Messing Up and Moving On
Today I felt like the biggest fail whale ever. 
As much as I want to say mistakes happen, I have a very hard time processing disappointment (This is in reference to my mistakes by the way, not other people’s). I easily forgive and forget, but when it comes to myself, I am my harshest critic.
This morning, I was supposed to board a plane with my new boss, Barry Libert. We were scheduled to meet at 5:10 at Hascom Airfield, and I completely overslept. When I looked at my watch this morning, the time read 5:15. I immediately scrambled for my phone, which I saw was flipped open next to my pillow. My eyes darted to the alarm clock resting on my nightstand, and my heart dropped when I saw it set to the snooze position.
Somehow, my body had failed me.
I managed to sleep through two alarms and even dismissed the text messages that my friend in Las Vegas was sending me as a wake up call. Frantic, I dialed Barry’s number and delivered the news that I wasn’t going to make it. I couldn’t tell whether he was angry or not, but his voice was steady and his instructions firm. ”Be at the office by 7:30.”
The majority of the morning was spent processing what had happened and worrying about the consequences of my behavior. What if the limo didn’t show in Philadelphia? What if the papers I was delivering were important? What if this project or presentation was something that would affect other initiatives in the future? I had a million and one questions, but one weighty feeling – disappointment.
It is rare that I don’t deliver and when that happens, I think about it for days, maybe even weeks. It’s one thing if you forget a friend’s birthday, but in an environment like the one I’m working in, I feel like the magnitude of a slip-up is amplified to the max. Multiple parties are involved, money is at stake, reputations, etc. It’s really just not something you want to be associated with and the realization that you are the person culpable is daunting.
As for timing, this was a disaster for my second day. Instead of starting off on the right foot, I feel like I took a step backwards and tripped over my own shoelaces in the process.
Anyway, I was sitting here in my little cubicle reading supportive DMs from friends and talking to Matt Knell, who is an amazing human being. We were having this conversation about the work we do, who we are as people, and what matters in life (not bad for a 9 AM cup of coffee chat). Amongst other words of wisdom, he told me ”If you can’t change it, don’t worry about it. If you do the best you can, you’ve done all you can do.” This “let it go girl” pep talk put my mind at ease and kept me composed the rest of the day.
I look at Matt’s random act of kindness, something as simple as taking the time to talk to a friend, and realized that tiny gestures can make all the difference.
I’ve spent the rest of my day trying to do some little things to make up for this morning’s debacle and plan on bringing my A-game from here on out. Hopefully I’ll rack up enough + points over time to redeem myself, but for now, I’m keeping a positive attitude and looking forward to a fresh start tomorrow**.
(**Sidtenote: Watch the video directly on youtube to see the cool new annotations feature in action.)
“It’s going to be okay. Tomorrow = New day!” (The message I wrote to myself on my dry-erase board.)
Thoughts on Jobs After My First Day at Mzinga
How many people can say they love their jobs? How many people actually like their coworkers? How many people out there are working in a profession where they feel like they’re making a difference?
I feel incredibly lucky that I can answer YES to all of the above. Can you?
Hair today, Gone tomorrow!
I’m so behind schedule, but I have to blog about this. I just cut my hair 11 inches! I’ve done this before, but each time it’s uber scary. (I didn’t have my microphone configured correctly when I recorded this video so you can’t hear me, but look at the hair!! ahhhh)
FireFox Download Day: Killer Social Media Marketing
Firefox 3 is out today and I downloaded it along with millions of other smart, sensible web users (;)). We’re trying to set the world record for most software downloads in a single day and so far, it looks like we’re gonna pull it off. I’ve been using the beta for months, and in addition to loving FF3, I have to say that I’m thoroughly impressed by Mozilla’s marketing efforts. If you go to wakoopa.com/downloadday, you’ll see a live update of number of users who downloaded FF3. As I write this post (about 12 hours into DL day), it’s currently at 4,932,609. Incredible!
Mozilla’s Download Day initiative is a true example of killer social media marketing. The site SpreadFireFox.com has an easy-to-navigate layout and clearly invites visitors to be part of a greater *community* initiative. It’s not a team of employees who are making it happen; it’s an entire web community who believe in their product.
What they did right:
- Incorporated dynamic content on their main page. Successful websites today need to take on a life of their own. This is done by the community or site visitors who act like oxygen, breathing air into a site with their content and conversation. On sharefirefox.com, there are elements like a forum, live comments, and a photo stream that reflect this.
