With the thunderstorm approaching and the thick grayish clouds bellowing towards them and the horror in his eyes from looking upwards and onwards at the impending storm, the captain acknowledges the exhaustion on his teammates which spelled a story of a fatigued team just waiting for this all to end. The attempt from their captain to inspire the team with words he believed to be motivating …“only 5 minutes left guys, we can do this!!!” drowned the team even more so into exhaustion.
Up high on the stands, a lonely supporter spotting his favorite team’s mindset, starts to chant. A chant that startled the lonely supporter’s friends who look at their friend weirdly and start to laugh. NOT wavering from the chant when his friends start to ridicule him, he continues even louder. His friends now filled with a sense of pride having knowing this fool of a man , down their drinks and join the man in his chant, adding a bit of rhythm by beating in their seats. The supporters around this mad bunch of friends start to catch on to the crowd fever and join in on the chant and soon the entire wing of supporters are chanting. The team start to hear a faint voice but brush it of to the weather approaching. The crowd doubled, no, tripled in size, all echoing the same words which by now as you can imagine, gets even louder. The ears of the team start to twitch as they gain familiarity with the wise words spoken and with renewed energy they turn briefly to the crowed and acknowledge their supporters. The team give a quick ooh-rah before deadly focusing on their opposition whilst the crowd bellowing in the background the words…
” DE-FENCE!!! DEFENCE!!! DE-FENCE!!! ” …
The team stand ready to face their most fierce opponent yet.
The short story above was my attempt showing you how someones mindset can easily be influenced by perspective.
Every single person that’s put in front of you in your life until now has said to you in the tough times that if you can put your mind too it you can accomplish anything. These words are meant to be taken literally.
Life always throws choices at you and it’s your moral compass that guides you to make what you believe to be the right choices in life. But choice is best aided with perspective. It makes it easier to choose between your favorite restaurant and a new restaurant with raving reviews for dinner tonight if you are reminded of the fact that you met your first love at your favorite restaurant and just by the way you find out this same restaurant is opening its doors for the last time tonight. It’s perspective that often guides people’s choices in life but more importantly its information that offers perspective.
In this day and age we live in today which many people call The Information Age. I couldn’t disagree with these wise people. A day where it’s easier to wish your long-lasting friendships a happy birthday on social media than it is to send a text or even call.
At the same time this very same platform which many call anti-social media, gets this name by forcing people to choose out of convenience, to connect with each other via their phones instead of breaking bread with each other over dinner. This same platform also however at times offers the only way of re-connecting with loved ones that have been separated by time and distance.
So what’s the win-win story in this day an age where your whole life story can get rewritten for you if you piss off the wrong bad guy who knows a thing or two about hacking and social engineering, knowing enough to get you to spill your beans about your name , your number, your place of rest , your place of work , your place of play…
How do you protect yourself from the dark side of the Information Age?
Well, you should arm yourself with information…it’s really that simple.
Growing your self-awareness around the ease in which social engineering occurs and that caring about your privacy online should actually mean something to you.
Knowing that hacking is a thing and that bad guys are not an imaginary creation of movie directors. Knowing the value of your data and why you should care if it gets stolen is the first step to protecting yourselves from the perils of the numerous threats that live on the internet.
With the internet being the custodian of today’s worlds data, it’s imperative that you do your due diligence on where you place your data and how you secure it…
Arm yourself with knowledge. Arm yourself with information. Arm yourself with relationships. Relationships with people who can take the journey with you in securing your most valuable assets.
And most importantly, know that your information is the most valuable asset.
“…lean in on different perspectives…go on…learn something new.”