What do the wealthiest self made people you know, do?(Locally/Globally)

There is a reason for asking this. The answers will surprise you.

Its almost inevitable, some sort of self employment, for selling skills/service or products. Jobs make people rich very rich, don't get me wrong. But businesses make people wealthy.

Think about this. JOBS- otherwise known as “WAGE INCOME”- exchanges time for money, in a never ending cycle. because you only have so many hours in a day, month, or year, “wage income” never leads to true wealth. Case in point: to make as much money as some one with a business, with a typical job aka “wage“, you would need to be a medical doctor or a surgeon or engineer, which requires 1) X years of college and 2) almost X $s in student loans or family debt.

Which would take you at least a decade to pay off, which sets you behind a LOT in the wealth race.

Heres one way to look at it. Imagine I told you I have a pretty simple business- A hope improvement trade , let’s say I sell custom cabinets.

You already know I’m not in the Cabinet making game, instead I’m in the “lead generation” and “sales” business game.

What it requires is

1. A website

2. Great SEO

3. Sales skills

4. Marketing

5. Above Average photography

6. A decent business structure

7. Automation, low code, no code tools and skills all things that you can study and learned online via articles and youtube

The above example is not mine but it could be yours towards building a business, any business. During corona, I had some spare cycles, things were shut down, I was curious as to what homes had swimming pools, so using Google Maps and some other stuff, I was able to identify on Maps homes with visible pools. Using the same concept, applied it to 2 markets in the US. Identified homes with pools and setup an automated way to sell leads to pool cleaning services. About 4 days of work. Handed it over to an aspiring developer who worked with me on this, now all he does is sell leads in various verticals across geographies by using freely available tools and services. You can too. Pick a niche, identify your skill and get building.

Some thing my mentor says to me often " Sometimes stuff just loses its appeal when the day comes that you can actually afford it." So start building a path towards wealth and a state of mind that allows you to be able afford things that you no longer want.

Outcomes

Three tips to the best outcomes in your life.

Prioritize Ruthlessly

Life is full of distractions. You are loosing when you are distracted,

The days political banter, Bitcoin crashing, twitter being weird. Your super power should you choose to unleash it, is to learn to block out the noise and prioritize ruthlessly. The rule of thumb is, if it doesn’t take you toward your goal, cut it out don't put a band-aid do not nurse it to health. End it.

Drink the Bleach (not realistically, just figuratively)

This basically means "do the most unpleasant task first." What ever is making you loose sleep, attack it first. Don't procrastinate.Start with something crucial vs some thing easy. Any one can do easy, only legends do the hard stuff first.

Work In Blocks and work when you feel like it and where you feel like it.

There is no way I can work 8 hours straight, the western corporate and industrial block did that to us. Mornings are my most productive time. I have 2-3 hours of peak output, also not every day, some days I decide to less heavy lifting, grand your brain the space to recover. Like all muscles know its rest day.

Pro tip: You also shouldn't stop every 5 minutes to check your phone.

Find your sweet spot timing wise, location wise, environment wise, then work in that block, take a short break, and repeat. Your outcomes are linked to how you train you mind and body.

One New Thing (that I learnt recently)

While orbiting the moon aboard Apollo 11, Mission Control detected a problem with the environmental control system and told astronaut Michael Collins to implement Environmental Control System Malfunction Procedure 17. Instead he just flicked the switch off and on. It fixed the problem. (Some times in life, all you need is a reset too)

Boring Stuff that Scales

Do not look for hacks or short cuts. Do things the old fashioned way. Put in the work put in the effort.

When you spend the time to

1. Research

2. Understand an issue

3. Review literature

4. Look at use cases

5. Look at business models and problems

6. Explore the issues

7. Look at global, regional and local examples

8. Interview those with experience

9. Allow your mind to evaluate the options

10. Not fall for other peoples experiences

You unleash some thing magical. You give your self the ability to think, evaluate, understand and observe. Things that you loose out on otherwise when you when you take shortcuts.

Learning is about experiencing the ups and downs of a process, a product, it's nuances. All these things may result in boring things but they all scale and scale well. An experience in how some thing works in the field vs what some one told you based on their youtube video are 2 completely different things. It's like earned media and paid media. If some one loves your work and makes noise online which results in 1M impressions, its earned, vs when you pay to promote a post so that 1M people see it its paid.

It's about how some one got to see your post or content, the intent behind it, vs paying to force see it.(not foresee it)

When you learn the nuances in the field, you know how to react well, reactions to experiences scale well, relying on other peoples reaction = no shared learning thus your outcomes don't scale well. Always try to get direct experience, say no to the hacks till you've first done the hard work your self.

Hard work or real work may be boring but 9/10 it gives you perspective that allows you to scale.

What you should be Watching

An Al Jazeera Special. From its foundation in 2004 to its collapse six years later and subsequent attempts to recover its vast losses, this is the inside story of the rise and fall of Kabul Bank.

Involving nearly $1bn of money laundering, deception, embezzlement and failure of accountability, the banking disaster hit the savings of many Afghan families and left a legacy that contributed to events in Afghanistan years later.

In The Kabul Bank Crash, this financial "house of cards" story is told by those on the inside and beyond.

As the digital banking hype grows in our parts, best to understand why the regulators role is so difficult and so crucial.

Monetize your time

You can monetize your sense in the literal sense if only some one else will pay for it. It's the same as selling a house, you may feel it's worth X, but the offer you get when you put it on the market, aka what an other person is willing to pay for it determines its value.

People fall in two traps, one is that they don't know the real value of their time, meaning they give it to every one for free. Where in, in reality others would pay for it given the value the drive from it.

The second trap is, when you over value your time/$ and you feel people ought to pay X for it, when they feel its X-5. Both traps are deadly, you loose valuate time when you cant price your actions correctly.

If you are starting off, or if you are an experienced service provider. Do a small test, quantify your service, pitch people, do a quick sign up and then taken on two clients. See what people are willing to pay for your time. Is it above or below where you thought it was. Calibrate accordingly. Some times its not about price, but more about skill. Based on the feedback, go back figure out where you need to spend your time, skill building or finding the right price to service point.

Never be mislead with what some one else charges and never by shy to publish your prices. Prices on a website or a flyer are the fastest route to a sale, nothing monetizes faster than when some one see the call to action & the value proposition as a coefficient of price, right in front of them. So that its not an additional call or email that they have to send.

If you aren't doing this. Do it, starting today.

Made in Pakistan

What ever you want to build. Learn in rupees and earn in dollars.

What does this mean? Simple, Pakistan has a lower cost of forgiveness and a shot term memory for mistakes. Make mistakes in any business you want to start, in PKR vs Making Mistakes in USD.

Similarly when you have tested your outcomes and honed your skills bill in dollars and go global.

One Last Thing

Hang out with comedians, it's a life skill they have that we can all use.