To wit: Not only have I discovered great new music (huge music fan here) but it’s also helped with a few job leads, helped me meet some good people, and my latest greatest achievement has been fixing a giant snafu with Capital One that was pissing me off beyond all belief.

I’ll start with the good story, the useful story. In mid-January, Capital One decided to put a restriction on my account even though I made the payments I was supposed to make. I even had confirmation from no less than two different reps that everything was fine. Not true. I find they put a restriction on my account and they refuse to lift it. No less than two dozen calls over the next two weeks brings the same result…script reading “customer service” representatives hiding behind the “it’s our policy that once a restriction is placed, it cannot be removed” rhetoric. Even though it was THEIR mistake, they refused to fix it. I spoke with manager after manager with still no luck. A variety of emails were also sent, all of them having the same “policy” response. Fed up with this crap I called my bank and placed a stop payment claim with the fraud department because I didn’t get what I paid for with Capital One (use of my card). The calls and emails continued and all came back with the same result.

Finally, I hit the Twittersphere and voiced my displeasure with Capital One. Lo and behold, I get a message from someone named @AskCapitalOne asking if they can help. Sure…why not? We send a few DM (direct messages) back and forth (all the while my super anti-phishing guards are up making sure all is legit), she asks a few questions and I’m convinced she’s legit.

NOTE: never ever never ever give personal info away to someone you don’t know. She asked my name, street number (not even full address) and then asked if she could call me at my number (that I did NOT give…this helped ease my mind a bit). She called and we went through a couple more security questions…some I intentionally answered wrong to make sure someone wasn’t just collecting my info. She clearly had my account info in front of her and we proceeded. I recounted the past few weeks of frustrations and she said “I can see all that here in the notes” and then proceeded to lift the restriction. I checked my account again while on the phone with her and it was true, restriction was lifted.

This experience alone proves a lot:

1. Used correctly, companies can repair massive damage by keeping tabs on what people are saying on Twitter
2. Twitter is truly another tool that can benefit companies and shouldn’t be ignored
3. Twitter isn’t just a toy for bored people
4. Twitter isn’t just a tool for marketing or for information passing

Companies should seriously consider using Twitter to help their business in one aspect or another.

You’ve seen me singing Sprint’s praises on Chia Town for quite a while. Blazing fast network, good customer service (after fixing the crappy customer service they were known for), and GREAT prices. I laughed at my friends who were paying AT&T boatloads of money for crappier service. Alas…such is not the case.

Sprint’s timing is REALLY bad. They announce this just as Verizon is about the get the iPhone. Perhaps Verizon isn’t as bad as AT&T in some people’s minds and a defection from Sprint to Verizon for the iPhone alone won’t be such a big deal. I had planned on sticking with my Android phone (a Samsung Moment which increasingly seems like a big heavy brick as I look at the new phones coming out…but I’m still happy with it) with Sprint because it just makes sense to stick with an affordable plan on a good network.

But now this.

Seriously Sprint, WTF? Did the Clearwire debacle go so badly that you’re trying to recoup losses and are sticking it to your customers? You have to remember Sprint, the only reason MANY people stayed with Sprint was because it was night-and-day cheaper than the competition. AT&T had exclusivity with the iPhone, Verizon had a big fast network, Sprint had…well Sprint had Android phones and a price that couldn’t be beat.

I’m seriously questioning this move. I love Sprint. I love their service, I love their customer service, and I love the tenacity they’ve shown to rebuild after getting beaten down. I applaud Dan Hesse for taking the helm of a sinking ship and getting things back on track. Good job!

But WTF Sprint? This may be the single biggest thing to get people to defect. It’s not like Sprint has the biggest market share as it is to toy around with. Under this price change, the other carriers will now be CHEAPER. Cheaper I say! I was fine settling for a cool phone (but not a “holy crap this phone is awesome” phone) because I had a good network and a stupidly cheap plan to use it on. Now I can pay less AND get a better phone, Android or iPhone?

