I have been thinking a lot about, What things do people do to "buy" back their time and improve their quality of life?

Popular themes from the "West" have been:

• Personal Chef (buy groceries, meal prep, come in 2 times a week)

• Move to another country where you $$$ is worth more

• Live close to where we work and spend most of our time in a ~4-5 mile radius

• Cleaning/De-Cluttering

• Personal Assistant - General Shit-doer

All this re-iterates is that people want to free up time to invest in those things that matter. Like spending more of it with family, pursuing hobbies, sports etc. Meaningful usage of time by spending money to harvest it back.

Looked a different way, we in the "East" more specifically Pakistan at a basic level have access to all of the above, chefs, cleaners, personal assistants, handy men yet the quality of our lives are not any better for it.

Is it because we aren't optimized for tasks? Is it because we have all these conveniences to free up time but when time is freed up we waste it? Does this tell us that we must first be productive in life then work backwards to solve for time? because if you have all the time in the world, it generally doesn't lead to productivity. Is it a mind set thing? Is it just us? We have for eons had assistive services available yet our productivity seems to be going doing annually.

How you use your free time will make or break your success. The secret? It’s not about working harder or finding more time to do work. It’s about designing the freedom to engage in the high-value work that brings you energy and fulfillment.

Moral of the story "designing your freedom to do high value things", will you consciously do more of that this year or be stuck in your old ways. To recognize time being wasted is a super power.

Outcomes

Wealth in the new year - It's not What you think it is.

Contrary to popular belief wealth is just not financial gain. In fact when you over index on financial wealth only, you undermine other kinds of wealth and greatly diminish good outcomes.It’s important to think about your own definition of wealth (so you can set the right target).

I can’t write this article without addressing the elephant in the room.

Yes, I write it from a privileged position. No doubt there. I am blessed

I’ve been fortunate in my career(20+yrs of grinding it). I now have some leverage to take risky bets.

But having been on both sides of the financial spectrum(so that you are aware its not being born into privilege or striking gold by doing a tiktok dance move), I can confidently say that there are two important catches to this assumption:

1. You probably need less than you think

2. You need a whole lot more than money to be wealthy.

Let me explain what you really need to be wealthy beyond financial outcomes

1. Own your own shit (Accountability is the highest form of wealth creation)

2. Be real (Fake money like fake people can only go so far)

3. Waste nothing (Re-use, re purposing allow u to re draw the rules of life)

4. Relentlessly value driven (No small boy shit..investing 20 hrs on a 5$ task vs 5000$ task)

5. Always be scouting (for better deals, more options, different outcomes, differentiated learning and enhanced skills)

Take away 1 | Giving your family time and love.

If my only goal was to make money, I would not have the freedom to leave work at a time that suits me. The greatest wealth is not financial, it is being surrounded by loved ones. My parents taught me this value from a young age and nothing is more important to me than spending time with my family.

Take away 2 | Asshole Subtraction

No amount of money is worth working with individuals who cause discomfort when their name appears in my inbox. The ability to choose who I work with does not require vast wealth; working with people I appreciate has always made me feel rich, and I have always felt even richer when I severed ties with those who are difficult to work with.

Take away 3 | Say "No" more

We all get the same 24 hours in a day, it's like a daily ration of time. But every time you say "yes" to something, you're basically telling time "no" to something else you could be doing with that time. Being able to control your time and tell "no" to things you don't want to do, is like having the keys to the time vault and that my friend, is true riches.

Take away 4 | Stressless - Time Off

A few years ago on vacation, every day I would observe individuals sitting on the beach next to me, glued to their cellphones and taking work calls. Despite their high salaries, this is not a sign of a fulfilled or wealthy life. Time off should be time away without a plug back into the hole.

One New Thing (that I learnt recently)

The 1960s Sixfinger from Topper Toys was a clever toy for kids (marketed to boys) that provided an extra finger for fun. The commercial for it is a hoot and shows off its many features, such as writing with its hidden ballpoint pen, shooting off cap bombs at your pals and more. Ignore the obvious phallic shape and revel in its singing ad that will make you wonder “how you ever got along with five”.

Boring Stuff that Scales

Fraud and fraudsters. This is the story of some one who pretended their way to being included in private family offices conferences and defraud people. Getting scammed may be boring but it takes genius level of effort to orchestrate. Be on the look out for things that seem boring but may take you for a ride. This is the craziest thing Ive read this year, that is boring level things engineered at such a scale that whilst wrong is a master piece of execution. Read about it and learn from it, to avoid the pitfalls but get a window into the human psyche and using those lessons for your "legit" scaled boring outcomes.

What you should be Watching

Be prepared to be mesmerized. Whilst the average kid in the west wants to be a you-tuber, China is focusing on science. Today China produces more scientists than any other country. And many of them are leading their fields; pushing advances in medicine, food production, robotics, radio astronomy, high energy physics, deep sea research, quantum computing and cosmology. Their work is not only shaping the future of China, but the future for all of us.

This documentary follows the challenges of constructing the world’s most sensitive neutrino detector, meet an aquanaut and marine engineer who’s creating a new type of submarine for regular trips to the largely unexplored deep seafloor, and discover new developments in farming that will rise to to the challenge of feeding a global population set to reach ten billion by 2050.

For better outcomes its incumbent upon you to understand where the world is moving so you have the ability to optimize for that change.

Monetize your time

By cutting out the noise and optimizing for signal. You've heard it many times over, if you hang out with losers, you are the looser. So in 2023 even if you cant break into the weekend soirées a pack of successful tech ceos, or scientists, or teachers or artists, you can participate virtually via reading their content and their thinking. Elevate your game by consuming the right content on social media. In the new year be the sum of what you consume vs consuming sum of the garbage thats available online.

Use your time wisely its not coming back. Here is a good place to get started, find what you enjoy, like, relate to and want to learn more about and then find mutuals based on this recommended list of twitter folks to deep dive.

Made in Pakistan

Things that can still be made in Pakistan and be exported. Heres a thread exploring some ideas for you to emulate and replicate. The hard work is done, you just need to find a niche/product and execute hard. I have written many thread on exportable ideas and small businesses at large heres a super power : Twitter search, type @faizansiddiqi (space) (type any keyword associated with business/digital transformation) It will bring up all those threads that have the word

Some ideas for search words

• Business

• SME

• Startup idea

• Export

• Subscription

One Last Thing

The more things change, the more they remain the same. Whether you are from Pakistan or one of the 23 other countries where the subscribers come from - (thank you for following/reading/messaging) If you are waiting for politicians to change your outcomes, you are sadly mistaken. It seldom happens that way.

The only thing you can count on politicians if you are from a developing nation, that the reason why you haven't developed is because of them. The only way you take control is if you know history. Research is your friend, context is the clarity you need to succeed. I have taken the pain away from finding what history teaches and how we keep arriving back after 75 years to the same end point every decade or sooner. Our outcomes may be different than yours based on where you live, but the path to value erosion is similar, "take away hope and introduce chaos". So I urge you, in your lives and those of those around you, be a hope anchor vs a value eroder. Things are tough now but without hope they will be tougher.

Know you past well enough to shape your future fast enough, else you will be left picking up the debris of political engineering. Don't be a victim, be a well informed citizen to take back control of your own journey.