All the ambitious, creative, gifted, not-gifted, people who say you’re working hard now so you can retire early, I have a tough time believing you. Deep down inside, I don’t think you believe it either. I don't think any one believes that retirement will be better than the present, if the present is just hard work and no outcome/output.

If you want to work for ever, do it because you want to, not because you have too, then; work on things that give you energy instead of taking it away.

I recalled the story I once read, decided to share it. Don't know if it is true, but it puts thing into perspective.

There was once a businessman who was sitting by the beach in a small Brazilian village.

As he sat, he saw a Brazilian fisherman rowing a small boat towards the shore having caught quite few big fish.

The businessman was impressed and asked the fisherman, “How long does it take you to catch so many fish?”

The fisherman replied, “Oh, just a short while.”

“Then why don’t you stay longer at sea and catch even more?” The businessman was astonished.

“This is enough to feed my whole family,” the fisherman said.

The businessman then asked, “So, what do you do for the rest of the day?”

The fisherman replied, “Well, I usually wake up early in the morning, go out to sea and catch a few fish, then go back and play with my kids. In the afternoon, I take a nap with my wife, and evening comes, I join my buddies in the village for a drink — we play guitar, sing and dance throughout the night.”

The businessman offered a suggestion to the fisherman.

“I am a PhD in business management. I could help you to become a more successful person. From now on, you should spend more time at sea and try to catch as many fish as possible. When you have saved enough money, you could buy a bigger boat and catch even more fish. Soon you will be able to afford to buy more boats, set up your own company, your own production plant for canned food and distribution network. By then, you will have moved out of this village and to Sao Paulo, where you can set up HQ to manage your other branches.”

The fisherman continues, “And after that?”

The businessman laughs heartily, “After that, you can live like a king in your own house, and when the time is right, you can go public and float your shares in the Stock Exchange, and you will be rich.”

The fisherman asks, “And after that?”

The businessman says, “After that, you can finally retire, you can move to a house by the fishing village, wake up early in the morning, catch a few fish, then return home to play with kids, have a nice afternoon nap with your wife, and when evening comes, you can join your buddies for a drink, play the guitar, sing and dance throughout the night!”

The fisherman was puzzled, “Isn’t that what I am doing now?”

Even though I encourage everyone to learn about what their future lives could be like, more often than not, when I see conscious thoughts and words about retiring early, or even conversations about whats to come, I mostly think, most of us have no idea what those lives are actually like. Focus on the today & take sabbaticals.

Outcomes

If you are in business and you want positive outcomes. You don't need to reach every one every where, just the ones that you need at the right time within the right network.

Amplify your messaging to reach the right ones, you don't it to go to every one. In fact, to have positive outcomes, it shouldn't reach every one.

Many years ago, this wasn't the case. There was no access, outcomes were linked to direct hustle, not remote. Directed remote hustle is some thing that can produce outsized results. But the key is to learn how to use the tools.

For reddit: Find rising trends and jump in with details & authenticity see this post for some stellar ideas

For yelp: Narrow down by area, identify the type of business find their info and build mailing lists or reach out to people.

For twitter: Advanced Search: Filter hashtag or user data by number of RTs or Likes: (This is your friend to identify things)

For Quora: Find a new and trending post. Jump in with an awesome comment — one that's relevant, detailed, and ideally, has a link to your site

For LinkedIn: Search for a job function that represents your ideal customer, and filter by location, 1st/2nd/3rd connection, etc.

Pro Tip: Over Index on Twitter Lists.

Look up a user's SparkScore. (It's a free @SparkToro )

Under Related Accounts you'll see accounts that user frequently engages with. This may indicate they're in a similar niche, and you can add them all to your List..

More uses:

Example: You're a functional design expert and want to speak on niche podcasts about designing co-working spaces in emerging markets?

Ask Yourself: What are the current pain points in my industry?

SparkToro search: My audience frequently talks about "lack of co working space in Asia"

The accounts that are identified, pitch your self to them. Its a great starting point, build on.

Outcomes wont come to you if you don't try. You have the tools, will you remain a fool or learn how to use them effectively?

