Category: Finance

For Business, for work, for life.

There are many books out there that you  can buy and read.  They go on for 200 pages of what you need to do to become successful. I’ve read a few, and watched a few life coaches speak and yes they are very motivating. But it’s much harder to actually put their advice into play. Motivational gems like keep hustling and work hard are repeated and blared over and over again.

I found that life offers sometimes the best motivational gems, lessons learned through failing, or falling. You have to go through hard times- that’s just a given. You can’t complain when things fall to shit, that’s just the reality of life. But how you deal with it? What steps you take to prevent or deal with it, is how you know if you will become successful.

For business, for home, for work or just life in general,  you’ve got to sit down and think of which of the the many books out there you are going to follow.  There are so many methods. But through my own personal experiences, I think it boils down to a few key factors- the things you can control.  But the most important part is that you can’t just do it for a week, no you have to commit for 3 months- yes it takes 3 months to set a proper habit.

I offer you my 16 points of how to become a more successful person. Whether it’s for business goals, to work life to family. These 16 things can really change your life.

So here it goes. It’s quick and simple without a lot of fuss. I will make individual posts for each point, giving more examples of experiences from successful people to my own later on. But I wanted to make this clean and simple so you can start today.

I make no promises other than these worked for me and it can too for you. If it doesn’t make you millions of dollars or turn you into Brad Pitt, well maybe you did something wrong LOL

Kidding, but seriously, at the very least, you’ll have changed your life a bit for the better, become a bit more grounded and able to reach for those stars.

1) Multi- Tasking While Multi-Project’ing.
This happened to me, a lot. Tons of ideas and projects that I think can be successful but not enough time. I was doing bits and pieces of different projects, all the while supporting my company, staff and my family life. It was a mess and my brain was constantly in anxiety and a constant mess. Scheduling and micro-managing myself, writing down day after day in my daily planner. I was doing an Elon Musk, 10 mins for each thing….but nothing was getting done.
So I stopped multi-tasking while doing mult-projects. One project per day. I scheduled my 10-12 hour day into 2 hour project times, with 10 mins every hour to check with emails and staff.

So my schedule looked like this:

Keep your schedule clean and simple so it doesn’t overwhelm you. Anyone in IT knows, you can’t just work on something like coding or programing for 10 or 20min intervals, you have to dedicate strict time to it. And that’s what I did.

2. Spend Your Time Like You Appreciate it.
One of the concepts I saw written in book after book, barked on from ‘life specialist to life specialist’  is ‘grind and hustle, and work the 100 hours a week, work till you don’t have to introduce yourself’. Well here’s the dangerous side of that. You spend all your time ‘grinding’ that you don’t actually appreciate the time you have.
My wife, who I cherish, has been my biggest supporter and pillar. When we got married, she took on the task of helping me to get my business to what it is today. But it came at a price: Her health.
It broke me down when I heard the doctor say, she needs to rest, she’s burning out. At that moment it hit me. If something were to happen to her, what will I do? If something happened to me, what will she do?
So, we had to change the way we looked at success. Success should never come at the price of your health or your loved ones health. Success is something you get from working smart, not killing yourself for. The hours I put in, the stress I caused I wonder now how many years I took off my life.
Spend your time properly, even if you have to schedule in 20 mins to spend with your loved ones, or call your family or sit and do something you love. This is time well spent. This is time you will not regret. So if you have loved ones, schedule them in everyday- make it habit.

3. Your health Is Key To Your Success
Your mind is what it feed it. So if you feed it fast food and shit from the fridge, your mind will be shit. You’ll have trouble staying focused and won’t be able to process the information well enough to get things done.
Eating proper home cooked meals left me feeling better about myself and my health. It gave me a boost of confidence that I didn’t have when I was eating fast food. I was never overweight, but you would not believe how you feel when you eat crap all the time. The switch to good food with veggies and fruits really made a difference in how I worked. So if you want a clear focused mind, then eat properly. Don’t skip your meals. Can’t get to the gym, that’s okay, you need to get some weights, start walking and doing push ups.  If you think just getting some sweats on will motivate you, it won’t. So grab some real gear from www.GymOverEverything.com and start with the mindset of fit. The right exercise clothing can really get your motivation going.

4. Sleep!
I get it, I also wish there was 43 hours in a day, but there isn’t and guess what, your brain and body are going to be sluggish the next day and you can’t just run on coffee for the next 5 years trying to reach success.
No matter the business, or job or the goal you’re trying to achieve, you need to sleep. If you can’t commit to 7 full hours at night, then get 5hours at night and throw in a 20min nap at 2pm. I kid you not, this is going to make such a big difference. Imagine one of the most productive days you have ever had, where everything just went smoothly- that is going to be your everyday if you sleep. Your senses and thinking ability is so much better when you get that sleep.

