I read this headline

I processed it two ways. One that you can be a billionaire in any thing you do. The other, I imagined, what would a typical Pakistani boomer parent say to their kids if they decided to be in the "scrap metal trade", they'd say, don't be a Kabaria.. Vernacular can be so poisonous. We have clearly put our children across generations at risk by having toxic discussions that do not take into account the dignity of labour. Putting us at a serious dis-advantage and how our economy scales.

Some years ago when I moved back to Pakistan I had a dear friend who was obsessed with launching a pre-bagged meat + uncooked ingredients kit, to make fast quick, clean hassle free meals. Without portion management or fuss, go to this store, pick from what you want to cook, pick out the meat + veggies + masala, bring home combine and cook. Simple home made food without having to know recipes or go shopping for ingredients.

There was an under construction building that had a display store, that he rented by the week to do a mock store, so he could understand the flow. He set it up, invited his family friends, to come walk through, he did user acceptance testing, he got every one to engage he got feedback. Every one loved it. His pre sales took off for his 3 day pop up store. But you know what, he never ever launched this business. Why?

On the last day of the setup, his Taya said to his father, "itna parh likh kay aya hay, bahar raha hay, GOSHT ki dukan kholni thi to Qureshioon main Shadi kar-daytay"

This is wrong on many many levels. The Qurresh or Qureshis were butchers and some parts of the forgotten and proud history here. The venom and toxicity of my friends "elders" destroyed his drive, motivation and his parents ability to underwrite the said investment in him wanting to doing this. At the most simplistic level, what could have been a business that paid taxes, employed others, created a new space in the market and taken up commercial locations all went down the drain. Net net, my un named friend returned to the US, Started a similar thing for halaal-pre made meals and 8 years later got acquired by a kosher foods producer looking to diversify and netted XX$MM for him self.

0 Jobs created in Pakistan

0 Pakistani outcomes enhanced

1 Point for the Taya to get his last word in that day

0 Second generation kids of a successful Pakistani entrepreneur that will come to Pakistan to invest

Outcomes

I've seen what Charlie Munger talks about in this interview , The wrong incentives can create horrible outcomes. Many times the thinking is: "I'll pay the money back later with interest. No one will know."

There are some amazing things to read from Charlie as you think about the directionality of your own outcomes.

Charlie says the keys to great investing results is “sitting on your ass.” That means doing nothing the vast majority of the time, but buying with “aggression” when bargains abound.

Some times the best outcomes are those that you can time, by waiting. Counter intuitive but it works. Be like Charlie.

One New Thing (That I Learnt today)

Cigarettes were once used as a diet tool. That too by Sigmund Freud’s nephew who used psychology to develop one of the most successful, controversial marketing campaigns ever.

The crazy marketing story here.

Boring stuff that Scales

Drive through Pharmacies. Drive through Convenience store, designed for the average consumer on a bike or rickshaw. Heres some history of the first one and how the fad caught on in the US.

Gary Clinton doesn’t think of himself as an innovator.

He simply saw an opportunity to buy an existing space for his business venture, and he took it. The bank-turned-pharmacy building had a drive-thru window(Banks in the US had drive through options for a decade), so he incorporated the drive-thru into his pharmacy business.

That was 1971.

“Customers had to have some way to get their medication without looking for a parking space,” Clinton said in our phone interview.

The lack of dedicated parking spaces for the pharmacy made the decision a necessity rather than an innovation in Clinton’s mind. It turned out, however, that the drive-thru pharmacy was a big hit with many of his customers.

“The drive-thru saves people time and effort,” said Clinton. “Some people don’t want to get out of their cars, or they can’t get out very easily. This helps mothers with children, too.”

Twenty years later, in 1991, Walgreens opened its first drive-thru pharmacy, and then other companies followed suit as well.

For us and now this is a critical service that doesn't cost much and can be fashioned around a drive through fast food location. Of which besides McDonalds no one else does it locally.

Instead of quick commerce and 10 min and 2 min deliveries we need to look at spaces we have, places people drive around and how to connect the two; to build things like drive through pharmacies or a corner store where you can pull up on a bike and shop via a real person who picks and packs are you wait your turn on the service window. Nothing fancy, curbside pick up redefined. These things scale, if we get them right, people will prefer to be in quickly and leave even faster. If you target the right demographic you will be able to tell for example that most if not all of your consumers have a Bike or walk to the store. Gradually you sell value added services to your audiences.

Take the model to smaller tier 2-3 cities and see how it translates.

What you should be watching

The Kanye Documentary on Netflix. Why? To listen to his mom. An audience of one, a supporter a believer and how that changes some ones outcomes by a 100x.

He’s rapping with his mom, whose an English Teacher.

“””Whats the one you sing…

Oh I love that one Kanye… Thats a million dollars right there..""""

He’d say ""I aint got a million dollars yet..""

She tell him ""You writing tracks is like watching Micheal Jordan shoot hoops.""

His mom was never critical never dismissive never inattentive. Kanye is now a billionaire. It makes a massive difference if you are an audience of one to some and truly believe in their mission when no one else will.

Monetize your time

"In the end, we are our choices - Build yourself a great story". We have the ability to monetize our time, but it starts with recognizing we need to be bold, that we control our outcomes, it's hard to take bold bets, take them even when in doubt, experiments are needed, and we will never know ahead of time if they work. You have to do incrementally smart things to monetize your time till all your outcomes are net positive. Listen to this video to understand why we are, our choices.

Made in Pakistan

Actually Made in Pakistan. A book worth reading. Many time oves.

Lynette Viccaji was born on 12th June 1955 in Karachi. She is a renowned English Literature teacher and has been in the education sector for approximately 30 years.

‘Made in Pakistan’ is a humorous account by a Pakistani-Christian who essentially saw the changes that took place within Pakistan, all the good and most definitely the bad. The book progresses from the much simpler and smaller Karachi to the metropolitan it is now.

If you haven’t been a witness to the old days of Karachi yourself, you can still enjoy them through the accounts of Lynette. A very charming read about ‘magical old karachi’ as she puts it. Having been lived here as part of a minority community, she talks of days peaceful, religious tolerance and cohesion and simply wonderful times , all of which seem difficult to believe in, today.

A must read because, most of us have not witnessed this Karachi or this Pakistan.

A great video from the Author here. A must read to show your young readers that whilst a lot has changed, a lot must change and for it to change and for us to be at the intersection of happiness and innovation, the change will need to come from within us.

One Last thing

If the response is not a a Hell Yes. It like is a No. If it's a slow No, it's the worst kind of feeling. Train your self to interpret peoples responses in the time it takes them and their delivery. Optimize for Instant Yes('s) and faster No(s).