Stop selling tech/product/thing. If you are in the business of sales selling to an other business, sell them a solution.

Benefits > features

Sell the vacation not the plane ride!

Outcome over features.

Simple sales 101, so many get this wrong. Product people more so, they don't know when to stop building and selling. No one cares if your screen is incrementally 2ms faster on an iPhone. But they care if they can make $20 extra.

If you are an entrepreneur, you are in sales. If you are in sales stop getting distracted by loving your own product, instead be in love with the solution. Heres a quick guide to winning every time.

• Setup Introduction & context (of the outcome)

• Always lead with the conclusion (put the intended outcome in the lead)

• Pyramid argument structure (Answer to their question, The Argument & then back with data and facts for the close)

Be it an in person pitch. A demo, a powerpoint or a call if you can master this, you will win every time.

Outcomes

Every one wants great(er) outcomes. Better results, faster every thing in life. But most don't invest in happiness, they invest in things that they think will make them happy instead.

I read this some where:

Most people don't start.

Most people who start don't continue.

Most people who continue give up.

Many winners are just the last ones standing.

Don't give up.

— Sahil Lavingia

Whilst the above is true, its worse when people don't start working on being happy till it's too late. Most don't recognize that buying things is not the same as investing in happiness. Some times doing simple things can make you happy, like gardening, reading a book, talking to a friend, vs having the latest iPhone or car.

Yet we expect to have amazing outcomes by thinking that buying goods and services will get us there. You have to find the balance between being happy and motivated to win. The truth to success is some where in the middle (both monetary and spiritual).

Some of the richest(commercially successful people I know) are some of the unhappiest people I know. Whilst some of the happiest people I know aren't the richest people I know. You have to define your outcome(end state), and trade offs to get there.

If you over work at the cost of every one around you and your own health, does the end state (outcome) even matter? To some thats just a way of keeping score and thats all it matters, some times at the cost of others and people around them.We are a sad generation with happy pictures.

I asked a Dollar$ Billionaire once, what his number was? He said "My number is higher". When would he stop his grueling schedule and take pause clearly at some higher calling yet un defined.

Most people do not even know they are un happy, they are conditioned by wealth, outlandish goals, success as defined on TV without really knowing what it is for them.

Moral of the story, condition your happiness to be aligned with your outcomes you have 365 shots at it. Working backwards from having achieved the planned/desired outcomes to then try and find happiness is a much tougher goal.

One New Thing (That I learnt recently)

Pule donkey cheese is the most expensive cheese in the world.

• Pule donkey cheese will cost you $600 for just one kilogram.

• It's produced by only one farm in the world in the Zasavica Special Nature Reserve in Serbia.

• Making pule is a long and difficult process and requires over 6.6 gallons of donkey milk.

There is a market for every product and product for every market. More details here. What ever your idea, what ever your product, never give up.

Boring Stuff that Scales

Your Mobility, if you get it right.

The younger generation is geographically mobile, which suits the business elite(typically not you), yet the same generation struggles to save or build assets, gifting much of its income to a rentier class. Think about it, it's profound. Your mobility allows you to work from any where, any time, but the rentier class has you in the shackles of buying new toys and now experiences. You live in the moment instead of momentarily realizing that you must capture and store some value for the future. But if you do, you will win big. It's a boring concept, but it scales well. If you use your global and geographic mobility for investing in your self, your outcomes will be far better than those before you.

From the looks of it the younger generation have ‘broader horizons’ but boring boomers have built wealth: that too from bang-average careers. How you ask? Because they didn't care about living a life on social media(because it didn't exist) and instead over indexed on creating asset classes for them selves. Todays asset class for the average young person is social media provenance.

Heres a 5 step guide to harness the power of Boring Geographic Mobility:

1.If you have a skill that is globally in demand and can be used remotely($ized income), do not think about going to Canada or Australia, instead find a low cost destination that gives out nomadic visas.

2.Show your proof of income from online work and move there instead. Bring you total cost of doing business similar to Pakistan but with a higher and more productive quality of life.

3.Do not give a shit about what any one says, I would recommend you look at (and never look back till you've saved 50k$)

• Medellin, Colombia

• Lisbon, Portugal

• Bangkok, Thailand

• Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

• Buenos Aires, Argentina

• Tbilisi, Georgia

• Zagreb, Croatia

4.If you are banking 40% of your earnings, re-invest 10% monthly.

5.When travelling do not look for Pakistani food. Do not build your tribes with other Pakistanis. Explore, food, people, culture and local sights and sounds. Over index on learning new things, experience new outcomes. None of this will happen, if you leaving Pakistan to go hang out with Pakistanis. Also this doesn't mean that you trade off your sensibilities, religion, ethics and determination for some thing else or new.

What you should be watching

Jiro Dreams Of Sushi. Director David Gelb gives us a portrait of a man with a passion. It's about what it takes to find your ambition and work relentlessly at it day after day, year after year. And what is the price of that perfection? A film about the pursuit of perfection. And the cost. Make time this weekend and watch this.

Monetize your time

By not wasting it on things, conversation, discussions about other people. Promise your self, to disconnect your self from those who discuss other people and re engage with those who discuss ideas. The most profound thing I learnt in my 20s, that only ideas and outcomes are worth discussing and never people. NEVER!

Catch your self talking about others? their execution? their work? their wealth? Pause, reflect, shut down that neuron, move on, instead, to what you should rather be doing, how and for what gain?

The sooner you de-lever your self from being in the company of those who invest time in talking about others, into the company of those who invest time in building and doing, you will be better for it.

Most common things I hear from folks in their 20s:

The answer to all of the above is actually a question. "Do you have the drive to change your outcomes"? If you do, heres a 3 step plan

1)Research is your friend, research people who operate in the space/niche you want to try out, reach out to them. Even if they are 50 years older. Heres a trade secret, most people love to talk about them selves and their success, use this as your super power when you message them/linkedin/dm etc, ask them about them. Thats how you find mentors + powerful friends in the corridors of success.

2) Once you execute the above use this network to shadow them, their business, their job, their friends, get invited to learn how they do business. Being genuinely interested in learning = always finding some one who is older/willing to invest time in you. Find that person, get them to help you with an internship, an assignment a project, volunteer to do some thing they hate (VTDSTTH). This is a super power, as some one in my twenties I did endless tasks for bosses, mentors, people I looked up to, tasks that they hated. It became my super power, now 2 decades on, nothing phases me. Ive done most of the things people just avoid doing.

3)Always be the voice of reason and always be reliable. Reliability drives trust, especially when you have no funds of yours to invest with, if you are perceived to be reliable people do not mind, cutting you in on deals against your time/hard work(sweat equity). Reliability and trustworthiness are = $s you don't have physically but can lend to others for a future stake in their outcomes to profit. Learn this today. I made my first $s without having investable cash, and continue to monetize my time when $s are not needed or in short supply or an equitable trade.

Made in Pakistan

Frozen meat, good enough for McDonalds Burger Patties. After 24 years of being on the ground, McDonalds was continuing to import the beef they serve you and me. They likely never had an incentive before the foreign exchange controls went into place making imports cost prohibitive. It's a win for Al-Shaheer Corporation. We need more of these wins, so that when we localize we also get into the business of exporting for these giants and become not a partner in distress but a partner for global scale instead. More details here.

One last thing

If it’s not a “hell yes,” it’s a no.

Instead of just waiting, always build optionality for better outcomes.