This is a special issue. It comes with the realisation that every additional day on earth is a gift. I have an uncle who passed away on Friday, may he get the highest place in jannatul firdaus-Ameen. Whilst listening to those, whose lives he impacted in a profound way, there was some thing I didn't know or didn't remember, some twenty years ago, he was resuscitated by a defibrillator. So he lived to fulfill a larger purpose than self for 20 odd additional years. A second lease on life to some, an opportunity to help outcomes for those who got impacted by the things he did. In those additional 20 years the things he did were selfless, unrelenting, full of humility and with a deep dedication to helping others than the self.(Not that he didn't in the years prior). It was neither about using money to help others, it was mostly an investment of time, advice, guidance, mentorship and action. I have had the highest respect for him all my life, next to my father he is perhaps the most upright & principled person I know and the kind of person who our kids will read about in story books vs interfacing in practical life given the broader environment we live in. Aka a rare breed. So if you do good in the time you have it may seem small in that instance but compounded over time it has a profound impact. If you double some thing 10 times the outcome = 1000 times better, you do it 20 times =1M times better, you do it 30 times =1Bn times. Think about it. If you use every day you have, to work on some thing small the net outcome could be larger than what you can imagine today. If you are some one who always complains, don't! Instead look at what you have now and how you can help.

Outcomes

Organising of effort results in the largest wealth creation vs working the hardest. The nut to crack is community harvesting or looked a different way, to get wealthy, put the rich to work for you. The rich put the middle class to work to get and stay rich, some from the middle class may change their outcomes and cross over to being rich, but likely a very very small number if any will ever cross over from the middle class to being wealthy. Once you get it, you will keep on getting it.

You would be hard pressed to see if any one got suddenly wealthy, outside of defrauding, criminality or political gains put to rent seeking. Real wealth like the example above takes time to compound to 10 times, 20 times, 30 times.

Community is king, when your own type or kind will underwrite you. I have been back in Pakistan 10 yrs give or take. The biggest thing I hear along with the well heeled complaining that "shit is bad" is "Pakistan is a great country to build great wealth" Why do you think that is? It comes from trust and relationships and local market knowledge. Access to information makes you rich, access to people makes you wealthy, access to both at the right time, makes you functionally successful like the rinse cycle on a washing machine, albeit predictable. If you hit rinse you know what outcome to expect so if you have access to people and info and you can sync the timing, much like rinse before drying you have an outsized advantage to winning.

Communities elevate people, because once you make it, communities need people to look up to, especially if they are a beacon hope, whilst you are building and you are just functionally rich, banks may call your loans or lines, communities generally will keep betting on you as they are betting in an outcome for you, on a chance they didn't take them selves. Thats why friends and family money is 100x better than VC dollars they let you take chances. Take the chance, forget being rich focus on being wealthy instead. Any one can be rich people can transition. Find the levers and enable your outcomes.

One New Thing

The 6 Ds of Exponential Organizations are Digitized, Deceptive, Disruptive, Demonetized, Dematerialized, and Democratized. Technology is disrupting traditional industrial processes, and they’re never going back. But thanks to digital technologies developing at exponential rates of change, the landscape of 21st-century business has taken on a dramatically different look and feel. If you must think critically about one thing it is how you will either survive and thrive in this context or crash and burn. Digitization is your friend if you know to transform. This video is a phenomenal insight into that principle.

Boring stuff that Scales

The way to look at boring is, some thing no one else thinks of doing, wants to do or can do. Additionally some thing that you would not typically look at as some thing that would give you revenue potential with small incremental changes as a part of doing some thing daily.

Not a dictionary definition but clearly how I like to think about it. For weeks I was looking at simple stuff that we use every day, that can achieve market product fit and any one can get started in the space.

The holy grail? Well not as much, but a simple idea. What is it that we have a lot of? As in Pakistan? That we consume but can equally easily ship and by processing or adding value to it incrementally we can compound its growth 20/30 times?

Salt & Rock Salt.

But this is not your grandmas salt and yes I know this(Himalayan salt space) is has been spoken about and beaten to death. What if there was an opportunity to add other things to it to be value additive?

We are a nation of spice lovers and producers yet we do not produce flavoured salt.

What about Garlic Salt?

What about Ginger Salt?

What about Orange Zest Salt?

What about Lemon Zest Salt?

What about fruit based salts, like dried Mango infused Salt?

The list can be never ending, based on local favourites and availability, dehydrated Hunza cherries or apricot based?

Flavoured salt can add a new dimension to your food, adding punch and spice, zest and depth to whatever you’re cooking. And it doesn’t need to be as complicated as our politics. Rosemary-salted chips is a game changer. A sprinkling of chilli-lime salt on a boring salad or days-old broth, or a hit of saffron-fennel salt on plain risotto will provide a meal with altogether more flavour. What about cinnamon-vanilla salt on popcorn, or any flavoured salt on popcorn for that matter. Or mix ins for your favourite nut mix?

