It’s the Tasty Minstrel Games dragon vs the Gamelyn Games knight in a fight for ultimate funding.

Both parties are armed with the same weapon, a Scott Almes game. Both are running one month campaigns with a $15k goal.

The dragon took first blood by controlling the Harbour, but it is the knight that will get the final strike with his Tiny Epic Defenders:

Who will prevail! Will it be the fierce dragon? Or the brave knight?

Take fate into your hands on kickstarter now!

Feel free to find me, the knight, the dragon, and the weapon on twitter to join the conversation .

They may even have been right too.

They’re just not anymore.

Up until very recently, the price of diamonds had been controlled by De Beers, it wasn’t difficult, it was simply a case of understanding the law of supply and demand then managing your stock accordingly – De Beers of course quite infamously stockpiling a crazy amount of diamonds, keeping the demand (and price) just the way they like it. High.

Similarly, for christmas I got a great board game called Planet Steam, in it you have to mine resources in a steam punk universe and sell it. The trick is though, every time you sell something, the price of that commodity goes down. It’s a fun game, and easy to explain – people understand this principle.

Except, that is, when it comes to content.

No, when it comes to content more, your digital and content agencies would have you believe, actually does mean more. They’re wrong.

In the laws of supply and demand, the content market is so unbelievably saturated that the value of the commodity called content is close to zero. We’re hardly even willing to spend our attention on it. Most of us just scan the bold stuff and leave it at that.

(…you can’t give your audience more time)

So why am I telling you this? Because yesterday I was having lunch with a mate who was discussing the content strategy for a chocolate bar. A chocolate bar?! Seriously, I like a Twix as much as the next guy, but for goodness sake, the value of a Twix comes in the eating, not the reading. And if the truth be told, no one cares.

The irony, of course, is that I’m writing this post and adding to the clutter. The difference is that I only write the stuff that I really really feel strongly about, and I keep those moments few and far between.

Don’t go after more. Go after less (to the power of more).

Anyway, I’m rambling, I’ll shut the fuck up.

I suggest you do too…!

So a few months ago I was inducted into MTN’s loyalty programme – Prestige. Eight months later, I’m out again. Have a look through this short preso to understand what went down (there’s some emails here, full screen will be best).

That’s 8-months from cradle-to-grave. Nice.

Actually, that’s not true. It’s actually 18-years. I received my first phone on my 21st birthday (a fact that my 10-year old son struggles to comprehend).

The upside of course is that I’m a speaker on customer service, material like this is worth far more than the cost of a new iPhone 5s – a fact that I mentioned when I eventually forced my way into an email conversation.

As of this writing, I still have not received a single bit of contact directly.

So what’s the lesson? The lesson is simple, this loyalty thing, it’s about people. MTN has forgotten that, they’ve made it about spreadsheets. The irony here is that had they just never bothered to sign me up in the first place, we all would have been a lot better off.

In utility business, the customer doesn’t expect the lights to be shot out, if the service sold to us works, we’re happy and quiet. Happy and quiet means loyal. MTN’s mistake is that they tried to get fancy here (it should be noted that the programme itself is run by a “service” provider – PLP).

I guess at least they were right about one thing (thanks Ian), the share is indeed mightier than than the like, so if you don’t like this…

Well done guys, you’ve managed to properly fuck-up 18 good years…!

Check the dictionary. The word creative is first and foremost an adjective. You are a creative something.

It may be a creative strategist, or a creative writer, or even a creative CEO. I know a guy in Cape Town called Mathew Neilson, now he’s a creative. He creates. Real things… with his bare hands and tools.

That’s creative.

Just because you’re embarrassed to write your full title…

Creative (person that uses his creativity to win creative awards under the pretence of trying to sell boring products like banking or soap powder).

…doesn’t make you cool – no matter how many ridiculous awards-that-mean-nothing-to-the-actual-job-you-do that you win. It’s not a fucking Oscar. Alas, I’m repeating myself.

Don’t get me wrong though, being creative doesn’t make you not cool either – I’m a creative guy, I just realise though that there’s a noun that follows the adjective – and here’s the kicker, it’s in the noun that the real magic happens. I’d far rather be a creative business owner than a creative *add smug look*, and I bet that Bryce Courtney was far happier when he became a creative (internationally best-selling) writer, than when he was a creative at an ad agency.

Look, I’l be honest, when someone says to me “I’m a creative”, what I hear is, “I’m a self-important twat that really wishes I was (pick appropriate) an author / a rock star / an artist / a film maker.

Stop being that guy. Stop being just another adjective.

Find your noun…!

I rap in an act with Jeremy Loops and Jamie Faull – a pair of talented Cape Town-based musicians – and I’m currently working on my solo project. A few months ago, after a successful tour to Johannesburg where we played (and impressed) at a music festival called Sowing The Seeds 2012, I wrote a status on Facebook about the doors you open by giving your all every time you do your job, whatever your job may be. That status, reprinted below largely untouched bar some additional info for context, chronologically follows how our effort opened doors for us, allowing us to go from an act that busked to 10 people to an act frequently playing to 7000+ people at major music festivals in just 18 months.

