Justin Hartman

Posts Tagged ‘Awards’


Posted on May 12, 2009 - by

Getting rejected, it’s never fun

Getting rejected, it’s never fun

Sorrow and Rejection by unclebumpy

While this blog has been a lot about my good news lately, today it’s a lot about my bad. If you’ve been reading my blog then you’d know I was chosen as a nominee in the Men’s Health Best Man Awards 2009 and last week I received an update to inform me that I was not chosen as one of the three finalists. Congratulations though to Vinny Lingham who did make it as a finalist in another category and I wish him all the best because he deserves it!

To be honest I’m not disappointed about not being a finalist because if you look at who else was nominated in my category then you’ll understand why I was flattered to even be considered in the first place. I was expecting a rejection email and as such the nomination is going to make a great addition to my CV.

The second rejection I received last night and this one has been bitterly disappointing. About two months back I applied for a TED Fellowship and despite being extremely confident that I’d crack it I didn’t quite make the grade. Herewith an excerpt from said rejection email.

The response to the new Fellows program has been exceptional – far greater than we could have imagined – and winnowing down the application pool was a formidable task. Unfortunately, due the to extraordinary qualifications of all of our applicants, we are unable to offer you a Fellowship for TEDGlobal 2009.

If any of you have ever applied to be a TED Fellow you’ll know just how strenuous the application process is. To apply you need to complete an application by answering various questions that try to gain insight into how you tick as a human being and then you have to get references to fill in referee forms on your behalf. It’s kind of like writing your year-end exam only much tougher!

It took me over two weeks to complete my answers to the questions and in it I told TED stuff that only my family know. I really shared every inner-most secret in the hope that doing so would get me a seat at the conference.

The anticipation in waiting for an answer was the real killer though. I didn’t want to entertain any negative thinking so I convinced myself that my ticket was booked and I was headed for Oxford. I realised that the risk of doing so was utter, gut-wrenching disappointment but I wasn’t going to allow myself to ruin the small chance that I had.

Unfortunately my gamble didn’t pay off and I honestly feel like a teenager who’s girlfriend has just dumped him for a smarter, better looking guy. It has long been a dream to attend a TED conference but I guess my time will have to wait…

For now I’ll continue to watch from the sidelines and I thought this latest video from Seth Godin titled Why tribes, not money or factories, will change the world would be an apt way to end this post. Enjoy the brilliant talk from Seth as he shares ideas on how tribes give ordinary people the power to lead and make big change.

 

Posted on April 16, 2009 - by

I’ve been nominated for the 2009 Men’s Health Best Man Awards

I’ve been nominated for the 2009 Men’s Health Best Man Awards

2009 Men's Health Best Man AwardYesterday I received a notification that I’ve been nominated for the 2009 Men’s Health Best Man Awards. To be honest I’m blown away but before I get into that here’s what the awards are all about.

Every year a few men stand out from the crowd. They inspire us, challenge us and lead us to greater heights of personal and professional achievement. Men’s Health magazine believes that these men deserve to be recognised and so the Best Man Awards was born.

As the first campaign of its kind in South Africa; Men’s Health Best Man aims to reward our country’s top achievers for the ground-breaking work they have accomplished. We’ve highlighted six categories – sports, media, business, arts and culture, public service and science and technology – and after an exhaustive process by our expert panel selected the finalists who represent the Best Man. These men were profiled in the May issue of Men’s Health from which the final three in each category are then selected. The Best Man winner in each category will then be announced at the final Best Man Awards dinner.

This year I’ve been chosen as one of eight nominees in the Media category and very shortly they’ll be narrowing this list down to three finalists. The other nominees in the Media category that I’m competing with are:

This is an impressive list of contenders and I really am extremely grateful to the powers that be for nominating me and even considering me amongst these top professionals. It really is a nice feeling being nominated for such a prestigious award and although I’m thankful I have to warn Men’s Health that I’m not taking my shirt off for the cover photo shoot when I win! :)

 

Posted on December 12, 2008 - by

ReadWriteWeb does it again

ReadWriteWeb does it again

ReadWriteWeb loves us! WOW. I know the last few posts of mine have been about gloating but when ReadWriteWeb features us in their Top 10 lists who can resist?

This time, RRW has given Afrigator an honourable mention in the Top 10 RSS and Syndication Products of 2008 list.

This Top 10 list features FriendFeed, Google Reader, Twitterfeed, Feedburner and Yahoo! Pipes. Here’s what RRW had to say about us.

Finally, we love African social media aggregator Afrigator – it’s a great way to learn about what’s happening all over the continent and it’s a great use of RSS. We named it one of the Top 10 International Products of 2008 but we think it deserves an honorable mention in this category as well.

Once again I’m humbled by RRW’s support of Afrigator and it’s a great way to end off a fantastic year for us!

 

Posted on December 8, 2008 - by

Afrigator on ReadWriteWeb and the New York Times as a Top 10 International Product for 2008

Afrigator on ReadWriteWeb and the New York Times as a Top 10 International Product for 2008

This almost went unnoticed but on Friday Afrigator was voted one of the Top 10 International Products for 2008 by ReadWriteWeb. This is obviously a massive accolade for all of us involved in Afrigator and at times like this I’m left perplexed at how a small garage startup like Afrigator has managed to gain such credibility outside the borders of SA.

To be included in the list along with massive properties like Netvibes and Zoho is a great testament to the efforts the guys have put into this company and I was particularly chuffed to see that this article made the New York Times’ Technology section.

Afrigator on the New York Times

Now all we need to do is figure out how we can get similar local recognition and then we’re well and truly sorted!