2013: The Year of Anything is Possible
As we enter the New Year, the inspiring message that “Anything is Possible” has come front and center for me. It feels so strong and positive that I want to start 2013 with a more personal than usual blog post.
It is the challenges of running a business (ComBridges) while simultaneously working to grow our “start up,” New Marketing University, that makes this message of “Anything is Possible” personally relevant for me. In fact, it’s the sometimes seemingly “impossible dream” of a large vibrant community of participants and members in New Marketing University that keeps this project alive. You could say that I’m writing this post in order to inspire myself. I also hope it helps to move some of you forward as well.
Media Windows Open Doors
My consumption of two recent pieces of media has helped to open these expansive “doors of perception” for me. One is a seemingly miraculous cancer healing and the other is from a young man named Steve Jobs whose life was changed when he discovered that he and his teenage buddy Woz could manipulate billions of dollars worth of global infrastructure. Given that these two stories are true, I ask that we wonder together, “why not me?” (No reason.)
There’s More to Life Than We Normally Know or Imagine
Anita Moorjani’s book, Dying To Be Me: My Journey from Cancer, to Near Death, to True Healing
Opening the Visionary Eyes of Steve Jobs
Over the New Years weekend, I watched a short little documentary movie called Steve Jobs: The Lost Interview via Netflix. In this truly historic interview, Steve Jobs explains that he also had a life changing experience without which he may never have become, well, Steve Jobs.
image via Wikipedia
As a teenager, he and his pal and soon to be partner, Steve Wozniak, heard that it was possible to build a box that would let anyone make free phone calls to anywhere in the world. Jobs literally said, “we didn’t believe it was possible.” But, they decided to see for themselves anyway.
Low and behold, in the bowels of a technical library, they discovered the appropriate AT&T manual and figured it out. Soon they were bouncing calls off of satellites and around the world for free. Jobs shares in this movie that it literally changed his perception of what was possible. Jobs and Woz, two kids really, were able to gain control of such technological power that they discovered that they were capable of having a far greater reach and were able to make a far bigger difference than they had previously imagined.
It wasn’t long before these two were pioneering the personal computer revolution. Like Moorjani, they discovered that anything really is possible.
What About You?
What is your “impossible dream”? And, more importantly, what are you going to do about it?
My commitment is to keep offering my authentic enthusiasm for the Internet marketing revolution (along with as much useful information as I can) in order to help as many people and businesses as possible to take advantage of all these changes. Please don’t hesitate to let us know how we can help. We look forward to helping you to expand your possibilities while also enhancing our own in the process.
Thanx! for posting this to G+. Around Easter in 2006, I became ill with what started as a cough that just wouldn’t go away.
I went to several doctors who did multiple tests and would end up prescribing medication to treat post nasal drip symptoms because the tests would come back negative for TB which to me was the probable cause for my illness as I also experienced late night sweat outbreaks and loss of appetite which seemed to point to TB.
This went on for 9 months and eventually in December of 2006 when I was a walking skeleton, my right lung failed and the piercing pain sent me collapsing to the floor as I was getting into bed in my upstairs bedroom late that evening.
My first thought was to dial for an ambulance from my mobile but just at that moment, I was flooded with all the detail of what would happen how long the call would take to get answered, what would be asked and how long it would take for the ambulance to arrive. It all was vivid and clear and seemed to be given to me at once and I knew that there wouldn’t be enough time for that and I would have to get myself to the closest private hospital.
Two hospitals were in close proximity to my home and while I struggled to get myself into my car and drive to the hospital I also found myself moving outside of my body through the two routes and not only seeing what I would be encountering along both the routes in the evening as I drove there but also being clearly guided as to which one I should drive to.
All of this is difficult to describe as it all seemed to occur at once but in the end I drove to the entrance of the hospital where the security guard gave me a look that I will never forget for as long as I live. It was as if he was looking at ghost and I remember him dropping the clipboard for signing in visitors and panicking as he shouted into his two-way radio.
An ambulance promptly arrived at the gate and I just remember flashes of being in theater and the following day the doctor informed me that my right lung had collapsed and that they were conducting tests to determine what was wrong. I explained to him that this had been going on for 9 months now and all tests had not come up with a conclusive diagnosis.
I realized that this was my last hope for there to be a diagnosed illness for which a remedy could be prescribed and when the results came back they were still negative for TB and anything else that could be found. I was now very ill with the real possibility that my left lung would also fail and that would most certainly straight line the beside cardiac monitor.
I just couldn’t understand why they weren’t able, earlier on, to diagnose the TB infection which I was certain was the cause of my illness from the onset but all the experience of getting to know the true essence of who I really am which I went through up until December 25th 2006 when the results came back positive for TB and I was started on the 6 months medication that brought me back to full health definitely changed me and made me a better person.
My goal for this year is to turn the YouTube PictureStream channel which I created in 2008 into an Anytime online video content portal for the SABC’s entire portfolio of 18 radio stations.
We have recently begun piloting a concept with one of the SABC radio stations which broadcasts in my native language Zulu and will also be looking at concluding deals with record labels for the channel to be the music video portal that all SABC radio stations will refer listeners to.
Key to the success of this will be having full YouTube partner features for the channel which will allow for HTML5 customization and integration into the mobile app that we’re developing for the SABC.
These features are not available to Africa as of yet as they are costly for Google to implement and require a market and partner channels that are guaranteed yield a profitable return on investment.
We have decided to raise the the money to cover the costs of having full partner features and hope to be the first YouTube channel in Africa to have full customization features and also show that there can be a profitable ROI for YouTube in such developing markets as Africa.
Very inspiring, Vusi. Thanks for sharing all of this. Let’s keep inspiring each other. Keep up the good work and Happy New Year! 🙂