by Ahmed Muzammil | Sep 19, 2017 | Business, Entrepreneurship, Startup |
Here‘s how to become a Friendlier Person as per the SECRETS OF SUCCESS – a list of Principles from How to Win Friends and Influence People book by Dale Carnegie.
- Don’t criticize, condemn or complain.
- Give honest, sincere appreciation.
- Arouse in the other person an eager want.
- Become genuinely interested in other people.
- Smile.
- Remember that a person’s name is to that person the sweetest and most important sound in any language.
- Be a good listener. Encourage others to talk about themselves.
- Talk in terms of the other person’s interests.
- Make the other person feel important – and do it sincerely.
by Ahmed Muzammil | Sep 12, 2017 | Business, Entrepreneurship, Startup |
Most so-called gooroos out there will tell you that success is quick, and you can achieve success easily. I‘m not here to tell you what you would love to hear.
I‘m here to tell you what it actually takes to reach success in whatever aspect you think that you should reach success in. And I have to tell you that it‘s not going to be easy.
Success is a product of having GRIT, Obsessiveness, and a High Desire towards your goals…
You need to be Resilient, Persuasive, Iterative, and able to course correct your way towards success.
It‘s never a straight road to success. In fact, there is no road. It‘s like a journey to the other side through a desert land… You need to figure out your way through.
Your Mentors are your GPS who would guide you through the desert. They make your life easier, but you have to take that path.
It‘s like the relationship between Neo and Morpheus in the movie Matrix. Morpheus being the mentor, guides, and coaches Neo to reach the goal.
Of course, Neo had to face the rough path, fight the agents, dodge bullets etc. But he finally reaches success. And it was through constant course correction.
Mentors can show you the door, but you have to walk through.
When I say mentors, it might not be a person. It could be FREE blogs, public domain books, email newsletters etc. that someone puts out.
My successes so far were a result of having great mentors. And me taking action. I walked the rough path. There were a lot of ups and downs. There are ups and downs even now. But it‘s a journey I chose to take.
In the end, everything will be worth it. Like Steve Jobs said,
“You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking, backward.
So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something – your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever.
Because believing that the dots will connect down the road will give you the confidence to follow your heart even when it leads you off the well-worn path, and that will make all the difference.”
– Steve Jobs [Stanford commencement speech, June 2005]
In this video, you can see what it took a famed celebrity and Silicon Valley investor Gary Vaynerchuck reach success. It‘s worth your time to watch this. Thank me later…
by Ahmed Muzammil | Sep 5, 2017 | Business, Entrepreneurship, Startup |
Usually, we would like to do everything ourselves, because we are so protective of our tasks, we don’t trust anyone with what we need to do. This can actually push us into feeling overwhelmed.
Being overwhelmed will lead you to be unproductive and ineffective. Many of us know the power of delegation but we procrastinate because we have trust issues when it comes to delegation. This is another form of perfectionism.
When I was at Tony Robbins Seminar, I was asked to make one decision that was pending for a long time, a decision which was out of my comfort zone.
I was thinking of hiring someone to help me as an assistant. I had a day job, and I had a lot to do to start my business. A lot of research, setting up websites, content etc. But I was procrastinating.
I’m a person, who hates to do repetitive work. I love to work creatively and think strategically. That’s what my strengths are as well as per the Gallup Strengths Test at gallupstrengthscenter.com.
So the decision I made was to hire an employee. Until today after I’ve made over $100,000 in sales while still at my day job. The one thing that was key for me to move forward was the decision to hire an assistant.
This decision helped me offload a lot of work that I don’t like doing – repetitive stuff, things that I hate to do, things that take more time to do, everything can now be done by my assistant.
I was able to work at my day job, while my business was also running. That was the best decision I ever made.
So, here’s an exercise for you today. What is one decision that is out of your comfort zone? A decision that you were thinking about for a long time and haven‘t decided yet?
Make the decision YES or NO today. Hit “comment” and let me know what you decided.
by Ahmed Muzammil | Aug 22, 2017 | Business, Entrepreneurship, Startup |
Your weaknesses could help you achieve better success if you know how to talk about them.
There are two common mistakes people make when asked this question about “What’s your weakness?”.
