If I am not challenging your thinking, I am probably not saying anything too important now am I…

People pay me a lot of money to help them learn to use technology tools in ways that will give them an advantage in the market.  And the truth is I love the work.  I also realize that I am losing patience with a large segment of people I interface with.  The other day someone asked me what I say to people that don’t really believe that social technologies are an important tool.  I said, “I don’t say anything to them because I don’t have time to waste on people that have such little vision.”  I care less and less about trying to convert people into understanding that technology will forever change humanity, and the organizations that serve it.  There is a digital divide in this world and you either value technology as tool, and are willing to invest in it, or you don’t.  I make no value judgment on those that don’t get it, I just don’t have the patience to waste time convincing them of something so patently obvious.  Watch this video for 60 seconds and if you can’t see a bit of the future, quit reading this blog.

For those of you that are digitally converted and understand the power of the tech toolbox, please pick up your game.  I might be more frustrated with people that understand it but make excuses as to why they are not better at leveraging it than the people that are just plain ignorant on the subject.  There is nothing worse than a half converted semi believer who says all the right things, carries an iPhone but is clueless how to really load apps on it that might actually improve their life.  At lunch today a 61 year old CEO told me he would send his kids to one of our bootcamps because he wanted them to learn, but he wasn’t coming because he is too far gone – and he is… because he believes that.  If I hear one more person tell me:

“I don’t have time to learn about this new stuff”

“I can’t keep up with all the change”

“I get it, I just don’t like to use it personally”

I am going to ditch being polite and tell them the truth, “Your a self selected dinosaur.”

Dinosaurs were big and powerful in their day, but the environment changed and they were killed off.  The environment has changed my friends and it is decidedly more technology augmented.  Natural selection will now bump off leaders who think they can get away with being ignorant of technology – be it personal use, or corporate digital plumbing.

By the way, some of the worst examples of this are people I meet that work in the technology industry and cant fight their way out of an iPad or Windows problem to save their life.  You know who you are – admit it, you are a walking Oxymoron – confession is good for your soul.

Do you need technology to be happy?  No.  Do you need technology in order to be a good human being? No.  It is just a tool after all, and you can paint, create music, love people, and connect with others, and think great thoughts without technology.  Of course you can do all of those things even better with technology.

Let me draw an analogy… Can you play golf with an old wood driver, a blade 5 iron, and an old putter?  Sure you can.  Will you score as well as you would with a GPS rangefinder, a full set of the latest clubs, and a mobile app that describes each hole?  Of course not.  Don’t think this applies to you?  Do you use a 3 year old laptop your company supplies that is locked down so tightly you can’t add the apps you would love to run?  Have you moved to an iPad and mobile phone that are synced with your laptop and automatically backed up in the cloud?  Do you have a full suite of applications that help you do just about any task in life?  Have you built a powerful social networking presence?  Do you use the Internet crowd to help you with tasks? Can you search for any piece of information and find it in seconds from any device 24/7?  These things are just the standard price of admission today.

People often tell me that I am too harsh, and that the only reason I am good at technology is I work in the field.  Not true.  The reason I am good is because it is a powerful toolbox and I love the power. I see clearly how the mastery of these tools has allowed me to operate at a level of creativity and efficiency that was not even close to possible in the 80’s and 90’s.  Scott Klososky + Technology = a powerful force.  Scott Klososky on my own is just average in many ways.  Lots of you are choosing to be average because of stupid excuses like “you don’t have time to learn to use new tools.” In other words, you don’t have time to learn to win – so you will just be average.

You could multiply your gifts in the world – if you would just invest the time and energy to learn how technology would augment their delivery.  The choice is yours.  I would love to see you quit wasting the opportunity…