Why I haven’t bought an IPhone – and still won’t
I’ve been hearing pleanty of hubub about the new iPhone from friends and the media over the past few weeks – in some cases the same people representing both. The new iPhone’s launch was only slightly less eventful as the original. Back then, my dad called early on the Friday to let me know he was waiting in line and to ask if I wanted one. Interestingly, he reported that the line was 3x as long this past Friday, when he returned to the same AT&T store. Back then, I took the bait and bought one….how could I pass up such a gracious offer. I played with it for two weeks (mostly in the first few days) before selling it on eBay to a guy in Switzerland at a 20% premium. I sold it back then because I disliked the form factor, the keyboard, the battery life, the email functionality and most of all, because I had no complaints with my blackberry and my current email/calendar/contacts setup (this hasn’t always been the case). I had high hopes for the second rev, but early reports are unencouraging. Users I spoke to claimed that battery life has, in fact, decreased. It’s true there is a more powerful battery in the phone, but the 3G circuitry and chip drains battery life faster and net-net, the new phone dies sooner. This is a non-starter for me. My blackberry almost always lasts a full day, even when on the road under the most extreme circumstances. Tony’s iPhone frequently requires multiple recharges during a day, a situation that leaves him searching for outlets in restaurants, and one that would frustrate me. The other feature I had hoped for was a rotating keyboard so that typing long emails would be made easier. Everyone was calling for this initially so I’m surprised Apple didn’t follow through. Anyway, I’m even more comforted by my recent purchase of RIMM two weeks back. The blackberry is a solid product and one that I believe has a good life ahead of it.
The Mental Game
So much of what determines success is the mental game. Having the confidence and self-encouragement to get the job done, under whatever circumstances present themselves. It’s the same in business, sports, relationships….it’s all the same set of mental tools. I recently heard of a woman who picked up tennis as a 3.0/3.5-level player and won the state championship two years later, through primarily focusing on mental exercises and, to a lesser extent, on-court practice. Last week, I played a league tennis match against a focused opponent of lesser skill. In both sets, I was leading early (2-0 in the first, 4-1 in the second), but he managed to claw his way back in. I ultimately lost in a tie-breaker (6-3, 5-7, 10-7) and played decently, but couldn’t help but think it was the mental game that dictated my outcome (or lack thereof). I immediately thought of this Nike Golf commercial, with Early Woods’ narration. Tiger has incredible raw physical skill, but so do each of the other top 100 PGA golfers. What really separates Tiger from the pack is his mental game. Mike Donald lost the 1990 US Open to Hale Irwin on the 19th hole of a playoff when Irwin sank a miraculous 70-foot putt. Donald virtually disappeared from professional golf soon after, while Irwin became the dominant senior tour player. The mental game has as much, if not more, to do with winning and losing a match, a negotiation, a sale as the raw physical circumstances.
