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| Coach: no tech. Players: lots of it |
September 7, 2007 |
Pinball Clemons, the Argos and a sharp pencil
By Mike Beggs
Mike Clemons lives in the eye of a media hurricane. He is the head coach of the Toronto Argonauts, a busy speaker and a well-known man about town. But when it comes to technology, Clemons admits he is as behind the times as his nickname, Pinball, implies.
“If anyone has under-used technology, it’s me,” he grinned at a pre-practice press scrum in Mississauga, Ont. “I have a BlackBerry, which I call people on. I only get a text every once in a while, because they know I won’t text them back.
“I have a high-powered computer at home, which does wonderful things I don’t understand.”
Similarly, the Argos’ former star halfback has a minimalist’s command of the digitalized game recordings he runs through with his players. “The one thing I know how to do is point and click,” he said. “I’ve also got good motor skills to doubleclick. I can’t run the deep post (pass pattern) anymore, but I can double-click.”
Clemons is working hard to repeat the Boatmen’s 2004 Grey Cup victory and he is considered Toronto’s foremost goodwill ambassador. With all that, he keeps his schedule straight with “a sharp pencil and a very good assistant named Lynn.” But more tech would be a good thing. “I think (improving) my relationship with technology would give me more time, but I can’t find the time to invest.”
His team, however, is a little more tech savvy. Defensive end Riall Johnson reviews DVDs of game film on his laptop and fixes computers for his teammates. Safety Byron Parker is a gadget guy. “I’ve got all of the video-game systems and I’m actually trying to get an Apple iPhone right now,” Parker said. “I’m a big computer guy, I get a computer every year.”
Entrepreneurs need heroes too
by Peter Wolchak
Being an entrepreneur is tough and sometimes fledgling moguls need a reassuring word and someone to look up to.
Enter Sunir Shah, who does market and community development for Toronto-based FreshBooks. Shah has interviewed 20 entrepreneurs and is creating a “superhero card” for each. “I wanted to show the best, most focused entrepreneurs in the card deck are the ones with a deeper social cause that motivates them through the good times and the bad. I was struck by how many Canadian entrepreneurs are inspired by some problem in the world, and their method of solving it is to start a business. I often say to those wanting to make an impact: the revolution will be profitable,” Shah wrote in an e-mail exchange.
“Starting a business is a scary and isolating act. I wanted to give new and would-be entrepreneurs a set of role models they can look to, to feel they are not alone.”
Check out www.freshbooks.com/blog/category/superentrepreneur.
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