Free Report: How to Become a Creative Entrepreneur

Here is a free report by Brian Clark from Copyblogger.com. I’m a big follower of Brian’s work and am slowly becoming one of his “raving fans”. Brian, like Seth Godin, “gets the new economy”.

Notice how he is providing you good free content. This is the new age of marketing. You get good content and learn about him a little – this really is a big “sell” for one of his products. But if he had just put an ad out, I wouldn’t have referred to it. As he has printed something which “adds” value to you he is doing his marketing through “edutainment”. Something you could learn for one of your own product launches?

Here’s what you’ll discover:

* Why he quit his cushy law firm job and turned to online publishing.
* How he failed miserably.
* How he then succeeded miserably.
* How he learned his lesson the hard way.
* The allure of the global microbrand.
* The rise of the “feeder” business.
* Why small is beautiful (and powerful).
* The 37signals approach to market research.
* Real-life examples of creative entrepreneurs.

Plus, a deeper examination of the 5 critical components of creative entrepreneurship:

* Create (Don’t Compete)
* Lead (Don’t Manage)
* Communicate (Don’t be Shy)
* Automate (Don’t Duplicate)
* Accelerate (Don’t Stand Still)

This report is totally free . . . you don’t even have to provide an email address.

Click here to download the PDF.

About the Author: Brian Clark is founder of Copyblogger and co-founder of DIY Themes, creator of the innovative Thesis Theme for WordPress. Get more from Brian on Twitter.

The death of the resume

According to copyblogger – no one is reading my blog.

There are 200 million blogs around the world and around 900,000 blog posts made every day. So why should I bother writing? Or more importantly, why should you?

The old school way of getting jobs is broken. Resumes can be copied, cheated, exaggerated or not do you enough justice. Can you really tell everything about your personality within a page or two? Or within an hour or two of an interview?

Everyone’s “weakness” is that they are a “perfectionist”. That 18 % profitability and the 298 % growth rate for your company – most people in your organization are taking credit for that achievement on their resume.

A decent resume used to get you through the door. The fact that you spell checked it. It was in the right format and had the right university degree on it. The resume was looked at for a whole 30 seconds and if you happen to get the HR person on a good day, you got through. The interview typically lasted an hour and within that time the interviewer, who was usually as nervous as you were, had to judge if they would like working with you. An hour can be faked – especially as most people are not trained to be interviewers. You can easily have the canned responses memorized. Or you might actually have been good, but forgot an example of a time when you took initiative or had to deal with a difficult situation or whatever standard question that came up.

The resume was more about testing your ‘creative marketing’ skills. You could be the best computer nerd in the world – but if you didn’t know how to market yourself on your resume, you lost out.

Now the world has become even more competitive. I can apply for the same job from Kabul as I can from San Francisco. Google receives over a million applications every year and have openings for less than 5,000 jobs. How many resumes do you think they actually read?

The resume is soon to be dead.

Your online brand will replace your resume. Good news if you want to “stand out from the crowd”. Bad news if you were able to fake your way through before.

Russell Buckley , blogger at mobhappy , used his blog to talk about the mobile business. Russell gave away free reports, such as the lessons he learned from running a failed startup. He was looking for opportunities, but instead of just sending his resume around, he spent time blogging his thoughts.

Omar Hamoui, the founder of admob, was a reader of his blog and saw that Russell could add a lot of value to his “amazing idea”. Omar asked Russell to join his venture and eventually, Russell became employee number two at AdMob.

So how much did this opportunity lead to for Russell? Three years after joining as employee number two, primarily because of his blog, Admob got bought out for $750 million by Google. Its not quite a billion – but I’m sure Russell won’t need to fly economy class any more.

Omar is obviously a smart entrepreneur. Why go through a resume and an hour long interview with someone – when you can hire someone like Russell, whose material you read and come to trust overtime. Its like interviewing someone over several months. Every blog post, every article is like an interview. As any entrepreneur will tell you, who you hire is the key to your business success – Omar was smart enough to use the new method of recruitment – and you can’t argue with the success his company has had.

More and more people are going to hire through blogs, more business and personal relationships will be started or advanced through blogs (facebook, linkedin, twitter). We don’t have the time to get to know everyone so it saves us time to check out their pictures on facebook or read a few of their blog posts – to figure out who we are dealing with.

You, one of the exclusive few, are reading my blog. This is the same as me spending 5 minutes with you. Except I didn’t have to force myself or make you feel uncomfortable by asking for your time. You are reading at your own free will.

In the grand scheme of things the few hundred people that read my posts every week is not phenominal – but imagine if every week a few hundred people looked at your resume – wouldn’t that lead you to some opportunities?  For Russell, just one of the thousands of readers made it all worthwhile. Same as if you start blogging – just one client or employer could make it all worthwhile. You don’t have to worry about being number one of the 200 million blogs – you just have to cater to the readers in your little niche.

The new economy will be run by “free agents”. How can you distinguish one consultant from another? You might be shocked to hear this, but not every McKinsey/BCG/Accenture consultant is a genius. Most are ordinary people that have a huge marketing engine behind the brand. The future will be about the individual free agents and you will have to do your own marketing through producing your own content.

The world will become full of micro brands. Not all of us will become the McKinseys, IBMs or Accenture’s of the world but to a handful of our readers we will become a brand. It will be less important what degree you have or what grades you got – the content you produce will be more important. Do you really care if I have an MBA or not? Or got straight “A’s” at school? No, you care if the content is relevant for you, can you learn something from it? How does it help you?

When you go to buy products form an unknown company – you will read about the people behind it – do their values align with yours? The resume may be dead, but for those that are willing to work for it – a whole new world of possibilities will open up.

The internet will create mini-celebrities. In the old days, we could only follow Steve Jobs and Bill Gates as CNN and the BBC determined which CEOs were worth following. But now you can be your own Steve Jobs or Bill Gates. You can have your own product launches and PR stories. Just as some people think Steve Jobs is “cooler” than Bill Gates – so they go for Apple products, your small business will also have to come up with an image. Buying is about emotions – and if you let people know about the personalities behind the business (Richard Branson – Virgin, Jeff Bezos – Amazon, Jack Welsh – GE), the business is likely to sell more. Just as Britney Spears has a PR team behind her, you will also have to do your own PR to sell your own records or paintings.  Or for that matter – yourself for the job.

Your success can be linked to the followers you have online. Just as Richard Branson figured out that if he does some crazy stunts, he gets some free publicity for his company, so will many other entrepreneurs. Instead of just dealing with large media companies though, niches on YouTube and facebook will occur.

So does it matter if just a few people are reading your blog? For Russell, it led to a job that made him a millionaire. For you it could also lead to something you want to do in life. Write about things that genuinely interest you – unlike a resume or an hour long job interview – it will be harder for you to fake your enthusiasm for MS Excel or PowerPoint.

The new economy will allow you to be you. The old way of having a different persona in your “corporate” day life and being a different person in your personal life will disappear. The “truer” you will appear. Companies will hire “mini-brands” rather than “robots” that are hard to differentiate from one another.

Perhaps you should take a minute’s silence for your old resume, and prepare for the birth of your online brand.

There are just a few tickets left on www.poweronlinedubai.com.

You can subscribe to my blog – I won’t sell the info and you can unsubscribe at anytime – http://bit.ly/2JQWrB

Secrets of the Millionaire Mind

I am a personal development seminar junkie and at the past few events the name I heard a few times was T. Harv Eker – so I went on YouTube to check him out.  Here is his “Secrets of the millionaire mind” video that someone had uploaded on YouTube.

Remember, in Dubai on 20/21 November you can come to www.poweronlinedubai.com to learn how to make a better income for yourself.  You know the internet is not going to go away so you might as well come and learn how to make an income from it.  I have just made my first $1,000 through facebook this week.

There are not too many people making a living online in the region so speakers from Australia, Europe and North America are flying in to teach what they know just for the weekend. Success leaves clues. Why learn from your own mistakes when you could learn from someone else?

The poor amongst you will think “where is the catch” – the entrepreneurial will want to come and meet like minded people and keep an open mind to learning about new ways to make an income.  There are just a few tickets left on www.poweronlinedubai.com.

