People need to feel needed. We all crave affirmation, attention, and love from authority. We project our desire for parental affection on people all around us. We want to be blessed. We want to kiss the ring.

What?

This is why people get jobs.

We need to learn to take a bet on our selves vs always seeking approval, the minute you disassociate seeking approval from what you are doing, you will go further.

Without realising it, you may be negatively impacting your effectiveness by seeking others’ approval. This is because you probably avoid doing things that are important to you, feel anxious about trying new things outside your comfort zone, and get stuck worrying about what others might expect from you.

This is why it’s important to focus and letting go of the need for approval. It's not helping you. There are 2 big things to understand from the amazing book The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck.

1. Not Giving A F*** Does Not Mean Being Indifferent; It Means Being Comfortable With Being Different. Memorise this.

2. We All Have A Limited Number Of F*** To Give; Pay Attention To Where And Who You Give Them To.Understand that the supply of f***s is finite is superpower.

Outcomes

Familiarise your self with a "better life score". Your instinctive reaction could be that it is a made up thing. You wouldn't be wrong. But there is some wisdom in thinking about outcomes in frame works.

Relentlessly look for ways to improve the odds of a good outcome, even if it seems tiny in isolation. Thats a frame work, meaning tiny process improvement compounding like interest to give a return over time.

When you improve your chances of success, even in small increments, tens of thousands of times over a lifetime, it'll add up to massive positive outcomes. In the end getting you to a better life score.

We all build Identities, so it's important to understand it early on in life. You must explore the concept of narrative identity because without you even knowing about it, it will shape the rest of your life.

What is narrative identity?

It’s a story you’ve got about how you came to be, who you are, and where your life’s going. That’s not your whole identity—there are a lot of other things that are part of your identity—but it’s a really important part, and it’s a neglected part. Narrative identity is just as much about how you imagine the future, even though it hasn’t happened yet, as it is about how you reconstruct the past. If I’m planning to be the founder of the biggest tech co in the region and perhaps the world and I’m currently labouring in an unrelated role, well I'm going to have to develop a way to connect up my past with my goals for the future. We all do it. But not many recognise it. If we can, then we can use it to build a better life score.

When do we begin to develop it?

There’s a lot of research now that shows that in the teenage years we develop skills from what’s called autobiographical reasoning, which is the ability to derive personal meaning from your past. When you start doing that in your teenage years, what you are actually telling your self is “okay now you can actually create a story for your life that makes meaning about who you were and where you’re going.”

The power of Knowing

Imagine if we get it wrong? Imagine if we knew about this happening subconsciously. Imagine you are some one in your 20s, or teens reading this and the power it will give you to manage, alter or grow your outcomes? Irrespective of your age, you now know, will you strive towards a better life score?

One New Thing

Have you ever wondered what the contents of a fire truck are? How do firemen/women in the developed world pretty much have a repertoire of gadgets or are prepared for every occasion? Who figures out what equipment they have or should have? Whats the standard life saving equipment to save a life? Who decides? Given todays weather in Karachi and the predictions of rain and seeing some fire trucks on the road my curiosity got the better of me. Some one must have really thought this through. Why? Because the only outcomes a fireman/woman is after, is to save lives, reduce destruction and manage other peoples outcomes in the presence of extreme situations.

Yet for the fireman/woman, some one else has already taken the decision to manage their outcomes by pre packing or ensuring there is enough survival gear + training imparted that any trained fireman/woman can actually use the same/similar gear in many different situations to have the same outcome. Thus I feel being a fireman/woman should be taught in school programs even more so than voluntary army service etc.

It makes sense to me now, why so many of my friends from college in the US to professional life were volunteer firefighters.

The earliest firefighting organisations were made up of volunteers. The first large organised force of firefighters was the Corps of Vigiles, established in ancient Rome in 6 AD. If you'd like an in depth read on the subject you can go here.

Boring stuff that scales

Every week people ask me about businesses I've invested on or I feel that can be done without a pretty penny. So it got me thinking what can you really do if you had PKR 3500 or $20.

Seriously.

Yes 100%.

My top item that remains at the top are Email lists. Starting an email list is a great way to make extra income,And it's almost free.

What you need:

1. an opt-in page

2. your own domain + email

3. Free email service or paid, your choice

4. Potentially rely on YouTube + Twitter to grow your list aka organic method.

How does it work? What really is it?

The more subscribers you get,The more money you make. Its like you are TV station with viewers. The list are your viewers and your advertisers will pay you money to target people on your list. But it best not be spammy or shitty content.

What you can sell:

1. Affiliate offers

2. -Services (copywriting, graphic design, etc.)

3. -Own offers (Tuitions, Coaching, Exam Prep, House cleaning, Cooking, Baking, Babysitting)

The possibilities are endless. It depends on how and who is on your list, what their motivation was for the sign up and if you have any expertise or offer or value add that you bring to the table. You can literally get going on this today for $20 or less.

What else, you ask, for under 20$?

Freelancing and not your kamyab jawan type non sense either. You can free lance at any age and at almost any skill level but you need to have some skill.

