When I was learning software development many moons ago there was some thing that fascinated me. The "if then else" statement.

The if/then statement is a conditional statement that executes its sub-statement, which follows the then keyword, only if the provided condition evaluates to true:

if x < 10then x := x+1;

In the above example, the condition is x < 10, and the statement to execute is x := x+1. As such, the code will increment x by one only if its current value is still less than 10.

else clause

Optionally, an else clause with a second sub-statement can be provided. This second statement will be executed instead of the first one if the condition was false. It is always guaranteed that one of the two statements will execute:

if x < 10then x := x+1else x := x+10;

In the above example, the code will increment x by one if its current value is still less than 10, as before. However, if x is already 10 or larger, it will be incremented by 10 instead.

Today some thing caught my eye that resonated far greater with me. The And or But Statement.

Outcomes

The American Dream - Hard Work and History

Here is the most incredible thing you can read this week. How an immigrant went on to build the 2nd largest bank in the world and finance some of the most iconic American brands. Your outcomes are dependent on you

TL;DR

• Hard work

• Showing up every day

• Doing right by your customers

• Having a dream followed by vision with a mission

• Never giving up

One New Thing (that I learnt some time ago)

The Dutch supermarket chain Jumbo has "slow lane" checkouts for customers who like to chat with the employees.The aim of the chat checkouts, known as Kletskassa, is to help tackle loneliness in society by having real contact with customers. Not every thing good has to be fast or digital. Some times to know you customer and enhance your outcomes as a business you must slow down to understand what is working and whats not. 

Boring Stuff that Scales

Advice scales well. But taking advice from the wrong person is a death spiral one must avoid.  Be careful with the advice you take. Just because it works for them, doesn't mean it will work for you. Do they have: - Your Abilities - Your Level of Skill - Your Context - Your Spatial Awareness - Your Limiting Beliefs -Similar Experience -  If you are young, healthy a go getter a work from home mom, the advice of a single, retired, second career affiliate marketer  may not translate to better outcomes for you. But the advice from the right person, the right mentor, the right fit can sound boring but saves you the time and cost of acquiring their "awareness dollars" by you investing your time with them. It scales based on your intent and your ability and desire to act on it.

Listening to the best minds, accessing the top scholars by turning up at events or playing 1000s of hours of youtube, but doing nothing to understand the message or acting on it, is the same is taking laxatives when you have diarrhea. 

You know you shouldn't but you couldn't help your self because you didn't follow the instructions that came with the package. You were too busy collecting samples, at the conference where they were handing out swag vs focusing on the content. That is why listening with intent is the same as following instructions and executing well. Always listening with intent and get advice from the right people. It scales like nothing else.

What you should be Watching

For China, it’s a renegade province that must be brought into line. The Taiwanese, on the other hand, see themselves as a legitimate, independent, democratic state. For Taiwan, the stakes are high. After watching how Hong Kong was "brought into line" by China, Taiwan has been all the more determined to assert itself as a democracy. But it’s not an easy path.

As part of the Sunflower Movement in 2014, Taiwanese youth took to the streets to protest increased economic ties with China. Citizens have also been fighting for political transparency and more participation.

Audrey Tang, Minister of State for Digital Affairs, wants to involve citizens as much as possible in the government's political decision-making. Meanwhile, the country is fighting fierce cyberattacks aimed at weakening its political institutions.  This is a fantastic documentary that views technology as a tool for digital democracy and more.

Monetize your time (by re-inventing your stolen world)

By understanding the value of time. Mansoor Adayfi is a writer and former Guantánamo Bay Prison Camp detainee, held for over 14 years without charges as an enemy combatant. Imagine 14 years of your life being taken from you at age 19.

Now imagine you wasting your time in things with little to no consequence as you go about your day. Life is fickle, any thing can happen(perhaps not as extreme) but the next time you waste time, understand its value in the context of Mansoor. 

Made in Pakistan

For Years most of us have passed through Zaibunnisa Street in Karachi. I always wondered why it was called that. Till recently I had no Idea. The one night my alerts on Twitter brought me this gem. The amazing story that must be shared far and wide.

One Last Thing

There are 39.3% of subscribers on this mailing list that open every edition, every time and spend about 9 mins on average reading it. Some time last year I wanted to make this a paid endeavor/subscription only to root out those who neither sign up(via email) but continue to read it online but I did not.

Online views continue to grow, but dollar for dollar 1000s of those people never sign up. If you are one of those people who continue to read this online, please sign up via email as I will stop the online/web edition going forward. Likely this never becomes a paid newsletter any time soon. The joy it brings me, is way more than the monetization effort. 

So here is my ask, if you are one of those who genuinely like and enjoy this, Please do me a favor, sign up via email your self first (if not already) and share the link with 2 other people you know who can benefit from it.  Here is the Link to share: 

https://faster.beehiiv.com/

Why the ask? Why now? Next week, I will hit 100 weeks (700 days or 1.9 years of commitment)  of publishing my newsletter, with my 100th edition. I want to be able to pay it forward and bring at-least 100 new people to sign up, not because vanity numbers matter to me but because it potentially gives 100 people the opportunity to have FASTer Outcomes.

This is a gentlemen's promise, some thing I cant enforce. But promise to share next weeks signup stats for sure so I hope you come through on signing up and bringing 2 friends with you.