Sakib Mahmud Aka Visionary Geek

I’m coming across another one interesting post of Chris Brogan. Just want to share it.

I thought about the inanity of waking up at 5:45AM after going to bed around 12:45AM and not really falling asleep until closer to 3AM. I thought about what it means to me to be working so hard. I thought about WHY I’m working so hard. Somewhere in my head, I thought about every time in the last few months where someone said I was an overnight success or “but you’re Chris Brogan” and how silly that is when you realize all that I’ve been through and all that it took me to get there. Here’s a quick video:

via What it Takes to Be an Overnight Success

I’m little bit excited today and I’m just coming from an excellent  articles, where Gilbert Ross shared 20 Powerful Beliefs That Will Push You Toward Success — I’ve learned lots of new things from his great share and even I’m astionsed some points has existence inside of me and some are not. I’m trying to figure out and lets see the full contents below.

Written on 12/21/2009 by Gilbert Ross. For more great articles by Gilbert make sure to visit his Blog Soul Hiker. Subscribe to his posts here or follow him on Twitter or Facebook.

I’m sure you have met at least one person in your life that is successful, motivated and self-empowered. This is someone that always seems to land on their feet, turns everything into gold and every success seems to come their way faster and thicker.

I’m also sure you have stopped to think about why these chronically successful people are so energetic, driven and successful with no apparent struggle while you seem to have such inertia impeding your progress.

Many believe that this is some unfair throw of the dice; that they just weren’t meant to become successful. Or perhaps it’s that the ultra successful people had some advantage or social lever that you didn’t. Occasionally this is true, occasionally success is inherited or stumbled into. However, more times than not, it’s created.

Success, first of all, is not a set of achievements or a combination of external factors; it is a mindset. Success is an attitude that comes from a framework of powerful beliefs and empowering thoughts. There have been many books written about this, probably some of which you have read. In the ones I have read, there always seemed to be a certain partiality – an incomplete picture – perhaps biased towards financial success or some other area but not another.

In the following list of beliefs and empowering thoughts, I would like to present a rounder view of success. One that I hope will give you a wider angle towards the meaning of success ranging from the material to the spiritual.

1. I am in charge of my life
   The belief that you and only you are responsible of what you make of a given situation. Life does not happen to you but is a result of how you respond to opportunities and challenges.
2. I can make tomorrow better
   The belief that you can change your future by your actions today. Some people are stuck in a fatalist (and dis-empowering) mindset where they believe they have little control on their life.
3. There is a lot of opportunity out there
   Successful people have their mind set on abundance and opportunity and not scarcity and lack. Trust me this makes a world of a difference. Believe that life, energy, positivity, love, opportunities, success, happiness are abundant…because they are!
4. I don’t need the approval of others to succeed
   If you are always looking for others’ approval and consent you will not go very far off and you will certainly not be self-empowered.Successful people follow their heart even when others are skeptical or do not consent.
5. My intentions have effect on my reality
   This is not to believe in magic where you can wish things into being…well almost. Most people are blind to this but successful people know, consciously or otherwise, that a focused and strong intention is indeed a powerful thing that will make a lot of things happen and certainly get you to your destination faster.
6. People are catalysts not barriers to success
   If approached in the right way and you network with the right people, you will leverage your efforts by a thousand fold. You will get things done faster by getting help from others.
7. Positive thoughts are powerful and empowering
   Successful people know very well that choosing to start a day with a positive rather than a negative outlook means having successful day as opposed to a frustrating one. It’s definitely in the attitude.
8. I am not separate from the rest
   This is a deep insight which only the truly successful and wise ones keep at heart. Commonly people believe that they are separate and cut off from the rest because they are individuals. True knowledge will tell you that everything is interconnected and success comes from acknowledging that you are not separate but one with the forces of life and the universe.
9. How can I use this situation?
   When life throws a bad streak at you or you your plans go down the gutter, ask yourself “How can I use this?”. My life changed as I started doing this. You can always turn a situation around even by just observing, learning and sharpening your attitude.
10. Hard work & perseverance are rewarded
    This is a rule of thumb even if perhaps reward doesn’t always come immediately but is paid off in the long run.
11. My past can be reviewed and rewritten
    Some people are locked in their past or think that their past circumstances determine their future. Successful people are skillful in the art of interpreting their past and reframinmg it according to their optimal advantage.
12. There are forces and energies which can help me if I’m conscious
    You might be thinking magic? Fairies? Not exactly. We cannot perceive certain subtle energies but some successful people believe in positive and negative energy flows from things and people just like ancient Chinese traditions believed in the flow of the Chi (Qi) or life energy. You can make yourself aware of this but it takes practice.
13. Failure is good
    As in point 9, empowered people can turn a failure into success by learning from it and moving on.
14. Don’t take it personally
    Get out of the trap of taking life circumstances personally or you will end up enslaved emotionally. When you get rejections, criticisms, cold shoulders, etc., put in within an impersonal bracket. They are not rejecting me, but an idea of me they have in their mind.
15. Bad patches are temporary
    We all pass through bad patches. It’s the cycle of life. But we all get out of them unless we chose not to. Think outside of the moment.
16. What I learn can be improved and refined
    Self-empowered people have a very dynamic view on life. There is always space for change and improvement especially on skills and lessons learnt.
17. I am constantly developing and expanding new capabilities
    Just like the previous point, empowerment comes from a non-static outlook where life-affirming mind states are believed to expand not contract.
18. Things are impermanent, don’t attach yourself to things
    This is a Buddhist concept which the real successful have learnt through experience. You might think that successful people are materialistic. I think the really successful are people who have a richer view on life and know how to ride life’s waves without getting emotionally attached.
19. Forget, forgive, rejoice
    Don’t get stuck in resentment and grudges. Travel light without dragging an emotional baggage full of past disappointments.
20. I already have all I need
    Self-explanatory. The path to success is through self-discovery and not world conquest as some would believe. People who have made it knew how to uncover their skills and true potential instead of obsessing with possessing.