I don’t know what you’re doing Sprint. Maybe you’re making boatloads of money from NASCAR or from your LBS (Location Based Services) offerings, but this makes no sense to me.

Three topics, seemingly unrelated, yet all quite relevant to any entrepreneur or business. Taken individually, they all make sense. Put them together and you’ve got a great recipe for success.

• First, let’s discuss creativity. When I say this, I don’t necessarily mean you have to be a designer. A coder needs to stay creative and focused while coding away. Yes, code requires creativity along with logic. A businessman needs to stay creative while thinking about new ways to grow the business. This article from Copyblogger titled “8 Bad Habits That Crush Your Creativity and Stifle Your Success” outlines a few ways to get keep yourself from falling into common pitfalls that keep you from reaching your maximum potential. It’s a great read and I recommend reading and taking the relevant ideas and using them yourself. We all need to keep those creative juices flowing and to continue pressing forward. Let’s stop those annoying habits or thought processes that hold us back.
• Next, an article titled “PlentyOfFish Architecture” from High Scalability that a friend sent to me recently. It’s a year old but still very motivating as it shows you that you don’t need to be a giant organization with a load of money and resources in order to run a very successful business. Highlights include the fact it’s ONE GUY running this entire process on two hours a day of work and raking in $10mil/year on Google ads. You should check out the other stats…truly mind-blowing…and exciting if you can use this as inspiration to do your own thing without fear of not having enough resources.
• Last…you just have to be patient. I don’t know of any great business that was TRULY an overnight success. Some things may have grown quickly, but that is a very small percentage of success stories out there. Look at all the great companies and you’ll see most of them have taken some time to ramp up. Some have had bumpy roads to success, others have had smooth sailing, but both ways it has been a bit of a journey. I want to remind others as I must remind some of my partners out there that sometimes you need to grow one aspect of the company before the other (ie, it’s easier to sell to a customer if you actually HAVE a customer-to-be. Get people in the door first). Be patient. Build the infrastructure, and have fun while you’re at it.

Many of my posts may seem to have an entrepreneurial twist to them. Perhaps that’s because I have an entrepreneurial twist to my mindset. Almost everything written here however can be applied to any organization anywhere. It may need a little massaging and manipulating but they can be applied and they can be beneficial.

Be patient.
Stay creative.
Start that project even if you’re  a small outfit with limited resources.

Tie all three together and the sky is the limit.

You can use this advice as both an entrepreneur or as a working member of Corporate America. Either way, avoiding complacency can have you reaping new rewards and continuing growth and success.

A few thoughts on complacency in both camps:

Corporate America

1. Happy that you’ve got a job and you’ll just come to work and get a paycheck? Don’t get to comfortable…this recession has booted many people from their jobs that many thought were safe.
2. Got a decent position in the company? Why work harder, you’ve made your way to manager. First, look at point number one. Second, there’s always someone else who is willing to work hard and move up the ladder and you may find yourself SOL.
3. Land that position with your skills? Great, but you need to keep learning because requirements change, tools change, software changes, etc. Stay complacent and you’ll be as useful as a switchboard operator in Pixar’s animation department.

Entrepreneurs

1. You’ve developed a great business model. Great. It can ALWAYS be improved though, and each improvement can lead to more time for you or more profits.
2. You’ve created a successful business based on a great idea. Awesome…but if you’ve done it once you can probably do it again!
3. You’ve got your business good enough where you don’t have to stress about bills anymore. Good for you! Still, anything could happen (economy, fire, theft, competition, etc) that suddenly leaves you struggling to survive. Don’t be complacent, continue improving and evolving.

There is a myriad of things I could put down for each but I simply wanted to prime the pump and get you thinking. A complacent runner does not win a race. A complacent leader does not sit back and simply expect people to follow. Keep your mind fresh and be on the lookout to continue the success you have achieved.

