You’ll be pleased to learn that as of yesterday, I have a brand new phone: an iPhone 6S. It’s by no means top of the line. But it is new and unlike my old phone––fast, filled with extra capacity, and capable of running every app I want and need.
It’s also I must say, a work of art.
Weighing just a hair over five ounces, and barely a quarter of an inch thick, holding it in your hand is like holding a warm ray of sunshine (assuming sunshine also has rounded edges and is made of glass and metal).
Of course, my new phone didn’t stay that way for long.
Immediately after completing my purchase, I walked out the door of the Apple Store and directly over to the phone case kiosk in the mall.
Five minutes later, my beautiful, perfect, ray of sunshine was encased inside an indestructible protective case within which my phone will live out the rest of its days, never again to be directly touched by man or beast. But that’s just the way it works. We want our phones to stay safe, so everybody keeps them in protective cases –– everybody, that is, except teenagers.
If you walk up to the average teenager, ask to have a look at their phone and, immediately after they shut it down and hand it over, you’ll likely notice two things:
I used to think this meant they were careless and dumb (not that I am ruling that assumption out in a more general sense). Yet maybe, and unlike adults who are so concerned with what we might lose, teenagers are more interested in what they might gain.
“Globally, 21% of people are using a phone with a cracked screen, and in the U.S. it’s even higher at 30%.”Digital Trends
While my phone is certainly safe in its case, it comes at a cost. I never fully experience it in the way I’m sure Steve Jobs intended: sleek, shiny, perfectly balanced in my hand. Teenagers, on the other hand, do.
Sure, sooner or later, their screens will probably get damaged. Until then, they will enjoy a beautiful run of perfection, as-it-was-meant-to-be, iPhone days.
Working for yourself may not feel, entirely safe either. Like a phone without a case, there’s a lot that can go wrong in a hurry. Yet, the experience is one hundred percent real, every single day.
There’s no boss, no irrelevant meetings, no mysterious company politics churning in the background that leaves you wondering what might happen (or what just did happen). There’s just you and your expertise, looking for ways to package it, price it, explain it, and sell it to enough people who are willing to buy it.
Scary? Some days.
Scary or not, once you’ve been out here breathing the fresh air for a while, there’s no way you’ll ever let somebody put you back inside that phone case.
Michael Katz is Founder and Chief Penguin of Blue Penguin Development. He specializes in helping professional service providers talk about their work in a way that is clear and compelling. Sign up for his free newsletter, The Likeable Expert Gazette, here.
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