. Lewis-Hall refers to above.

The pain of remaining the same.

One way to make a difference is to lead change before the heat gets too hot and the pain gets too great.

“Concentration is a fine antidote to anxiety.”

     –     Jack Nicklaus, STILL the best ever to play golf, and now Congressional Gold Medal Recipient

The USGA Calendar on the wall says Wednesday is April’s genesis, and that means The Masters is merely days away.

But that’s not why today’s post is about Jack Nicklaus.  Candidly, not many days go by that I don’t think about Jack.  The impact the “Golden Bear” has had on golf, business (and not just the business of golf), fatherhood, husband-ing, and standing for something.

If Jack had an early tee-time on Thursday, he’d fly home for Thursday dinner and return on Friday for his afternoon round — one more night at home with Barbara and the kids.

If someone asked Jack a question, the only person within earshot of the answer who could be disappointed was someone looking for cliches.  Jack has ideas and opinions, and, when asked, he shares them, without judgment or malice toward those who take different positions.

I don’t particularly like playing most of his golf courses, but I love knowing the thought process that went in to developing them, based on his consistency, commitment and passion for his work.

More than anything else, though, this quote — concentration over anxiety — captures why Jack Nicklaus inspires, motivates and impresses me.  On those days when anxiety creeps in, concentration is our key to making a difference.

“…and maybe someday we will find that it wasn’t really wasted time.”

–     Lyric from The Eagles’ “Wasted Time”

Lessons learned in the last couple days…

A cancelled flight is not the end of the world.

An hour-and-thirty-five minute, 14-mile commute to your daughter’s high school is not the end of the world.

A conference call that starts :20 late and runs :15 long is not the end of the world.

A couple important meetings postponed for a couple weeks is not the end of the world.

Yet, we hear it over and over again.  “Time management.”  “Take control of your time.”  “Don’t waste your time!”  “If only I had more time!” “It’s about time!“

Maybe it’s just time.  And maybe if we worried less about managing it and controlling it, we’d use it better.

It’s not the end of the world.

Or, if I’m wrong, then another lyric comes to mind, this one from R.E.M. “It’s the end of the world as we know it, and I feel fine!”

“If you need me while I’m on vacation, I may not need you when I get back.”

     –     Dennis Kuester, Chairman & CEO M & I Corporation, friend and mentor, M & I Corporation 

It was delivered SLIGHTLY tongue in cheek, but the point is a good one.  Dennis was a mentor and is a friend of mine, and he’s not an unreasonable “hard nose” by any stretch.  This was simply his way of saying, “I trust (and pay) you to make decisions, so do it.  I’m going to go re-charge, and I can’t really do that if I’m getting pinged about work all the time.”

He’s on to something.  How many of us check e-mail every day when we’re “off?”  How many of us run through voice-mail, “just so we won’t be buried when you get back…”?

Here’s my unsolicited advice.  When you’re away…..be AWAY, which will be my status from now until March 23rd!  Some say it’s risky to suspend a daily blog for ten days.  That’s a risk I am willing to take — focus on family, Disney and the beach, with no work whatsoever!  Such-WEET!

“Your furtherance was really, really good, but your towardance was really, really bad!”

–     Proclamation from the regulars at North Shore Country Club in Mequon, WI if your shot was the right distance but the wrong direction

Business is about furtherance and towardance, too.

It doesn’t matter how far we go if we’re going the wrong way.

A 168-yard par three doesn’t require a 168-yard shot to make a hole-in-one.  It requires a specific 168-yard shot; one that ends up exactly where the hole is.

Speed, force, power, will.  All of them are important in business, but then we’ve all seen the person in a meeting, presentation or conversation — with their speed, force, power and will all pointed in the wrong direction.  It frustrates everyone, or at least it should.

If you’re not diggin’ the golf analogy, think about a boat.  Throttle and compass.  If you’re boat is going really fast the wrong way, you end up lost.

No boat?  Think about a vacation.  One you’ve saved for, dreamed about, booked a year in advance and now you’re setting out for The Grand Canyon, ready to drive 75 mph all the way there.  Only you’re going towards El Paso, TX.

In business, the furtherance, speed, force, power, will, throttle — they all have their place and time.

But only if the compass is set on the desired destination.  Only if our towardance is really, really good.

“There’s no such thing as work – life balance.  There are work – life choices, and you make them, and they have consequences.”

–     Jack Welch, speaker, author and long-time CEO of General Electric

After nearly fifteen years of struggling with the issue of balance, now I discover that, according to Welch, the struggle comes from chasing the unattainable.  It might be potato / potatho (or tomato / tomahto, for that matter), but Welch’s point is candidly a realistic angle from which to approach the topic.  Balance involves counter-weights, and on either side of the “scales” are simply decisions.  And the decisions we have to make regarding what portion of life gets consumed by our work are not probably as complex as we want to believe they are.