If you don’t like the event you can get a 100 % refund. How many rock concerts offer a refund if you don’t like the music?

You can subscribe to my blog – http://bit.ly/2JQWrB

In case you can’t see the videos below, here is a link to the first one:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mcAGTYVYV48&feature=related

Imagine if facebook had borders

Imagine that the only friends you could make on facebook were of the same country or religion as you. Wouldn’t that suck?

Imagine that the unnatural physical borders that were decided before you were born and have cost millions of people their lives and their freedom to travel were also put up on facebook.

Perhaps the world leaders could learn something from facebook instead?

As a country that was founded in 2004 it already has more ‘citizens’ than the United States. In April 2009 it had 200 million active users, by July 2009 it had 250 million and by September 2009 over 300 million active users had ‘immigrated’ to facebook. Which other country has that type of growth?

Isn’t immigration out of control on facebook? Shouldn’t the ‘leaders’ of facebook do something to keep those damn immigrants out? They might take our jobs!

John Lennon imagined a place with nothing to kill or die for – and maybe facebook is it.

Please forward this post and/or subscribe. To learn more about the internet come to Dubai on 20/21 Nov visit www.poweronlinedubai.com.

How to make money on the internet – affiliate marketing

Why people write book reviews

I would like to recommend a book to you. If you like reading about psychology and how to persuade people – then check out Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion by Robert Cialdini.

In case you didn’t click above, here is the link again:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/006124189X?ie=UTF8&tag=amianz-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=006124189X

If you clicked through the above link you would have been taken through to Amazon.com’s page for the book.

If you look closely within the url you will see it says “tag=amianz-20″ (roughly halfway through the url address).

The “tag=amianz-20″ tells Amazon that you clicked through from my website. “amianz-20″ was the “affiliate code” they have assigned to me.

If you end up buying the book, they will pay me a percentage – from 3 to 15 % of the book price. So, for this book, which sells for approximately $12, they would pay me approximately 50 cents. If you ended up buying more products at the same time than I would also make a commission for those as well. 

This may not sound too exciting. If its only 50 cents a book than you will need to help sell thousands of books, before you make a decent living. But don’t forget you could also help them to sell iPods, cameras, computers, televisions or other items that sell for a lot more money.  Then the commissions would be a lot more interesting.

The real secret to Amazon’s marketing success was the affiliate scheme – they have over 100,000 affiliates that send them traffic. Amazon wins as they don’t pay for the marketing costs, unless a customer buys. The affiliate wins as the more successful they are, the more they make. And the customer wins, as they receive free content because there is an incentive for the content creator to drive traffic to their site.

Why I got excited about online marketing

There is an event in Dubai on 20th and 21th November. People that are actually making a fulltime living on the internet will be flying in from Australia, Europe and North America to show how they make money online. You can learn more about the event at www.poweronlinedubai.com.

If you clicked through you would see that the event is priced at $397. If you actually buy a ticket, I make a $200 commission – or over 50 % of the ticket price.

Now, it gets interesting doesn’t it? Now – its much more tempting to start marketing online.  I would have recommended this event anyway to my friends – the ones interested in getting out of the rat race.  But with the incentive, I start thinking more ‘creatively’ about marketing for the event.  In order to start making money, I don’t need to invest thousands of dollars in product development – I simply go create content – in my case, by writing, but it could have been video or an audio podcast.  I update my facebook and twitter statuses to let people know about the event.

If you visit www.clickbank.com you can see that you can make upto 75% selling digital products.  Remember, it doesn’t cost the creator of an ebook or downloadable software any more money if they sold an extra copy – so often times they are giving away 75 % in commissions through to affiliates as they want to attract marketers to help them sell.  Same for an event – if an extra person attends lectures on learning about the web, the teachers are only too happy.  Plus at the event they will probably try to “upsell” you various products so they want more visitors to the event.  So thats why they are incentivising me heavily (its not just me, anyone can become an affiliate!).

The url that I am given to market so that Unlimited Power Online knows that the customers came from me is actually http://www.kickstartcart.com/app/?af=1022337 but as you can see it doesn’t look clean and people are less likely to click through. They trust it less. So what I have done is to spend $10 on a domain name “www.PowerOnlineDubai.com” and simply have it forward to the above address.   This technique, which I learnt from Ernesto’s coaching, is called a “naked url”.  I could go and promote this url anywhere – on radio, TV or newspapers.

Remember, as the consumer, you are always paying the same price – its just either Amazon/PowerOnlineDubai gives me a commission or they keep it themselves – you don’t lose anything.  They actually want to give away commissions as then they know I will work harder for them – if I’m not making any money than I will stop promoting their products.

How books will become free

People work on incentives. When you realise that you can make a living from creating knowledge than you are more likely to do it. For instance, you can get a free ebook from my coach – the “amazingly useful websites“.  The book is here:  http://www.kickstartcart.com/app/?Clk=3317037. All you do is to visit and enter your email address.

The thing is that he has done a lot of work of researching good sites for you. I help him by telling you about it. You go and download the book – the book has really useful information but it also has loads of affiliate links embedded in it. For instance, he might recommend hosting providers and often they will give him a commission if you buy.  Plus as you have given him your email address he adds you to his mailing list.  If he ends up “upselling” a product to you – he gives me 50 % of what he made from you.  You get a free book, I “look good” to my readers for providing them a good resource and if you ever happen to buy anything both Ernesto and I win.

The old school method of creating ‘edutainment’ meant that you charged people upfront for the book or movie. If they didn’t like it, too bad – they lost their money. The new method of creating knowledge is to give away your best content for free. To use the same method as a free television station – the ones that let you watch the show for free as long as you watch the advertising within it.

This blog post is an example of the new age of marketing.  I spend my time to provide you with relevant knowledge that you have hopefully found useful. A very tiny percentage of you might come to www.poweronlinedubai.com and for each ticket sold through that link I make $200. The more I make, the more I get encouraged to create content.

This is exactly how the world of teaching will change.  Teachers will go out and create good content and give it away on the web.  They will then either make their money through advertsising or from creating their own “brand” and then selling consulting, coaching or tuition to students.

Tips for starting online

Do not spam people with your “sales pitches”. Don’t go on to peoples walls on facebook and start promoting all sorts of products. Or send an email to a large group. This is always a tricky thing – I still ocassionally cross the line between what is “acceptable” and what is moving towards spam. The newbies always make these mistakes.

I do use facebook as a platform to help me get started. For instance, I have linked my wordpress blog so it comes through as a “note” on facebook. I also often use my status on twitter or facebook to simply promote my blog or to encourage people to subscribe to my blog.  Facebook gave me a bigger audiance than starting to build one from scratch (it has taken me a few years to build “friends!”).

To get started simply visit www.wordpress.com and start a free website – it is a lot easier than you think to have your first website. You could start off by joining Amazon’s Affiliate Program.  Find your niche and start attracting traffic. Making a living on the web is not a “overnight” thing but takes a lot of energy and time.  The smartest thing I did was to get an internet marketing coach and start to network with people that were making money online.  This has literally saved me hundreds of hours of work and I’ve already made more money online this month than I have all my previous years combined. 

If you wish to learn a lot more about making money on the internet from some real gurus come to www.poweronlinedubai.com in Dubai on Nov 20/21.  And feel free to forward the link to any of your friends .  I’ll see you at www.poweronlinedubai.com – and if you do end up buying through the link than please let me know and I’d like to treat you to a lunch or dinner (on me!) – we can discuss your business ideas.  Simply send an email to amir@amiranzur.com with your proof of purchase.  To subscribe to my blog visit http://bit.ly/2JQWrB.  See you on the 20th!

Help! I’ve got PowerPointitus

Somebody has to have a cure.  I need one urgently.  I’m sick of PowerPoint.  Business used to be about relationships.  People talking to each other, discussing things and resolving issues.

Now its about who can make things look pretty while staring at a computer all day.  Emailing it to someone else who will change a few colors and fonts and then approve or disapprove.

Every idea I have has to be PowerPointed – so I stop telling organizations that I work for any new ideas – I don’t want my PowerPointitus to get worse.

I’m dreaming of working with people that want to listen to ideas and simply make them happen.  To skip the stages where my PowerPointitus gets worse. 

