Self Victory by Bassam Alhakim

The Feel of Time

The State of Things

To understand Null, you need to know that things acquire a certain state at a certain time. Things being thoughts, objects, beings, bodies, families, regions or whatever you can imagine. The nature of our existence is never absolute. It always get affected by the environment surrounding it, and usually acquires the stronger state available near it. From physics to psychology to politics, the forces of nature and ideas available and around us define the state of things. 

What is Null

Null occurs when a Thing has no state. It doesn't last long depending on the nature of the Thing. To get more acquainted with this state, lets take some everyday examples of when Null occurs. Null is vacant for a job position, free for time, un-attended for a responsibility, thought-free for a mind, un-committed for a relationship, unsolved for a conflict, empty for a glass, un-invested money for finance, un-satisfied need for marketing, terminated for an agreement, empty for a stomach, useless for an object, blank for a paper, silence for sound, zero for maths, insensitive for feelings, indifferent for emotions, and unplanned for planning.

If you live in the Middle East or in any developing country, you definitely hear about corruption every day. People here call it “Smart”, as its the only way to operate and do business; and without it you can’t survive.

I personally were raised in an environment where the “smartest” people are the ones who can setup the best “under-the-table” deals. In this article, I don’t nag about how “idiot” I was per the Middle Eastern norms, yet I will talk about the one thing that can stop corruption. Transparency.

Corruption is the major reason for Poverty and Inequality

The major reason to stop corruption is that it leads to poverty. If you are in the Middle East, where economies are shrinking, the best place to do business is in high growth economies. My friends, who have lost their jobs in the recession, moved from Beirut, Dubai and Riyadh to Erbil, Juba and Misurata. They told me about the enormous wealth that these cities have, but also about the high levels of poverty among the masses.

Can you imagine that the majority of the population there, don’t have the necessary food and shelter for a basic living. Those cities have trillions underground (Oil), and Billions in government accounts, and millions in politicians’ accounts. And they are still poor. Because they are infected with the Corruption virus. 

Corruption is Viral and Enforced

Corruption moves from high level politicians to the people. In a developing economy, for you to survive, you have to play the game. The first game is to respect corruptive politicians and defend them against any accusation, or else you will be left behind without business. The second game, is that you need to excel finding ideas on how to use the government resources (Money, Projects, or Land) to generate income for those politicians, or else someone else will do it before you.

It starts from the top of the pyramid and goes down to every single purchase that the government will do. It spreads as quickly as the economic growth, and feeds from the poverty and needs of the people who have no choice but to follow the rules.

Transparency for People in Developing Countries

For all those new spring economies (Arab Spring and others) that was driven by the power of the masses and not by the people in power, Its time to expose all government data to the public. All planning, budgeting, tendering and spending projects has to be online. You do that with the same tools you did the change. You can use social media, internet portals, Wikis and other tools to build transparency. Its not as easy as a switch, but start somewhere and build on it. Create laws that can track the accounts of politicians, their families and friends. If the politicians are clean, they will accept it. They are there to serve you. Its either their privacy or your poverty. You should choose.

Transparency For People in Developed Countries

For people in developed countries and who care about humanity and equality, Its your role to choose politicians who will expose any under-the-table deals of big oil and arms companies. Hundreds die everyday of poverty in countries where ONE politician from a developing country has partnered with another politician from a developed country to make billions from undeclared oversees sales.

You have more power and freedom to change than those who live in countries that are ruled by corruption. You can choose politicians who plan more transparency.

I was watching “Sherlock Holmes”. A creative movie worth watching many times. It inspired me about how people rule others by impressing them with supernatural acts, stories and rituals. I got inspired to write about that after i watched the movie.

I read some articles about some religions, sects, brotherhoods and secret societies who claim to rule the world. They all had one thing in common: “Make use of science or an undiscovered natural phenomena to impress the masses.” From the eclipse of the Mayas to the laws of energy, those societies have succeeded to manipulate your thoughts that they are supernatural. They have attributed any discovery to their foundation.

Discovery

The moment you discover something new about the nature of this world, you get more attached to their rituals, as they have conquered all these discoveries for themselves. They took over geometry and the golden ratio, they took over the pyramids, they took over the number theories, they took over engineering, they practically took over everything that might dazzle you. Just to impress those who have never thought of their origin or their ultimate nature. And who of us had the time to do that, especially when we are all busy securing a good life.

Divine

For us to examine divine, we have to think of the power that rules this divine universe. You can call this power as you like, depending on your perception of life or your religious views. So lets say that this divine power has equality and humanity as part of its characteristics, which the majority of us agree. Now do you think that this divine power will complicate its divinity in geometric formulas that needs a mathematics pro to understand it. What about the 99.9999% of the people who did not understand geometry. Those will never experience divinity?? I, myself, studied geometry for 10 years from school to university and still not able to understand it. What about those who never went to school??

Simplicity

In the past, they used to dazzle people with architecture, they used to build huge pyramids, temples, cathedrals, or mosques to impress the masses and make them convert. If that is the case today, I would worship Burj khalifa in Dubai, as its the highest tower.

I was going back to Beirut from a business trip. I usually sleep all my flights. Fortunately, I got this senior manager next to me who was holding some sort of a quick MBA book. He was passionate about it that he didn’t miss a minute to read. I usually hate to open conversations on the plane as it stops me from sleeping, a three hours of smooth swinging, all what you need for a deep sleep after a tough week.