You can sell services like:

1. Copy Writing

2. Ghost Writing

3. Editing College Docs

4. Building /Shooting FB Ads

5. Lead Generation

6. Makeup Artist

7. Hair Stylist

8. Moodboards

9. Event Planning

10. Any skill that saves people time

11. Menu Planner

12. Live feed monitoring agent, think nanny cam monitoring for busy parents

13. Elderly Check in service (with older family members in one country and their offspring in an other, be the trusted check in agent)

Figure out your niche, never be employed but get paid forever, train others and you X your outcomes.

You heard(read) it here first

ART is the new DHA

Pakistani Art = Under Rated asset class. Land will eventually run out, there is a finite supply, there is enough black money going around no less that needs to be sheltered in place/parked, the biggest offline token for value in our parts has been real estate. Fast Forward, 15-20 years from today when most if not all the desirable land has been bought.

What happens to your stored value instrument? It evolves. Artists, that are up and coming today, will be the likely masters in 15 years. If you take a view today and have some sensibility around selection, you can get in at inexpensive levels and build future value.

Further if you are smart or smarter, you get your contents insured, then use the insurance value as a collateral to borrow against it, then re-deploy that cash to buy more art or other assets. It how you unlock value to enhance your outcomes.

If you can spend 20-30k a month in investments or a quarter or annually, Id suggest Art vs any thing else. Perhaps ETH.

What you should be reading

The harsh reality of Pakistanis living in Canada - DAWN.COM — www.dawn.com

With more than half of the women of Pakistani origin not working, the struggle for economic parity remains elusive.

No books this week. For every aspirant of migration to better/greener pastures, this is a dated yet relevant article that you must read. It's no joke to be a migrant any where, it's no joke to be a migrant in to a system that has no familiar safety net. Before you choose, research what it takes to have a great outcome, by researching for your self vs listening to peoples accounts of how great life is. We all gloss over the negative and share the positive as we equate any thing bad as a personal failing vs the challenge a new system poses. The dis-service these narratives do are crazy. So know your outcomes going in by doing adequate research.

No books this week. For every aspirant of migration to better/greener pastures, this is a dated yet relevant article that you must read. Its no joke to be a migrant any where, its

No books this week. For every aspirant of migration to better/greener pastures, this is a dated yet relevant article that you must read.

No books this week. For every aspirant of migration to better/greener pastures, this is a dated yet relevant article that you must read. Its no joke to be a migrant any where, its no joke to be a migrant in to a system that has no familiar safetynet. Before you choose, research what it takes to have a great outcome, by researching

No books this week. For every aspirant of migration to better/greener pastures, this is a dated yet relevant article that you must read. Its no joke to be a migrant any where, its n

Monetise your time

If you are a developer you need to think about the possibility that you stop accepting job offers completely and build a life where you stop interviewing and transition into only considering buyout offers, licensing arrangement, support contracts, book offers - that sort of stuff. It's possible more so today than it ever was. I say you monetise your time to build to that goal vs job hunting and switching all over for that extra squeeze out of the toothpaste tube.

What do you *need* in the software business to do anything? A cheap laptop with a net connection, right? Everything is basically free or nearly free now. If you don't try at all you will never succeed. Sounds easy enough, but in reality it isn't.

Instead of jumping hoops, focus and monetise your time by developing complementary skill sets . You need sales, marketing, you need to negotiate, you need to present, you need to write copy, you need to cold call and plan a budget. So instead of wasting your time on interview preps, showing up to companies and interviews, getting tired of morons as bosses and having to explain your self, it is a better use of your time to focus on skill building and then monetising your time to focus on the core, which if you are a technical person should be software development/product creation.

Starting your own business isn’t as simple as “doing the same work as before, but keeping all of the profits”.

Your days will look different, as will the challenges.

Or you need to create software, ship it on a platform, land an audience, and cash in. There are many ways to crack that nut. There are children that have done this in games you can pick your space. But not every one will make it or can make it, look at the millions of Apps no one uses on the play store.

Note: Replace software developer with your skill set, apply the same model, think about building to an exit vs being run into the ground for some one else's end goals.

Made in Pakistan (Secrets)

Textile industry is seeing boom times. For a society where nearly every thing is tabu, we not only make but export every thing from lingerie to whips. Yet we rarely talk about any of that.

Style textile amongst others has Victorias Secret as major customer amongst many other notable ones.

If you missed this in 2009 heres the story of 2 entrepreneurs who were doing 1m$ to 2m$ a year in, you guessed it - Bondage wear being produced in Karachi.

https://nyti.ms/3kR5wED

Lacy Threads and Leather Straps Bind a Business (Published 2009) — www.nytimes.com

Pakistani brothers carefully conceal a business that in a conservative Muslim country is as risky as it is risqué.

Video clip of the news article here.

A Pakistani Underworld - The New York Times — www.nytimes.com

Despite a threat from Islamists, two Pakistani brothers stealthily manufacture fetish and bondage wear, earning more than $1 million a year from their Western customers.

One Last Thing

As part of your growth agenda in life, seek forgiveness. It's a skill that if learnt and practiced early on in life, allows you to build better relationships and thus have more positive outcomes at large.