To go back to the good old days where you looked someone in the eye while discussing an idea – not at a computer screen with font so small you can’t see.  Or documents so long you can’t stay awake.  I’m wondering how Julius Caesar built the Roman empire without having a copy of Microsoft Office.

If you have the solution for PowerPointitus, please call me urgently – I need to order 14 bottles for myself and another 948 cartons for my colleagues.

You can subscribe to this blog - http://bit.ly/2JQWrB

Kissing up to the boss

Many people simply kiss up to the boss.  They forget about their colleagues or people reporting to them.  Don’t fall into this trap. 

Once you graduate from high school you are more likely to be in touch with your fellow students than you are with your teacher.  It’s the students that studied with you that might become a business connection, a future date or help you get what you want in your life.  If you simply kissed up to the teacher you might have gotten an “A” in that class, but the future benefits of a good network would have disappeared.

It’s the same with your work.  If you focus on your boss and forget your colleagues, people that report to you, the receptionist, the cleaner, or whoever – you are thinking really short term. 

Don’t be a fake.  Someone who “kisses up” to people who are “important” and forget the “non-important” people.  It’s a myth that the most important person in your careers success is your boss.

Hedge your bets, what happens if your boss leaves the company – would you now be left stranded?

Your boss might have the job title but her secretary could be the actual decision maker.  You have a long career ahead of you – you never know who is going to be a future client, boss or colleague.

Kiss up to everyone – it’s a better longer term strategy.

You can subscribe to my blog – it’s free and I won’t share your email address with anybody except my mom http://bit.ly/2JQWrB

 

Fake work

Lets say you want someone to dig a hole for you in your garden.  A normal person would take a shovel and get it done within an hour.  A consultant will use teaspoons to dig.  And get three analysts to dig it for you – getting it done in a week.

Why?  Because we all work on incentives.  Everyone is driven by what pays their bills.  As consultants charge out their time – its in their interest to take as long as possible and use as many people as possible.  A simple 5 minute conversation would solve your problem?  Too bad – you will get a 147 page PowerPoint presentation with the perfect font and pictures.

Or a government worker that has to look busy so they create extra processes and procedures for you to go through so they keep themselves in a job.

Clients have to start to become smarter.  Realize that they want things done quicker and simpler.  Pay for simplicity not pretty looking documents that don’t get to the point.

If you employ anyone – figure out their incentives.  If you are paying for time – than expect things to take a bit longer and be more complex than are necessary.  If I was getting paid to write by the word, this post would have been much longer.

 

Go ahead and subscribe to this blog.  You know you want to.  Anyone who is anyone is doing it.  Just visit http://bit.ly/2JQWrB and enter your email address.  I hate spam too and won’t abuse your email.  You can opt-out at anytime.  To subscribe:  http://bit.ly/2JQWrB

Exercising your brain muscles

Cars, pencils and laptops lose value the more you use them. The funny thing about muscles is that the more you use them the better they get.

This is also true of your creativity muscles. The more you paint, the better painter you will become. The more you write, the better writer you will become. The more decisions you make, the better decision maker you will become. The more businesses you start, the better businessperson you will become.

If you continuously read about painting, but never actually pick up a paintbrush than your chances of success are minimal. If you continuously study about starting a business but don’t actually start one, than your chances of developing your “business creativity” muscles is minimal.

Its been said that 9 out of 10 businesses fail within a few years. Some see this as a reason not to start one. Others see this as a reason that they should get going sooner, so that they will get there quicker with the one that does make up for the other “failures”.

Reading books on business and never starting one is like staring at a running machine and hoping to get the six-pack. You actually have to get on the machine, even stumble a few times, before your muscles really begin to develop.

To learn more from the best global webpreneurs about how they are making money online visit Dubai on 20/21st Nov: www.poweronlinedubai.com

To subscribe to this blog visit: bit.ly/2JQWrB

Are you relatively happy?

There was an experiment done at Harvard University where they offered the graduating students a choice of two salaries.  They could choose to earn $75,000 per year and all their classmates would earn $80,000 a year or they could earn $70,000 a year and all their classmates would earn $65,000 per year.  Over 70 % of the students went for the lower paying salary for themselves as they would be earning more than their colleagues*.

The human society is built on competition.  To figure out how happy we should be we compare ourselves with someone else.  You got a big bonus at work – but what did everyone else get?  You got a B on an exam – just peek at your friends results to figure out if you should be happy or upset with this.

Real estate agents have a little trick they use while selling houses.  They never show their best house first to the buyer.  They show a bad house first and then the nicer home second.  If they show their best house first, then the buyer doesn’t know if the house is any good as they need something to compare with.  As they don’t have a benchmark they can’t decide.  Set the benchmark low, and they have a higher chance of a sale.

You could do the same with your life.  Just get friends that earn less than you, weigh more than you or are “dumber” than you.  This means your benchmarks are low and your chances of relative happiness higher.

Do you need someone else to decide to be content – or can you be content by yourself?  If you need relativity – than there will always be a bigger house, faster car, better job title or bigger bonus you could get.  There will always be someone that can run faster or further than you. 

The “rat race” is built on people that need relativity to be happy.  The “rat race” promises you that you work a little harder and you can get that promotion which will let you “beat” the others.  Work that little bit harder now, delay gratification and then you will be happy.  They forgot to mention – when you get to the next level, than you will have to start all over again in order to get to the level after that.    

Or you could simply appreciate where you are – wherever you are – and decide if you want to go to the next level and if so, at what pace. 

Do you need to be relatively happy or just happy?

 

To subscribe to this blog via email please visit  http://bit.ly/2JQWrB

*note – I can’t recall where I got this study from but the figures are roughly accurate – if you know the reference please let me know!

Passportism in Singapore

I just arrived in Singapore and had a 8 hour transit on the way to Sydney.  I was just thinking through how to kill the 8 hours when I see a little “Free singapore tours” sign.  I asked the lady and yes they have a 2 hour cultural tour of the city.  For free.  And I should be able to make it back in time for my connecting flight (insert mandatory  ”inshallah” here as I have just come from the middle east).

I don’t have a visa.  But I do have a British Passport.  “No problem, just fill in this little piece of paper with your name and passport number. And enjoy the free tour of my beautiful city” says the polite tour lady.

The guy behind me comes and has a 24 hour layover.  He has a Pakistani passport and his Singaporian visa expired 3 days ago.  Too bad.  No free tour.  No entry.  Please enjoy the Starbucks in the airport terminal.

So I take a look at the list of the countries that have this “visa” issue.  Its a list of about 20 or so countries – its the usual suspects:  Bangladesh, India, Egypt, Morrocco, Iran, Iraq, Yemen….

I don’t blame the Singaporeans.  They are smart bureaucrats.  For instance, as I happen to have a rich country passport, I get a FREE tour of their country.  They hope that I go away with a good feeling about singapore and bring some business there someday.  Or perhaps I buy some lunch at a restaurant.  Or spend a few dollars on a few souvineers. Or the best would be if I start doing some business with a singaporean businessperson (which eventually leads to a good tax income for the government).

The poor of the world, will continue to get poorer.  The rich will get richer. Why?  Because now as a “British” guy I can go and get some ideas of how other people in the world live.  Whats happening and fresh in Singapore thats not happening in the Arab/European world.  How can I benefit from geo-arbitrage (the fact that the differnet parts of the world innovate in business/life at a different pace)?   I simply have to figure out what ideas I can ‘export’ to the other countries.

The “Pakistani” guy will have to stick with hanging out with other Pakistanis.  He won’t get the exposure to take back to his country.  I get the international contacts and international ideas.  He will have to stick to seeing the world on facebook – where there are no passports and no politics and no visas.  Obviously, seeing the world in other peoples photos is not as cool. 

Singaporeans are smart.  They had built their brand way before the emergence of cities like Dubai.  Here at the airport I have free wireless internet.  And free computers with internet access (where I’m writing this post).  A lot of countries don’t even manage this.  They make it sooo expensive to go online that you think you will stick to reading the tabloid papers and learning what the David Beckhams of the world are up to.

Passportism is something that I care a whole lot about.  Simply as I see it randomness of it all.  I just happened to be born in a geographic location that at this time in history happens to be doing well (being born in the 1927 might not have been that much fun). 