I hope something of my tale resonates with you like it did with Richard and some friends on FB.

When Jeremy and I started this music thing a year and a half ago, I used to always tell the guys we had to put on our best performance bar none at the most recent show because you never know who is watching. I still tell them this.

Why? Well…

Jeremy asked me to try this music thing with him because we had a cool crowd at The Biscuit Mill when we were busking there. I only asked if I could rap with them because they were playing nice tunes. We didn’t know each other at the time so, in essence, it all started with him impressing me, and I impressing him in turn. This was the start…

Main stage at Rocking The Daisies 2011 – our biggest gig to date at the time – happened because the event owners watched us kill our ‘audition’ at Sowing The Seeds 2011. Sowing The Seeds 2011 itself happened because that very same event organiser saw us kill our fortnightly shows at a packed Rafiki’s, and figured we should at least get to audition at STS2011 for the big time.

Our many Assembly gigs happened because we killed Assembly the one time we got a chance there through a party hosted by GreenPop. We made sure to impress at the venue every time we were invited back thereafter.

Our KZN gigs in Pietermaritzburg, opening for The Parlotones at Maritzburg Day, and Durban, opening for Freshlyground at COP17, happened because the director of the events company hosting those events saw us at the aforementioned Assembly gigs. He was impressed, and contacted his CEO to urge him to book us. He checked a YouTube vid from an Assembly gig, and was convinced enough to book us. We killed those performances, by the way. [Those performances also played a big role in our securing a slot at Splashy Fen 2012, a big KZN music festival that recently took place.]

Oh, and now talks of massive things are ongoing because we killed Sowing The Seeds 2012 in JHB. If you’re still connecting the dots here, Sowing The Seeds 2012 happened because we killed Rocking The Daisies 2011, which itself happened because we killed our ‘audition’ at Sowing The Seeds 2011 in CT, which itself happened because we killed our fortnightly gigs at Rafiki’s.

Lots of killing going on here. Consistent killing, mind you, and with greater precision/violence each subsequent occasion.

My point is you never know who is watching, and you never know what doors you could open by just putting your back into it. We’ve played for an audience of 10, and we’ve played for an audience of 3000-7000, and we give equal effort every time. Every. Fucking. Time. No off days. Ever. The audience deserves no less, irrespective of its size, and you owe it to yourself, too.

Seriously, people are always scouting in any career. Just, please, show the fuck up if you want it badly. And I don’t mean play-play badly. I mean really, really want it. We cannot completely control how much longer our amazing journey will continue for, but we will control the only thing we can control: our unrelenting effort.

Everyone has unrelenting effort within…!

(You can listen to the studio recording of “My Shoes” on Soundcloud)

“What’s wrong, Mamie?” I asked.

“Sit down.” she said, smiling now, “I’d like to tell you a story.”

“When I was just about your age, I left Glasgow for Toronto. I was young and excited, leaving home for the first time. Toronto was a whirlwind for me, I got my first job, and I watched my first Toronto Maple Leafs hockey game.”

If you know me and have ever wondered where my passion for the Maple Leafs came from – now you know.

“It was also in Toronto that I met my first love.” she continued. “His name was Lesley John Moore, he was the most handsome man I had ever seen. One weekend, a few months after we had met, he took me for a drive to one of the nearby lakes, when we were there he got down on one knee and proposed to me, the sun setting over his shoulder. I was ecstatic.”

She stopped for a second as she remembered the moment, smiling through a tear.

“The next week, I packed my clothes into one of his suitcases, the letters L.J.M stenciled in gold leaf, and went home to tell my mother. At first she was as happy for me as I was, until she asked me if he was Catholic, he wasn’t, and in those days things like that mattered. She was furious and forbid me from ever talking to him again. Over the following months, letters came, but they were always returned to sender, unread. My mother would not even let me write to him to explain.”

“They say time heals all, and I guess over the years I healed a lot. I met your Uncle Reggie, we got married and tried to start a family of our own. After three miscarriages, we knew it would never happen. So your Mum became a daughter to me, and then you and your sisters became my grandchildren. Your Uncle Reggie died when you were two, but he adored you. You used to sit on his knee taking the pen out of his pocket.”

“I really do love you all more than you can possibly imagine, you are my happiness. However, when you walked in today, I was crying because I was wondering what my life would have been like had I married Lesley John Moore.”

The following day I left on tour with Roxette. Mamie died while I was on the road.

I have never forgotten that last sentence. It is, without a doubt, the saddest 16 words I had ever heard.

Sixty years after she had left Toronto, she still cried for the love she never knew.

The final lesson Mamie taught me was this: It’s far better to live with the regret of the mistakes you have made, than to die with the regret of never having tried.

She had that suitcase with her until the day she died.

Love you Mamie…!

Sure, on occasion I’d manage to get my hands on a wayward copy of Scope (thanks Dad), but for the most part the average candle-bashing involved nothing more than my imagination.

