day 843: There Should Be An App For This - 2012

"Publish his glorious deeds among the nations. Tell everyone about the amazing things he does."


I am off this morning to South by Southwest Interactive (SXSW) in Austin, TX. This interactive festival has established itself as the premier launching pad of interactive technology start-ups so we will see what will come out of this year. With that said, it made sense for me to revise something from 2011 for today.


"There should be an 'App' for this." Thirty six months ago, this was becoming a popular saying as people played with their iphones and thought about their soon to arrive ipads. three years later, as we have our ipad 1 & 2 and wait on our ipad 3 and we have upgraded our iphones to newest generation, we say less often, "there should be an App for this" because today, there seems to be just about an "App" for everything so we say more often, "there is an App for that." In actuality, it's probably about a few hundred thousand Apps that have been created for the Apple platform and then a fraction of that many for the Android operating system. Still, it now seems that there is an App for about anything, other than some of the more mundane things we may still do at work. But, watch out, those are coming soon. It may well be soon that an ipad for work becomes standard issue. As all of these innovations continue to occur it is important that we stay on top of what is new and that we understand what is coming next. To be most competitive in our field or industry, we have to be ahead of the competition and in touch with the next generation of talent that walks through our doors. To not be in touch with the future is to live in the past. There is no App for telling and understanding the future. That is on us to do.

An App is also a publishing tool that allows a developer and innovator to share his/her creation across the users of a platform and spread this software virally through sharing it with their social graph. Technology is the tool for evangelizing a resource, tool, service, etc. If you think about it, God was ultimately the first App developer in that He created all of us to be the spreaders of His Good News. We are God's Apps and as we are told in in 1 Chronicles, we are to be the publishers of his glory. Think about this today and know that God is looking at us and saying in all of the situations that we are given and face, "Here is my app for this."


Reference: 1 Chronicles 16:24 (New Living Testament)

day 732: Clean Energy

“Now Saul was afraid of David, because the Lord was with him, but had departed from Saul... And David behaved wisely in all his ways, and the Lord was with him. Therefore, when Saul saw that he behaved very wisely, he was afraid of him”

Every business has a certain "energy" about them that we could call the mixture of their reputation, brand appeal, and consumer confidence. Those that are at the top of the heap are usually also the companies that we consider, "clean". That is that they provide high quality products or services, are ethical, treat their employees well, have good taste, and don't engage in activities that embarrass or create negative news about them. Ironically, these are also the companies that the media and other companies are always looking for ways/reasons to knock them off of their pedestal. I think about Apple. Apple is beloved right now by consumers around the world. As Steve Jobs left his position as CEO last month he left one of the highest employee approval ratings Glassdoor.com had ever seen (a company that I am on the Board of), and yet, at the same time, the media loves to stir the pot with stories of Apple's overseas labor practices and what happens in the plants in China. The point is that the more any business works to be blameless the more others will try and bring them down. But, this is no reason to not work to be pure and blameless. Wouldn't we rather have that approach first and worry about the rest later? I'll choose "clean energy" companies over others all day long.

God tells us something about what happens when in our lives we also try to bring across "clean energy" and when we do that through our walk with Christ. What happens with David and Saul says it all. When we try and walk a blameless life we will have others who will not like us and will try and get us to trip up so that they can either point out our contradiction and hypocrisy to cover up their faults, or because they don't want to see others who believe succeed. Let's be honest with ourselves, it can get rough out there and our workplaces are the roughest places of all. Only the lowest dive bars and taverns would allow the kind of language and behavior that can happen daily inside a conference room. We need to be prepared that if want to exude clean energy, clean living, and be an example of Jesus' life, then it comes with the opposition. That said, we know that if we go further into the David and Saul account that God removed Saul from David's presence when it got too heated. God will protect us if we are standing up for Him and living and working "cleanly".

Reference: 1 Samuel 18:12-15

day 646: "There Should Be An App For This"

"Publish his glorious deeds among the nations. Tell everyone about the amazing things he does."