People are getting smart about the passportism and finding the loopholes for their kids.  I have a Lebanese friend that flew to the US a few weeks before giving birth, so her daughter would get American citizenship.

My advice is go for a dual nationality if you can for your kids.  You don’t know what the world will be like.  My father didn’t have issues going for his Phd in the UK (where I happen to pop out from my mother).  It was easy to get citizenship in those days, but he didn’t bother as it wasn’t a big deal back then.  Yes – Pakistan wasn’t branded as so “backwards” as it is now.  I got the nationality automatically through pure chance. 

Brands change over time.  No one had heard of Dubai back then.  And now they have.  Kabul was actually a happening place where the hippies liked to go and smoke their dope.  Its not so attractive these days.  Korea didn’t have the Samsungs of the world and was in its development stages. 

The strategy for the Pakistanis/Iranians and the rest these days is to do a few year stints in the Canadas/Australias of the world.  Get their passports and then go back to their countries.  Where they now know they can travel and see the world.

If you have a “good” passport – enjoy it.  If you don’t, do something to make your part of the world a better brand so that more countries will welcome you.  And if you do manage to create a better brand – you’ll also start enjoying free tours where countries will be making a real effort to welcome you (and your money) to their part of the world.

Inner game vs Outer game

You are probably conscious about the outer game that you play continuously throughout your life – but are you also aware of your inner game?

The inner game is what differentiates the people at the top level and the sooner you can start ‘winning’ the inner game, the sooner you will start achieving what you really want in life.

The outer game is about what you wear, the car you drive or what your resume has on it.  From an early age we are taught to focus on the outer game.  You need to dress well for school.  Get an “A” in class.  Look good on the basketball court in front of your friend.  Name drop the ivy league university you went to.  Or show photos of the posh holiday resort you visited on facebook.  Have a trophy wife/husband.  Impress people with the car you drive and get a nice job title or the corner office.  Your outer game is what you think gets you the job (e.g the resume, the nice suit for the interview) or our partner in life (the way you look, the car you drive).

The inner game though is often forgotten about.  You aren’t taught to speak well to yourself internally.  So when you are going to the job interview and you have the shiny suit and everything polished on your resume but inside your head is a voice saying “there are so many other applicants for this job, I won’t get this job” or “I think I exaggerated a little too much on my resume, I don’t think I’m that good”.  Or you approach a potential date and you think “why would he/she go for me?”.  Or you go to a party and you think “I’m so boring, I feel sorry for the person who has to sit next to me at dinner”.  Or you are worried about the embarrassing acne you developed and that’s the only thing the people in the room are going to be staring at.

The inner game is a whole field that we have never been taught to focus on.  There are no “inner game” courses at school – while the outer game is taught to us all the time.  The advertising on TV tells us about the car we should be driving, the shoes we should be wearing or the body we should be having.  Or your parents tell you how your brother got an “A” in class and they are so proud of him (reinforcing the outer game).  So we have continued to focus our lives on the outer game.  The outer game is easier to measure (your bank account, car engine size, number of bedrooms in your house, grade point average, number of friends on facebook, votes during an election, job title, salary).

The outer game though eventually begins to wear out.  At some stage you realize that people don’t really care about you.  The people that matter don’t really care about what car you drive, what grades you got or what station you are at life.  They are really just focused on themselves and they have their own lives to lead.

You realize that the outer game only gives you temporary happiness.  You got the BMW you wanted – it gave you a brief moment of happiness when you first bought it.  But now you are worried about the next model that will be coming out.  Or you are paranoid about people putting scratches on it.  Same for the big screen TV.  Its great.  Especially when you can invite friends over and they admire how cool your new TV is.  But then you start to think is that it?  You need the next toy or thing to improve your outer game.

So then you begin to realize that the inner game is something you have forgotten about.  The game that really matters as that’s the game that stays with you ALL the time.  Even the times when your ‘friends’ have gone home for the evening or your partner has gone to their own work.

You had focused on the external resume – but you forgot your internal resume.  This is the resume of things that you have done by yourself to “prove” to yourself that you can do it.

Once you can master the inner game is when you really start to perform.  Think about the best golfers, footballers and other athletes.  At the top level, the athletes have very little that differentiates them physically.  But the real difference between the Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods or Roger Federer and the other athletes is the inner game.  They have the inner game that tells them that they can do it.  That they will beat any opponent and that messing up one “shot” isn’t the end of the world and they will recover.  Their inner game is so strong that they can serve an ace with millions watching or take a flawless penalty kick at the most intense moment of the game.

The inner game is easier to see on athletes – will they “choke” or live up to expectations?  It’s the inner game that scores the penalty.  But the inner game is harder to see in ‘everyday’ life as you can’t always see behind the façade of confidence that people show externally.

So what can you do to work on your own ‘inner game’?  Firstly, simply be aware of the inner game.  Be aware next time you are at a party, meeting a potential date or going for a job interview – what is your inner voice saying?  Are you comfortable being you?

Just being aware of the inner game will make you conscious of if you say encouraging or discouraging things to yourself.

Once you are aware than take some conscious steps to address your inner game – do you think a Tiger Woods would perform on the golf course if he had the same thoughts going through his head that you do at the event you are going to?

Next take steps to ‘reprogram’ your inner game.  Be aware – do you hang out with positive people or is most of your time spent with friends that find ways of putting you down.  As hard as it may be, try to limit the time you spend with negative people.  This will give you more room in your life to find more positive people to be with.

If you continuously watch the news than your inner game is also learning to look as if the ‘world is coming to an end’.  Trust me, as soon as you switch off from the news on the media – you will feel much better about the state of the world and begin to have a more positive outlook on people.

Try to read or listen to positive ‘inner game’ material.  This may be books, audio or going to seminars.  The bonus is that if you start attending seminars you will meet other ‘positive’ people to be around.

Find references in your own life where you have accomplished something.  You probably have a whole list of scenarios where you messed up at something stored in your head.  When you want to start a business, your inner game reminds of the time you got a “D” in math class – so you now “know” you will never be good at numbers so you will fail at the business.  Or you want to get in shape – but your inner game reminds you of the past few times that you tried and you only ended up gaining weight.  Or you want to quit smoking – but again you ‘always’ fail.

This is like Tiger Woods going up to put a crucial shot and only thinking about all the time that he really screwed up his shot.  Do you not think he thinks instead about the times he hit it perfectly?

So in that same manner, remind yourself of something you might have done – no matter how insignificant – that got you the result you wanted.  Perhaps you thought you were going to fail an exam but managed to get a ‘B’ instead.  Or you told yourself you would go for a jog 3 times a week and you did that for a whole summer.  Or you had a real tight-deadline at work that you didn’t think you would make – but you did.  Or you picked up a thick book that seemed impossible to read – but you got through it.  Or you had always wanted to visit Africa – and you did.

Give yourself little goals and little references that got you to achieve what you wanted.  You don’t have to compare yourself to Nelson Mandela (who at your age was probably still in jail) or a Tiger Woods.  Or your friends.  Just as long as you have little references in your own head of things that were a big deal for you – you probably don’t even have them listed on your external resume as to the external world they may be insignificant– but just do build them up on your ‘internal’ resume.  The one you don’t have to show anybody else.

Once you have become aware of your inner game and given yourself positive references from your past – work on growing those references.  How can you prove to yourself that you are capable of achieving what you set out to do?  Make some goals for yourself.  Perhaps its having a skydive.   Then instead of simply just having it on your list, go out and see where could you do it.  How much would it cost?  When could you do it?  And then actually go out and do it.

Build a whole series of exercises for yourself to make your inner game solid.  Tiger Woods was working on his game well before you or I ever heard of him.  He messed up some tournaments as a kid but he also won some.

We have a tendency to remember our own ‘failures’ whereas we look at a David Beckham or an Abraham Lincoln and see that “it was easy for them, they do everything right”.  The fact is everyone has their downsides.  Just like on your external resume you tend to highlight when you ‘accomplished’ things, so do most other people.  But internally some people often feel like fakes.  They feel that their resume is exaggerated.  That they should be a certain way but they are not.

