Karim’s posterous

A wide range of thought leaders, self-help, gurus, sports starts and entrepreneurs extol the value of setting and attaining goals in life. In fact, for most of us, the importance of goal-setting is drilled into us during our education. End of term exams, tests, degrees. All these are artificially set goals for us to work towards and achieve. Go to school, get good grades, get into a good university, earn a top notch degree, get a entry level job at a solid company or profession, work your way up, get promoted etc etc.

We tend to look down on people who haven't got clearly defined goals, and the ones that do are usually thought of as 'winners'. Without getting too preachy or philosophical about it, this obsession with goals strongly influences how we live our lives, the people we associate with and what we buy. Although I don't suggest we eliminate goals and goal setting, I think we have to approach this type of thinking with caution.

The danger with an over-reliance on goals is that we spend time working towards something we really don't want that much. From my own experience, I know I missed out on some interesting experiences to achieve what I thought were the right goals, the right university degree, the right career path. How do we know the goals we set are the right ones? How can we risk our most precious resource, time, on future outcomes we don't know we'll enjoy? Can a teenager in highschool possibly predict which career path will make for a rewarding and enjoyable life for a 25 year old? I'm not convinced. The numbers of 20somethings who suffer 'quarter-life' crises is a testament to this.

So what's the solution? Well this is something I'm asking myself, I don't have a microwavable answer to hand. But I feel that a focus on things that excite, interest and make us feel passionate makes sense. We might not be able to give up the day-job, but that's not necessarily the end of the world, if we shift our attention to feeding our passions as much as we focus on goal setting and progressing our careers, we might just be on the right path.

As a not-too-long entrepreneur and small biz owner, every day I'm reminded how important it is to help. To get help and to give it. To co-operate and look for opportunities that generate mutual success. For someone who started out in the corporate/office environment this attitude is anything but natural. In fact, retrospectively it occurs to me that the corporation as an entity is built on the concept of 'survival of the fittest' and 'the art of war'. Be it between rival organisations, or internally between employees.

This isn't really so strange. A typical corporation is a pyramid structure, with a very limited resource - high level & managerial positions. Each of these positions, these badges of glory, success & achievement has 10s, 100s or even 1000s of employees chasing after it. If you and I are both up for promotion to the role of regional sales manager, one of us has to win and one of us has to lose. There is absolutely no incentive for us to work together to reach mutual success, in fact this option doesn't even exist. Again, it's survival of the fittest, winner take all. Either I'll be your boss come promotion time or you'll be mine. We may pay lip-service to team work (a rather hollow term in modern business) but behind the scenes we'll recruit footsoldiers, build alliances and ferment coups and regime changes.

I can't imagine any senior executive has managed to reach their position without seeing their fair share of political intrigue or fighting a few battles themselves. Needless to say all this warfare and political machination diverts a huge amount of resource and time from most organisations. The death-match approach to selection senior management may guarantee you the most ambitious and most ruthless employees, but it doesn't guarantee you the best product or the highest profits (I'm sure the guys at Enron or Madoff were very very ambitious).

Our very development into societies and civilisations hinged on our ability to come together in mutually beneficial tribes. To work together for mutual success, to share. It seems to me that to avoid the greed and dishonestly that were the biggest factors in the recent global economic turbulence, we need to think about re-engineering the corporation. We need learn the lesson that most entrepreneurs and small business owners know, that we need the help of other to lift us up, rather than try to climb up on their lifeless corpses.

There are tons of eBooks and blogs these days proselytizing the freelance and 'work for yourself' lifestyle. While a lot of these are very useful and informative, I've put together a list of points to consider before you quit, based on my experience as an ex 9-5 man.

Don't Quit Your Job If...

1. You get bored easily
2. You think that working for yourself will mean working less
3. You don't work well after midnight
4. You're overly attached to office coffee/tea
5. You're overly attached to flirting with your co-workers
6. You can't work in your PJs
7. You can't work while sporting a Zach Galifianakis style beard  
8. You thrive on your workmates laughing at your jokes
9. You are especially susceptible to cabin fever 
10. You can only ever get any reading done on your commute to work
11. You're addicted to the Japanese food they serve at that little shop down the street from your office
12. You like playing the role of the anti-social employee, shunning your colleagues by listening to raging thrash metal on your over-sized headphones
13. You need to be handed a list of tasks to function
14. You always think the grass is greener elsewhere
15. You are the captain of your department's pub quiz team-they need you!
16. You have a great membership discount at a fabulous gym
17. You can't afford to pay for health insurance
18. You don't like working from a Starbucks on your laptop
19. You can't work around family/kids/roomates
20. You don't really have any game plan

As an ex 9-5 man I've been thinking a lot about the differences between being an employee and an entrepreneur. A year into my experience as a 'free agent' I've experienced a lot of advantages as well as disadvantages to both lifestyles. In today's post I'm going to look at getting things done in both environments.

