Changing the World One Transaction at a Time

Blog Post created by dourada on Aug 12, 2016

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Head is cloudy. Dreaming of Olympic stardom, brain surgeons, genome sequencers.....Einstein. People that move the world, change the world! How to have a major impact on the world when I type for a living? Feeling a bit depressed. Everyone talks about solving global warming but it feels there are only a select few that are in a position to effect change. Here’s looking at you Mr. Gates!

And then it hit me, seriously, Mr. Gates reached out and whopped me with a 360 video embedded in this blog post: https://www.gatesnotes.com/Books/Seveneves

Not only is the blog post interesting but skip to about 1:40 in the embedded video and watch what happens. How did they go from ordering the burger to sitting in the car eating the burger? They yadda yadda’d over the best part….the financial transaction.

Astronauts, nuclear physicists, presidents, they all share two things in common: they are absolutely changing the world and my guess is they all use some form of financial instrument to purchase goods in the pursuit of changing the world.

The question then is not how will payments change the world...the question is how have payments NOT changed the world?

My son and I will be visiting a doughnut shop this weekend where I hope to impart some kind of wisdom to a 2.5 year old in the form of deep fried dough, frosting, sprinkles, and a credit card swipe (no chip read as of yet). Indeed changing the world one transaction at a time.

Cloudiness removed, dreams intact, wishing you all a fantastic weekend. And please feel free, in the comments, to share the transaction that changed your world.

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mcafiero Aug 12, 2016 2:09 PM

Love the post, Dan! Probably because I also have a Saturday morning tradition with my 2.5 year old, driving the old Bronco down to get a "donie". I did it every Sat with my dad and now he goes with me, and that $2.00 transaction brings a wealth of happiness and memories. Our donut shop also hasn't made the move to EMV, either. Have a great weekend.

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dourada @ mcafiero on Aug 15, 2016 9:40 PM

Excellent, and nice Bronco! Our collective wisdom in the industry is to make payments "seamless" and fast. We talk about the "uber" experience that completely removes the payment experience. Now I wonder if that's the correct thinking? What if instead we made the payment experience so personal and valuable that customers wanted to spend more time vs. less? Would customers actually pay to pay? A timeline of financial txns if you will that captures meta data about the payment. Who I was with, what we were doing, the weather, etc. A "picment" = picture + payment!

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mcafiero @ dourada on Aug 16, 2016 11:19 AM

This could make for an interesting topic for another post! Eventually, we all think that we'll not even have to pull out a wallet (or even our smartphones) to make a payment. But what are the benefits to actually paying. The receipt is a token that represents not just the product purchased, but the experience. Have you ever run into an old receipt from years ago that brought you back to a special moment? I went to a monster truck show with my son and we had the most amazing time and even just a week later, I ran into our seating tickets, a receipt, basically, and brought me back to that incredible night I had with my #1 son. There are other benefits, too: Like just simply being aware of the money you're spending for budgeting. Many personal finance experts recommend paying with cash because it forces you to literally witness your money leaving your possession. Receipts also do this. Without receipts and the coming of more automated payments, budgeting is going to be a lot harder to stick to.

Miranda Lambert - Automatic - YouTube

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mcafiero Aug 12, 2016 2:09 PM
Love the post, Dan! Probably because I also have a Saturday morning tradition with my 2.5 year old, driving the old Bronco down to get a "donie". I did it every Sat with my dad and now he goes with me, and that $2.00 transaction brings a wealth of happiness and memories. Our donut shop also hasn't made the move to EMV, either. Have a great weekend.
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- dourada @ mcafiero on Aug 15, 2016 9:40 PM
  Excellent, and nice Bronco! Our collective wisdom in the industry is to make payments "seamless" and fast. We talk about the "uber" experience that completely removes the payment experience. Now I wonder if that's the correct thinking? What if instead we made the payment experience so personal and valuable that customers wanted to spend more time vs. less? Would customers actually pay to pay? A timeline of financial txns if you will that captures meta data about the payment. Who I was with, what we were doing, the weather, etc. A "picment" = picture + payment!
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  - mcafiero @ dourada on Aug 16, 2016 11:19 AM
    This could make for an interesting topic for another post! Eventually, we all think that we'll not even have to pull out a wallet (or even our smartphones) to make a payment. But what are the benefits to actually paying. The receipt is a token that represents not just the product purchased, but the experience. Have you ever run into an old receipt from years ago that brought you back to a special moment? I went to a monster truck show with my son and we had the most amazing time and even just a week later, I ran into our seating tickets, a receipt, basically, and brought me back to that incredible night I had with my #1 son. There are other benefits, too: Like just simply being aware of the money you're spending for budgeting. Many personal finance experts recommend paying with cash because it forces you to literally witness your money leaving your possession. Receipts also do this. Without receipts and the coming of more automated payments, budgeting is going to be a lot harder to stick to.
    Miranda Lambert - Automatic - YouTube
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