I was a master. I could piece together a story that would make Jeffrey Archer proud (or at the very least, blush), starting from how we met, flirted, seduced and succumbed all with the perfect timing of a thriller.

And I could create a new story every day, or if I’m to be completely honest, twice a day… sometimes more.

Fast forward 20 odd years and the world has changed, although not entirely – admittedly I still enjoy the odd manual override.

However, I’ve become lazy.

Gone are the Booker Prize winning scenarios, only to be replaced by the cheap thrills of youporn.com. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not complaining, the convenience of the click/shake/wipe method has its advantages. I just feel that an imagination is a terrible thing to waste, and if you have a job like mine, my imagination is a tool that I require daily.

So, what’s the solution? Lads, there’s only one thing for it, you need to double your efforts, what ever you’re doing now, do it twice as much! BUT and it’s a big bold but, every other time – no porn allowed.

Do it for yourself. Do it for your career, for god’s sake man… do it for your country.

So yeah, to sum up, the porn industry is definitely killing creativity. Either that or your mum got ugly…!

It’s metal, shiny, awesome, and completely useless. This card is unapologetically form-over-function (they give you the option to print or photograph a paper version) – and I love it!

The term share of wallet used to be figurative, now it’s literal. Carrying a wallet is a grudge purchase in and of itself. So I now carry the brilliant and small Bellroy Smart Sleeve (as introduced to me by the carryology crew), if you want to get your card into my wallet, it has to be something I use just about daily, the others get relegated to the backpack. Either that, or it has to look like the FoundersCard.

Don’t kid yourself, design matters…!

(I do wish that they’d used an apostrophe though; either Founder’s Card or Founders’ Card – grammar matters too)

Fast Company’s Innovation Uncensored event embodies the ethos of our brand and represents the culmination of our work throughout the year. Innovation is at the core of everything we do. Every day on our website and in each issue of the magazine, we explore innovative groundbreaking business solutions across every industry.

The upside:

– Great speaker list

– Free stuff

– Short and sweet

The downside:

– Panel discussions were not great

I’ve waited a few weeks to post this review as I was in two minds about the conference. When I left, I left disappointed, however I often find that conferences take a while to settle. When you find yourself quoting stories and case studies weeks later, when you find yourself making changes in your own company based on what you learnt – well, that’s a good conference.

With that in mind, Innovation Uncensored was a good event, but there is definite room for improvement.

As I’d like to end this post on a positive let me start off by pointing out what I didn’t enjoy: the panel discussions.

Panel discussions are a difficult beast to get right, first, you need an amazing facilitator. This is where I think things went wrong – the Fast Company journos are great, but they are clearly not pros in this regard (although some were a lot better than others). In a panel discussion, the burden for preparation shifts from the presenter to the facilitator. This is a huge responsibility, basically the facilitator needs to get the single best nuggets of information out of each speaker. For me, a far better idea is to give the speaker a subject, and let them prepare a talk. It’s their brain, and they are far better at poking inside it than a facilitator would be.

The other problem is that at the end of a panel discussion you leave wishing you had heard more from a specific speaker. My suggestion to FC would be to give each panelist a 10-min time slot, then get them on to the stage for a short panel discussion after the fact. A best of both if you will.

Don’t get me wrong though, these segments were very interesting, they just could have been a lot better.

While I’m on negatives – the wifi access sucked (really really).

It never ceases to amaze me how the speakers you remember the most at a conference are rarely the draw cards that got you there in the first place. Innovation Uncensored was no exception. While the idea of listening to Morgan Spurlock (SuperSize Me / The greatest movie ever sold – trailer below) and Jared Leto (30 seconds to Mars / Requiem for a dream) was very appealing, the speakers that got me thinkiing the most were Marty St. George (Jetblue) and John Landgraf (FX Networks) I could easily have listened to these two deliver an hour long keynote each. Other standout speakers for me were Jason Kilar (Hulu) and Tristan Walker (foursquare).

Also well worth checking out is Fast Company/Lincoln’s 30 Second MBA

Here are a few standout quotes from the event:

“Agencies become a detriment to companies because agencies only have their own needs in mind.” – Morgan Spurlock

“The most important thing I can do for my brand is get a person on one of our airplanes… the cheapest marketing tool we have is an empty seat.” – Marty St. George

“Never underestimate the power of the relentless pursuit of better ways” – Jason Kilar

“Most revolutions are sparked by the actions of a few ordinary people.” – Jennifer Aaker (Stanford GSB)

“Give social media time to direct itself… the community self-regulates over time – Jim Hanna (Starbucks)

“The whisper is often louder than the scream.” – Jared Leto

“Social media is re-knitting the collective experiment” – John Landgraf

“Beware the nincumpoop forrest” – some dude on a video referring to the nay-sayers that will kill your idea

All and all, it was a good conference. I’d say a 5-hour flighter (worth attending if you can fly there in under 5 hours) – if you can, I’d jump at the chance (see what I did there?)…!