- Initiated and engaged in community-based conversation. The creation of a forum completely invites users to talk amongst each other as well as interact with actual peeps from FF. Props to the Mozilla team for having the sense to be responsive to the discourse and maintain a fairly updated FAQ.
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Invited users to help. The beauty of social media marketing is that once you give users the tools, they go out and do all the legwork. Check out all the ways Firefox users could help spread the word about download day: Host in-person download day parties, share on sites like facebook, bebo, and myspace, and post badges onto blogs via affiliate codes. They even created a Twitter account! I predict we’re totally going to set the world record as a result of these efforts. I’m ecstatic because I am such a FF fangirl. Some folks like IE, but every time I engage in a conversation about the better web browser, I liken the conversation to arguments I had in Middle School:
12 Year-Old Alexa’s Conversation
Me: “Nsync is so the better boyband.”
Random teenybopper: “Nu-uh. Like, Backstreet Boys ALL THE WAY!”
Me: “Who’s your favorite member?”
Random teenybopper: “Nick Carter”
Me: “We can’t be friends.”
21 Year-Old Alexa’s Conversation:
Me: “Firefox is SO the better web browser.”
Random person: “Nu-uh. IE FTW!”
Me: “No way. What version are you running?”
Random geek: “IE6.”
Me: “We can’t be friends.”
(Seriously IE6 folk… Why?! I can’t believe I’ve evolved into this big of a geekette that I’m blogging about a web browser, even worse that I’m comparing web browsers to boy bands, but that’s me.
A few notes about the browser itself: I’ve used FF3 on both Windows (Vista and XP) and right now on my Mac. Surfing the web is fast and friendly. Little nuances make the entire experience better, like the way url’s are cached as well as the cute little star in the address bar that serves as a bookmark icon. All my extensions are upgraded and work fine (web developer, tiny url, piclens, bettergmail, delicious, etc.).
If you haven’t downloaded FF3 already, DO EEET!!!! If not for the browser features, do it because Mozilla’s marketing efforts should be rewarded! Oh, and also because FF3 totally gives new meaning to the Justin Timberlake song, “SexyBack“:
Pimping Out Startups: How I’m Helping Magnify.net During Internet Week
For the past month or so, I’ve been doing some part time work over at Magnify.net, an exciting start up in New York that provides video solutions to publishers that want to integrate and aggregate video content on their existing websites. My daily tasks range from answering support tickets to strategizing company initiatives, and most recently, running around the streets of Manhattan with a big orange alien man cutout.
As part of InternetWeek NY, I am pimping out Magnify’s brand and I’m doing it through a blog I created titled, “Internetweek.tv.” For the first time ever, the city of NY in cooperation with the Mayor’s Office of Film, Theatre & Broadcasting, is putting together a seven day smorgasbord of startups, meetups, panels, and parties, all in celebration of one of my favorite things ever – the Internet. Steve Rosenbaum, Magnify’s CEO was looking for something fun to do as part of the festivities and I suggested the creation of this site. Not only does it increase exposure to Magnify’s brand, it also gives New Yorkers an opportunity to get some solid Internet Week coverage (there’s no official internet week blog…weird right?). Last but not least, this also gives the Magnify team, in particular me, a really great opportunity to go out, listen, learn, engage in conversations, and just have a good time. it’s called putting the social in social media.
As the head of Magnify’s Internetweek.tv initiative, I’m literally turning into a one woman media machine. I’m going to events, taking photos, recording videos, conducting interviews, and then blogging, uploading, flickr-ing, editing, tweeting, promoting, etc. I live for this stuff. What makes me so happy is that in the past, I would normally be out there doing this stuff anyway, and now I actually get to say that it’s my job to do it.
When you’re in high school and in college, you can only hope that you have a career in life that allows you to do something you love. I tell myself that I’m lucky to be doing what I’m doing every single day.
This is just day 1 of my Internet Week extravaganza and I’m looking forward to more media madness that will ensue throughout the course of the week. I’m determined to take our little Magnify cutout man with me everywhere and have him pose with famous NY landmarks and all the cool people I meet along the way. He’s officially my new boyfriend.
You can follow my progress on the Internetweek.tv blog and get some behind the scenes insight here.
Oh, and last but not least, a big thank you goes out to my buddies B & E, who were nice enough to help me theme the site and prep it for launch. You guys rock my socks.