Hence, you see the Kurt Cobain (Nirvana) or other rock stars that rise to fame quickly go through their drugs and other rebellious stage as they are trying to cope by not being “fakes”.  Their external resume tells them that they should be “rock stars” and act a certain way and be happy.  But their internal resume tells them that they don’t deserve to be there and that they will soon “be found out” that they are not really “rock stars” but simply “normal people”.  Their inner game has not caught up to their outer game.

Once you get the inner game right you will worry less about your job title, your car or the other status symbols you have on the outer game.  You will feel happier with what you have right now – rather than the things that you are ‘missing’ right now.  Even if a company/person turns you down for a job/date – your inner game will tell you that the company/person wasn’t right for you, rather than telling you that you are a ‘loser’.

Ironically, it’s the inner game that will lead you to a better outer game.  It’s the inner game that will give you the confidence at the job interview or in making friends or finding your partner in life.  It’s the inner game that really counts, so what are you going to do to improve your own inner game?

Coaching

Thinking of starting your own business but don’t know where to start? Or perhaps you have already started and figuring out it wasn’t as easy as you thought? Or you simply want to get ahead in your corporate career?

Even the best sports athletes in the world have coaches.

Tiger Woods, Roger Federer and the “best in the world” still take a coach to help them acheive the next level. Whether its something you are trying to establish in your professional or personal life having an external person can help you get there faster. I’m someone that has started businesses, worked in corporates, governments and NGOs. I have failed worse than most people you know but I have also had success in many things. I have read (87 books in 2008) and traveled (5 continents in 2008) and worked for corporates such as Microsoft and started businesses that got companies such as Google as a customer.

I guess what I’m saying is – I have a good ‘external’ prespective to help you acheive what you want. I’m offering coaching for a limited number of people. The cost is $500 per month. For this you will get two 45 minute sessions a month to help you get what you want. This could be to get your business off the ground, help you get into an MBA school, help you to establish a website, get a girlfriend, help build a school, find your purpose in life or whatever else comes to your mind. Try me. I’m a problem solver and I will help you solve whatever is on your mind.

You signup for a coaching program and there is no obligation and a full money back guarantee. You try me out for the first month – you don’t like it I refund 100 % of your money back – no questions asked, no whinging from my side – I’m just grateful you tried me out.

I’m confident that I can help you. I’ll either connect you to someone appropriate or save you the investment in my coaching time by telling you how to do things quicker.  If you are earning $50 per hour than I am letting you know that I will save you at leat 10 hours a month otherwise you should ask for your money back.

We will do the sessions on skype/phone/googletalk or another method remotely. At a time that is mutually convenient.  My email address is amir [at] amiranzur.com.  Or call +971 50 1977 531.

Don’t work. Think.

Its hard to measure quality thinking.  Its easy to measure other things: number of PowerPoint slides produced, number of words written, hours spent in the office.

But what is easy to measure is not necessarily better to measure. 

Our brains think much faster than we can type or create pretty pictures in PowerPoint slides.  Creating pretty pictures slows you down.  If you take a course on speed reading they will tell you that you have to stop ‘vocalising’ what you read.  Your eyes can read faster than you can speak so when you say the words – even if its just inside your head – you slow down your reading speed.

If you spend your whole day messing around with the format on a PowerPoint slide you are also spending less time thinking and more time doing mechanical work.  I always see people spending hours making a slide and then finally taking it to the boss who doesn’t like the idea - hours of work wasted when a simple two minute conversation would have saved the hassle.

But imagine if you spent the day daydreaming about what the future of your industry would be like.  How people will be working and living in 10 years time.  Or some other completely unrelated thoughts.  You have no ‘output’ to show, so the preception might be that you are a slacker.

Imagine a consultant comes and reports to you.  She spends three months and produces nothing but a simple one pager with their recommendations and solutions.  You think you have been ripped off.  On the other hand another consultant comes, spends long hours in the office and produces 100s of pages of work – than you feel satisfied that you got your money’s worth.  Even though the one pager is simpler to understand and communicate. 

Our old way of thinking has wired us to believe the longer hours someone spends in the office and the more they produce the better it is.  This was suitable for the industrial era when people were working on an assembly line producing cars  – not when we are moving towards a thinking economy.

The thinking world is going to be more impressed with your ideas and your creative output than your input.  I don’t care if it took Michael Jackson 10 minutes or 2 years to come up with “Billie Jean” – I am more concerned with the output.

The world is moving towards a less is more model.  Twitter works as it limits you to 140 characters of thought.  You have to get to the point. 

In a world where we are more productive than ever, ironically, we are also working harder than ever.

A single farmer can produce the same output in 2009 as it used to take 20 farmers to produce in 1809.  Its easier to build shelter for people, bring us food or find entertainment.  Yet – we work longer hours than ever before.  Even though technology improves productivity, we simply have moved to taking more things on our plate – instead of using that time to think or relax. 

Instead of having 5 or so numbers that we used to remember now our phone contact list is in the 100s.  Whereas it would take you an hour to write a single letter and a couple of weeks to arrive to your friends place and now since we can do it instantly we have simply just started writing more emails. 

Think about how you could simplify your life.  How you could remember to chill a little – remember that thinking happens best when you have a clear mind, not when you are stressing over yet another meeting or another PowerPoint presentation.  The winners of the new economy will be the ones with the best thinking – not the most hours spent producing.

Don’t work.  Think.

Why people are poor Part 1

I’m sitting at a small independent internet cafe writing this post.  Its a basic place and highlighted to me one reason why countries/people are poor – and sometimes it doesn’t take much effort to get people to create wealth for themselves.

The cafe is using Internet Explorer 6.0 – a version that expired a few years ago (latest is 8.0).  I asked the cafe owner why he doesn’t upgrade to version 8.0 and he says that no one really asked for it.  I know that surfing would be a better experience for myself and others if he upgraded – but as no one asked he never bothered.

Next door to the cafe is a small burger joint.  The place is a little messy but its cheap.  It was empty when I went there and there were 3 waiters just hanging around chilling.  If you walk in to a McDonalds it is always spotless.  You won’t see people hanging around as every employee is made to be busy the whole time they are there.  If there are no customers they are likely to be cleaning something.

McDonalds and the other American franchise chains have built the processes so that the millions of employees that work there are producing value for every hour they are at work.  You might be making $5 per hour but they ensure that you are producing at least $6 worth of value every hour.  In a lot of the non-chain smaller restaurants around the globe (especially in the developing world) every employee is not maximised.  When there is no work they might just sit around.  They might even work longer hours than at McDonalds and get paid less.

Creating wealth is about creating value.  When times are quiet what can you do to improve your restaurant?  This cafe owner could upgrade all his computers to explorer 8.0 or Firefox or Google Chrome – all this wouldn’t cost him anything except a little time.  It would create a better experience for his consumers and this would eventually translate into wealth for himself – perhaps he could start charging more or perhaps more people are likely to use his cafe.  He has the time and the resources to do this.  A better surfing experience means I’m more likely to be addicted to his brand.

Soon what will happen though is a professional company like McDonalds will see this opportunity and open up a franchise.  Then a consumer like me is likely to use McInternetCafe as I know it will have the latest version of internet explorer, the toilets are likely to be clean and I will get a good service for my money.

Small business owners need to be continually educated in their industry.  This guy needs to know the best browsing practises.  Your restaurant needs to know how to upsell dessert or drinks to your customers to maximise profit.  How to keep people coming back.  Otherwise you end up losing business to the big corporates that bring in the processes and the templates which get the best value from their employees. 

The last few decades has been about the corporates.  They have made a few people really rich and slowly taken over small business.  I see a big comeback for the small business.  Its easier now to create your brand than ever before.  Whereas McDonalds might have hired the best brains to research the best way to upsell food to customers – now any small business owner can Google “best restaurant practises” and get all the knowledge to make her business as successful as McDonalds.  Or spend $20 at Amazon and buy a book written by someone that has all the knowledge.

Again it comes down to education – it doesn’t take major investment – 80 % of the benefits can be made by simply knowing how to create beter value for customers.  If we want to help create wealth for people we need to help them see how they can do it for themselves. To post a video on YouTube in Swahili that explains how to make more money from a restaurant.  To write a blog post in urdu that explains how to make more money from a cafe. 