This is a real thing. Take a look at the global market placements in the space.

They even have a Pakistani Blend:) Many more here. Moral of the story, build it and they will come. Not every thing needs VC money, but to win at any thing you have to get started. If every week all you do is wait for an other side-hustle idea, and then yet an other week goes by, you are kidding your self, you wont do it, you will only romanticise the idea. Age is irrelevant here as is skill, its mostly willpower and ability to go through with actions, skills can be learnt.

You heard(read/saw) it here first

Reflection cannot be seen in boiling water, the same way, truth cannot be seen in anger. Analyse before you finalise (Your point of view, your judgement, your behaviour, your actions, because they will affect your outcomes, if done when angry)

What you should be reading(watching & listening)

Things that allow you to build a second, third, fourth, fifth incomes. Easier said than done. I have a dear friend who in his 40s decided to quit every thing they knew how to do, decided to UN-Learn every thing they know about people, life, society, work. No they weren't millionaires on a daddy budget to do a "gap year" they were basically banking on them selves to learn some thing new, so there would be "no gap" between their meals. They were fed-up of every thing around them but they did not play the blame game.

“What got you here won’t get you there.” This book title by Marshall Goldsmith speaks to the deep need to continually upgrade the assumptions underpinning the mental maps in our heads. A great summary here. It shows us the importance of unlearning and relearning.

Just like highly scripted memos from the CEO’s office may once have been effective ways of communicating, doesn’t mean they still are. Nowadays, leaders who hide behind over-curated over-sanitized communications, edited and re-edited by risk averse handlers, are considered inauthentic whereas those willing to do a Facebook livestream are lauded. Every things changing. So change your mind set to move on vs being left behind.

Monetise your time

Putting a dollar value on the savings from traffic congestion, noise and air pollution as result of commute is some thing you must do. The more travel time you can shed, the higher the vector to monetise time. You also monetise time by having a better quality of life by removing or reducing these irritants.

Ask your self this:

What if you lived your life like this, just for a day?

For one day, don't just go through your daily motions.

What you shouldn’t do is mindlessly munch on social media. While it’s tempting to check in on your phuppos neighbours bahus cooking progress, it won’t shorten your workday. Instead, use other strategies for making the most of your waiting or commuting time without needing to boot up your laptop if you cant remove the wait or commute altogether that is.

1. Be Slightly Productive vs not being productive at all

2. Consume a digital diet that makes you learn vs 1 that doesn't

3. Think about all the spill over things that need to be done and list them so you can use them next time you are at step 1

4. Turn lost time to found time. If you have 10 mins make them 10 mins of attention and focus on the one call that you should make or the one social contact hat needs your time vs a call u make whilst watching tv or scrolling some thing. If you put a value on your 10 mins of "free air time" free of distractions as the best 10 mins of your day, your mind will start telling you where to deploy it for better outcomes. Just get in the habit.

Made in: Pakistan(+ American Collab)

She is a Pakistani American artist who has clearly redefined the boundaries of market product fit and scaling. Her story is one worth reading and her work exceptionally rich in history, tradition and modernity. At least to me. Sahzias work. An incredible article in NYT incase you are intrigued.

One Last Thing (That is fascinating)

Vuja De vs Déjà Vu.

No I am not making this up:).

Ask your self, why do you do things the way that you do them?

Do we operate on auto-pilot day-to-day? Do we respond to client emails in a similar fashion? Do we ever think outside the box? Do we just keep on going without thinking, or un learning?

Monotony breeds stress and we all know stress kills.

This is especially true of jobs that require routine. It makes many of us frustrated, bitter, and bored, and eventually less productive than we should be. Stop watching the clock. How you ask?

Vuja de is the reverse of déjà vu, thought up by the late comedian George Carlin who told his audience it is “the strange feeling that, somehow, none of this has ever happened before,” even though it has in fact, happened many times over. This is bizzaro world, level thinking.

Vuja de way of looking at the world — of observing familiar, everyday things as if one were seeing it for the first time — is the way Carlin went through his life and it’s how he got much of his material. (From an HBR Post that you can read here)

My key take away was this:

“When the familiar becomes this sort of alien world and you can see it fresh, then it’s like you’ve gone into a whole other section of the file folder in your brain, now you have access to this other perspective that most people don’t have.”

It's how the comedian went through most of his life able to come up with fresh material. It's something that can be wildly helpful when you're stuck in a professional rut. The first time I came across this I was fascinated in 2015/16 but since then It has significantly helped me to evaluate things with a fresh pair of eyes even when the task at hand is mundane, repetitive and boring.

Go find your Vuja De super power.