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.

I recently attended Adtech in San Francisco, a digital marketing conference in US. And some of the insights I got from speaking to industry experts and thought leaders validated my initial perception that mobile marketing and M-commerce is at the onset of taking off here in the US and in Asia with Japan being the only leader in this space. It reminded me of my days when I was getting out of Engineering school back in 1996.

As an Electronics and Communication Engineering graduate, I landed in the emerging wireless industry at the time. I was probably the only one who even had a wireless phone based on GSM technology (thanks to the wireless service provider company I was working for at that time). It was clear to me that I was at the intersection of the biggest mobile revolution that would change the world. And it did.

From feature phones to iPhones to Andriod Phones, the world of mobile communication has come a long way. And just like we were at the helm of wireless communication over fifteen years ago, I believe that we are now at the intersection of the biggest revolution at the intersection of M-commerce and Mobile marketing.

Here are some of my observations:

The New Media renaissance: When SMS marketing was experimented with, it took a lot of heat from the mobile users.But with guidelines that were put in place by the mobile operators; mobile marketing via SMS has expanded rapidly in Europe and Asia as a new channel to reach the consumer. Now the industry is looking at mobile as not only a way of “Targeting” users but to become “Business solutions”. I love that I can use location based services by some cell phone networks as a way to send custom advertising and other information to cell-phone subscribers based on their current location.

Continue Reading my post on my column on ActiveGarage: Social Media and Tribes: Mobile Marketing + M Commerce = Mobile Social Network

Indian cricket is very glamorous but behind it there are some aspects we don’t pay attention to. It includes players who couldn’t make it to the top eleven, some great cricketers who had to make a choice between playing or getting a job because of life situations and even those who could not convince their families that their is a career in cricket. With IPL, it is hard to imagine that players did not get a chance to showcase their talent. Almost unbelievable. But it is true that many who had talent and the ambition could not pursue their dream to play cricket for Indian team.

Aakash Chopra is a cricketer who has seen it all – been there, done that. He shares some interesting stories from his experiences from aspiring to the play for the Indian team to be part of the team to reinvent his career as media. Moreover, he is the author of the book Beyond the Blues, which has received great reviews and is a honest perspective of life of a cricketer. And says Chopra “Being an India cricketer is hell in many ways because of the intense scrutiny you are subjected to by a billion people, But not being an India player is worse.”

Cricket On Air had a chance to interview Aakash. And bring to you an exciting conversation. Click the link below to listen.

Telecom has been a passion of mine. And as a Electronics and Communication engineer, I have been part of many ground breaking events in the industry. I was part of the advent of wireless in India and worked on the roll out of the GSM technology. And then worked with the giants in Telecom, like Alcatel, AT&T North America and Bell Labs on early adoption of features like Call waiting, call forwarding (Value Added Services) etc in United States which are now very common.

And later, I was at the helm of social gaming and now mobile gaming and apps…and we know how it disrupted the traditional gaming business.

iPhone was the major disruption for a feature phone. For all those who love cellular phones, I know you remember dial phones when phone was only to make and take calls. iPhone made it a mini personal computer and tapped into the biggest need for humans “touch devices”. Psychologists have long understood that the sensation of “touch” helps people to relate better. Taking this to a device – “Brilliant”. “Outstanding”.

But the juice on which a smart phone runs is the network since large amounts of data need to be transferred and speed is vital. So, 3G networks are high-speed data networks. Pair them with 3G devices, bandwidth and location information available to 3G devices gives rise to applications not previously available to mobile phone users, mobile TV, video on demand, location based services and video conferencing.

In US, some carriers have already deployed 4G. And needless to say, some people call it MAGIC. But India has delayed the launch of 3G but the wait is over. It is here now….

Why this is a paradigm shift?

1. Penetration of smartphones in Asia. EE times reports, In 2009 Asia was responsible for 60.2 million smartphone shipments, 33 percent of the global figure of 182.4 million. In 2015 IMS expects Asia to see 277.2 million smartphone shipments or 39 percent of a global market size of 710.8 million shipments. I believe this is potentially conservative….

2. Gaming and Apps: “In India, usage of Apps seem focused on games, music and social networking,” says Hemant Joshi, partner at Deloitte Haskins and Sells. Add to it, Education apps for kids, finance apps and some other utility apps and this community is ready to adapt. I can only imagine a “cricketing app” that will make the experience of this game very profound to the user…my mind is full of ideas. Potentially, a $2B marketplace, I believe true or not – it has the potential. The apps and content will be the NEXT GOLD RUSH.

The excitement is brewing….