Musings from the CU Suite

By Anthony Demangone, Powered by NAFCU

I love the Olympics. There are so many amazing stories from every corner of the globe. Some are happy. Some are sad. My heart breaks when an athlete falls or misses a baton hand-off. Years of training. And then a simple misstep ends their competition. I always think of Teddy Roosevelt, when that happens. He delivered a speech in Paris long ago where he said the following.

"It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat."

Words to remember. Now, on to this week’s reading pile.

• Thoughts on the presentation slide deck. (SmartBrief)
• Growth of the Exurbs. (Business Insider)
• Starbucks is sitting on $1.62 billion in prepaid physical and digital gift cards. (CU Today)
• Watching the Olympics has been a user experience nightmare. (FastCo)
• Tails, you win. (Collaborative Fund)
• Three surprising facts about customer experience. (Forbes)
• Do they want to be here? (Conferences That Work)
• Clocks. (Godin)
• Marketing smarter on a smaller budget (FB)

Have a great weekend!

-          Anthony