content courtesy 20 Powerful Beliefs That Will Push You Toward Success

photo courtesy Fosteringsuccess.org

I just came from Syed Balkhi‘s blog site their he posted about “Seven Reasons Why You Are Not A Successful Entrepreneur“. I should share with you and some points inside you and me. If we can resolve this problems or learn from it that should be productive and better for the future.

Are you an entrepreneur? Well I consider myself as one. I am trying to come up with new ideas and products to make money. In this I use my mind, and I don’t necessarily work the hardest. If you are having hard time classifying yourself as an entrepreneur, then consider the definition of dictionary.com

Entrepreneur is a person who organizes and manages any enterprise, esp. a business, usually with considerable initiative and risk.

So now there are successful ones and there are not so successful ones. And there are ultimate failures… I will tell you a few reasons that will show you why you are not a successful entrepreneur.

You Don’t Learn from your Mistakes

Humans make mistakes. That is the bottom line. But good entrepreneurs make only few mistakes, and when they do make those mistakes, they learn from it and never make the same one again. A mistake I made was joined digg and respected them for a while, but after I got banned, I will not make the same mistake of wasting my time and joining that network again.

You are full of yourself

You think you know everything. And you can do everything by yourself. A good and productive company can never be found on one man. You have to help from others. There is nothing wrong with hiring help. I know I can code everything and design. But if I do that, I will only take one order a week or maybe one order every two weeks. Now that I have my fellow developers at Uzzz helping me, I can take more than 3 orders a week and just share profit. In the end, I am making more money I would make from just doing one theme a week by myself and technically putting in less amount of work as well.

You are not Passionate

It is not always about the money. You got to love what you do, otherwise it will fail. Love what you do and do it with a passion. Be motivated and dedicated and you will do well. But since you don’t love what you do, you will always try to rush things and get things over with, so you can do other things… Not the best example of a successful entrepreneur.

You are not aggressive

Life is not easy. Business is not like childhood where mommy just gives you a cookie in your hand. You have to work your ass for it. Things won’t come easy to you. Try multiple ways to get to the same point. Be agressive, learn how to be risky because sometimes aggression and risky go side by side. But risky is another name for business

You put all your eggs in one basket

You need multiple game plans because otherwise you are screwed if that one basket breaks. All your eggs are gone. Always have more than one way to achieve success. I rely on Search Engines to send me traffic, but I also have Social Media, and direct links from my users.

You can’t adapt quickly

Market changes left and right, so business is all about agility. You need to find what is the new change, and how to deal with it. That is the only way you will retain a competitive edge. If you don’t do this, then someone else will.

You suck at managing money

Have priorities. Look is not always the best thing. If I have a small office then that is good. There is no need to furnish it with leather chair, and cute cubicles. So don’t go big balling after you make a few bucks. Save them for later. Invest on what is needed the most. Don’t go ahead and buy a leather chair for your employees, instead get your designer a new version of Photoshop.