5. Don’t Second Guess Yourself  But Think Properly
In 2009 my wife came to me and asked about this little thing called Bitcoin. Well I’ll be honest, I didn’t want any part of it. From an IT prespective, Bitcoin is a security nightmare. Bitcoin breaks each and every security protocol set to protect people online, and I could already see the wikileaks article going over the security issues, the open doors to fraud, money laundering etc etc. I wanted no part of it. My wife for whatever reason, thought it was a good idea. At the time, I thought ‘Is she nuts?’.
But then I sat down and thought about it properly, what if there is the off chance that this coin becomes the norm in money. Do I really want to miss out on something that literally will cost me nothing to mine? So I took out an old laptop and started to mine Bitcoin.
And then Dec of 2017 happened and the rest was history.
I don’t 2nd guess my assessment- it was correct, but I had to think from outside my prespective and properly assess my choices. Bitcoin mining took me no work to do. It didn’t cost me anything.
So think properly, it’s not second guessing yourself, it’s cutting outside of what you know to be correct, and seeing if there is potentional.

6. You Have Your Own Clock
From all the success stories you hear about people that made it, you forget that there was thousands more that didn’t. You put yourself under extreme pressure and anxiety about making it too without thinking of what it’s doing. You have your own time, and it’s not the same as everybody else. Maybe everybody is sailing the same direction, but maybe you’re meant to sail slow and steady and not risk those choppy waters and wind. Maybe you decide the risk is too big right now and you need a break on that Island to regroup and redefine your plans. You will achieve your success on your own time without wasting your time and life. This goes to my next point.

7. Keep Learning & Relearning
This happened to me. I was stuck in a rut in 2007. Thinking of how the hell was I ever going to compete with large names like freaking IBM. All my IT friends were in secured jobs steaming ahead away from me, while I was still trying to push my company forward. I decided to take a break from my company. So I got a job (that I hated but gave me data center access). It turned out to be the best decision I ever made. I learned a lot and garnered a ton of expereinece I didnt have. It helped me to create my first software for Microsoft Password Recovery, and the first year after making it, I made my first $100k. It was incredible. I took on other jobs related and unrelated to garner more experience and combined it with my ability to learn just about anything, I created compevo.com and several other software projects that allowed me to take my wife to several trips to China, Dubai and Japan. I’m not arrogant about what I have to do. If I have to even now take on a job to learn things about AI that I don’t know, I’ll do it. Even if my company already has some AI projects under it’s belt, it’s not all about just that, it’s also about learning and expanding my knowledge base. If you’re in sales, well learn some accounting. If you’re in marketing, learn some IT. If you’re in IT, learn marketing & accounting.

8. Don’t Be Arrogant.
Money can do 1 of 2 things. It can degrade you or upgrade you. It can degrade you in the way of arrogance or it can upgrade you in the way of being genuine.  Money changes people, and yes sometimes its frustrating when I see a person look at me like I have nothing and I feel like jumping to say “have a look at my bank account”, but then I relax. I realize they are working on a debt system only for the now and maybe their kids, but I’m working on a credit system where I want to build wealth for generations after. I also want my kids to understand the value of life with money and the value of life with just money.
You don’t need to be loud and proud, you don’t need to announce it to everyone, and you don’t need to dress in a $10,000 suit to show that you have money.
From a psychological point of view, it shows how low and unconfident you are in your genuine self, and need to pretty yourself with ‘things’ to make you sparkle. That isn’t right, and you need to put proper value on yourself, and not let things deteremine your value. My wife, my kids are what makes me valuable. And I don’t want to settle for a million dollar house in a shit market, I want that $2million house my wife liked back when we got married, and I intend to give it to her, paid in full cash not a mortgage that I leave her behind with.  I want to be able to pay in cash for my kids education should they persue it, or help them start a company without begging a bank. So don’t be arrogant, whether you have the money or not. In an age of social media, it’s hard not to place value on ‘the look’ of success, but don’t forget that even lottery winners can go down a shit hole if they don’t keep their arrogance in check.

