Start Running

13.09.08

Filed Under: Thinking Out Loud with 0 Comments

From a book I’m reading:

Every morning in Africa, a gazelle wakes up. It knows that it must run faster than the fastest lion or it will be killed.

Every morning in Africa, a lion wakes up. It knows that it must run faster than the slowest gazelle or it will starve.

It doesn’t matter whether you’re a lion or a gazelle; when the sun comes up, you had better start running.

84-year-old preacher with 86 wives and 170 children, WANTS MORE

11.09.08

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Mohammed Bello is 84 years old. He’s a maulvi. He has 86 wives, 170 children and lives in Bida, Nigeria.

Apparently his neighbours are a little upset with his lifestyle. They’ve painted it as a religious issue but surely the sociological and psychological aspects are far more fascinating? Anyone?

Continues after the jump »

Be Remarkable

01.09.08

Filed Under: Branding with 2 Comments

You’re either boring or you stand out. You’re either invisible or remarkable. And, all your life, everyone has been pushing you to fit in. All your life you’re told to keep your head down, work hard, don’t make waves and get it done. What rubbish. Here, in 10 easy steps, is how to grow. How to stand out. How to get noticed, make a difference and have a shot at the big time.

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Ignorance is bliss…

31.08.08

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It really is…

The ignorance we’re familiar with is the kind where YOU not knowing something allows you to be happier than if you had that knowledge. It holds true in a variety of cases, like how you’re happier the second before you’re told your parents left everything to your sister and nothing for you in their will.

I’m not one to argue for lack of information but wouldn’t you be happier if you didn’t know your mother was a whore? If that last sentence angers you, I’m sorry to have been the one to tell you. if it made you laugh, congratulations, you have no shame.

But there’s a second type of ignorance which keeps people happy, the kind where you deliberately keep OTHERS in the dark to ensure that they don’t want to kill you (anymore than they already do). You stay alive, they’re unaware of what they should be doing to you and everyone’s better off (i.e. you’re better off).

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Exponential Growth

29.08.08

Filed Under: Thinking Out Loud with 0 Comments

Exponential growth is a simple and powerful idea. A good way to learn about it is to watch this series of videos.

Continues after the jump »

The real meaning of celebrity endorsement

26.08.08

Filed Under: Branding, Promotion with 0 Comments

When a product is used by the ‘most popular stars’ / ‘most popular websites’ etc, what does that tell you?

That it’s good?

Or that their marketing team did a great job of snagging the most popular people?

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What do they want?

25.08.08

Filed Under: Promotion with 0 Comments

Sorry, it doesn’t matter what ‘you’ want. What matters is this:

So how do you find out what people want?

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Spotlight

24.08.08

Filed Under: Promotion with 0 Comments

Think of ‘attention’ (one person’s focus of view or that of a group of people) as a spotlight. It moves in seemingly (but not actually) random ways, and is strongest when directed on one thing (and loses intensity and focus when shared between two or more things).

The bigger the number of people, the more powerful the spotlight (more focused attention) and the harder it becomes to manipulate it’s direction (inertia).

The point?

It’s much easier to move yourself to be in front of the spotlight than it is to move the spotlight to focus on you.

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Should you sell or should you hold?

23.08.08

Filed Under: Making Money Online with 0 Comments

You have a business that’s making you good money. It’s growing, people envy you and things are rocking.

Then someone comes along and offers you a lot of money for everything – more money than you could get if you sold the business today – and makes it clear that it’s now or never (the longer you resist, the more time they have to develop far enough to move forward without you). Do you sell out?

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Five Minutes…

22.08.08

Filed Under: Help Yourself with 0 Comments

You have 5 minutes to change the world, one person at a time.

What’s your first reaction to that sentence? Did you think “that’s impossible” or did you think “how does he suggest we do that”? If it’s the former, you’re probably going to disagree with the rest.

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The best place to succeed is where you are with what you have.

Ahmed Bilal, all content & imagery © Ahmed Bilal.