As an employee, any new initiative seems to be doomed before it begins, office politics, bureaucracy, over-zealous legal departments, over-burdened IT departments. Only the most hardy of initiators, running with the most passionate of potential projects seem to make it through, and even this doesn't provide guaranteed immunity from a last lap disqualification from senior management.

Of course most of the time the concerns and considerations that arise with a new initiative are legitimate. How will this reflect on our brand? How much will this cost? How will this look to our clients? How will IT find the time to work on this?These questions all make sense. But they also slow momentum and err WAY too much on the side of caution. Is that new blog really going to destroy the brand if it doesn't work out? If we start a Facebook fan page is it really going to make our company look ridiculous? If some of our employees engage with people on Twitter will that make it seem like we've not got anything better to do with our time? Well the answer is MAYBE but probably not. Unless you try you never know. And as with most things in life, the worst scenarios, even in the RARE event they come true are never as terrible as we assume.

As an entrepreneur, you know you need to try to thrive. You find the IT resources to get it done, you find a legal opinion that backs your initiative up, you find the time to get the first version up and running. As a small business owner or a Free Agent, you do have the luxury of being fast and nimble. But this doesn't mean that it's impossible for corporations or larger companies to adopt some of these behaviours. You can always outsource, get a second legal opinion, work overtime. All these are possible. I think the biggest difference is that in a corporate environment we ask ourselves 'WHY' whereas an entrepreneur asks 'WHY NOT'.

There's a certain satisfaction in achieving goals, finding success and taking our careers to new heights. It's exciting, it drives us an it massages our egos. It let's us stand back and say 'there, I did this'. But one lesson I'm starting to learn from the top online Gurus is that you need help to reach your potential.

This league of online Gurus, which I affectionately refer to as the Online Marketing Mafia, are experts in their own rights, but they all take the time to promote each other and each other's products and services. At first this might seem illogical because they could be viewed as competitors. They compete for book deals, speaking gigs, twitter followers and blog visitors. But instead of this, they've taken things to the opposite extreme. They go beyond the concept of 'live & let live' by actively reviewing each others books, they post blogs about each other and even hold each other up as examples of online marketing excellence. If a group of people this smart are taking this approach, there's gotta be something we can learn here.

But I'm not a Guru
Forming a group of people who help and learn from each other doesn't have to be limited to Gurus. I think we can find peers in our industry or field who have a take on things different enough from our own to make teaming up interesting. It doesn't have to be a case of setting up joint ventures. But helping each other, and recognising each other's good work is bound to generate greater returns for everyone. Imagine if you owned a piece of land and farmed it alone, you'd most likely be able to create a more plentiful harvest if you and a few other farmers teamed-up and took turns farming each other's plots of land. So how can we take concrete steps to help and be helped?

Be the first to offer a hand
To create a mutually supporting working relationship with your peers, someone will have to take the first step in the right direction. This can be you (or me). If we make that critical first step to go out and praise the good work of our peers, link through to their blogs, re-tweet their Twitter musings, give them testimonials on linked and help them out, we will send a clear message that you're willing to help. The karma-effect then has room to take place and your peers will start helping and supporting you. Now of course you should be helpful if you can to any people you find interesting, but if you focus on forming these mutually beneficial bonds with people in your industry the results can be more impressive.

Forming your Mafia family
Ok so maybe won't wanna go so far as to form an illegal crime syndicate (although that could be fun!). But wouldn't it be good to have a group of really cool people who you respected and shared an industry with to help support you and your projects and accomplishments? After being the first to demonstrate the power of helping out your peers. You'll most likely start to receive some love back. Keep the momentum up, connect on other levels, maybe get a bit more personal on facebook, go out for some food or some drinks. Meet for lunch and brainstorm some ideas. Who knows what you might come up with. The point is that with a bit of socialising, you can solidify this group of mutually respected people into a group of friends that can help and support each other for a overall better experience for all.

This concept isn't so strange, it's the basis for tribes then societies forming, we're stronger together than apart. I do think that in today's world of never ending work commitments and endless distractions, sometimes we forget the importance of forming bonds with people and taking time to nurture these relationships.

It's seems more and more people who are starting blogs or personal websites declare themselves, unequivocally, as gurus of their stated  métier. Often this is with little correlation to their experience or achievements in this stated area of expertise.

