The Big 40. Yup there is a book on the subject. Many perhaps. This 40th news letter wasn't easy to write either. For perspective at 40, Lucille Ball’s television career was just beginning, Gandhi’s plan for civil disobedience was just an outline, and John Glenn’s career was about to go into orbit. Chances are you feel you’re in good or excellent health , and you are happy. This edition of the newsletter is about looking ahead. So to avoid future pain, it would help if you became acquainted with your future self. Hal Hershfield, a veteran UCLA psychologist, has a few things to think about that may help put things in perspective.

The Future Is Sooner Than You Realize

One problem with shifting off today’s problems onto a future version of yourself is that it is almost impossible to draw the line between present and future.

As Hershfield writes in a research paper:

For example, I knew I had this news letter out last week, I had the idea for a while. But I kept putting it off in favor of other things that took priority or snowballed because of the way I thought about it. Perhaps inadvertently, I decided it was my future self’s problem. Because in the moment, last week I had some other things, that overflowed in from the week prior.

I’m now in that present. Did that happen when I typed the first word of this article? Or when I woke up this morning? It’s hard to tell.

Instead of making it difficult for yourself, always act as if the present is yielding to the future. Every decision you make now has an impact on your future self.

What you can do: a large part of this problem, for me, originates from complex & competing priorities and an every growing draw on my time from various work and non work commitments. In the past, mine have been overly complicated and in multiple times zones, whilst I only have one time zone where I live, yet I contribute across many. All I did was list in my mental model the big tasks, such as writing an article, getting on the phone, taking a board meeting at 2am for an other time zone.

Instead, try including the little things, such as doing nothing, reading the paper, going for a swim. It may not feel like much, but you are giving your future self more possible things to do because you're emphasizing the smaller tasks. In a way, you’re already yielding to your future.

Outcomes

There is a common perception that success comes to young people. Or most accomplished people started early. Myths! Your outcomes get seasoned with time, whilst there are many who have been successful at a young age, most have taken their time. So do not rush your outcomes because you feel times running out. If you are in your 20s, you are early, pay your dues, if you are in your 30s, you have more experiences that will compound for better results. In your 40s and still searching? It's normal, your outcomes are what you make them not what you measure your self against to punish your self.

One New Thing (That I Learnt today)

Istanbul is home to more than just such Turkish delights and köfte Visitors to Istanbul have the opportunity to visit a museum housing relics that belonged to key figures revered in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, including Moses, Abraham, and David.

Once the seat of government for the Ottoman Empire and the official residence of its sultan, Topkapı Palace is now a popular museum. The privy chambers of the palace are made up of four separate chambers, one of which - the Destimal Chamber - holds several relics which claim connection to figures important in all three Abrahamic religions.

The Staff of Moses is a staff mentioned in the Bible and Quran as a walking stick used by Moses. According to the Book of Exodus in the Bible, the staff (Hebrew: מַטֶּה matteh, translated "rod" in the King James Bible) was used to produce water from a rock, was transformed into a snake and back, and was used at the parting of the Red Sea is on display at Topkapi. It blew my mind that it existed today.

Boring stuff that Scales

Niches. People who find areas to excel in, do well. Instead of being a broad spectrum antibiotic choose to specialize. It pays off. Think about value creation, because thats boring but scales. Heres a thread on building to be in business for over 100 years.

Founders of tech companies can use tech as an equalizer. Tech has the potential to create new opportunities for more people to rise up especially in markets like ours where incumbents have a sunk-in advantage of PMR(politics military or religion)

For inspiration here are the oldest companies in the world today. What will you do differently to make sure you can build some thing to last? Some thing scales?

What you should be watching

Some binge watching items to ring in the new year.

Monetize your time

Every ones talking about passive incomes. Monetization of the "other hours" and how to live the best version of your life. Some of these things are not applicable in our environment and misleading people to believe that they are doing some thing wrong, not being able to have the insta life they so want to afford and see others living.

Passive incomes can only happen, when active incomes are somewhat stable (given our context). They are also more attainable if you are a 2 family working household and one of you takes the shot at first building the said passive income. Do not be fooled by the "cake business" or "flower business" or the "effortless business" of "vloggers" and "travel journalists" documenting their serene life. One in a million people or less have such outcomes, to effortlessly be on track to live their life, document it, make money as an outcomes.

It just does not happen that way. Monetizing your time, if your significant other is a millionaire or comes from wealth, is easy because you are just living a curated life based on someone else's success and collecting somebody else's dues to society along the way. Trophy husbands, trophy wives, trophy marriages fueled by "pappas millions" are creating a crazy feeling of "un accomplishment". Similarly out of context lives from other markets and hustles are creating an imperative for our youth that they are either doing this wrong, or are in the wrong country, or missing out. Hence every ones in a rush to get some where, without understanding the destination and what it takes to get there or why?

Passive incomes are hard, sustained passive incomes are harder, they need a lot of work. Social media BS passive incomes are easy, as is documenting a life of generational wealth but pretend it's an outcome of hard work. Do not be mislead, instead define your own goals and focus on them. Monetizing your outcomes should not just mean million dollar outcomes, but a life of purpose and fulfillment.

Your dis-advantage is your edge.

Made in Pakistan(Discovered in Pakistan)

A joint excavation team of Pakistani and Italian archaeologists have discovered an over 2,300-years-old Apsidal temple of the Buddhist period and a few other precious artefacts in Northwest Pakistan,

The discovery, which has been made in Bazira city of the Buddhist period in Barikot tehsil of Swat District in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, has been described as the oldest temple in Pakistan of the Buddhist period

One last thing

Prediction for 2022. Sell to Boomers. The largest companies domestically will be those that can monetize boomer eyeballs and sell D2C

1) Sub 500 PKR Subscriptions a month (Hair oil, Isphaghol, Rosewater eye drops, Basil Seeds & such combinations in a care package a month)

2) Pain relief supplements & healthy living supplements

3) Pillows

4) Content & products that feeds in to belief systems

5) As seen on TV version for WhatsApp. Meaning products that they share on WhatsApp with each other in any of the above 4 categories.

6) A patient delivery service - COD for over 60 with built in returns and trust for WhatsApp commerce.