One New Thing (That I didn't know)

The Mir diamond mine in Russia is right on the edge of a city. Mirny is a diamond mining town in Siberia, Russia, about 280 miles (450 kilometers) from the Arctic Circle. Most of the town's roughly 40,000 residents work for Alrosa, the world's largest diamond miner by volume. Talk about outcomes, it got me thinking. If you are born there do you have the optionality to do any thing else? Is mining the only thing you will ever do? Or do people get in to the gems business also? Does the town produce chemical engineers and gemologists or just labour? Some outcomes are not easy to predict but they still drive our assumptions.

Mirny of the federal Republic of Sakha, also known as Yakutia, which is the largest republic in Russia. The Sakha Republic is known for its extreme climate. The average temperature in January is -46 degrees Fahrenheit (-43.5 degrees Celsius).

Boring stuff that Scales

I know a lot of folks think the 0 to 1 phase of building a tech company is a "grind" and it's boring.

Do not be caught up in thinking you are slogging away, it is the "formative" moment of a company that you're building... There are a few key boring things to focus on during this time:

1. Documentation

2. Templates

3. Policies

4. Note Taking

5. Structures

6. Solving for the now vs later

These "boring" stuff pays dividend @ scale, when you want to replicate your processes, replace people, add people, sell out, get new money in or just grow.

The reference architecture to your future is built on the day your start business and the day you have an operator mindset. Operators work best when things are documented.

Sometimes you have to go back to basics. Back to the foundation, the tedious stuff. It’s the boring stuff, stuff that isn’t exciting that makes things last. If you only focus on growth/scale without your house being in order. It will eventually not scale what ever the product/service growth.

Start early!

What you should be listening to

Without a doubt you should be listening to The Huberman Lab Podcast, hosted by Dr. Andrew Huberman. He discusses neuroscience—how our brain and its connections with the organs of our body control our perceptions, our behaviors, and our health. The podcast also discusses tools for measuring and changing how our nervous system works.

Dr. Andrew Huberman is a tenured professor of neurobiology and ophthalmology at Stanford University School of Medicine. His laboratory studies neural regeneration, neuroplasticity, and brain states such as stress, focus, fear, and optimal performance.

Linking to one of the most interesting pod-casts below, around motivation listen to it and evaluate your outcomes.

Monetize your time

If you have enough time to:

- Watch YouTube

- Stalk folks on Instagram

- Watch sports or memes or leave detailed twitter comments

You have enough time to:

- IDENTIFY a New Skill & Learn a new skill

- Monetize your skills

- Make money

Thats it! Some times you just need to call your self out, if you are not happy with the lifestyle you have, you need to build the skills you need to get to the $ number you require. It's that simple. Complaining doesn't help. It also doesn't change your outcomes.

You want to learn a new programming language?

You know you should be just doing it…

However, it seems like there is just not enough time. Moreover, you feel exhausted after every day full of work. So you want to spend what you have left with your family, or with your hobby.

You are telling your friend, how excited you are about this new fancy programming language. Just to immediately say that you just can’t find any time to practice it.

You keep blaming yourself for not managing your time well.

Stop right there! What is happening is much worse:

Regret. Resentment.

Let that sink in…

You are building up regretful feelings because you are not able to do what excites you.

You are building up resentment towards everybody whom you give all your time and energy.

Your employer. Your family. Your friends.

And yourself.

You cant monetize what you regret! So get out of the cycle, learn a skill, put it to practice and exercise the options you want to. Enhance your outcomes vs your regrets.

Made in Pakistan

A training exercise to teach kids some thing international that they can own a piece of. Dreams are made in Pakistan, the same as they are made elsewhere. So instead of buying your teenagers or any teenagers silly things that are momentary, I urge you to organize what ever money you collect and try to buy them a micro, business online. Tweet below just for a sample. The idea being if you can get a few 100 to a few thousand dollars together, instead of pooling to buy random stuff, this is the gift that will keep on giving.

Some ideas:

A school can get a whole class to participate by growing an online business.

A Parent can buy it collectively for many kids to learn and participate & gain experience in, what it is to run an online business

A Wealthy benefactor does it for a university or a foundation who in turn shares it students

A collective of friends/expat/(now voter registered) Pakistanis can do it for kids back home.

One Last thing

Narratives are key.