The good news for you is that the more wealth that is created the more customers are likely to exist for when you launch your product or service.  The developing world isn’t really a market for Amazon yet.  Godaddy doesn’t have many web hosting customers in the developing world.  Google doesn’t make much money from adwords in countries that don’t have credit cards.  Once these people start getting into the economy (through education) than there is more wealth for you – wheather you are sitting in London or Silicon Valley.

Finding my audience

As I began to venture into the world of writing I pretty soon started to struggle to find what my “niche” was going to be. Is it technology, personal development or entrepreneurship? Should my style be funny or serious? Am I targeting the 1.5 billion Muslim niche market where I am placed now? Or is it the European/American consumer market in which I grew up?

The internet has given me so many choices that I started to get paralysis by analysis.

So then I tried to think about my audience (i.e. you). I looked at my facebook “friends” – a great place to start. As you will learn in starting a business the first people to usually invest/buy are the three “Fs” (friends, family and fools). As most of my friends and family are on my list and I’m a fool, my facebook list is my perfect place for my initial focus group.

As you write (paint, code, sing) its important to picture your audience – who is going to be your customer/fan?

And this is where I started to struggle. You see if we meet in a one on one situation I customize what I talk about to you. I know you find technology boring so I don’t talk about it. I know your sense of humor is sarcastic so I adapt. Or if I know you are German, I simply don’t tell any jokes.

Now though I am no longer writing an email or having a conversation with an individual. And as I know so many different types of people who exactly do I focus on?

The answer suddenly came to me. I focus on me. I write to please myself. What would I want to read? What would I find entertaining? What would I like to learn? What would I love to see in a product?

You really can’t please all of the people all of the time. Neither do I want to just please. For some people, my initial product launch will be good enough. I know though that it can be better. If Steve Jobs did things just to please people, he would have stopped at the Mac – he had enough fans – but now the products keep coming.

I’m the best customer/audience/fan I can have. I know how much further I can push myself. I know what I find funny and what I find lame. I also know that although I might adapt 20 % of me according to a situation/person/location – 80 % of my core is usually the same wherever I go.

As any writer knows, boosting your audience’s ego will always help you maintain a good relationship with your fans.

I’ve found my target audiance:  a good looking, charming, intelligent, nomadic, Pakistani guy. He is truly amazing and if you are ever lucky enough to meet him, please let him know how amazing and humble he is.

The future of retail outlets is YouTube

When you go to an electronics store such as Best Buy (US), Dixons (UK) or Plug-Ins (Dubai) you meet knowledgeable staff but often times they have a “downtime” when there are not many customers in the store for them to help.

What these stores could do is to ask their staff to upload product reviews on YouTube while they are on their downtime. They have great knowledge about the best printer, laptop or camcorder to buy and uploading the video review would not take much effort.

As a potential customer I would then go onto YouTube to check out the latest products and see a review on the new Sony Digital camera. The person giving the review would be wearing the Best Buy t-shirt and so not only would Best Buy be getting free advertising they could also post a link to their website to buy the product. Best Buy would be marketing by using a “sunk cost” (employee time) to build its brand. Rather than hitting me with random ads in magazines, this type of marketing is “pull” marketing (I wanted to buy a camera, so I searched for a review and I found Best Buy’s review).

Some of the “tech people” could become brands in themselves. If I know that Tony from Best Buy always gives great recommendations than I will checkout his other recommendations. Staff could receive bonuses depending on the number of hits generated or products sold.

Great sales staff are essentially teachers. They teach us about the features of the product. We don’t have the time to read everything ourselves so they inform us of what we need to know. Instead of only doing this one-to-one they can now do this once and reach out to multiple people.

In the future there will be a bunch of YouTube workstations around the retail outlet and we can search other people’s reviews before purchasing. The workstations would be in addition to the sales staff. I could explain what my specific needs are and the staff would provide me with what they think is the best product for me (just as a doctor prescribes a medicine). I could then check on YouTube to ensure that other people agree with the recommendation. For the staff, access to YouTube will allow them to gain more knowledge on what they are recommending.

This would make the retail experience a lot better for the consumer – how nervous are you about buying the wrong printer, computer or phone? Having access to a host of reviews on YouTube will give you the assurance you need that you are buying the right product or that you should switch to a competitor.

Just as the web copied many ideas from the real world, now the real world can start copying ideas from the web. Having customer reviews was one of the reasons Amazon became successful, retailers such as Best Buy could now copy that practice and not only bring a better experience to their customers but also use their staff more effectively.

How to make someone’s day

I just got this email:

Subject: Love your Getting used to rejection 98 % of the time Posting
Message: Hey Amir, this posting is simply amazing! Congrats! Were you inspired by http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rational_Emotive_Behavior_Therapy by chance?
Best,
R

This mail took less than 3 minutes for this person to write. But gave me a buzz for the past few hours. Enough of a buzz in fact that as I was about to go to bed I got the energy to write another post. Amazing how a simple few words can impact your mood. You see no matter what age you are, we are all simply just big kids. How great did it make you feel when a parent or a teacher told you your painting was fantastic or they enjoyed reading your book report?

We all look for significance and when someone likes or acknowledges what we have done we feel great about ourselves.

I’ve been in contact with musicians, artists, entrepreneurs a whole lot. I’m one of them. I know how it used to crush me when I would enthusiastically pitch my idea and how it was going to change the world and then someone would say “I don’t think it will work because….”. As I mentioned in my previous post I got used to it – and that you have to ignore everybody. And how much of a boost it would give me if someone had used my product or listened to my pitch and said “I love it”. It would give me the energy to work a whole weekend. Or stay up an extra hour.

Or when a boss at work simply said “great job – loved your report”. I felt great. It was like being in school and getting the gold star. A silly stupid gold star that is worth less than 5 cents but it made you feel great for a whole day or week.  As Napoleon said “A soldier will fight long and hard for a bit of colored ribbon”.

So just as you or I love receiving a compliment – lets not forget to give them out as well. If you have someone reporting to you – pay them a sincere compliment for something they do well. Watch how you brighten up their day. Or your boss does something well – let her know (bosses need loving too!).  Or your friend who is trying to make it as a photographer – let them know that you loved one of their photos.  Or your aunt that was trying to lose weight – let her know she is getting there.  Or simply your friend that changed her status on facebook with something creative – simply hit the “like” button.  Just do something to acknowledge someone else – it will brighten up their day and give them the encouragement they need to keep going.

And if you are receiving a compliment – simply say “thank you”.  Don’t go for the “you are just being nice, you don’t mean it” reply.  Train yourself to take the complement and give the other person the pleasure of making you feel good!

So this post is dedicated to Roberto (R) and all the other people like him – the ones that take a little time out of their day to show their appreciation to others.  The ones that comment on a post or hit the “like” button on facebook or give a 5 star rating on a youtube video or write a good book review on amazon.  These are the people that give the writers/artists/entrepreneurs the boost that they need to write one more post, paint one more painting or try one more business. So thank you – I would like to use this post to acknowledge you!

Getting used to rejection 98 % of the time

As I get ready to launch another business I start getting fear – the fear of rejection. You see no matter how brave of a face I put on there is still the fear – what happens if this product doesn’t work out? Why isn’t EVERYBODY in love with this thing? Why doesn’t EVERYBODY write about it? Why isn’t my inbox flooded with emails telling me how great this product is?

As an artist (entrepreneurs are basically artists) you have to face the fear of rejection. You have to step inside the ring and often times – especially the early days – you will take nothing but a major beating. And the bad news is that the more successful you become the more rejection you will get. In marketing a 2 % response rate is considered pretty good. That means at least 98 % of the people are constantly rejecting you. If I want my web product to be successful than if I go from a 100 hits to a 1,000 hits per week – I go from being rejected 98 times to being rejected 980 times every week. But I also go from having 2 customers to having 20 customers.

If you start focusing on the rejections than you won’t get the customers/fans. Focus instead on the 2 or 20 people that are using your product – how can you get them to LOVE your product? Where can you find more people like them? I used to focus on worrying about converting every single one of the other 98% and get annoyed on why they didn’t go for my product – now I’ve learnt to focus on the 2 % and find more people like them. You can’t please all of the people all of the time. It sounds easy to read but we do want to please all of the people all of the time.

