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Conference Call Bullshit Bingo & Three Reasons Zoom Is Genius

 
 

Conference call Bingo & 3 reasons Zoom is genius

The work-at-home genie is out of the bottle, and we’re never going fully back to the office. So here’s a Conference Call Bingo game for you to weed out the new era bullshit.

Thanks to @inagfatt for this gem, and I’ll start by making a special rule.

If you hear the phrase shown bottom left, you win conference call bingo automatically.

Hey guys sorry I have to hop off, you guys keep talking” should be everyone’s career credo.

I need to focus on what really matters, and this recurring meeting probably isn’t it.

That’s how Zoom rose above the conference call bingo game.

Zoom was born out of WebEx, which was founded in 1995 and acquired by Cisco for $3.2 billion in 2007.

Early WebEx engineer Eric Yuan founded Zoom in 2011 with help from early investment and advice from WebEx founder Subrah Iyar. Here’s how it played out:

– Zoom went live January 2013.

– Had 1 million users by May 2013 and 10 million by June 2014.

Zoom raised $161 million over 7 rounds

– Went public April 2019 at a $9.2 billion IPO valuation.

– Zoom’s valuation jumped to $35 billion when pandemic lockdowns began in March 2020

– Zoom is now worth $118 billion.

Not bad for 10 years’ work.

And no question Zoom saved us in this era.

Zoom is genius really. It took something we all hate, and polished it up.

That’s the definition of tech disruption.

So we can rip Zoom all we want. And I’ll rip away for 2 reasons: (1) I hate conference calls almost as much as email, and (2) call culture worsens as micromanagers perfect Zoom meddling.

But conference call bullshit bingo and other jokes aside, Zoom is genius for 3 reasons:

1. Prove Remote Work Really Works:

Zoom made video calls and realtime back-and-forth screen sharing truly great. Zoom validates remote work by letting us prove we can be engaged even if we’re not sitting next to our teams. One silver lining of forced quarantines is proving once and for all that remote work really works.

2. Build Your Kid’s Youtube Dream:

My son wanted to start a Youtube channel last year, but only do it from an iPad and with screencast and audio. Until iOS upgraded screen record functionality, Zoom was the solution. And it still is because it’s easy and brought me a ton of joy supporting my son.

3. Bail On 1 Call Per Month:

Zoom is a giant success story about reinventing an utter commodity. They did this by stepping away from existing structure and looking at it fresh. And most jobs are a commodity. Unless you have the courage to step away periodically for a fresh look at reinventing yourself and your role.

So make it a habit to say that lower-left bingo card phrase on a call at least once a month, then bounce.

Too many daily routines are bullshit anyway, so use this tactic to focus on what matters to win your long game.

___

Related:

Nights, Weekends & The 3 Phases Of Success

The Bullshit Lie of ‘Thank God It’s Monday’

3 Ways To ‘Crush It’ Without Being An Asshole

 

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