PASSION and its importance in our industry

People throw around the word “passion” a lot in the business world. Maybe it gives them a sense of belonging or maybe makes them feel better about what they do every day. To me “passion” is an important facet to my work.


When you have passion for something, it makes work seem …..well…not so much like work. It like the old saying ” If your job is something you love to do, you will never work a day in your life”. I firmly believe this.
 When I started in the industry I was simply a sales guy. Wireless was new to me. Wireless was new to MANY people. The saturation rate in the US was probably around 20% at the time and Im talking 1998 . As I went forward in my career, wireless grew as a passion vs. just another product that I had a quota on moving units.



Seeing technology change so many peoples lives is what originally did it for me. Wireless phones gave people the ability to communicate where ever they may be (obviously coverage comes in to play). This was powerful when I thought about it this way…….Emergencies. Lets say your car broke down. Your on a highway 10 miles away from the next exit….What are you to do if you cant communicate with anyone? What if this person is elderly? Are they going to walk 10 miles? Maybe hitch hike…thats safe. Thats where I felt I was offering security to people. Real ways to communicate when you need to. Thats what sold me on the idea and many,many customers over the years. Thats why AAA sold so many $10 emergency plans on COmcast Metrophone back in the day.

Fast forward to now…. Smartphones rule, social networking is HUGE, text messaging is a cost effective and simple way to communicate, taking and sending pictures is fun, and we are hooked! I could not imagine you taking my handset from me for a day. I would actually feel lost.

I am a true believer that wireless technology makes lives BETTER. It connects us in ways we have never imagined and they will continue to get better and better. We are slowly losing the need for a PC and its exciting!

I know so many people in the industry from customer facing to executive level positions that have lost the passion. They dont stay connected to our customers and how this technology is applicable in their life. I know many executives that couldnt tell you how facebook works. How many people (customers) are connected to people through facebook? 350 million ACTIVE users. And the average of how many “friends” they have each ?130. I dont know how much more power you can have than that. We should all know and understand social networking.

I challenge anyone reading this to DIG IN. Take 15 minutes from your busy day to learn. Read industry news, product reviews, CUSTOMER reviews. Poll your customers….how are they using it? How is it helping them? Whats an application that has saved TIME or MONEY for them? This is such valuable data. There are so many sites out there that should be DAILY reads for people in our business. Here is my daily reading list

- Engadgetmobile.com , PhoneDog.com, Phonescoop.com, Linkedin.com groups (ton of info here), Twitter.com (follow some big corporate people and you will learn), fiercewireless.com.

These are just a few but take the time and it will pay off. We need to get our passion back and keep it! This is such a dynamic business and there is so much to love about it. Lets help our customers make the best of the tech we have available to us!


CS