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The Engine of Prosperity!

“Whoever said that pleasure wasn’t functional?!” – Charles Eames

When you get great people in a beautiful functional space, magic unfolds. Creative spaces are a real passion that i have.  I was recently attending a presentation on Herman Miller concept of the Living Office, which is a human centered approach to the workplace,  part of the presentation was the chart of the engine of prosperity.  It describes elements of what makes work thrive – feeling good when you come to work and feeling pride and sense of the community is essential…

Prosperity is generated when the following elements come into a dynamic equilibrium:

= Passion of both the individual and the Organization.

= The needs of the individual, for example those laid down in Maslow’s hierarchy of needs.

= The desire of the individual to generate income and an Organization to create profit.

= The needs of the workforce and the Organization.

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Embed Yourself in a Community of Practice!

My approach to learn a new topic besides reading can be summed up with this statement “Embed yourself in a community of practice”

If i want to learn about a topic, i just go where most of its experts hangout, even if i feel like an outsiders! I have a thick skin and not a lot of pride when trying to learn. I also embed myself in the online community of practice through Twitter and Quora. I create a twitter list of all experts or relevant people in field and  when they share an opinion or an article it will be the most relevant to the topic. It is like hiring a personal curator from the industry:)  Same for Quora, nothing compares to humans from industry giving personal answers. Both tools made a huge difference with my learning on new topics like: Angel Investments, Creative Spaces, Fintech, Audio Book Publishing, Digital Transformation…

We suffer from an overload of information and articles are mostly written for clicks….that is one of my ways of sifting through the noise.

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Wandering Matters!

Jeff Bezos, Amazon.com CEO, Interview for Recode 2016 – great discussions on AI and all things retail and Space!

“I like things where wandering matters, i like to wander…I make sure all my meetings do not have tight agendas. I don’t like tight agendas because they assume you know where you are going…which for certain type of meeting is right, like if you are doing a business review and you are going through the metrics, that should have a good agenda. but most meetings are not like that…wandering is super important, thinking and knowing exactly where you are going is the kind of lack of humility that does not let you invent…”  – Jeff Bezos on #min54 of the interview.

Sounds trivial but coming from Bezos these statements validates the kind of meetings that i take with headlines but no clear agendas and loose time…we finish when we finish…

This small point aside:) It is a good interview with a real great leader – no fuss but ruthless execution! #Recommended

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The Big Short!

“Cynicism is easy. Mimicry is easy. Optimistic contrarians are the rarest breed.”

– @Naval

This movie makes me feel sane.

It is the true story Michael Burry who, in 2008, realized that a number of subprime home loans are in danger of defaulting and bet against the housing market. He saw it and it was so obvious yet it is just crazy how others reacted!

I watch it over and over again. It is a TRUE Story. Some might find it boring, i find it soothing – it explains to me how obvious common sense can be uncommon! And Although the letter that Michael Burry wrote while closing Scion fund is not the real one but its essence is true. The one in the movie sums it for me!

The Make/Stay in Business at Any Cost Mentality…

“Making money is not like what I thought it would be. This business kills the part of life that is essential, the part that has nothing to do with business….”

The Compliance and Cancel your Brain Mentality

“People want an authority to tell them how to value things, but they choose this authority not based on facts or results. They choose it because it feels authoritative and familiar.”

#AMustWatch

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It Was a Pleasure Meeting you Charlie!

“You’ll never find a rainbow if you are looking down” – Charlie Chaplin

In summer ’17, my visit for the Chaplin’s World was mesmerizing!  It was my first encounter with the “immersive museum” which brought to life the priceless cultural and cinematic legacy of Charlie Chaplin in an engaging way that allowed us to interact with the design elements and scenes to create our own memories with him and his movie characters!

The visit provoked me to learn more about Charlie Chaplin whom i perceived as a boring mute movie character in my childhood. Reading about him left me full of admiration! Admiration for his achievements in using art to illustrate meaningful messages with freedom BUT above all admiration for what this poor kid who was born on April 16, 1889 in Walworth, South London, achieved in terms of financial independence. Besides his famous actor status, He was an independent producer with studios of his own! He was kicked out of the United States in 1952 on communism charges and lived in an amazing location in Switzerland for twenty five years with his fourth wife Oona O’neill and his eight kids…Not to mention being friends with Einstein,  Sophia Lauren and tons of other great personalities with whom he travelled the world.

yeah this was Charlie’s House!
And this was his view everyday!

You can have an opinion, express it freely and get punished! But if you are in a strong financial situation, they cannot break you – you can even come back and haunt them by writing books or producing new movies! Bravo Charlie. What an amazing life. I salute you!

If you are ever in Corsier-sur-Vevey, some 15 miles from Lausanne,  for any reason, i strongly recommend you pass by Chaplin’s World. The tour is composed of three parts: The Manoir, The Studio and The Park .

It was a pleasure meeting you Charlie!
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To Compete is To Forget!

“People reflexively assume that competition is always a good thing, that it always brings out the best in people, but that is only true of people who can forget competition. The art of competing, I’d learn from track, was the art of forgetting…

You must forget your limits. You must forget your doubts, your pain, your past. You must forget that inner voice screaming, begging, “Not one more step!” And when it is not possible to forget it, you must negotiate with it. I thought over all the races in which my mind wanted one thing, and my body wanted another, those laps in which I’d had to tell my body. “yes, you raise some excellent points, BUT let’s keep going anyway…”

  • by Phil knight in his book:  The Shoe Dog, A Memoir by the Creator of Nike.

These statement just hit a nerve as I was discussing with a startup founder before vacation the obsession with competition! Yeah, one should see it, act but never let it interfere with how we do perform…or at least try to!

 

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Why do I write?

I learn a lot by reading books and blogs of people who were generous enough with their time and words. Sharing is a pay back duty. Those who learn must pass it on…

I used to write more but i hit a turn off! Opening up in public makes me vulnerable and tends to increase my vanity…The turn off did not disappear but my need to express and share is bigger.

In re-starting the blog, three people/reasons were of great influence!

First,  Fred Wilson who writes daily. I learn so much from his blog! Fred says daily writing commitment makes your ideas and ability to express more solid. Yeah, i need that.

Second,  Pascal Finette, whose daily email improved my thoughts and decisions! Who knows maybe my blog can touch some random person in a meaningful way.

Third, my friend Mostafa Nageeb who is sharing his learnings. He inspires me from a distance and keeps me close to his ideas and chats that i used to really enjoy when we worked together. Nageeb’s blog reminded me that you can build a strong and close bond by reading someone’s thoughts. Since I recently don’t have the time or the will to spend time with a lot of people…maybe the blog can strengthen my human bond!

“It all begins with what you just did which is find your voice, and to be able to articulate your views and experiences and tell your story”