"There should be an 'App' for this." Twenty four months ago, this was becoming a popular saying as people played with their iphones and thought about their soon to arrive ipads. Two years later, as we have our ipads and wait on our ipad 2 and we have upgraded our iphones to newest generation, we say less often, "there should be an App for this" because today, there seems to be just about an "App" for everything so we say more often, "there is an App for that." In actuality, it's probably about a few hundred thousand Apps that have been created for the Apple platform and then a fraction of that many for the Android operating system. Still, it now seems that there is an App for about anything, other than some of the more mundane things we may still do at work. But, watch out, those are coming soon. It may well be soon that an ipad for work becomes standard issue. As all of these innovations continue to occur it is important that we stay on top of what is new and that we understand what is coming next. To be most competitive in our field or industry, we have to be ahead of the competition and in touch with the next generation of talent that walks through our doors. To not be in touch with the future is to live in the past. There is no App for telling and understanding the future. That is on us to do.

An App is also a publishing tool that allows a developer and innovator to share his/her creation across the users of a platform and spread this software virally through sharing it with their social graph. Technology is the tool for evangelizing a resource, tool, service, etc. If you think about it, God was ultimately the first App developer in that He created all of us to be the spreaders of His Good News. We are God's Apps and as we are told in in 1 Chroncicles, we are to be the publishers of his glory. Think about this today and know that God is looking at us and saying in all of the situations that we are given and face, "Here is my app for this."


Reference: 1 Chronicles 16:24 (New Living Testament)

day 578: Attention To The Details

I marvel with the people who could be so successful in their careers if they just could find a way to have an attention to details. Big idea people are needed but ideas without execution go nowhere. It takes attention to details to make something go from good to great. The business world has been abuzz the last week over the potential of the Apple coporatation not having Steve Jobs at the helm. I have had the privilege to interact with Steve a number of times in one on one conversations and I have said consistently that he is the Walt Disney of our age (ironically, he is also the largest shareholder of the Walk Disney Company). Why is he like Walt Disney? It is because he has the vision to see into the future but also has the attention to detail to make those visions come to life and in a manner that is of the highest quality and consistency for the consumer/user. Without his attention to the details, would the iPod or the iPad be what it is today? I seriously doubt it. All any us have to do is read the book of Numbers and we can see that part of how God created and rules this world is also with an attention to detail. I was struck by the book of Numbers Chapter 26 when God asks that a census be held. After all of the counting of the men over 20 years of age, God did not lose sight of the detail that He had said, "They will all die in the wilderness'. The only exceptions were Caleb, son of Jephunneh and Joshuah son of Nun." When you do the math that was two of 624,730 people. God was in the details. As we go about our work, much of how we do our work and do something with excellence or not is in the details. The small things do count. As you think through today, what details are hanging that need to be sewn up? What details need attention that you haven't been giving? What orientation in your work do you need to change so you can find yourself attentive to the details? It will make a difference.

Reference: Numbers 26:65 (New Living Testament)

day 367: The Turnaround

Every business, at some point in its life cycle will go through a turnaround. Yes, even the companies that we think have unlimited growth potential and we could never imagine stumbling will face a turnaround situation. Some are big turnarounds, others are less visible publicly but can certainly be felt internally. Look no further than the now darling Apple Computer for the cycle to be born out. It is hard to imagine now that they once were the Apple that was teetering on not making it and it is even harder to imagine that someday it will need another turnaround, but it will. The same happens in our careers. We hit points where we have to rethink where we are and what we are doing and we either make a significant shift, turnaround or we go through enough soul-searching that we double down on the path that we know is right and then we don't look back. These are hard times and I suspect that many of us have been through this range of feelings and actions over the past 24 months. But take heart as turnarounds are good things because when done seriously and well, we end up where we are supposed to be and doing what we supposed to be doing. We can see this example in the story of the Prodigal Son. The son of the loving father had to make a turnaround to come back to where he belonged. He hit rock bottom before he saw it but when he, repented made the 180-degree turn and headed home he was welcomed with loving and open arms. We all know that this is the story of God's love over our life. God watches over us in our lives and in the sometimes overwhelming part of our life called our jobs. If we are on a wrong path and we need to be turned around, He will be there for us to figure it out if we will just bring Him into the office with us. Rather than wait for the bottom to fall out, before the turnaround, receive the constant invitation that is given to us to look to Him for the guidance and direction that we need.

Reference: Luke 15:12-20 (New Living Testament)