Mir Moiz’s Weblog
Life is meaningful, only when one wishes to make it. We are creatures of time and we’ll wither away in it. The little moments of joy we find and create are all that will live with us.Archive for MIR
Why can’t we do this :-/
It beats me to see that true and original innovation is not something, perhaps, we as a nation are really capable off… If so its very rare.
Basil seeds are something I ate when I was a little toddler and my father used to propagate the great benefits of using them during summers to quell the heat.
A Thai company came up with this drink all the while Basel seeds are just pathetically cheap and easily available in Pakistan yet our brilliant people ‘none’ could think better.
This is an exceptionally original demonstration of value addition at its best… When I mentioned this to the shop keeper who was selling this for PKR 100/- per bottle, like hot cakes, he said “sir our people can only copy, not invent”.
Sad to say and experience that what I find when I meet people and exchange ideas is superb critique alone. There is no constructive thought even at the highest echelons, to propel ideas and support new initiative if that benefits and uplifts the other guy and not themselves.
We need to change this negative attitude in our people’s minds – or else progress is harder to come by even over next few decades.
© MIR
Innovators and Manipulators
If we agree to the fact that the present day challenges lay between the two scales of ‘Innovation’ and ‘Manipulation’ then it should be understood, what defines the competition between them and within each itself.
While capitalism is not about this distinction for it simply focuses on the capacity to capitalize on any given market opportunity.
The world that we face today is more so about manipulation than innovation.
The reason is simple, not everyone can innovate!
In the earliest parts of the industrial revolution some 200 years ago. Innovation feed into the engines of capitalism. Ideas where plenty and every conceivable aspect of life from living it to making it better was being innovated.
That trend continued on into the beginning of 1900. From then on the muscle of massive innovation weakened and manipulation started to manifest which twisted a few ideas and technologies to bring out something new and especially, the field of information technology feed this beast very well. It allowed for a lot of things to become convenient far more than it was ever before and so true innovation got replaced by part-innovation. From that time to the point where the IT bubble bursted and markets consolidated to find equilibrium with reality… Very many things gained stagnation and innovation became a prized possession.
This is also the time when the spotlight, on the need to innovate, increased signifying that there was a visible lack of it!
While all this brought the world from A to Z in a jiffy. It also provided, manipulators with the opportunity they were always seeking.
While innovators have always been far and few in the history of the world. There certainly has never been a shortage of manipulators, in every industry and in every field.
We now live in a time where increasingly innovation is being focused upon because, the continuation of innovation and original thinking is beginning to fall in a worrisome state for the next coming 100 years.
More people in the world does not mean more ideas and new developments. It means more of both… Innovators and Manipulators, with less of the first who are the real problem solvers.
What needs to be seen is how far will the world ride off, of this dissipating wave of past innovations, before it faces a stone wall.
After all every writer experiences a writers block.
We can’t expect more people to mean more innovation because innovation requires not cunning, but in-visioning. In many ways, that is not an education – it’s a gift.
© MIR
Elon Musk
When people view successful people, most often they consider that their success is attributed to some exceptional back or support system. That there must be someone behind them to propel the success of those who do find it and find it good.
This guy proves it wrong.
Being born in humble beginnings does prepare those with brains and vision, both. To persist and find a realization of their dreams, and for everyone of those with vision, success means and stands for different things; you just have to know, what exactly you are looking for!
I meet this guy in Zanzibar on the eve of 2012 New Year. He does not know me and I did not know him either. A chance meeting, probably even he does not remember for what I come to know of him now. We exchanged a strong handshake at the reception desk of the Kendwa Rocks Beach resort and I offered to help in the matter he faced at the desk, to which he thanked and appreciated.
A year and a half later I come to know who he was.
This is a great video to watch for those who aspire to grow as business people. Who feel their vision will one day see the light of day and who feel, critics are not the yard stick to measure our successes or failures by…
Cheers to all those of my dearest friends. Enjoy.
Vimeo Video: http://vimeo.com/38542529
© MIR
Organic Growth
The only distinction between people and businesses is that people are directly created by God and businesses are directly created by people.
Beyond the formation of businesses we have little control over the flow of things and outcomes, that we can exercise.
From the point of creation, a business becomes a self-sustained entity.
Most any business takes at least 3 years to reach a point of functional maturation, even in this era of high technology. The reason is that it takes that much time to develop roots to enable sustainability for it.
Letting a business grow organically entails being patient and thinking long-term. It’s the best formula for a stable, strong and sensibly managed enterprise.
© MIR
Magnets & Life
A simple lesson to draw from one of life’s scientific and very practical fact.
Have you ever taken a big magnet and broken it into two?