It comes down to deciding, and whether we buy in to complexity or simplicity, what will be the things upon which we base our decisions?

Here’s one formula that seems to work.  For me.  Even though I lose sight of it too often…

If it’s Faith, it goes first.

If it’s family, it goes second, unless Faith is not at issue, and then family goes first.

If it’s financial, it stacks up somewhere after those two.

I’m not saying that’s how you should rank them.  I’m saying it’s how I should — and when I am feeling out of balance the issue’s not whether balance is attainable or not, it’s that the consequences of my decisions, and their dishonoring of my formula are eating at me.

“The new American Dream…the one markets around the world are embracing as fast as they can, is this:  Be remarkable.  Be generous.  Create art.  Make judgment calls.  Connect people and ideas…and we have no choice but to reward you.”

–     Seth Godin, in his indispensable 2010 book, Linchpin

Look, I’ve posted on it before, so sorry to be repetitive, for you long-timers.  That said, ever since I first met him about 14 years ago, Seth Godin has made.  Me.  Better.  And he will, you, too, if you’ll “get to know him.”

An absolute master of common sense and market application thereof, Seth sees the same things that most of us see, he just either has better filters or fewer filters or he knows how to use his filters more better.  (“More better” is a technical term.)

So, five years later, the advice above, which has played out so accurately, still stands.

Be remarkable.  Get remarked upon.  Do something that gets mentioned at the dinner table tonight.

Be generous.  Give time.  Give love.  Give ideas.  Give an open ear.  Give money.  Give hugs.  Give smiles.

Create art.  Every day that we do, accomplish or say something that gets played over again in the mind of someone we care about is a day that we’ve created art.  And when we apply this principle to commerce, zeroes get added, to the left of the decimal.

Make judgment calls!  This is where a difference gets made.  Those filters?  They’re trying to water down or minimize our judgment.  Judgment comes from wisdom.  Judgment speaks fluent instinct.  Judgment separates the difference makers from the rest.

Connect people and ideas.  Forward this link.  Disagree with this post.  Engage in a discussion about whether you think I, or Seth, are full of ______, or if we’re on to something.  Follow someone you’ve heard about on Twitter.  Buy and read a book, and promise to send three notes to people about it once you’ve finished.  I could go on and on, and thankfully, I won’t.

But Linchpins, Difference Makers — we all ought to internalize this not-so-new-but-still-so-true American Dream — the world still has no choice but to reward us.

“The difference that any of us will ultimately make in the world is equivalent to our throwing a stone in to the sea.  Science tells us that because the stone is lying on the bottom, the level of the water must have risen, but there is no way to measure it.  We must take it on faith.”

–     Gregg Levoy, in Callings; Finding and Following an Authentic Life

We still have to throw the stones, though.

The problem with callings is that they’re harder to measure in finite terms — sometimes the paycheck doesn’t correspond and sometimes the benefit is less evident.  In a job, a raise is a raise and a promotion is one of the best things your boss can do for you.

In a calling, the Boss carries an upper case “B,” and He’s already done the best thing He can do for you.

So, by definition, callings are less about the material pursuits and the ego-centric rewards that drive most of our media and social commentary.

“Whoa, did you see Jane’s new BMW?  She got a big promotion at work,” says the whole neighborhood.

“Holy cow!  Did you see that smile on Steve’s face?  He helped someone accomplish something today they didn’t believe they could ever do,” said no one.  Ever.

So, why then, do we choose the Beemer over the smile?  Why then do we seek validation from others — bosses, spouses, peers, competitors — when validation comes from our calling?

Maybe it’s because we’ve lost sight of the stone we threw.  The stones we throw.  The ones on the bottom of the sea, raising the water level.

“Tradition has it that our gifts and our talents are the most likely places to find callings, which is largely true, but not always.”

–     Gregg Levoy, in his book, Callings; Finding and Following an Authentic Life

Levoy goes on to tell the story of Mark Dubois, who leads the charge to try to save the Stanislaus River in Northern California.  And, because it was a calling, the lengths he went to were intensely personal, passionate and at least for several years, successful.  (You get a feel for it by clicking the link).

This idea of pursuing a calling rather than a career, a cause rather than a job is intensely personal, and it’s not for everyone.  On February 24th, the Wall Street Journal ran a story by Rachel Feintzig, titled “I Don’t Have A Job.  I Have A Higher Calling.”  The sub-headline was “some employees balk…” at the idea of their jobs being evangelized as a part of the “greater good.”

Whether or not we balk at the idea or not, it seems that the magic occurs when the two — our jobs and our callings — are most closely aligned.

If something is off — out of synch — in our workaday lives, a worthwhile endeavor might be to consider whether we have a calling, and if we do, what it might be.

I’m not suggesting we chain ourselves to a rock as the river rises towards us, like Mark Dubois did.  Just that we might want to spend more time doing something that would make us consider it, if ever we were faced with the choice.