Where would you start your global business idea?

If your idea is local, you can definitely start it up anywhere, but what if its a global idea. A rule of thumb is to start it up in the US. If you think you have the option to start anywhere else, I have tried to start something in the Middle East, I did not fail yet, but i will share with you my challenges.

The Mindset

I don’t know about the rest of the world, but let me talk about how people perceive new ideas in the Middle East. I can sum it up in one sentence. “It’s a new idea, no one even tried it in the whole world, it will not make it!!!!!”

Man…Why???

Our region is full of startups. But almost all startups are copycats of US startups. We try to copy them, if we are lucky, in a couple of years they expand to our region and buy us out. For me that’s disgusting.

We Are Consumers.

Its about an idea that we grew up on to consume anything. If we excel in business, for us it happens when we trade. Yes thats our ultimate. But we never think of producing a product. Even when someone tries to startup a new product, the other will be fighting him with an American or Chinese product. I know that Chinese low cost products have invaded the world, but this is not what I mean here.

I don’t want the Middle Easterns to build cars, but guys, please just build ideas. We don’t even listen to ideas coming from our people. Our ideas are quickly stereotyped as “non-sense”. We only accept and endorse ideas coming from developed economies. Now let me tell the reason why developed countries succeed. First, because they listen to each others’ ideas. Second, because they believe that they can do it. Third, because they are bold enough to take the risk.

We are used to Follow

Building it ourselves might not work, so let us buy it and resell it. Get our greatest business man out there, and ask him about two ideas: One is innovative but from the Middle East, and another that is old but coming from developed economies, and he will support the second idea.

The secret is that the vast majority of decision makers in the Middle East, or the people who can financially do a change, have succeeded through the trade business. They are either resellers of trademarks or service providers for global knowledge companies. They are used to follow. Throughout their life, the more they follow, the more they were able to succeed.

We are cowards

Why would I risk it and innovate, let us take what is used abroad and resell it. Then a couple of competing resellers go out to please the mother company to sell their products locally. And guess who is the winner:

The winner is the reseller who will price the product higher on his own country men, so that he makes more profits for the mother company.

The winner is who can kiss ass all the day, and follow the procedures set by the mother company without questioning why. (Even though, some of these processes do not work locally)

The winner is he who contribute much less to the economy and advertise for it more, to save money for the mother company and still show a cool CSR image.

The winner is he who agree to get all the management from abroad and get a couple of local slaves in lower positions to execute without learning anything.

The winner is he who can be more coward than the other.

Wake Up

Look at our people succeed abroad. Those guys are Middle Eastern, had some cool ideas, no one believed in them. They left abroad, people liked their ideas, they supported them and generated millions out of them.

Its really painful to look around and see whats happening in the Middle East. War is everywhere, but this post is not about war. This post is about the loss of culture and principles among the Middle Easterns.

When they used to talk about globalization, we did not expect what's coming. Now the moster is revealed.

Do not compare yourself to your friends. You are unique. You are the living part of your society. You do not abide by the rules and norms. You are different. Although you are short in cash and time, the day is coming where you will have plenty of time and cash. This day needs at least 5 years. Some lucky guys make it in 18 months. I hope you are one of those.

In the middle of cash-flow problems, operation's stress and life madness you have to focus on a three things.

The first thing is your drive. Your drive that insures that the sprint will end and your missed holidays are waiting at the end of the journey.

The second is your cash-flow. Do not let your cash-flow limit your decisions. Do not increase your fixed expenses quickly. Bad Cash-flow decisions corner you and limit your options. It forces you to lose in investment negotiations, because its needed immediately.

On Health

Lets take an example of your lifestyle. If you go to gym regularly, but decided not to go today. What will happen is that you believe you are in a neutral state, but guess what, you will be dragged into an activity that is exact opposite to sports like eating late, movie and chips, smoking, and so on. How many times you recall that you experienced such a situation. It is because nature does not have a vacant state, it is dynamic in a way that if the current state is weak, the opposite state quickly gains power and dominate. 

On Food

My observation came from the struggle of opposites in life. Lets take a simple example of your food state. When you were on a diet on healthy eating and decided to stop the diet for a night, how many times you were unconsciously dragged into eating junk or fried food? If you stop one, the opposite moves to the territory of the original. 

On Relationships

If you give your partner the time, care, thoughts and love needed, you will win the partner state in his/her mind. And vice versa, if he/she does the same, he/she will dominate this state in your mind. Now imagine that you or him/her stops doing efforts to build on this relationship. What will happen next is that you will feel yourself attracted to a new person who is giving what you are missing in your relationship.

I can mention a lot of other examples that proof this theory like dynamic Vs halfhearted lifestyle, Belief in God Vs not believing, advancing in work Vs Leaving work and many other examples.

I believe in the laws of energy. You have a reserve of energy to spend to live. If you would like to achieve something in the near future. You agree that it will take a big chunk of the energy reserve you have. Like your thinking, your time, your passion, your love, and much much more. It might take your time with your family, friends and your own silent moments. It will take your nerves, sports time, travel time, and much more. Most of all, it will take away many things but still make you happy. This is because the rewards are high in terms of self achievement, self esteam, confidense, love or money. I think, you cannot be an achiever and keep life balanced. It is a simple energy calculation.