The world could be divided very simply into two distinct groups of people. There are people who you can trust to get things done, and there are people you can’t.

All of us have a myriad of things to do each day in our personal and professional lives. How we prioritize these items and get them done on a regular basis will determine how successful we will become. Even if you work or live by yourself, you are dependent upon other people for each of the tasks you want to accomplish on your daily list. In some cases, you are waiting on other people to bring you the tools or information you need to move ahead. In other cases, you are delegating responsibilities to others so that you can oversee a project or work on other aspects of it at the same time.

Recently, I went through several weeks of my daily list of tasks and realized that about 80 percent of the items I work on each day are dependent upon others. If the people whom I had delegated items to or venders I had depended upon were totally reliable, my days would be much freer and clear than they are.

Recently, I was talking to a friend about a business professional he was dealing with on a project. He had glowing recommendations for this individual. As he told me the story, it basically boiled down to the fact that he had arranged to have this person perform a job in a certain way, with a particular budget, with a definite deadline. The person he was praising had, indeed, done what he said he was going to do, within the allotted time, and within the prescribed budget.

It is sad to realize that in the world we live in today, if you do what you say you’re going to do, in a reliable and dependable fashion, it becomes noteworthy, and you become legendary among your customers or circle of influence.

As you move toward your goals and objectives in life, seek to surround yourself with people whom you can depend on. This will help you avoid the redundancy of asking someone to do something and then being forced to follow up to see if it was actually completed and done properly.

As you go through your day today, strive to be a person who is dependable and reliable, and surround yourself with people who hold themselves to the same standard.

Today’s the day!

Jim Stovall is the president of Narrative Television Network as well as a published author of many books including The Ultimate Gift. He is also a columnist and motivational speaker. He may be reached by e-mail at Jim@JimStovall.com; or on Facebook at www.facebook.com/jimstovallauthor.

I got the CNN Alert on my iPad when the news broke out yesterday. Steve Jobs, founder of Apple, dies at 56. This is a news that I wasn’t prepared for. And then my iPhone rang and I had family and friends sharing their shock on his passing away. Working on my MacBook Pro, I felt surrounded with Steve Jobs in every way and the impact was far greater since I live and work almost in the backyard of Cupertino. I was in so much shock as if I had lost someone I had known personally. And even right now, it feels like I knew him and I am confident most of the people have the same experience.

Steve Jobs was an underdog who taught us that if we believed in our gut, intuition or anything that matters to us, it made life worth living AND dying for. At 56, he achieved success that exceeded perhaps his own expectations of success. He prepared hard for what he achieved in the last ten years of his life. If Apple surpassed Exxon Mobil just briefly as the most valuable company, it was a tribute to the team behind Apple and Steve Jobs.

A Legend: A legend today may be someone of noted celebrity, with larger-than-life accomplishments, whose fame is well-known. And Steve was one.

A Leader : A leader is someone who leads and Steve led not only his team but the world into a new realm of possibility with his products.

A Legacy : His gifts of his ideas and designs changed how we live and will always shape the future.

Lessons Learned:

It is never too late. He came back to Apple and in last ten years left a mark in the world.
Do what you love: Though we share a common destination in death, life is all about searching for what you love and doing what you love and loving what you do.
Make it count: Everyday we have an opportunity to do something that we believe in, be unreasonable about it and make EVERYDAY count.

I am sad, very sad today. And my best wishes go to his family. I don’t think Silicon Valley is the same today as it mourns its best pioneer. I don’ think the world is the same today as Steve lived up to his word “He made a dent in the Universe“. And this dent is irreparable. Forever.

Miss you and love you, Steve. Rest in peace.

Sitting in my office, around 4pm yesterday the news came out. Internet started flooding with it , speculations on market started and my finance news alerts went off the hook at a rate I had never seen. In that moment, I was left with the thought, Steve Jobs had transformed the world.

Many thanks Steve for this great contribution. He has given us some new experiences, new things to discover, learn and share. Perhaps, the productivity, velocity of how we live our life makes us wonder “How was I doing this before?”

Thank You, Steve Jobs.

Most of us start thinking about how to market games, once we receive the sacred message from Apple “Your App has been approved”. And at that moment, we confront the thought “Now how am I going to market the App”. If that is the case, it might be too late to market it already.

With no way to grow inorganic installs, it is best to have marketing built into the product development…

This was the topic of my session with Yetizen (a social-mobile gaming incubator in San Francisco) graduating class. As one of the accelerator advisors, the objective was to make game developers pause and think about “What makes their app different from anyone else?” and “How will they place their app and build loyalists who will help them with Word-of-Mouth” marketing.

Below is the presentation:

Poker is a game that attracts the hard core gamer. Most people who play this game don’t care if their friends are there with them. They are OK to play with total strangers. And that defeats the primary reason why people play on FB – to connect with their friends.

In a recent visit to Las Vegas, where I was meeting management team of a large entertainment company, I was asked why are POKER players – hard core gamers. To answer this question, I referred to my conversation to a cab driver, who was a hard-core gamer. She said, ” You play to win, there is something about winning, it gives you BRAGGING right and there is no better rush than that”. This is IT…

Below is a presentation of Why Poker is different from other FB games, key characteristics of Hard core gamer and why Zynga ROCKS here…Enjoy!

Mobile gaming space is getting really heated. With that comes a lot of excitement and challenge. Excitement because there is a visible opportunity to make a lot of money (Mobile gaming market will be a $13B market in 2014, source Mercel). Challenge because now everyone wants a piece of the pie BUT only the best execution and innovation will save the day.

Why do people buy virtual goods?
It is the same reason why people bought vinyl records, DVDs and iTunes songs. These purchases are a cross between social element and entertainment element (social X entertainment).