Enter Samsung. They make good phones…that’s all there is to it. I don’t really think they’re trying to be the best by offering the latest and greatest features, but they’re selling boatloads of phones by still being damn good phones across all carriers.

Samsung’s Galaxy S lineup has been introduced to all four major carriers. Smart move as everyone can have a pretty darn good Samsung phone no matter what carrier they are on.

• Sprint has the Samsung Epic 4G phone (the only 4G in the Galaxy S line)
• AT&T has the Samsung Captivate
• Verizon has the Samsung Fascinate
• T-mobile has the Samsung Vibrant

See what Samsung did here? They created buzz for an entire line and then is allowing everyone, no matter what carrier they are on, to get one. It doesn’t take a business guru to figure out that offering your product to a larger audience will usually lead to higher sales.

Good for you Samsung…thank you for not doing that exclusivity crap that other manufacturers are doing and letting everyone play with your latest and greatest toys.

I thought of all this while babbling about life over at WaxPorhetoric.com. I was thinking about how having this ability to laugh at yourself simply makes life better. I then started thinking about how it’s helped me in business and in my entrepreneurial ventures and thought “damn! That’s good stuff! I gotta share it with my business folk!” So…here I am.

As business and techies are reading this I’ll keep it short and to the point.

How Laughing At Yourself Helps Business

1. Being too serious will keep you from doing things – If you can’t laugh at yourself, you may be afraid to start that new company. “What if I fail?” So what. Laugh about some of the silly things you did (did you really need to buy 5,000 t-shirts for your three employees? Funny stuff…lesson learned) and move on.
2. Laughing at your mistakes is a sign of confidence – When you screw up, laugh at yourself for making some silly decision, learning from it and moving on, others will see that as a sign of confidence and know that you will continue forward until you get it right.
3. It’s easier to accept criticism – This one is two-fold. First, when you can laugh at yourself, I’m pretty sure you won’t get all bent out of shape when someone says “you were a dumbass to order those fliers and put them out in a hurricane”. Laugh about that (I mean c’mon, that’s funny shit) and then take that criticism to do it a bit smarter next time. Also, if you can laugh at yourself, people will feel more at ease to say “hey jackass, that font is atrocious” and you’ll simply clean it up and have something that looks better rather than getting all defensive and shit.

These three points alone help illustrate just how important it is to be able to laugh at yourself in business. I’m not saying you should put on some clown suit and tell jokes at your next client meeting…instead I’m saying you should stop taking yourself so seriously (if you are) and instead laugh at your silly mistakes, learn from them, and go kick some ass out there in the business world.

Out of frustration I too sent my thoughts out into the Twittersphere. I believe my exact exclamation was “Hellloooo. Sprint. Samsung. We Moment users are ready to upgrade to Android 2.1. Whenever you’re ready.”

Moments later I noticed I had 3 replies (one from @SprintCare) stating it was already out.

Whuuuuu?

How did I miss that? That was a fairly silent release (which the Sprint Care people said had a lot of hoopla for. Really? Ummm…no) that blew right by. No emails from Sprint to their Moment carrying customers. No big fanfare on the web. Nada. I’m sure there was some talk about it on the forums but it was pretty quiet in the mainstream press. Plus…it’s still pretty lame that Sprint didn’t bother to notify their Moment customers. Don’t get me wrong…I love Sprint. There’s a reason I have an Android phone over an iPhone…Sprint blows the doors off AT&T in terms of price, quality of service, customer support, etc. I’m just saying’…that was pretty lame…

If you don’t feel like eugooglizing the world to find it, you can find the update here on Sprint’s site. It has the download along with instructions.

So…the upgrade…egads…

Perhaps you’ve read Upgrading the Samsung Moment on here regarding a simple software update that wasn’t even an OS update. And perhaps you’ve read Samsung Moment Update – Part 2.

It’s pretty much the same. The only thing that was different is that I didn’t bother trying to use a virtual instance of Windows to try to install the new software. I went straight to the PCs. Sadly enough, I STILL couldn’t get Windows 7 Professional to install this. A few tries and I went back to my Windows Vista machine that I test various unknown software packages from (yup…sketchy stuff…don’t want to be destroying my normal work laptop while installing various drivers for devices I’m testing from afar).

