Climbing yourself

The following conversation happens between a random supervisor and a random student in a random educational institution of a random country (I used Computer Science as an example below just because am a Computer Science grad.)

Student:	I was hoping you could help me pick a good graduation project. One that is going to make a difference. I don't want to choose just any project.
supervisor:	Something like face recognition?
Student:	No, this project was already implemented. I want something that is new, something no one has done before.
supervisor:	Why bother and go through all the fuss? In the end after you finish it and it gets graded, nothing much is done with it except become a nice memory to you.
Student:	Yes, but if it's a useful/new project it can't be neglected.
supervisor:	All projects are neglected! Do you think you are professional enough or have the enough experience or knowledge to get something new done at this time? You just can't do it.
Student:	But I'm a hard worker and fast learner, and I really want to do something new.
supervisor:	It's important that you don't overestimate your potential. You don't have the needed knowledge. Just choose from the ones that have been listed for you. We know what you could and can't do.

People are born with no self – doubt.

When we first wanted to stand up on our own foot (when we were so young) we tried to do it without help and it didn't work. Then we tried to do it with the help of our hands…uh it kind of worked, but not as expected… we are back on the ground. Then we tried it using the help of one of our parents. We were young, know nothing. When we wanted to do something we tried to do it, if we failed, we tried another approach. We didn't get depressed, thinking about our miserable lives saying "We can't do that", we just tried something else.

One cloudy day, we were trying to approach one of our problems/accomplishments as we used to do it since we were born, but someone came to us (a teacher, parent …etc) and said "you can't do that because…." And since then we began to doubt ourselves.

Successful, and effective people figure to go back to how they were originally created, they face odds, challenges, and strive to create a better future with no self – doubt. They are equipped with enthusiasm and flawless adequacy.

Successful and effective people gain others' trust by having self - confidence. People have reason (or think they have a reason) to believe and trust you if you truly believe in yourself.

Hold your fear inside you; concentrate on your goals, objectives and strength, not on your weaknesses and uncertainties.

Worth mentioning here is the other extreme of having self – doubt; the people who act overconfident. Actually they aren't; those people are the most likely to have self – doubt and they compensate for that with arrogance.

So, as we can see here, too many people have learned to have self – doubt either through inefficient family, education or work …etc environment. They unjustifiably question their abilities.

So, you have the choice to continue acting like that, unnecessarily questioning your abilities, and damaging yourself, preventing yourself from achieving what you can do, simply because you can't overcome that fear in you, simply because you can't climb yourself; or you can go to the next step with self - confidence.

You are in control of your behavior; Your FUTURE is in your own hands.

......

"After a certain ability level the difference between a good hockey player and a great player has little to do with competence and everything to do with his confidence" Herb Pinder, acts as an agent to professional Canadian hockey players.

"The history of the world is full of men who rose to leadership, by sheer force of self-confidence, bravery and tenacity" Mahatma Gandhi, Preeminent leader of Indian nationalism

"Those who are skilled at winning do not become afraid, thus the wise win before they fight, while ignorant fight to win" Zhuge liang, one of the great military strategists of old china who followed the teachings of Sun Tzu, author of the Art of War

Special Thanks to Menna Gamal, she helped me putting the conversation at the beginning of this article into a reasonable dialogue. She also worked as my editor, commenting on some areas of this article.

Costa Café vs. Cilantro Café - Consistency

Hello again.

I am not trying here to promote/demote any of the cafés on Egypt, but I am sharing with you my experiences with 2 of them and how I view them from the business perspective. So, let me start by telling you my experience with each of Costa Café and Cilantro Café, and then analyze the experiences and their reflections.

1. Costa Café:

   The first time I went into Costa Café I really liked it, it was the morning, not a lot of people inside, free internet connection working like a charm, nice, clean and well dressed waiter/waitress, simply, everything was perfect. I ordered my café latte and it really tasted good. I logged in using my laptop (after asking the waitress about the network key), read some e-mails, wrote some other e-mails; I was doing my job, as if I am doing it from my office. However, after about 20 minutes, I ordered a tart, and it was on my table after less than 10 minutes, fresh and juicy. Well, I continued my work, and then I decided to leave, so I asked for my bill, and it was here on my table after 3 minutes, not bad, I can live with that. I inserted my credit card into the bill holder, the waiter took it, came back after more 3 minutes with my credit card, I signed, and left. It was a good experience, I thought of coming back in the future.