1. Replacing a weakness with a strength
People go outright and highlight a strength as a weakness. Eg. “My biggest weakness is that I’m a perfectionist”. Although you may think that you sounded smart, it increases the likelihood of appearing weaker than who you are to the other person.
2. Being too honest about it
On the contrary, if you say, “I’m really disorganized. And it’s really the thing that holds me back sometimes.”. This ultimately gives a wrong impression because literally, you are saying, don’t hire me.
A better and efficient way to put it is to put the weakness in the context of the balancing strength.
Here’s how:
“I do my best work in a team. There is nothing I love more than working with others, the back and forth of ideas. I love it. In contrast, you won’t get the best work out of me if I’m always on projects that require me to work alone.”
Broken down, it’s to highlight a strength (working in a team) first then saying the weakness (can’t work alone), you have virtually covered up your weakness.
Everything in the world is balanced. For every weakness we have, we have a strength that explains or provides context for that weakness.
Knowing how to talk about our weaknesses, it turns out, can be one of our greatest strengths.
by Ahmed Muzammil | Aug 15, 2017 | Business, Entrepreneurship, Startup |
Since I made the decision to lose weight and become a better version of myself, I committed to working with Andrei. Andrei taught me a lot about healthy foods, and habits, and even some stuff business.
Andrei discovered a systematic way to lose weight and to change habits and introduce new habits into my life to eat healthily.
If you remember from one of my previous posts, I was sitting in Tony Robbins’ Seminar, and he told us “Decisions Shape Your Destiny”. It was indeed true.
So I had the desire to have a healthy body for myself, to be fit, to be an active person to my kids. But I was indecisive about going all-in.
Many-a-times, we know what to do, but we don’t do it because we are stuck in indecision. While a dream kick-started my achievement, I wasn’t able to move forward without the decision to work with a mentor and going all-in committed.
When I made the decision that I should lose weight, I did. In fact, over a year I lost over 18 kilos, and I was more energetic, healthy, and I felt active every single day.
+ Where do you lack commitment?
+ What decision is still pending in your life that you are fearful of?
+ What decision have you have been procrastinating about?
The decision that if you made a commitment to today, can bring significant change to your life, business, and finances? Think about it…
What can you go all-in on? Go ahead and make that decision now!
by Ahmed Muzammil | Aug 8, 2017 | Business, Entrepreneurship, Startup |
In my last article in this series, I mentioned how I transformed my body from weighing 126 kilos to 105 kilos effectively.
I got help from a coach from Romania named Andrei. Andrei helped me change my behaviour and my eating habits. And the good thing is that I didn’t put back the weight like before. I was able to sustain the weight loss.
After working with Andrei for over a year, I had more energy, I felt more active; I felt awesome in general with my new found energy.
It was only possible because of Andrei. Before Andrei, I was trying all the tactics to lose weight without much strategizing on the core problem which is my habits.
Back then I used to have one can of coke (at least) a day. And my favorite food used to be a McDonald’s DOUBLE McSpicy Chicken Burger or the DOUBLE Quarter Pounder Burger with a LARGE Coke (32oz). So basically I had a 1566 kilo-calorie meal every time I went to McDonald‘s and that was almost every single day!
By working with Andrei (who used to be fat and then lost over 24 kilos through proper eating habits and exercise), I shortcut my way.
Because I didn’t have to make all the mistakes that Andrei had done. I didn’t have to experiment with stuff. I didn’t have to waste time.
Andrei gave me the exact strategies (change of habits) and tools that work and all I had to do is follow his instructions. It went great. I just trusted him blindly. It was a hell lot of patience, and work, but it DID work!
Coaches and mentors would be critical in helping you achieve great things. That doesn‘t mean that you have to spend 100s or 1000s of dollars to get coaches and mentors.
Coaching or mentorship could come in different forms: Books, Courses, 1-on-1 coaching, and Group Coaching.
Depending on how big the problem is and how deep your pocket is (how much money you can afford to spend), you can choose the right option. The more the money you spend, the more the level of support you get.
Action Step: Think what your goals are. Search Google or Amazon for a related book on your primary goal in life at the moment and start reading it now. It’s either cheap, or it’s completely free.
