After my inaugural attendance of the 99% Conference last year. I was super excited for my second year. It’s a new conference and one that’s getting better with each year after launching in 2009. I’m  trying to vote with my time & money and how I give back to my communities. The line up of speakers this year was phenomenal:

I’m happy again to share with you the talks that I loved. The ones that left me thinking about how I work and the small changes I can make that will have an (a huge) impact on my work. This conference is about helping you make your ideas a reality and not giving you more.

USV – Economies of The Network
Most who know of Union Square Ventures know of Fred Wilson. For many, myself included, he’s the face of the investment firm through his blog A VC. He shares his wisdom and thoughts to make our community better.

His partner Brad Burnham gave this talk about the idea around social networks acting like governments and it’s users being citizens and not the current mindset of a company with users. His main point was the relationship between a social network and its users… where it’s not about property but exchanging mutual data (Brad has a better word I can’t recall right now) that we could move with us as we shift around the web. This relationship only worked when both the social network and citizens both need each other to be successful. It’s his hope for a future that we may not see pass. The Q&A after his talk was interesting to see Brad be honest with what he doesn’t know and that backing a start-up is almost more about gut instinct then having all the answers.

Johan Lehrer – Grit and Single Focus
Johan feels that the reason people succeed is because of grit and a laser focus on a single objective. Successful people like Bill Paxton, Oprah and Andy Warhol are all people who ooze this character trait. The military use a test to find out which recruiters are going to survive training at West Point. The ones that survive have grit and a the single focus of wanting to get into West Point. Intelligence, fitness or having high marks wasn’t enough. You can’t just have grit or a single focused mindset, you need both to be truly successful in the 21st century… and to finish West Point. Do you’ve what it takes?

Teresa Amabile – The Process Principal & Keeping A Journal
Do you keep a journal? This single question was the focus of Teresa talks and a book she co-wrote with her husband. As a professor at Harvard Business School and a researcher, she knows the power of keeping a journal. She talks about how corporate executives and entrepreneurs are using the journals to keep them focused and on track for their ideas. Writing down your small wins, achievements, roadblocks and having a history road map to look back on can be a powerful motivator to keep going in the long run…especially when things get difficult and you want to throw in the towel. When things get hard, it’s the small wins that add up to create success.

Keith Yamashita – Finding Your Superpower?
Now I should admit that I thought Keith’s talk was a little to much about his company in that he referenced his firms products to much for my liking. However, the crutch of his talk was around finding out about your superpower. Focusing your energy to make everyone around you better is important. You’ll spend less time & energy being who you’re then trying to be someone you’re not.

Alexis Madrigal – What’s Next For Big Culture?
Young white guys… that’s who makes up the majority of start up founders. Only 6% of VC backed start-ups are for women and the stats are even less for other minorities. Instead of asking what’s the next big thing(s). Maybe we should be asking what’s the next big culture. Alexis feels that diversity in start-ups will be the key to the next phase we’re entering as we try to tackle the world’s problems and culture shift.

These are just some of the talks I loved. There were many I liked and a few I didn’t, however, attendance is what makes this conference great. You can’t get the same feeling watching the videos online. I literally meet people from around the world: Turkey, and New Zealand to name a few spots. With the conference selling out 8 months in advance this year (5 months last year) and 1,800 on the waiting list to attend this year. It’s not an easy conference to get into.

Scott Belsky, CEO of Behance, left us with some parting words this year:

…a sign in Scott’s office about strategy:

Don’t miss out on the 99% Conference next year. It just might be the best conference you’ve heard of … and haven’t been to yet.

I spent a few days in New York last week and at first though the ad above was for common law marriage in New York… mentioning some benefit or new service. I only saw the two men’s head and the words “Common Law”. However, after closer inspection I found out it was just a an ad for a new TV show. I was kinda disappointed as I saw the ad all throughout New York as I took the trains between Manhattan and Brooklyn during my three days.

BrandSavant put up a piece this month about Burger King vs McDonalds. Since Burger King is number 3 in fast food chains after Wendy’s over took them as number two, which I find hard to believe at times.