When the one becomes two. They oppose yet when they are made whole, through tremendous effort and force once again. They become one bigger and more powerful magnet.
That is why God guides that we should persevere in a difficult situation because like the magnets in opposition that difficulty will become a force of success when the two opposing become one again.
Stay hopeful and stay cheerful in life. Always!
© MIR
No FaceBook, rather Face to Face.
I have seen ICT take an upswing right from when the world openly began to learn the word ‘e-mail’.
Those were indeed the times, e-mail was a new age marvel and people were clamoring on to it to find more meaning and substance in their communications. No sooner than later, we were acquainted with the word ‘Spam’ then ‘Malware’ then ‘Spam Filters’ then ‘Internet Security’ then ‘Security’ then ‘Search’ and so now since more than past 10 years Search (having taken on the task of ‘simplifier’) has become synonymous with ‘Google’.
Social Networking emerged as a powerful force that mobilized the capacity to network with a multitude. All sparked by a little know thing called ‘e-mail’ that mutated into a multitude of variants all from IRC, ICQ, AOL, MSN, Yahoo to now emerging more maturely as Skype, Viber and WhatsApp.
With the advent of all the above the need for ‘Sense’ prevailed and suddenly people had a lot many other people to keep track off.
With every conceivable connection or chance contact the worry of ‘is it important’ emerged that caused people to have huge lists of other people always available and mass messaging became known.
Rooted in the concept of BBS (Bulletin Board Services), ‘Orkut’ first identified this market as a viable commercial landscape, and started working on building the concept of ‘Online Social Communities’. As the model matured it found a precise balance with ‘FaceBook’ and so the medium to formulate viable online communities emerged.
Now in all this story what I sense was lost was ‘Peace’ and ‘Trust’.
The maturity and longevity of a face to face connection started to take a back seat, as people had less quality time to give to one another in face to face meetings and preferred to take it conveniently over chats and wall posts.
The medium is certainly growing – indeed like a wild fire and will continue to grow. But is it growing now because of a genuine need or rather a sense of deprivation and worry of loss. Is it the fear of staying in the loop? People want to be in the loop because they don’t want to miss out on the next best thing. Its fashionable to be on FaceBook, not sensible.
Our world is changing, as a place of 7 Billion people and counting ‘exponentially’.
There is definitely newer things developing and emerging by the day. The evolutionary path will continue.
I just felt that its best to balance this new development with a break from the constant sense of being in the spot light. Like a vacation with family and friends that helps put us back in touch with nature and the natural ways of things. Taking a long-term break from FaceBook helps to retraction one on one relationships and nurture strong bonds that last a life-time.
For now my social evolution will cease to be limited to e-mail, LinkedIn, Skype and Viber.
I will see our FB friends in later times and take this time out to build lasting one on one relationships for a new future.
Please follow my blog at www.mirglobal.nl
FB: 2007 ~ 2013
© MIR
Strategic Patience
Insignificant as it might appear… Yet the thought expressed below should be considered deeply.
Patience is a virtue. It is so because it mainly helps one stay composed and focused to persist. The win is made through persistence not patience, yet to stay persistent requires patience.
Patience varies in its applications and it’s forms. Sometimes it is of a long-term nature and sometimes it is of the short-term nature.
To have it requires a grip on both forms.
Strategic patience has to do with the short-term, because it is about the type of patience one has to exercise when the immediate pressure of a situation becomes extremely agitating and confining.
Having this type of patience means that our focus stays strong and so we persist to win in difficult situations.
© MIR
The Need for Better Processes
Our lives are a complex mix of many things that are often times occurring in parallel. While most of us spend time over the course of each day, yet we seldom evaluate that the time we spent runs in a controlled environment such as an academic institution or a professional setting.
For an average mainstream person more than 60% out of 1,440 minutes over a day are spent in a controlled environment.
Successively over months and years this environment grows upon its occupants and dictates the conduct they have to maintain.
Processes are the only thing that controls these environment. Those that occupy it do not control it. They are in turn controlled by their environment and all this happens at a subconscious level.
This is precisely the reason that we liven up and loose stress when we go on a vacation or experience nature in its variations.
Businesses today are waking up to this fact and realizing that how their people perform is a direct result of a subconscious mechanism that either grooms and improves their workforce or subdues and dumbs down their minds.
Processes are the key that control the delivery of pleasure or pain.
Leaders at all levels need to realize that improving their processes is the central aspect to any kind of success.
The standards we devise and develop for businesses small and big is the vehicle to achieve that end. It is what prudent leaders do to empower the institutions they run.
If you feel like making that choice…
Get it touch with me and my brilliant team.
Consultation is absolutely free.
© MIR
Mir Moiz's Weblog 