It's a classic.

Or is it, what's a classic, do we know what we mean when we use classic? Individual tastes aside, most definitions lean towards something of timeless value, quality, a particular style, especially when describing art, cars or literature, based on the broad view of the populace. Some classics have been with us for years, the iconic '64 Thunderbird, the vast tomes like War and Peace, the day to day like the reliable Hills Hoist, the inspiring Guggenheim Museum and countless others, remaining fixed in our culture as the best possible and then through the haze of memory becoming more, becoming a bench mark for the future. We have come to agree on a formula for classics through the rose colored rear view mirror of the Thunderbird. Yet today's world moves quicker and time is compressed, so can something become a classic in a short time and can something become a classic from the new world of culture and technology where no one iteration or invention can afford to stand still without continually reinventing itself?

I read recently a movie should not be considered a classic if it has been remade. So if you consider that theory, the Godfather, Citizen Kane, the African Queen, ET, Gone with the Wind, It's a Wonderful Life and a host of others are safely ensconced as classics. Unlike movies, music swings the other way, for if a song has a history of being re recorded by other artists, it's considered a classic. Consider Yesterday by Sir Paul McCartney, which has been recorded by over 2,200 artists and copied by many more, considered a classic because of the sheer volume of facsimiles. People stack up differently and individuals in the public eye have a chance, depending on their image, to forever remain in the communal psyche. Steve McQueen in full racing whites, filming Le Mans, considered a classic movie star, with classic looks, classic style and an individual quality, staying true to the quintessential idea of what people thought a star should be. If that belief is true, then Elvis needs no further abstraction.

So the definition has broad enough parameters to leave room for anything and anyone to eventually be considered a classic. If they are are not copied or if they are copied a lot, if they become iconically aspirational and if culturally they affect change, if the product becomes so prized and valued anything can end up a classic.

So it's with great reverence I present the iPod as a classic, no not the sixth generation with the classic in the title but the little MP3 player that convinced us all, we needed to carry thousands of songs in our pocket. I mention the iPod because there is talk it may soon disappear from retail shelves. Tim Cook has indicated the iPod is a declining business sector in the Apple world and with decreases in the order of 50% year on year, we may soon by looking backwards when we mention the little MP3 player that could.

The smart phones and the tablets have pretty much eaten away the need for individual music players, so it's up to you now, will the iPod be just a memory of technology, did we take the time to appreciate the affect it had on our lives? The sheer volume of 350 million sold worldwide, the great runs you had with it strapped to your arm or clipped to your shorts while doing the downward dog, the ability to zone out the world and just listen to your world and the convenience of never ever being tethered to a record player, reel to reel tape, super 8 track or the audio cassette again, surely this deserves a nomination for becoming a classic.

Wrinkles at ten.

Ten years is a lifetime on the web. Look where we were ten tears ago and what we have today. Anyone or anything that has survived the changes of the last ten years is certainly older, has a few more wrinkles, has acquired some bad habits, unequivocally outlasted their competition, gained invaluable experience and should know everything there is to know up till now. Such is life for Facebook, the grandfather of all social media sites, celebrating ten years and looking to the future of social media with a maturity to admit there might be a few players worth their attention in the rear view mirror. Admitting to the competition and worrying about how close they really are in that rear view mirror are two different issues and Facebook continues to dominate the landscape, defying the need to be the latest and greatest.

Yet it seems despite one in seven people on the planet being on Facebook, naysayers are predicting a fall and theorising the frayed edges are caused by competition not yet out of puberty in online genealogy. Competition from Twitter, Pinterest, Snapchat, Tumblr and Instagram style sites, where Twitter at just past seven years old is considered an elder, are gaining popularity but still have a long way to catch the "old fella". LinkedIn, Tumblr, Pinterest, Instagram and Twitter all combined, still don't have the monthly visitation that Facebook commands, so talk of a MySpace obscurity seem greatly exaggerated. As a famous Elvis Presley album cover once quoted, "50 million fans can't be wrong", showing a love for a music icon, so too do 900 million monthly visitors show their love for an online icon.

One of the advantages Facebook lords over the competition is its ability to mimic and copy the best of the web. It already has a Twitter of sorts woven into its new mobile APP and the introduction of "Paper" will give Facebookers a new version of itself that social analysts declare as better than the original, along with acquiring anything in their path, ala Instagram. This brings with it a generalist view of bringing and being everything to all everyone and when you have over 1.2 billion members, you need to have a helicopter view and be good at a lot of things, without being the current love or a niche trend.

This generalist view and being the globe's meeting point, leads to a ubiquity that Facebook carries over into online life, dominated by others of ubiquitous standing, such as Google, Amazon, YouTube and Wikipedia. It's hard to see masses straying from the above if they continue to innovate, imitate, acquire and stay engaged with the masses. So for all of the talk about wrinkles and slowing down, the ubiquitous nature of Facebook continues to defy the logic that online is all about change and the newest and shiniest grab the attention. While Wall Street will always look to the next great thing, the pillars of the online world continue to hold sway and have become entrenched as bench marks of "blue chip" investments.

I'm sure Mark Zuckerberg never thought he'd be a pillar of Wall Street or celebrate 10 years, sitting in that student accommodation at Harvard University. Happy Birthday Mark, enjoy the attention, you do deserve it, even if some are wanting to deny you the Birthday present of ubiquity.

30,000 mornings.

I have a mantra that many of my friends and colleagues are aware of and it concerns the last ten minutes. I have lived long enough to have worked out, I can always earn another dollar but I can't get back the last ten minutes, so I had better spend it wisely, doing something I'm passionate about and spending it with the right people. This kind of thinking comes with tingles of mortality and wanting to leave more than a wisp of smoke at the end (too morbid?), it comes from self examination and having the ability to laugh at the in-congruencies of life and wondering if you shouldn't have achieved more but in the end having achieved more than you think. So how much time do you have left to spend with the right people and make a difference? With the average life expectancy around 80 years, you'll wake up to around 30,000 mornings but only about 24,000 mornings as an adult, where you have the ability and resources to decide if today is going to be a good day and if you're going to make a difference. How many of those mornings have you used to the best advantage?

I admit, where my 20s were concerned, a lot of those mornings slipped by without note, many without ever getting to greet the morning and many without making a speck of difference to anyone around me. The 30s turned into the me decade but from there I noticed a shift in thinking that wasn't about me at all. It seemed the world turned successfully without any interaction from me, in fact the daily news and the media seemed oblivious to anything I was doing. So I worked out it wasn't necessarily about the big things, the big changes, the global challenges where I had any influence, it was about the small things I could control, the small things I could change, the small things I could help others with. I wasn't going to rescue the Antarctic on the Sea Shepherd and I certainly wasn't going to alleviate global poverty with Sir Bob.

And that's the crux of thinking for many, do the little things that matter to others, one smile at a time, one handshake at a time, one relationship at a time. In the end it's easy to make a difference, be in the moment, be aware of others, put yourself in their shoes, work out how to spend that ten minutes wisely so you don't regret the time and along the way you'll discover a trail of influence you didn't know you had. Who knows who you may help and who knows what they'll accomplish? The worst you can do is give someone the confidence to keep going with a passion, that may lead to new imaginations, discoveries and knowledge that can be used and passed onto others to multiply into greatness.

It begs the question, what's left of your 30,000 mornings and what have you done with your last ten minutes?