   My second experience was different, It was the morning, the same amount of people, the same waiters/waitresses with the good look, the same internet connection, but this time, I had to wait for like 20 minutes to get it up and running because they changed the network key, and they didn't know how to get the new one; however, when they fixed the problem somehow, I ordered my latte and it was as good as the first time, and thus was the tart. My bill arrived this time in 1 minute, and my credit card was processed in 10 minutes, what a shame? – However, I left a little disappointed this time.

   A week later I came back, it was a company meeting with the Team leaders working in my company. I ordered my latte, and they ordered a bunch of different other stuff to drink. We had our meeting, and when I tried to log in to the internet (after going into the usual procedure of asking about the network key – it wasn't changed this time), it was down, simply not working, and they told me they would call the internet company and figure what's the problem. Oh, well, I don't really need the internet for this meeting. However, we finished the meeting and when I ordered the bill to pay, it arrived in 10 minutes, I inserted my credit card as usual in the bill holder, waited for another 5 minutes, and left.

   As I left, my unconscious mind, told me not to go back. It really wasn't the latte, it has been always tasty, not the waiters/waitresses, they actually were kind and helpful. It was that I simply can't predict what to expect at each experience, I cannot count on the resources out there. Simply there was no consistency in my experiences.

2. Cilantro Café:

   The first time I went to Cilantro Café it was really awesome! And it has always been like that. Up and never down internet connection, tasty latte, juicy tart, nice well dressed waiters, my bill gets processed in less than 1 minute, my credit card gets billed in less than 1 minute, and I am out of there in less than 2 minutes total, and it has always been like that. I can always count on how things go. If I am in a need to have some time working outside my usual office doing some work through the internet, I go to cilantro; Why? Simply because I know what to expect, I know I'll find what I need, I know what I can/can't get over there. Despite the latte isn't much tastier than the one in Costa and the tart isn't much juicier, I am confident of what to expect, I can plan to use their resources in an expectable fashion flawlessly. It's all about the experience, it's all about what fits me; they always think about what makes my life easier.

The unpredictability of the Costa café was changing my experience for me continuously and randomly. I have always ordered the same services, and I always had different experiences. I never changed my requests, so they were in control of my experience, and they cared the less about how I have it. They were running the business for them, not for me. And by doing this, they were stripping me of the ability to plan to utilize their business for my own reasons. It didn't matter how I wanted to have, it didn't matter if I enjoyed any of the missing, mixed up or modified features they gave to me. They just gave me a good experience then took it away from me.

In business, it's more important to keep giving your customer what you usually give him over and over – more important than- what you really give him. Don't create a spoiled child of him, by giving him what you can't afford to keep.

Spoiled customers never come back!

More about consistency in both the management and business is to come in the future.

See you soon, have fun!

My Zero Post!

Hello.

Finally I found the time to put into creating my blog, believe me when I say this wasn't easy. However, I plan to start putting sometime to post every now and then.

so, enough introductions and let's get into it.

Here is the deal, I like to do it in points (call me systematic, but this is how it usually gets the fastest to people):

1- What will the blog contain?

• Well, it'll contain actual, real life incidents that happened with me (or were told to me by others), and the reflections of those ideas on Management, business or corporate world, or the lessons that should be learned from those incidents as I see them.

2- Why would we consume time reading this stuff?

• Hmm, I believe (and I hope I'll convince you to do believe too if you don't already) that every experience that we get into, see around us, or hear from friends, helps us grow, learn and build a better future for ourselves, and the others. and I also believe that we cannot afford (if we want to be great) to lose the lessons from the life incidents, or we will just never grow, and do every mistake twice (I consider the mistake happened to another person that I knew about, the first one ;) ) - make sense?

3- Why are you sharing that info with us?

• That's because I usually like to share this info with my friends, and thus with everyone. and since I like to cope with the technology, and evolve from the traditional face to face conversation, I decided to grow, and use the internet - fair enough?

So, the deal is done, my Zero Post is almost done, and if you think my blog worth the reading, expect my next post soon enough.

Have fun!