9. Start With A Meeting End With A Meeting
Make mondays meeting days. The start of the week to revamp your plans for the week. What your main projects will be, and how will you schedule it all in. During this 30 minute with yourself or your team, write down your expectation for the week and what you intend to achieve. I usually failed at daily goals but always hit the mark with weekly goals simply because I felt like there was enough time to achieve the goal. Depending on what you’re doing, sometimes a daily goal is better or even a monthly goal. For a team project for work- a weekly goal for each member works best, so everyone can see if everyone’s on time, and if one isn’t, then the others can either help or extend the project frame. If it’s something like weight loss, then a monthly goal works better. You don’t need to stand on a scale every week battering yourself about the 1lbs you lost or didn’t lose. Check your measurements not your weight.  So really think about what you’re trying to achieve and then go from there. End your week with a meeting on friday. You should be able to go through your schedule, see all that you have done and be able to plan for the next week. You should make notes on what was achieved, what still needs work, and how you intend to solve issues. In IT there is a lot of detail work, I found writing down the different things I wanted to do, or have solved on my Tech Forum www.realtechtalk.com helped me a ton to keep myself on track and also helps others who run into similar issues.

10. Self Talk
This is bizaare but it works. If you’re hitting a wall, or getting frustrated, you need a 5 minute break. You need some cold water, and you need to talk to yourself. I cannot tell you how much I talked to myself when I hit wall after wall when coding- any coder out there will tell you how frustrating it is when shit doesn’t work and you don’t know why. But it helped me center my thoughts and get back on focus otherwise you’re just running in the same spot.
Things like “It’s fine, I will get this.” or “Don’t panic, you will find an answer” or “Nobody will be able to solve this but you so calm down and find the answer to save the damn world.” Well that last one is a bit much, but whatever it takes man.

11. Organize
Your home, your office space, your mind are all connected. If one of those are a mess, the others will follow. If your home is a mess- you’re gonna be a mess. If your office space is a mess, you’re gonna a be mess. Staying organized, keeping things neat and in their own space will greatly help you with not just productivity but also help your mind not be in constant chaos. It’s actually fact that having a messy working or living environment can cause depression and make you unable to focus. So clean up and declutter your mind.

12. Iron Your Clothes
For a long time, I just took something out of the clean basket and that was it. Then I got married 11 years ago, and suddenly things were being ironed and put away in their drawer (thanks Lazina) and I couldn’t believe how much more confident clean ironed clothes felt. You feel put together and good about not just your appearance but your overall mood feels more…well ironed out.

13. Play A Game
I have several games on my phone and at home. I play them especially during tough moments where I’m stuck on a project or can’t find a solution. I know when I’m losing it and that’s when I decide, time for a game. Not just any game, games that make your mind run. I like car racing games especially, but when I’m stuck on something, I actually play math or maze or puzzle games. This helps the proper side of my brain to relax but also refresh and be ready to solve the problem I’m having. This has literally saved me so many times. Try it.

14. Read A Proper Book
I get asked what books I’m reading and usually it’s just normal books, or kids books that my kids give to me, or the Harry Potter my wife made me read (yeah she bought the whole set and made me read it, and it explains a lot more than the movies so you should too). But you can’t just read self help, life coach, how to make money books all the time. It’s mind bogging, eventually it’s going to wear you out, especially because they are making money off you for buying their words. Read imaginative, creative things that will get your mind thinking creatively rather than in one track.

15. Be Awkward, its’ fine.
I’m an awkward type of person. Up until last year I didn’t have an Instagram account, and both my twitter and LinkedIn were bascially empty. I consider myself more of a lone wolf type, and don’t have a large circle of friends who I go to ‘night out parties’ with. No I have never been to Los Vegas, nor do I drink or smoke. I’m a practicing Muslim and listen to rap, I also tend to befriend genuine people not fake faces. When I speak, it’s geunine, I’m not trying to make you like me, and sometimes this might come off as akward because I’ll flat out say things like ‘it’s great to meet you, lets keep in touch because I like people like you’. It’s not the social norm, I’m sure there’s a better way of saying it, but I don’t have the mindset to change my honesty for social fluff. In 2018, we are too busy trying to be other people that we are losing our geuinine selves and you need to recover yourself from that.

16.  Promise Yourself, “You won’t give up”.
Never give up. I teach my kids that, but I mean it. You might not be happy with your progress, and you’ve made mistakes, and maybe you’re even failing or not acheiving what you wanted to achieve by now. That doesn’t mean give up. That just means you re-plan and get back to it. I have a lot of time on my hands, so I took on a 2 month teaching job at BCIT, this will give me great experience teaching others (which will help me to make a guide book to train staff) and gives me speaking experience. I find talking is one of my weakest points, so I found something that can stop me from being bored and help me improve myself. Back in 2007, if I had given up on the company just because I took on a job, I wouldn’t be where I am today. So don’t give up. Promise yourself that one thing. Even if your plans change, even if your goal changes, don’t give up. Push forward.

You got this. Now go and change your life.  Good luck friends!

Cheers,
A.Yasir