Ultimately a customer/fan in love with your product is the best salesperson you can hire for your business. And they don’t cost you anything. The amount of people I see loving their macs or their iPhones is amazing – I could have sworn apple was paying them to pitch to me – but they aren’t. Or the fans that U2, Beatles or the Rolling Stones have – they want you to buy their favorite band’s products.

100 % of the world did not buy Michael Jackson’s albums – less than 2 % did. 100 % of the people don’t have an iPhone – less than 2 % do.

The only way to really deal with the rejection is to feel the fear and do it anyway. As an entrepreneur/artist/musician/director the business/painting/song/movie while its in your head doesn’t take any rejection. While its not “out there” everything is rosy. But when you do release the product/website/painting/song/movie you realize that people have their own lives to worry about and they don’t really have time for your product and you have to start to deal with the rejection. Or they tell you “its nice” but your inner voice starts saying “do they mean it?”.

Whatever you do – you have to start with yourself first. The thing you are launching is not you. Yes, a big part of you is in the product but ultimately if someone doesn’t like what you produce doesn’t mean that they are rejecting you. If you don’t like my cooking, we can still be friends – you just simply don’t like my cooking!

Either I go away and change the spices to your liking or I find someone that likes the way I cook. That’s the decision you will have to make. If you are confident than try to get other people to taste your cooking before switching the recipe too quickly.

See I used to go to the outside world to get my ego trips. We all have a need for significance – but when I started looking internally I found that I could try out more stuff because I was ready for a bit more rejection. Now as I start remarketing a product I am connected to a lot of the people I knew in school, university and a lot of my professional life. As I use facebook to market my product there is a fear that everyone I know will be seeing it crash….but I’ve realised just as I don’t really think about EVERYONE on my ‘friends’ list all the time – they don’t really think about me all the time.

You see most people will want you to succeed. They might not like your product but they will wish you well. They have nothing to gain if you fail – and something to gain if you make it.

The best training I got for rejection is really by messing up. I’ve made a “fool of myself” many times. Many times I’ve simply been an idiot. But I realised no one really cared if I slipped on a banana peel – if I could learn to laugh at myself as well than life became easier.

If you are going through an anxiety phase about launching your painting or whatever product you are thinking about than the best training I could tell you is to go do something really embarrassing. Walk up to 100 strangers and tell them you have a third eye underneath your armpit. The first 2 or 3 people will be really tough to do this to. By about person number 7 you get used to it. By person number 68 you really don’t care.

Go ahead and face your fears – get rejected.

Find the 2 % that love what you do…they are the people that will make it worth it for you.

The last password I will ever need

As the number of sites you use continues to grow, so does the number of usernames and passwords you have to remember. I had started keeping a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet with all my passwords but this was obviously not secure and was still too much of a hassle. I am super lazy and need everything quick – especially when it comes to repetitive tasks.

I was thinking about installing Roboform and paying the $30 but it seemed like a pain if I was using multiple computers. Another software is Password Manager (I mention it because it is a friend of mine’s software!).

Lastpass which is free and is super easy to use – from doing my research it seems as good as, if not better, than the other password managers such as Roboform/PasswordManager and even the open source KeePass. It stores your passwords online so you can use different computers. The geeks will tell you its all safe (you can read through all their technical FAQs). I will take their word for it.

Another cool feature is that whenever you need to fill out forms with your name, address, credit card etc it will do it for you. Saves you a lot of time.

The more time you start spending on the internet, the more you need to invest in becoming efficient online. A password management tool will not only save you stress but will save you a couple of minutes a day – which over the course of a lifetime will add up substantially.

If you are using firefox (you should be using firefox!) than you can install the firefox add-on. LastPass also works with Internet Explorer, Google Chrome, Safari etc…

The end of the Michael Jackson Era

For those of us born in the 1970s Michael Jackson was really the first massive pop idol. The white socks, the glove…..he was an original brand.

Was he black or white? Did he sleep in an oxygen tank? Innocent or guilty? Even as the king of controversy, you could not deny that he was talented and the man knew how to entertain:

In case you want to step in his shoes, learn to moonwalk:

Why your organisation must have an audio library

So you don’t have enough time to read?

An average employee will spend 1 ½  hours a day in their car.

That is 1 ½  (hours per day) * 5 (days per week) * 45 (weeks per year) = 337 hours or over 2 full months of 40 hour weeks per year sitting in a car.

This is the equivalent of doing a full semester at a university just commuting to and from work.

Listening to audio books will give you a huge amount of knowledge in what would have been “dead” time (e.g. listening to radio, on the phone etc…).

If your organisation wants to help its people grow than you must start an audio library.  Imagine if every person in your organisation could get 2 months of training per year and all it would cost you would be less than $3,000 for the whole organisation ($3,000 will buy you approximately 100 audiobooks).  Your employees will not take any time off work to get the extra education.

Go to amazon and buy 100 of the best selling business books – books on sales, marketing or leadership written by the likes of Jack Welch, Martin Luther King, Anthony Robbins, Jim Collins etc.  Learn a language, learn to sing better, get some sales tips, learn how to make money on the web, how to be a better manager….what ever interest you – just make your rides to work productive.

When you start listening to audiobooks you will no longer mind being stuck in a traffic jam – your time isn’t wasted listening to commercials on the radio or listening to a talk show host tell me about what he did over the weekend.

Your confidence will grow – listening to people like Jack Welch or Richard Branson while driving is like having them sitting next to you and talking about their experiences – why learn from your own mistakes when you could learn from theirs?

Listening is the new reading.

Did you know?

Shift happens…

• Top 10 in demand jobs in 2010 did not exist in 2004
• We are currently preparing students for jobs that don’t yet exist…using technologies that haven’t been invented yet…
• According the U.S. Department of labour a student today will have 10-14 jobs by their 38^th birthday
• 1 in 4 workers has been with their current employer less than one year.
• 1 in 2 workers has been with their current employer less than five years.
• 1 out of 8 couples married in the U.S. in 2005 met…online
• If MySpace were a country…it would be the 5^th largest in the world
• More than 3,000 books were published…today
• A week’s worth of New York Times contains more information than a person was likely to come across in a lifetime in the 18^th century
• 4 exabytes of unique information will be generated this year….that is more than the previous 5,000 years
• The amount of new technical information is doubling every 2 years…for students starting a 4 year technical degree this means that half of what they learn in their first year of study will be outdated by their third year of study.
• The amount of technical information is doubling every two years.  By 2010, it’s predicted to double every 72 hours
• We are living in exponential times…

“We can’t solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.” – Albert Einstein

How to use social bookmarking to manage your favourite websites

Are there too many websites for you too remember?  Do you use different laptops to use the web – so adding websites to “favourites” isn’t as convenient?

You could use www.delicious.com a site that makes it easy to keep a track of your website.  My bookmarks are on www.delicious.com/amiranzur.

How to make a free website (like this one)

You might want to start your own website.  You could use it to help you run a club, start a business or simply to build your own brand.

The good news is setting up a website is really easy and it’s FREE. I am using www.wordpress.com.  If you can work your email software such as hotmail, gmail or yahoo than using wordpress to create your website (or “blog”) will also be easy for you.

Once you signup, you will get a free domain that you can give to people – e.g. YourName.wordpress.com (mine is amiranzur.wordpress.com) and simply follow through and you will see how easy it is to create “posts” (like this one) or “pages” (like my “bio” page).  You can change your themes as well – I have gone for the simplistic one.

If you wish you can also purchase your own domain (e.g. amiranzur.com) through either wordpress.com or another host such as godaddy.com.  This will cost you approximately $10 per year.  I would suggest though playing around with wordpress before taking out your credit card.

Some free alternatives to wordpress.com are:

• www.blogger.com – Google’s version, but I prefer using wordpress.
• www.webs.com – has had good reviews but I haven’t used it myself.
• www.posterous.com – I have setup www.amiranzur.posterous.com to try this out.  This is the simplest software that I have seen as you can post using your email.

End Passportism

In America it used to be that the color of your skin determined how successful you could become. It determined what job you could or could not have. Where you could or could not travel. Although still not perfect, the likes of Martin Luther King have made America a place where a black man like Obama can even become president.

