Simplistic Thoughts

3 Days ago I took delivery of a 1993 Honda Today. A used car I had bought from a very small dealership. After cleaning the entire car the following day, I decided to drive it to the super market as well as fill up the gas. Unfortunately, the engine cranked only a few times before the battery died and I was left in disappointment.

The following day I went back to the dealership and borrowed some jumper cables to charge the battery. However, even after charging the battery the car still wouldn’t start. As I mentioned, the car was very low on gas so I figured maybe it had run out of gas from the dealership to my house. We called the gas station and one of the station employees brought $10 worth of gas to my house. Unfortunately, the car still didn’t start and I had no tools at all. To my surprise, the attendant said he would get some tools and be back in about 10 minutes.

He spent about 15-20 minutes cleaing plugs and checking wires (while continuously charging the battery) and the car finally started. When I asked how much, he told me it was the service that came with the gas. I didn’t know what to say. Since I had to buy a new battery, I made sure to stop by and fill up the rest of my tank at his gas station. Due to the extra service I received, I will continue to use this gas station whenever possible for as long as I am here.

When you surpass someones expectations, you shock them. That shock makes you stand out from your competition and makes them remember you. Most businesses tend to compete on price, better product, or quicker service. The problem is that these don’t break the expectations. They leave no “shock value”. Nothing to make the customer think your product or service is different. People expect the product to be better and cheaper. What they don’t expect is the coffee shop that offers to wash your car while you wait or the car salesman that’s totally honest.

This doesn’t just hold true for companies. This same thing applies with your job and even with your relationships. Seth Godin, one of the top selling athors on marketing recently wrote a post tilted “The Marketer’s Attitude” discussing what he would look for in a good marketer. Basically, things that are out of the norm and exceptional. As Seth Godin says, “They’ve seen it all before“. What will make you stand out? Are you the employee who uses less budget and gets more done or the one who does the average? Are you the friend who always shows up late or the friend who never forgets to send a birthday card?

If you want to stand out, you need to be exceptional!

Other helpful posts on being different

Presentation Zen on A Whole New Way of Presenting

The Secret to Standing Out

And of course, be sure to read The Purple Cow. A great book on standing out from your competition.

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I wrote about Flock when I first discovered it a few months ago and wrote it was quite worth while. Flock is an Internet Browser based on the popular Firefox browser by Mozilla that also integrates your e-mail, social media, photos and media, and news feeds all into one place. I was really impressed with how easy browsing had become. The one disadvantage was that Flock was based on Firefox 2.0 and 3.0 had just been released.

After three weeks without internet, I found out yesterday that Flock 2.0 was released. It comes with all the features of Firefox 3, a new cleaner theme, and better performance. Upon startup, they also provide you with a simple video showing you how to use the different features.

Each time you log into an account, Flock will ask you if you want to save the account. Once you have saved it everything becomes one click. One click to see all of your friends in all the different social media, one click to see all your different accounts, to check e-mail, post to your blog, see your favorites, or read your news.

If you do any of these things, then I recommend you give Flock a try. It is will well worth your time. If you already use it, or give it a try, let me know what you think.

If you are using another browser (especially internet explorer) then here are some additional articles to read.

Firefox Hits 20% Market Share- Could it be better?

The FLock Blog

New Features for Flock 2.0

More is More: Flock 2.0- Yes, I think they are right

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Blue sunny skies, sandy beaches, a warm beautiful ocean, snorkeling and fishing, and a ton of new restaurants. Yeah, I wasn’t missing internet too much, but after three weeks it’s finally installed. We also picked up our new used car. So as promised, here is a compilation of pictures from our arrival until now along with the story.

We left Tokyo on the morning of October 15th and arrived in Miyakojima in the afternoon. The weather was cloudy with a little drizzle of rain, but quite warm. For the first three days we stayed at The Sun Rooms, a guest house just out of town. It was cheap, but with no bathroom, sink or shower in the room we were eager to get out of there.

We spent the next couple of days looking for an apartment, and eventually found one located just outside the main part of town. It’s a 2 story house that has been turned into two apartments. We rent the upper half. It’s huge compared to my apartment in Tokyo and costs less than half. As you can see there is even a slight view of the ocean. After the 3rd day, the weather really cleared up and turned beautiful.

View from the road

Ocean side view

Farmland side

This is the pier (久松港) 10 minutes walk from our house with an amazing view of two smaller islands

And Painagama beach (パイナガマビーチ) is about 5 minutes by car

After finding out that we wouldn’t be able to get internet for about 3 weeks, we decided to just relax and enjoy the island. Here are a few pictures during that time.

Shimajiri Mangroves (島尻マングローブ林)

Eri at Aragusuku Kaigan beach　(新城海岸)

Left: Eri, Center: Me, Right: Guppi- We did this jump about 5 times to get this shot

After a busy day of snorkeling, Eri cooked our first meal at home. Guppi (right) was a huge help in our transition to Miyakojima. If you come to Miyakojima, make sure to stop by for a shiatsu massage and get his advice on places to visit.

View of the Ocean from Kurima Island (来間島)

Lunch at the Pani Pani Cafe. Mie (center) was Guppi’s friend visiting from Osaka. Kaori (right), runs an art shirt store here in Miyakojima

Sunset at Maehama Beach (前浜ビーチ)

If you would like to see more pictures of Miyakojima, please check out Eri’s blog. She has started a blog that focuses on Miyakojima. It is all in Japanese, but you can at least see some more pictures.

Please let me know what you think!

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