The process is exactly the same though so I’m not going to bother going through it again. Refer back to Updating the Samsung Moment if you want detailed instructions (along with some possible pitfalls) and you should be good to go.

A few things to remember.

• Take out your SD card. Don’t want to be losing stuff you saved. The update WILL wipe it clean if you forget to remove it.
• Set aside plenty of time. Really.
• Write down a list of all the apps you have.
• Try to remember all your settings (I already forgot the settings for my Mindspring/Earthlink email account but don’t feel like dealing with that tonight)
• Don’t forget to reboot your phone after redoing a bunch of your settings. (ie, I was slowly spiraling down into insanity when text messages were coming in as duplicates on both the stock SMS app and with Handcent SMS until I realized I had to reboot after turning off all the notification setting in the stock app).

That’s all for now. I tire of playing with this for tonight. So far I’m enjoying it a bit better. I’ll talk about that some other time. I have a sick kitty to take care of (as seen in www.WaxPorhetoric.com if you want to see the sappy side of pseudo-geek).

Are you dizzy yet? Abroad, T-Mobile is big and looking to be gigantic. In the US, that’s not the case. However, with their majority market share overseas, they could use that for aggressive expansion in the US.

Ah, but there’s more. T-Mobile is running on a GSM network while Sprint Nextel runs on the CDMA network. What gives? Hasn’t T-Mobile seen just how messy trying to merge networks can be with the Sprint/Nextel merger? Hmmmm…perhaps they have something else in mind. Maybe they won’t merge the entire user base and networks but rather keep them separate. Sprint has a good lead on location tracking using their network (think GPS but without needing the satellites). Maybe T-Mobile wants that strategic resource while also being able to say “we have this giant user base”. They could have both a big cellular consumer base and also the tracking user base suited more for enterprise.

This is all speculation on my part but it does make one ponder. It’s certainly got me wondering. Thoughts?

What I WILL say however is that I’m sorely disappointed in Palm’s decision to “introduce” the Pre half a year ago, to tell all the competition what features this phone will have, to let the competition go “oh shit” and then build those features into the next release of their own phones, and then finally…FINALLY sell this phone to the public. Great job Palm. The huge technological lead you could have had on the competition was clearly wiped away just a couple days later when Apple introduced the iPhone’s next OS and the new iPhone 3GS. I must admit I am quite annoyed with this.

So…here I am. I shunned the iPhone because they were on AT&T’s network. My SERO plan with Sprint absolutely rocks and I was willing to forgo a phone (the iPhone) for my phone (Treo 755p) because the plan was that much better. However, the iPhone kept getting better and yes, I had iPhone envy. But alas! Palm “introduces” the Pre and this phone appears to have many features that made me crave it more than the iPhone. Hurray! Sweet! I can wait a few months for that! Except, well, Palm screwed the pooch and let everyone know what it planned on doing and now the iPhone is right up there with the Pre.

I have not pulled the trigger either way now. Yes, the new iPhone looks damn nice. I still think AT&T sucks though. I will have to upgrade my plan with Sprint if I get the Pre but it will still be cheaper than AT&T’s plan. But is the Pre still the game changer we all thought it would be? Nope. Don’t get me wrong…it’s a great phone. It just isn’t leaps and bounds better than everything else out there and that’s a shame.

I can’t help but wonder what Palm execs were thinking. I mean c’mon guys…telling your competition what your advantage will be? Dumb. Just plan dumb. I can just see the Pittsburgh Steelers telling the Baltimore Ravens that the first play will be a hand-off to Willy Parker, the second play will be a 20 yard post to Santonio Holmes, the third play a five-and-out to Hines Ward…I think you get my drift. Palm had a chance to be THE talk of the town and they clearly gave it away. So so frustrating…