“You Have A Digital Tattoo”

Whatever you say or do is being photographed and recorded

No matter how public or private you try to be, you are leaving a trail.

There are cameras everywhere, backup servers, mail relays, cell phone locaters, satellites and transaction records working hard to keep track of every aspect of modern life.

My friend Bill Ganz explains this as your digital tattoo. If you decide you don’t like what’s posted online, you can attempt to change it, but it will be a lot like removing a tattoo.

In other words, count on it being permanent.

It’s human nature to fight this.  In the 90’s, Bill Gates wrote in Business @ the Speed of Thought about the idea that everything would be recorded in the future. When I read this, I remember putting down the book and freaking out over the possibility that some future government body would review tapes and jump to a conclusion on something I did.

I soon realized that this was exactly what I heard as a child.

God knows what you are up to. Angels are taking notes on everything you do.

Maybe that’s how we get scared about this digital tattoo.

I won’t comment on the supposed value of scaring children into submission, but I do like to contemplate the idea of what the world would be like if everyone acted as if they were on a public stage. There’d be no reason to plot or plan a clandestine effort. We likely would not spend much time reviewing the tapes once we all got used to the knowledge that everyone knew what we were doing.

Choose To Be A Better Version of Yourself

I like to think that my awareness that my activities are making me treat people a little bit better and think a bit before I react. As Vicktor Frankl taught:

“Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.”

This has been a liberating feeling as I’ve worked to be more open, share on social media, and build more personal relationships in business. It’s been profitable and a lot more fun.

I Regret to Inform You…

No matter how hard you try, you are going to make mistakes. Some small, and some gigantic screw ups.

Thanks to social media, I’m friends with an amazing story teller named Kathryn Schulz. (Get her book Being Wrong: Adventures in the Margin of Error. One of my favorites this year. Talk to her on Twitter). Kathryn was just picked as a TED featured talk for the second time this year.

Listen to Kathryn tell the story of a tattoo and explain the trouble with thinking you can have “no regrets”

Love Shines Through

You have a digital tattoo. Most of it is just raw data that will never be reviewed. You might want to take a look and begin to recognize patterns that support you and your goals.

I think we will learn to love this transparency.

Once we get over the idea that we might get caught, that we might be judged and the world might find out what they probably know and don’t care about, we are free to focus on what does matter.

The future of business and life can be summed up in my two word marketing strategy:

Listen & Love

We’ve talked about the “Listen” part before. The technology that allows all of this digital data to be created gives us the ability to focus on individuals and hear what they want and desire.

This isn’t an invitation to stalk and be creepy. Please don’t go turning on some automated bot message to pretend to listen. If you love your audience, appreciate your customers and desire to do good in the world, you will respond with love.

These bits of data circulating all over the Internet are not much by themselves. However, they build a precise representation of who you are.

Keep focused on adding authentic real value in conversations. Let the world know you can love by treating everyone you meet in every encounter like a important friend.

Serendipity will kick in when you least expect it. What you can expect is the law of reciprocity working in your favor. Do right by people, do it often and people will notice and respond to your digital lovemark.