The Ink-Run Moment: A Lesson in Early Adoption

Many years ago, when I was selling contract IT solutions, I experienced a literal watershed moment—one that forced me into the technological future a bit ahead of the times and taught me firsthand the benefits of early adoption.

It was a miserably rainy day in Atlanta, and after visiting several clients, I needed to make an important phone call. I pulled into a parking lot and spotted a payphone—one of those open booths that offered no real shelter. Armed with my trusty umbrella and my black book—filled with years’ worth of carefully accumulated contacts—I stepped into the storm.

With a quarter in hand, I dialed the number, holding my umbrella precariously as I balanced my open black book. And then, nature took over. A sudden gust turned my umbrella inside out, and what had been a downpour became a sideways monsoon. Within seconds, I was drenched—my suit, my tie, and, most devastatingly, my black book. Ink ran in all directions, turning two-thirds of my meticulously gathered contacts into an unreadable mess.

Back at the office, I tried desperately to salvage what I could. It was a total loss. That’s when Ben, a forward-thinking colleague, introduced me to a device that would change how I managed information: the Apple Newton.

This first-generation PDA (Personal Digital Assistant) was about the size of a hotel Bible and weighed as much as a bocce ball. Unlike the early Palm Pilots, the Newton could do something remarkable—it could translate my notoriously bad handwriting into text on its little green screen. It was, to me, a miracle. I painstakingly entered what was left of my contacts into the Newton and never looked back.

That moment—my ink-run moment—taught me a critical lesson about technology. I had always been an early tech adopter, from working in Auburn University’s first PC lab to teaching students how to replace keypunched Fortran cards with Lotus 1-2-3. But necessity forced me to fully embrace the Newton, and that early adoption set the stage for how I would approach technology throughout my career.

From the Newton, I moved to the next generation of PDAs. Then came the BlackBerry—a revelation that combined my PDA and phone into one device. But even as I adopted new tools, I wasn’t immediately sold on all Apple products. Ben, ever the Apple evangelist, proudly sported the company’s sticker on his first-generation Prius. I held out—until the BlackBerry started to fade, and I had to choose between an Android and an iPhone. I took the leap.

Now? I’m fully converted—at least until the next technological leap arrives. Because if there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s this: the next game-changing innovation usually arrives at a time of necessity. The key is recognizing those ink-run moments when they happen and being willing to adapt before the opportunity passes by.