Andy Lykens

Music Publishing & Licensing Expert.

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Your Life With One Bar

That thing in your pocket – you know; the rectangular one? The one that helps you Facetime grandma or read what your crazy friend has to say on Facebook or that you can’t live without on a long flight because HELLO! Stranger Things Season 2 is out and you’re somehow only 2 episodes in!

Something really, really messed up is about it to happen to it.

First, think about all the times it works well: When you’re connected to the internet and you forgot to print your boarding pass and then… “Oh yeah, I can just download the app and enter in my reservation confirmation that’s sitting in my inbox. Easy.”

Or remember the time when you remembered at the last second its Dad’s birthday? How happy was he to hear you and your daughter sing to him? Remember the look on his face?

Of course there was that horrible hurricane. And you were FREAKING OUT because you know your sister lives RIGHT near there in Florida and…oh thank god, she checked in on Facebook that she’s ok, just without service for a bit.

Now think about the times when it doesn’t work so well.

UGH, the file is too big but I have to send this stupid thing for work and WHY CAN’T THIS WORK WHEN I NEED IT TO?

Or CRAP, no connection so Facetime won’t work. I guess we’ll just have to connect later and say “Happy belated” (if I remember) even though I TOTALLY am NOT late, my stupid phone just doesn’t work.

What about that AMAZING playlist. The one that ALWAYS helps you with anxiety on a flight. Just fire up Spotify and download it and…shit. One bar. No sleep on this flight and my presentation tomorrow is SCREWED.

Welcome to life with one bar. Always.

This is what the FCC wants to do with their repeal of the net neutrality laws. They want to give you one bar.

…but not for everything.

Only on stuff that you use a TON, that you LOVE, but that doesn’t happen to jive with your internet company’s bottom line.

You know, the same internet company that manages to raise your bill every month for no reason. The one that provides you download speeds slower than ANY OTHER DEVELOPED COUNTRY IN THE WORLD for
MORE MONEY than ANY OTHER DEVELOPED COUNTRY IN THE WORLD.

Think about that: you pay to have internet service provided to you, but instead of just providing the already over-priced, over-throttled service they now
tell you what and how you can use it and can charge you more for the privilege.

Imagine if you did that with your business, how fast would you lose customers? They could choose another provider so easily.

Luckily our internet providers don’t have that problem – you’re basically choosing between mediocre and fine because they’ve already lobbied to make sure we don’t have a choice.

Now, very soon, they’re going to get to decide how much Facebook you get to go on, how much Spotify you get to listen to, or heck, maybe they’ll charge you more to use Facetime.

Sound ludicrous and moronic? It is.

It’s pretty insane to think that you could possibly be charged more money to use apps that you love. Or that they can limit the amount of time you spend streaming your online college course that you’ve already paid kind of a lot for because you’re trying to get a job so finally your kid can go to a decent school.

It’s insane to think about what life would be like always having one bar.

I don’t want to be told what to do, what service is best for me, or get charged even more money for even WORSE service.

I want an open and free internet.

If you do too you can take 2 really easy steps you can do in 3 minutes:

  1. Write to Congress (just fill out your name and address)
  2. Share that link to as many people as you can. Use this post if it helps you do so.

That’s it – but you have less than 48 hours.

If you’re feeling heroic you can also call congress (they’ll show you how after you follow step 1 above).

Just do one that one thing to avoid having one bar on all your favorite apps.

Your grandma and I thank you.

Andy

p.s. The current FCC chairman was a lawyer for Verizon for years.

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Crushing It.

Crushing It.

Crush It.

When people hear this phrase most think of doing something incredibly well. Maybe they’re driving a golf ball 300 yards, picking up ladies at the bar, or are having a hair day so epic, so flawless, they can’t help but feel like the sassiest gal in town (I love feelin’ sassy!).

All of these situations are great and imply some sort of higher-being moment for the individual who’s in the zone. But maybe there’s another way to think about it…

I was playing Settlers of Catan last night (which, if you don’t know, is the greatest game of all time – kind of like Monopoly mixed with Risk but easier to learn) and at some point during the game I looked at the board and thought to myself:

“There is no way I am going to win this game. There aren’t enough resources and there are too many obstacles.”

Then I looked around the table and it dawned on me. Everyone else likely felt the same way; eyes glued to the board searching for options, hands running through their hair in frustration, and all looking at the exact same thing:

A crowded board with too many obstacles and not enough resources.

Once I had that realization my mindset shifted. Everyone has mostly the same problems and perhaps if I change my outlook I will find a way to at least be competitive. Since I was going to play the game anyway, why not try to at least make the most of it.

I decided to crush it, but not like you might think.

I wasn’t trying to re-invent the wheel and create some insane new strategy. Instead my aim was to crush my limiting mindset:

“not enough resources, too many obstacles.”

So I looked at the board, more closely analyzed the other players’ situations and continued to move ahead despite what seemed like an implausible scenario.

This happens in art, science, and business all the time. We all look at the same game and conclude it’s too difficult based on the resources available and the obstacles in the way.

Yet people always manage to succeed.

People even come in second and third and do pretty well despite not coming in first place.

So the next time you think someone’s really crushing it ask yourself: Have they re-invented the wheel? Are they playing out of their mind? Is her hair REALLY that silky and smooth?

Or have they simply crushed their limiting beliefs?