Handshakes and Contracts, the future and the past

If you rent a car, borrow money for school or engage in some other complex transaction, there's a contract to sign. It's filled with rules and obligations, and the profit-maximizing finance organization does everything it can to do as little as it can and make you responsible for as much as it can. This sort of contract has evolved into a battle, an effort to get something now and deliver as little as possible later. Loopholes and fine print are there for a reason, and it's not to make you happy. Contracts like this are about the past. "We agreed on this, you signed it, go read your copy, we don't care so much that you're annoyed, goodbye."

A handshake deal, on the other hand, is about the future. Either side can claim loopholes or wriggle out of a commitment, but the consequence is clear—if you disappoint us, we won't be back for more. The participant in a handshake deal is investing in the future, doing more now in exchange for the benefits that trust and delight and consistency bring going forward.

It might be sensible to write your handshake deal down, to memorise the key promises in an email. If your goal is to delight and to exceed expectations, the more clear you are about the expectations, the more likely it is you'll exceed them.

But it also pays to hesitate when you (or your advisors) start pushing to transform the handshake about the future into a contract about the past.

"I'm hoping to do this again with you," evokes a very different reaction than, -  but you said..."

-Seth Godin.

Expanding the Cloud, Amazon AWS

Introducing the AWS EU (Frankfurt) region, October 2014.

Amazon Web Services is expanding its worldwide coverage with the launch of a new AWS region in Frankfurt, Germany. This infrastructure built to support the strong demand in Europe and to give customers the option to run infrastructure located in Germany. The new Frankfurt region provides low millisecond latencies to major cities in continental Europe and is also run with carbon neutral power. With the launch of the new Frankfurt region customers now also have the ability to architect across multiple regions within the European Union.

In addition to a broad base of customers, AWS has a vibrant partner ecosystem in Germany that has built innovative solutions and services on AWS. Among the many local Independent Software Vendors are: SAP, Infopark, Suse, and Software AG. With the new Frankfurt region, companies that are required to meet certain compliance, control, and data locality requirements may now be able to achieve these certifications. As with all AWS regions, customers can choose to keep their data entirely within the Frankfurt region.

Und auf Deutsch:
In unserer neuen Region in Deutschland können Sie - wie bei allen anderen AWS-Regionen - auswählen, wo Ihre Daten verarbeitet und gespeichert werden. Einige Kunden haben nach einer Möglichkeit gefragt, ihre Daten innerhalb Deutschlands hosten zu können, und wir freuen uns darüber, dass wir Ihnen jetzt diese Möglichkeit geben können.


Durch die geographische Nähe profitieren Sie auch von einer kürzeren Latenzzeit, die Ihre Anwendungen schneller machen kann. Außerdem können europäische Kunden jetzt zwei AWS-Regionen nutzen, um die Fehlertoleranz ihrer Applikationen noch stärker zu verbessern, ohne den EU-Raum verlassen zu müssen.

We are Optimists

"Humans are hard-wired optimists. It may have something to do with survival and evolution, but we must go on – and going on is driven by hope. We always think this time it’s going to be different. When we become optimistic about the economy, we behave like we are in love for the first time. We get giddy, we dispense with logic and we fall headlong into a new adventure.

We also become over-confident. Most of us inflate our abilities. For example, men everywhere inflate their intellect and social skills. We believe we are more able then we are. A recent study revealed that 95 per cent of European men believe they are in the top 20 per cent when it comes to social skills. We exaggerate in lots of areas and our belief in ourselves is where we start."
-David McWilliams