Inspired By Excellence

In my last post I mentioned Kiva and Mint, two organizations that I have recently chanced upon and have been impressed by. Let me add another one called Project Jing - it is a screen capture software product by the makers of Camtasia. Basically it adds a "small sunburst circle" to the top of your screen that you can click on when you want to take a picture or record something on your screen. When you are done recording, it saves the image / recording to an online server - you can then email a link to the recording or embed it in an IM or blog. See how it works by clicking this link: http://screencast.com/t/CaOFQrtS - it is a recording of me writing this blog. Background music is courtesy of Pandora.

There is a commonality to each of these products: EXCELLENCE.

1. they are unique concepts and valuable solutions that are facilitated by technology;
2. their messaging, visuals and branding are concise, consistent and powerful;
3. their User Interfaces are elegant, easy to use and very well done (Project Jing is especially unique); and finally
4. their execution is flawless across the board.

Excellence does not happen by chance. It requires planning, teamwork, creative thinking, determination and lots of hard work. While I have always considered myself to be creative, highly motivated and successful at most things that I put my mind to, I am still inspired by each of these products to truly deliver excellence.