Imagine, you are at a party, you share your iTunes library and the party starts to rock. You clearly see an intersection of social and entertainment. People ask you about the song, where to get it, request to take your library…

Now, lets look at another scenario – we all buy branded goods. We all know that a pair of sun glasses is needed to protect your eyes. But still people pay upwards of $300 to get a pair Chanel, Versace or Prada. If we look at it pragmatically, we can all do with a $20 sunglass that will serve the purpose. But owning a brand, makes us feel good about ourselves. We enjoy the experience of wearing it with friends, and sometimes they ask us where we got it from, what did it cost and where can they get it (marketers (I am guilty too) have known this for a long time).

So, virtual goods is not a purchase of fluff stuff, it is really a purchase of a rich social and entertainment experience. The mankind has indulged in these goods and will continue to do so (I still want Michael Kors handbag even though it does not fit my budget – but want makes things happen. Guess! I will be saving and working harder. Even though, I know that it would have cost Michael Kors only $20 to produce it, I am willing to pay upwards of $100).

A article to support this : Flurry: Freemium titles yield two-thirds of App Store gaming revenues

There is nothing new about virtual goods business model. It is aligned to supply and demand, cost of producing the good and basic psychology that we buy things because of how they make us feel and entertain us all the time.

What is virtual currency?
This is a currency that is used to buy virtual goods. In essence, it is what enables passionate people to transact for things that they desire. People NOTE – passionate people who are your loyal fans, repeat customers and your brand ambassadors. They love accumulating the currency to get stuff that they want online. It is similar to the real economy only that it is virtual. The rising of the virtual gaming economy has enabled brands to incentivize their users, reward them and drive awareness. (Using Facebook credits as eCommerce sales incentives)

The Opportunity: Great article at VentureBeat sums it up.

There are so many new techniques of marketing evolving constantly and with mobile coming to the marketing mix – the excitement is to integrate mobile marketing to your mix. And with the excitement comes a new challenge – how are we going to do this?

I remember the time when Facebook came around and suddenly there was a new challenge to get a handle on how to market on FB, for app developers – it became a platform for customer acquisition. Primarily, this was possible because of the social element of this platform. People wanted to share, play and connect with friends.

So, with the mobile – Remember SOCIAL

Connect People: When a new app is launched and doesn’t have millions of active users, connecting people through geography can drive up user engagement.

Rich Experience: Rich experience pays rich dividends. Check out Flixster, and PopCap Games. Having great interface, great content and great social offers is key to developing valuable social experiences in mobile.

Social distribution and monetization : This is just the beginning of an ever-evolving mobile app industry. Check out Facebook’s Project Spartan, enabling HTML5 social apps, especially games, aims is to reach some 100 million users in a key place: mobile.

We are living in a world when social media has become an integral part of our lives. There is a new report that says that the web is shrinking and more and more people are spending more time on FaceBook.

Looks like the web is disappearing. We are now entering the world of social media where being competent in optimizing Facebook is going to play a big role.

This morning while pondering over some work, I wondered if Gandhi would have joined FaceBook. It might be a bizzare thought but HE is my HERO. And I would have definitely followed him on Twitter and connected with him on LinkedIn (if he accepted ofcourse!)

Just by leveraging social media:

Is it possible he would have accomplished his goals for Independent India faster?

Maybe, he would have the biggest Fan Page on FB?

Would his Tweets would be most re-tweeted like his quotes?

One of his quotes is :“Nearly everything you do is of no importance, but it is important that you do it” Mahatma Gandhi

And I believe, this debate can go either way – it is pure speculation. And I believe, his belief in being accessible to people and being in action was enough to become part of the social media momentum.

As he said, We must become the change we want to see in the world. So, if the change possible with Facebook is a connected world – then it is possibility worth creating.

From early days on gaming on Facebook, we are now looking at Mobile gaming and how it is changing the gaming landscape. Many monetization models have been tried in the mobile gaming. I believe freemium with virtual goods sales is the way to go, although there’s much potential for advertising too.

Many players who have been successful in Asia are now trying to penetrate the US market. Also, there is an increased emphasis on the Platform strategy – outside developers are necessary for the plan to work. The idea is to release a software development kit and tools to make development easier. This allows developers to code their games just once and have it work across the range of Android and iOS devices.

But we all know that To have a killer Platform you need a Killer App – content is KING.

The presentation below speaks to 3 growth factors in Gaming:

1. Globalization
2. Product innovation
3. Branded mobile

Sachin Tendulkar is a name to reckon with in the world of Cricket. The entire Indian sub-continent is proud of his accomplishments and is awe of the little master. Personally, I am most impressed with his humility in light of the heights he has reached. It might take a long time for someone in the field of cricket to scale the heights he has reached. But this remarkable cricketer has no airs about it. Even his competitors speak nicely of him.

The most moving incident in my life was to watch the Indian Cricket Team winning the World Cup in 2011 and the entire team was committed to “WIN” the cup for him. How does one person bring this kind of team spirit to the entire team?

So, on his Birthday (April 24th) this year, Cricket On Air team, decided to look into what was the story behind making of the champion of champs and for some “GOD” of cricket. We observed many interesting things – his commitment to the sport from early childhood, the influence of his teachers and family and his strong ethics.

When we interviewed Aakash Chopra, a few episodes ago. He shared with us how Sachin met his parent and him at an event. He was very respectful to his parents and greeted them. He found was the quality that was most inspiring about Sachin.

Check out the STORY of SACHIN Tendulkar on America’s premier cricket show “Cricket on Air” and for the readers of this blog…Click below.