Burger King wanted to find out what customers wanted, which isn’t a bad thing… however, they started with the wrong questions. Those questions only led them to a “me too” strategy with customers wanting what they can get at McDonalds.

Check out how to know you’re asking the wrong questions, so you don’t suffer the same faith as Burger King.

If you walk upto anyone and ask them their most valuable asset, they’ll most likely say money (maybe property if they own one). We’re taught and shown in media and throughout school that money is the richest asset you can own and dictates your future.

What if there was another way?

An asset so under used, that it could make you rich if you shifted your thinking? I’m talking about time. There are only 168 hours in a week and how we divide and devore our time says alot about who we’re and what we value. You can always make more money, however, you can’t make more time.

Once you spend it, it’s gone and you can’t buy it back with all the money in the world. Making sure I devote my time to project that create value (money & happiness) and focus on spending my down time recharging (sleeping) and seeing people I care about is vital to me making sure I don’t waste my most valuable asset. At the end of the day, if you use time correctly, you’ll get everything you want out of life and more.

With Facebook showing a plateau or decline in some stats for users in North America and UK/Europe over the last couple years. It’s no surprise that they are starting to see their efforts in the BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India and China) countries start to take off over this same timeline.

Facebook has 190+ million users in Asia and that’s a figure that’s rising fast like back in 2006 when Facebook saw huge growth in North American. Some of the top 10 countries are:

1. India
2. Indonesia
3. Philippines
4. Thailand
5. Malaysia

With many of the above countries doubling their users base in the last 6 months or less. The challenge as  Facebook crossed the 850 million user worldwide mark and heads towards 1 billion is this… how do you keep your oldest users on board? …. especially after buying Instagram last night.

Last night I attended a thought provoking talk with from Gareth K, Chief Strategy Office at Goodby, Silverstein & Partners, about being radical and some of the challenges ahead:

1. We’re all offering a full service agency, which is something clients don’t want
2. We’re spending less then Starbucks does on training and developments
3. We’re narcissistic to the point of not really listening to the client.

It’s the first point I really wanted to touch on as it relates to a Tim Williams post this week about who is your real competition? Much like Gareth, Tim talks about the idea if we all offer the same services, what’s the point?

When I went back to freelancing 3 years ago, I knew I couldn’t nor would I want to be a full service shop. However, I had to focus on what I offered so it made sense that even my mom or boyfriend could understad it. Well at the same time be sellable to clients and agencies as we worked together. It’s been a journey and of self discovery and saying no to work outside of that sphere, however, it has keep me grounded on doing awesome work and making sure I’m not just making advertising.

Now if we can all just stop jumping on the social media bandwagon and get back to focusing on what we do best… maybe our clients would spend more money because they believe and know we’ve increased their business aka made them a ton more money.

There is no strong technology play like Kraft’s Adult Only Jell-O Sampling Machine Uses Facial Recognition Technology to push a product. However, it’s a fun idea and something I was shocked I don’t see more of around Oz or other warm markets like Cayman Island, Jamaica, Turks and Caicos Islands that sell the product.

The over archiving take away is that my generation won’t have deep analytical skills or be able to focus our energy and concentration on big hairy problems because of our  multitasking and needing instant gratification. Much has been debated about instant gratification being bad and children who wait to eat the marshmallow:

The marshmallow experiment is a famous test of this concept conducted by Walter Mischel at Stanford University and discussed by Daniel Goleman in his popular work. In the 1960s, a group of four-year olds were given a marshmallow and promised another, only if they could wait 20 minutes before eating the first one. Some children could wait and others could not. The researchers then followed the progress of each child into adolescence, and demonstrated that those with the ability to wait were better adjusted and more dependable (determined via surveys of their parents and teachers), and scored an average of 210 points higher on the Scholastic Aptitude Test.

Will do better in life. However, life is rarely either or and usually a combination of good and bad/ left and right. Like any generation before mines. Some people will rise above society and do very well, however, others won’t.