Just read the August 9-15 edition of my favorite magazine, Bloomberg Businessweek. In the "Etc" section Joel Stein writes about major moguls who conduct life sans cell phone. Warren Buffett doesn't use one. Neither does Mikhail Prokhorov, the Russian billionaire who just bought the New Jersey Nets. He says "Nyet" to cell phones.
We're a nation of 280 million mobile subscribers and according to Joel, we even interrupt sex to take a call. Say what?
So what's with not having a cell phone? Joel thinks it's all about control, a power move. Want to deal with Warren Buffett? By not having a cell phone, Buffet can make you wait until he's ready to deal. He controls the schedule. With his enormous success, it's hard to argue.
Granted, all these mega-successful people have staff around them, who do have cell phones. My guess is folks like Buffett have borrowed them from time to time. But on their time. Don't call me because you can't. I'll call you when I'm ready and maybe you're not. Power move.
All this got me to thinking if cell phones have really improved our lives. Walk down the street and you see people yakking on their phones. Ditto for coffee shops, and the guy in the seat behind you on the airplane before they close the door. And for some strange reason, people seem to think they need to talk loudly while on a cell phone so we can all share in the conversation.
A digital tower of babble for all of us to share, even though we don't want to. There's a time and a place for cell phones and it seems it's all the time and every place.
I doubt I'll get rid of my cell phone. I've been using one since 1987. Bad habits are hard to break.
Maybe Warren could stage an intervention for me. I just got to figure out how to get a hold of him.
Brian Olson
Conversation Starters LLC
"We start the conversations about you"
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