Dr. Stephen Ruby over at Entrepreneurial Practice has an interesting read on Charging Station Epiphany.
Perhaps most of us have been in a similar situation – you get to the airport and realize you did not charge your laptop from last night, your iPhone charge is close to 20% and the iPad is no better and you are about to board a 3 hour flight in the middle seat. WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO? A few web page reads, some emails and a couple of cycles of your favorite game and you could be out of juice before takeoff and then you will have to read the magazine in front of you about “How to Visit Rome in Three Days”.
This happened to me on a recent flight to Canada. It was not scheduled to be a lengthy flight and I had an aisle seat with plenty of leg room on this particular flight but my mobile devices would likely run out of charge before we landed and then I would have to read “How to Visit Rome in Three Days” (again) in the travel magazine.
No music. No videos. It would be a looooooong 90 minutes.
I too found myself at the charging station jockeying for a plug, and then another plug and putting money down on the table placing bids on the next plug available. 110 volts was never so important.
Once the laptop, iPad and iPhone were plugged in and we learned boarding would be delayed a bit, my panic attack subsided. I would be able to get through a few more levels on the game I started and complete a blog post and delete unnecessary emails, probably in that order.
And then, as Dr. Ruby points out eloquently, something odd happened to me on the way waiting for our turn on the jetway —
People started talking to me. And I started talking back to them. And we had conversations. OK, I’ll be honest, two people were talking (not me) and one person was listening (me) while we watched battery levels go “green” and increase into high 70% levels and beyond and flickering lights showing WiFi connections and new messages and texts to be read.
But we just watched and didn’t respond. Like some weird sort of technical bonfire. We looked but didn’t touch. We needed as much battery power as possible. There would be time for using in a few minutes. They talked and watched. I listened and watched. So, this was conversation. Like playing golf with other like minded individuals about your best drive, chip or putt. Courses you have played. Courses still on the bucket list. A few more % charge accumulated.
In this case, we (they) talked about recent travel experiences including the flight diverted from Amsterdam to New York instead of Charlotte because a patient had a stroke and the nerve of that guy to blow an aneurysm on the plane make them miss their connection from Charlotte!
And did you know that Canadian Football League teams play with 12 players instead of 11 and there are only 3 downs to advance the ball the needed 10 yards before making another first down? I still wouldn’t know that if my phone was charged!
So, watch this video, then put down your phones and iPads and make real connections (unless you are already one of the nearly 46 million to see this once). But then of course come back tomorrow and read another post on this blog as to not miss more valuable life lessons!
