Blog Archives

My 5 Favorite Gmail Features

3/4/2013

I have been using Gmail for a long, long time and there are some interesting things you can do that few people know about. For example if you have ever clicked ‘Send’ on email and then cringed because you forgot something or realized that you sent it to the wrong person, then you need the first thing on my list of My 5 Favorite Gmail Features:

1- Undo Send: You can stop messages from being sent for a few seconds after you click send. Usually you have about 30 seconds.

2- Quote Selected Text: You can quote a portion of text from a message you are replying to. Just highlight the text in the email you are reading and click reply.

3- Message Sneak Peek: I really like this one too. Just right click on the message and you can see what the message says.

4- SMS Text Messaging: Allows you to send text messages from Chat. Very cool. Important Note for Canadians: Due to Government & Monopolistic Corporate restrictions, Canadians cannot access Google Voice or its features yet.

5- Extra Emoji Emoticons: Compose messages with a richer set of Emoji characters.

Now before I show you how to enable these features you should know that these are experimental features from Google. As such they are not ready for prime-time and may break, change or disappear at anytime. Personally, I am fine with that. However, if you are prone to annoyance when something new does not work, then maybe these features are not for you. If you are fine with it then here is how you install them.

A- Click on the ‘gears’ box in the top left corner of your Gmail page.
B- Click on settings.
C- Click on Labs to the far right.
D- Choose which features you want by clicking ‘enable’ on each one.
E- Don’t forget to click ‘Save Changes’ at the bottom of the page when you are done.

I hope you enjoy these features as much as I am.

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The Hindsight of Failure

3/3/2013

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I was thinking about a story I read many years ago about an ancient Arab trader named Ali who became a very rich man and I was thinking about how this story applies to many of us today.

Ali was a classic serial entrepreneur who would get investors to fund his ships that about 2,000 years ago would go to faraway lands and come back with spices, exotic perfumes and woods and so on. His initial ventures didn’t go so well.

Ali’s first shipping venture attracted a lot of eager investors and it didn’t take long for him to get that ship out to sea. Within a month news arrived that the ship had been blown off course in a storm, hit some rocks and sunk.

Not one to be kept down for too long Ali raised another round of funding and sent another ship to bring back the treasures that would make him and his investors rich. That ship was attacked by pirates, its crew killed and the ship was burned.

Once again Ali had to face his investors with the bad news. Even though these investors knew the risks they blamed Ali for their misfortune.

A year passed and Ali began raising another round of funding. He told his potential investors that he had learned from his mistakes and this time he would make sure the ship was sturdy, the route was as safe as possible and he would have on board an armed brigade of retired military men from the King’s own forces.

Even with all these assurances many of his past investors were reluctant to take another chance with Ali. However, enough of them did and soon the ship set sail for lands beyond. A few months later the ship arrived safely back laden with the riches of faraway lands. Ali and his investors became very wealthy.

Still there were some investors that hadn’t invested with him on this last successful venture that were angry and envious of Ali’s success and begged him to do another venture that they could get involved in.

Many of us serial entrepreneurs can resonate with Ali’s story. And there are other entrepreneurs who after a shipwreck or two are reluctant to set sail again. I am not one of them.

Like Ali, I get better at my due diligence, learn from my mistakes, make better plans, lessen the risks as much as possible and keep launching new ventures even though my supporters and collaborators dwindle. Ali didn’t know for sure which venture would be the one that would make him wealthy though he stacked the odds in his favor for the one that did. Though he never would have been able to do that had he not had the hindsight of failure.

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Allan Marston

I have written many blogs over the years so I am going to keep this one as my way of keeping in touch with my friends.

Allan Marston

Create Your Badge

The Secret Killer

Find out what it is before it kills you and your loved ones and what you can do about it.

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