Nothing wrong with a bit of confidence, but I have trouble believing that everyone is an instant Guru. I also believe that people shouldn't be ashamed of admitting that they are still learning. We're all still learning. I know I have a certain level of expertise in the areas I work in, but I also know that my working career has been a constant process of learning. Hopefully with a lot more learning still to do. I can't imagine not having the pleasure and enjoyment of contant learning as part of my work. So why the rush to declare oneself a Guru, that doesn't leave much room for improvement.

After all, we all know who the top Gurus out there really are, the people that have risen to the tops of their respective fields through time, experience, hard work and innate talent. Mr Brody from Tapanga Falls, I don't think you count as one of them. But that's ok, have a bit of humility, admit that you're learning, you can admire the top dogs, the Gurus and strive to emulate them, but there's not need for unsubstantiated bravado.

Relax, chill. Take your time, learn a bit, enjoy the learning process. It's ok not to be a Guru just yet.

My friend Simon introduced me to Krishnamurti and specifically his book 'Think On These Things'. There's one passage in it that beautifully describes how to find what you love to do in life, something I've grown a lot more curious about since I quit my 9-5 job last October. I wanna make sure I keep this passage in mind, so I'm gonna type it out here:

To find out what you love to do demands a great deal of intelligence; because, if you are afraid of not being able to earn a livelehood, or not fitting into this rotten society, then you will never find out. But, if you are not frightened, if you refuse to be pushed into the groove of tradition by your parents, by your teachers, by the superficial demands of society, then there is a possiblity of descovering what it is your really love to do. So to discover, there must be no fear of not surviving.

It's been about two months now since I quit my job as an office worker. For the past six years, I'd known nothing but the life of the 9-5 in a bustling metropolis (London). Now I'm trying to set myself up as an online marketing consultant, with the conviction to focus on the 'get to do' rather than the 'have to do'. Picking projects I want to work on, rather than spending my day fighting fires.

I've felt a range of emotions over the past few weeks, ecstasy, fear, anxiety, boredom, relaxation, confusion and a few others. Strangely enough, I'm also feeling some noticeable withdrawal symptoms.

In my previous life, I was used to being bombarded all day long with emails, they'd drop into my in-box and I'd peck at them with my mouse. No sooner had I cleared my inbox, than another email would drop in. As tedious as this may have been, it was comforting, it made it easier to go through the day, my tasks and responsibilities were organised for me, delivered by an invisible messenger from the higher power of electronic mail.

Now that I'm out on my own, I don't get as many emails, no where near as many. I'm happy, because a lot of the emails I got before were pretty trivial. But at the same time, I do kinda miss that constant electronic stimulus. Maybe, like pavlovs dogs, I was so well conditioned by that 'new email' alert, that to be living without it leaves me with an uneasy but optimistic feeling.

The real challenge now is to fill that time up with useful activities. I can't blame inaction on a pile of emails I have to go through anymore.

I've been doing a lot of thinking recently on quality of life. It seems to me when you boil everything down, this is the barometer you need to measure your life against. Take any one element in isolation, money, success, possessions and you're life will probably be ok, but not great.

For the past 6 years, I'd say my life has been ok. I've been working in online marketing in the financial services sector here in London, England. I've met a lot of interesting people and I've enjoyed my job. But somehow, ok just wasn't good enough for me anymore. So, about 2 months ago, I quit my job, with no real alternative to go. This was probably the most risky thing I've done in my life, especially considering the economic crisis the world is currently going through. But that's not exactly how I saw it, and that's not how I justified making the decision to quit.

The way I saw it, it was time to put myself in a position where I could re-invent myself, and fundamentally change my life for the better. My goal was and is to create a great life for myself. A life where I feel that I'm playing the game to its fullest. It's not about money, fame or prestige, it's about challenging myself, and pushing myself to accomplish new challenges and do something I can be fully engaged in and passionate about.

So what am I doing? Well, the main thing I've been doing over the past few weeks is looking. Taking a step back, putting all the pieces of my life on a big table and seeing the bigger picture. Seeing how the pieces fit together and seeing which pieces may be missing. I have a lot of ideas and a lot of new-found energy. I'm looking at the best paths to channel this energy into. I'm trying to build my own online marketing shop, build up my own online profile, and interact and connect with other people in similar positions to me around the globe.

More recently I'm looking at a pretty interesting opportunity from one of my online marketing heroes, Seth Godin. Maybe you should check it out too, maybe it's a chance for you to shift your life from 'ok' to great. Maybe you should be looking at other opportunities of investing some time, learning, doing, travelling, things that will enrich you and help you shift your life from ok to great. Think about it, as cliche as it sounds, we only get one shot at this, don't wasting stuck in 'ok'.