In 2000, I would have voted Wilson for Best Supporting Actor. You remember Wilson the volleyball from the movie Castaway. In many ways Tom Hanks character reminds me of many of the people that I have met responsible for successfully deploying M2M projects within their organizations. They are castaways. Lonely, on a deserted island, with insurmountable odds. Much to overcome: device, network, gateway, application. A seemingly hodgepodge of items that they could use to improve their situation, and a loyalty to themselves and their vision.

Fred Smith had a cameo on Castaway. I had the opportunity to meet Fred Smith and tour the Fedex facility a couple of weeks ago. What an amazing company. What an amazing guy. Fred Smith is a true pioneer. A visionary. A castaway. A hodgepodge of items that he was able to coddle together to survive years against insurmountable odds. And during all of those trials he kept focused, determined, true to himself, and persevered.

When asked what his most important character attributes were Fred Smith said “Probably conviction. I was convinced that what I was trying to do with my teammates was important and that it would be successful. The opposite side of that coin is persistence. Very rarely have I ever seen any business or major undertaking that goes in a straight line. There’s zigs and zags, victories and defeat, and you have to be propelled by that conviction that what you’re doing is right and what you’re doing is important, and to persevere in it. That’s probably more important than anything else.”

Have you ever felt that way?

“The fundamental principle behind fast cycle or express transportation is that you are substituting your services for other processes.” - Fred Smith

Sound familiar?

M2M is a mechanism for substituting more efficient services for other processes. As each application is proven an individual adoption occurs exponentially.

As M2M deployments become more prevalent and “embedded”. The invisibility of those applications will continue to bring focus on the innovative ones. A casual observer could misinterpret this as a lack of progress, but to the experienced the frontier moves forward.