In the 21st century the color of a person’s passport determines how far they can go in life. Bill Gates couldn’t have come from Afghanistan as while the actual Bill Gates traveled the world to tell people how great Microsoft was – the Afghani version would have been waiting in embassies awaiting his visa to be approved.

Some passports are better to have than others at the moment – e.g. American/European passports allow you to travel globally better.

If I was from one of the countries that “loses” out on the passport battle (Afghanistan, Rawanda, Pakistan) I would open up my borders so that ANY nationality can come visit and trade with my country. Yes, this means swallowing the political pride in Pakistan for instance and letting Israelis and Indians even enter the country. I would set a $1 a day tax that any visitor needs to pay. This amount is hopefully not enough to scare off anyone from entering while ensuring that you have someone that is contributing to the economy and not a pure “economic refugee”.

The fact is that you want as many people to come visit your country as possible. Every visitor not only brings in tourist dollars (spending in hotels, restaurants, souvenir shops) but they also bring exposure for new ideas to your local population. They are also likely to become good “brand ambassadors” for your countries’ brand when they return to there home country. If you have visited Zimbabwe you are more likely to buy products that come from Zimbabwe when you go back to your home country. You are more likely to speak favourably about the place than what the media says about it and you will probably hold a “soft spot” for the brands/products that come from that country.

Citizens of certain countries (typically “developing” world) suffer worse from “Passportism” than do countries of the “developed” world. Their citizens are less likely to have exposure to the world and global ideas and have less of an opportunity to travel and establish a global business. These countries also typically reverse the mistreatment of passportism. They make it harder for people to come visit their countries. You still need to get a visa from the Pakistani embassy if you are British for instance. This puts up further barriers to the few people that were considering visiting the country. When you go to a supermarket to buy a can of coke and you see a long line – you probably think its not worth buying from that supermarket and go to some other shop.

These countries would be better off to let anyone through. To turn their disadvantage to an advantage. They might find for instance that Pakistan ends up doing a lot more trade with a random country like Rawanda. This is fine – the world does not have to revolve around the “developed” world. Making it easier for entrepreneurs from these countries to work together will benefit the countries that suffer the most from passportism and would force the others to eventually open up their borders as well.

Passports are such an old fashioned concept – who carries paper anymore with stamps? They can update the global systems so that your mobile phone simply becomes your passport. Automatic algorithms will track where your phone has been and the people you speak to and figure out your likelihood of being a terrorist or an economic refugee. Those that are willing to sacrifice their privacy will find it easier to travel as the governments will have more assurance of their intentions. Moving the paper passport to the mobile phone will not only make the world a safer place but will also give a better chance to genuine entrepreneurs in developing countries to travel, get new ideas and sell their ideas and products to the world.

Life is a database

Amazon is a database of products and customers. Ebay is a database of products, sellers and buyers. Google is a database of domain names and content. The tax authorities are a database of people and their earnings. Wal-mart is a database of products, prices, employees and customers.

Once you realise that the world is a database it becomes easier to create businesses. Somehow you are interlinking two entities. Ebay, Google, Twitter, Facebook and Amazon are simply databases. At the centre of any business is a database. If you can structure your database right you will go a long way towards building a good business.

Even if the business you run is not a virtual business – you can still think of it being based around a database. Whichever organisation you work at – school, charity or private company – you can see what and who are the players to make the tables in the database. Thinking of your organisation as a database will give you the right data to be able to measure and run your business better.

How to make more money as an airline

One method might be to enable people to network. While booking the ticket people can show their profile – e.g. a picture, what are currently working on and what interests them. People that are interested can then lookout for the other person or even pick a seat next to the person with a profile that they are interested in.

Obviously some people do like their peace while travelling so they would not participate. Others however would love to turn this “dead” time into something potentially productive for them. Imagine if you offer Financial Advice, are a real estate agent, a life coach, recruiting for GE graduate scheme, looking for volunteers for Amnesty International or even a Jehovah’s witness looking for people to hear your side of the story.

The basic networking application (e.g. facebook but more basic) gives you the perfect opportunity to turn a group of strangers into friends or potential clients. The airline could charge an extra $5 for the service. I would gladly pay this as it seems nominal compared to a $300 ticket.

The airline now not only has a USP for attracting business as well as a new revenue stream, but customers can make better use of their travel time.

End brandism; Begin Youism

Are you British or Kenyan? A lawyer or an investment banker? Catholic or Muslim? Tall or short? Black or white?

You are constantly being put in a box. People find it easier to “know” you if they know which box to fit you into. They judge you by the colour of your skin to the colour of your passport.

Sometimes it is even hard to figure yourself out.  An accountant should be like X – and I’m not like that.  A black person is meant to be like Y – and I’m not like that. 

Nationalities, professions, religions, race are all brands.  If you live in Italy you perceive the French a certain way.  The preception of the French in Germany might be completely different.  The “French” are a brand. 

You represent your brand and it is important for you to remember that what you do potentially impacts millions of people.  If you are Chinese than you potentially represent ALL Chinese to the last non-Chinese person that you met.  There might be over a billion of you but as you are the only Chinese I met, I don’t have time to get to know the others – so I think everyone is just like you.

You know that you are different.  You know that you are a brand in yourself but also remember to represent your identity well.

Why you should provide free knowledge

The more content I can give you for FREE the more you are likely to come back to this site.  The more you are also likely to tell your friends about this site.

The more people that visit this site – the more potential customers/prespective employers I have.  If 10 people are reading this blog than I have 10 potential customers/employers.  If 1,000 people are reading this blog than I have 1,000 potential customers.  This means that if I launch a new business I already have an audiance of 1,000 people that will listen to my idea.  If only 10 %  of people like my idea than I have just moved from 1 potential customer to 100 potential  customers.  This could also help me in finding jobs or promoting businesses that belong to my friends.

By helping you I am helping myself.

The most common question I get when I tell people that I want to give away my best content and teach people for free is – why?  You work hard and should get paid for it.  They get suspicious that “there is a catch”.

Most authors make negligable money from their actual book sales – but it provides them opportunities to sell their consulting services or be seen as an “expert” in some domain.  If someone is reading your book than it is like they are listening to you talk – consider it a long resume.  If they like what you have to say you are more employable – it is a part of brand building.

How can I compete with the millions of other books and things to take your time.  If I start charging than I add another barrier to you reading my stuff.  This way I win by gaining some of your time, and you win by getting access to my knowledge for free!  So thats why you should also start your own website.

How to make more money as a Taxi Driver

Put a simple sign up that says “Will teach you X” while driving.  This could be Singing or another language (Arabic, Spanish, Polish or whatever languages you speak).

Just say that you will do this for pure tip or add a price – e.g. $10 per 10 minutes.

Being in the cab is a sunk cost in terms of time.  You have a captive customer.  Do not hassle them with your sales pitch though.  The sign should be enough.  The customer wins as they learn something while time could have been wasted.  You win as you increase your income while also enjoying teaching something that you love.

The teaching does not show up on the meter either so you get to keep 100 % of what you earn as a tip.

How to “win” at Chinese whispers

I had a strategy away day for the organisation I worked at.  We played “chinese” whispers.  The point of the game is that you line up 20 or so people and the first person says a message in the ear of the second person.  This goes one by one until the last person says the message out loud.  The point of the game being how the message is distorted if you move messages one by one.

I was the second to last person in the game – right before the last person that had to say the message out loud.  I realised that I could rig the game.  The message I got was “pass the salt” whereas I changed it to be “Amir is the greatest guy in the world.”.

The person who had to say the message than stood up and said “Amir is the greatest guy in the world.”. 

I learnt that the most powerful person in the world is the person that says the message (e.g. Obama, your CEO) and the second most powerful person is the person who has the ear of person who says the message out loud (lobbyists sitting in Washington, your boss).  The other 20 people that started the message and passed it on (the voters) have no real say in the matter.  Its the closest to the leader that has all the power.

One way that the message could have been heard more clearly in this game would be if it was written clearly on a t-shirt.  Even if I would have changed the message to be “Amir is the greatest” in the leader’s ear, he could have seen that all the other 19 people had “pass the salt” written on their t-shirts and that I was not representing the voice of the people.

If your company starts responsible corporate blogging than the leadership will find out what people are actually wanting the organisation to do – rather than just the people that have their ear.