Make it count

"Every creature on earth has approximately two billion heartbeats to spend in a lifetime. You can spend them slowly, like a tortoise, and live to be two hundred years old, or you can spend them fast like a hummingbird, and live to be two years old."

— from "Joyas Voladoras,*" an essay by Brian Doyle

ps: Brian Doyle, "Joyas Voladoras", originally published in The American Scholar, Autumn 2004 and reprinted in The Best American Spiritual Writing 2005, edited by Philip Zaleski (Houghton Mifflin Co.) 2005, p. 44.

* Joyas voladoras: Spanish for "flying jewels." It's what the first European explorers in the Americas called hummingbirds.

Steve's image is from here.

Steve vs 3Gs

When personalities overshadow brand its not good always. Like it was felt/seen/heard at the launch of iPhone 3Gs. Expectations had been high that the ailing Apple CEO would make a surprise reappearance at his company's World Wide Developers Conference, which kicked off Monday with an address by Senior Vice President of Marketing Phil Schiller in San Francisco. Schiller introduced a third-generation iPhone, which has faster, more capable software and more memory, as well as surprisingly deep price cuts for Apple hardware and software.

But it was Jobs, who hasn't been seen in public since making a shockingly gaunt appearance last September, who was eagerly awaited by the tech world and who failed to materialize. It is tough to think Apple would have the same following, leave alone the share prices, without Steve returning healthy. People want to him to win over his ailments come back stronger. Hope he does. Steve is a bigger brand than Apple now. Or should I call him its anchor? Get well soon Steve.