I think above are the reasons that stops an entrepreneur from being successful. Obviously there are a lot more, but these are the general ones.

via Balkhis

Most recently, I visited from retiredat21.com and post an excellent articles. For Bangladeshi geeks major problem is safety net connection and the skills to pay the bills. Moreover, if we can overcome all this things that will be great. See below, the keynotes are taken and give below.

Be Responsible with Your Responsibilities – Listen
carefully, as this part is key. You need to be able to start small, the
best way to do this is to have low overheads. You do not want to be
paying off a monster mortgage and seven kids when you are first
starting out, at first you should be looking to get a series of low
winners under your belt, and from there they will naturally grow into
bigger incomes.

Have a safety net – If you have a spouse or
children, you absolutely must have a safety net of income to cover
life’s necessities. This includes rent, utilities, food,
transportation, school, and health care expenses.

Have the right toolbox – Here is what you will
need: a computer, net connection, phone, printer, digital camera and
the software to be able to write content, and upload files to a web
server.

The Skills to Pay the Bills – There is no point
owning a computer if you don’t know how to turn it on, there is no
point having software if you don’t know how to use it, and there is no
point trying to be successful UNTIL you have mastered all of these
tools. Don’t worry, it will seem daunting at first, but use your one
hour per day and you will get the hang of it in no time.

Network - It is not always what you know, but who
you know. So make sure that you make an effort to meet all your
competitors, they won’t bite. Speak with all your potential
advertisers, post at related forums, blog, guest blog… do whatever it
takes to build a name for yourself. Your contacts list is one of the
most valuable things you will ever own.

Five Steps to Kick-Ass Entrepreneur Success [via retiredat21.com]

I’m just come from from The Dairy Of Failed Starups, their is a lots of learning things which everyone should know and some points which can brings success to you.

Jonathan Tang said on aftermath, “startups are out there, not in your head.“

“Pick a direction and go deep. I tried a couple other ideas after officially folding up, yet never really got into them. If you’re like most entrepreneurs, it’s easy to get overwhelmed by the number of possible things you could be doing. Ignore most of them, andconcentrate only on what you can do better than anyone else.“

On postmortem he said, “So, here’s the collection of lessons learned. I’m going to frame these as advice, but everyone should remember Buchheit’s Law: “Advice = Limited Life Experience + Overgeneralization”. This is one startup, and not even a successful one at that. There are many ways to succeed, an even more ways to fail, and so there will likely be exceptions to every single one of these rules.“

“If your idea starts with “We’re building a platform to…” and you don’t have a billion dollars in capital, find a new idea. Now.“

“I was going to title this “Beware the halfhearted effort“, but I think that’ll be misinterpreted. When people hear “halfhearted effort”, they think “Oh, I’ll just work harder.” But there’s a limit to how hard you can push yourself. Programming is a mental activity, and the brain has its own timescale. If you keep thinking to yourself “Must work faster, must work faster,” you’ll just end up slowing yourself down.“

[halfhearted effort: feeling or showing little interest or enthusiasm; "a halfhearted effort"; "gave only lukewarm support to the candidate"]

“The product will take longer than you expect. Design for the long-term. “

Conclusion touched me so much,

“Ultimately, GameClay failed because I gave up. Up until that point, it’s just a startup that has “not yet succeeded”, and so I feel like I should explain why I’m giving up:

1. I don’t think I can do this without a cofounder. It’s very, very difficult to wear both the developer and the evangelist hats at the same time: being a developer requires that you be very pessimistic, so you can see and fix all the problems in your design, while being an evangelist requires that you be very optimistic, so others can feed off your passion. I suspect that if I tried to do both, the cost would be my sanity, literally, and that’s not a price I’m willing to pay for the startup. Cofounders also help even out the emotional highs and lows inherent in doing a startup, since you’re rarely in phase.
2. I’ve exhausted the pool of potential cofounders I know. Amherst College is not really a hotbed of entrepreneurial types, and most of my friends are now either lawyers, in grad school, or have secure corporate jobs. And I’ve found that you can’t just jump into business with someone: you really need to forge the relationship in a low-stress setting before you subject it to the pressures of a startup.
3. We’re moving too slowly. This was a problem at my last employer, where it took 7 years and counting to build their platform. The risk isn’t really competitors; most markets develop far more slowly than you’d think. It’s that the whole technology ecosystem changes over time, which makes your initial design decisions a disadvantage against startups that start fresh. Woe to the companies that started building desktop GUIs in 2002, for example.
4. There’s little outside indication that people want what we’re building. When I run it by friends, most find it interesting, but they find it interesting because I’m doing it and I’m their friend and not because they really understand the idea. Also, competitors have been significantly less successful than I thought they would be.“