GM just launched a major new campaign called GMNext, to signify its 100th Anniversary.

Over the next year, General Motors will celebrate the start of its second century through GMnext, a dialogue-based campaign that engages people via social media and interactive experiences. As a platform to showcase GM’s commitment to transportation solutions employing technologies that are relevant to consumer needs, GMnext will demonstrate our focus on solutions to the challenges that will shape the future of transportation.

A huge team of talented professionals is responsible for GMNext.com and I was fortunate and excited to be part of it. I did the Flash piece top and center on the homepage of GMNext.com, with the 3D flying windows. Performance was crucial here, since each of the windows can be populated with a ton of dynamic content. The motion needed to be fluid and convincing and earlier attempts at producing the desired look and feel were not successful. I love to squeeze every last bit of performance out of my interactive projects and my capabilities were put to good use here.

Click the screenshot to visit the site:

Read More: GM Asks the World: ‘What’s Next?’ (Fox Business)

I’ve been thinking about failure lately. Given that each of us has finite energy each day, I wondered how much of it I expend avoiding failure. The answer is a lot. This has had the deliberate effect of causing more successes than failures at the end of the day. But it’s also had a tremendously negative effect. All of the effort to avoid failure has caused cautiousness, hesitancy, and even avoidance. Risk aversion.

One of the reasons people stop learning is that they become less and less
willing to risk failure. - John W. Gardner

Mmmhmm. Failure is simply feedback–so you can get your ass up and try smarter next time. Failure is education and must be treated as such. The only real failure is if you stop trying. Once again I’m reminded that action is everything. And just to remind myself: Think less, do more. Here’s a couple more pertinent quotes:

“A life which does not go into action is a failure.” - Arnold J. Toynbee

Don’t consider losses a waste of time. Consider them an apprenticeship. - Greg
Norman

Love him or hate him, Bob Parsons is an interesting guy. I was browsing his blog last night and caught an old post of his about Sony (How Sony Got to be Great). He quotes Sony co-founder Masura Ibuka who said, “You never succeed in technology, business or anything by following the others.” I love this concept. Not that it should be your only modus operandi, but it counter-balances the tendency to try and stay up on every little thing happening in your markets and paying acute attention to your competition. More innovation, less imitation.

I read this post and thought about Van Halen (of course!). I’ve heard that Eddie Van Halen doesn’t listen to other people’s music much and certainly not for inspiration. I heard this from a critic who was whining about how Van Halen sounds the same after x number of albums. The beauty of this is that Van Halen sounds like Van Halen and nobody else. It wouldn’t be the same if the guys had tried to imitate Led Zeppelin. Van Halen would be a watered-down copy of the original like so many grunge bands where in 1993.

Bob then goes on and talks about how he has applied the principle inside of GoDaddy. From a IT standpoint, a lot of times it’s easier to just use whatever solutions are hot this month, especially where open-source is as prevalent as it is. But, sometimes is makes a lot more sense for your individual firm to go your own way. This was certainly the case at First Health, where I developed a Learning Management System for e-learning across the enterprise. There were numerous solutions commercially available. But we had a pretty clear vision of what we wanted and the other solutions were essential square pegs for a round hole. So, we went our own way, developed our own system, and in the end, there was nothing like us around. We offered a uniquely rich and interactive form of online training and our users loved it, after being subjected to the common, dry, ‘page-turner’ stuff for so long.

Also, it makes me think about market evaluation. I personally get caught up a lot in thinking about potential markets and their viability. The thing is, a lot of entrepreneurs I know didn’t spend a lot of time thinking if the market was truly a good opportunity for them or not. They just got to work. Skip the analysis paralysis. Action first, Guy Kawasaki-style. Of course, I don’t advocate reckless enterprising, but it’s a great counter-balance to getting caught up in details and information that doesn’t necessarily (have to) matter.

I remember when I was 17 and I worked in the paint department at Ernst (think Home Depot). I’d get into these future-oriented conversations with a co-worker. He was older, maybe 2.5 times my age. We’d talk about starting our own businesses and he had a lot to say about it. It really got me thinking about actually doing it when I was older. This was one of the first times I remember really contemplating the idea. I’ve had some proclivities towards it.. Like in the 4th grade, I would assemble these little devices (more…)