Sahil Bloom’s advice – Part 1

My brothers and sisters, there is this guy called Sahil Bloom who's on Twitter and so on, and he puts out a sort of quick advice, a kind of newsletter which I think is really worth the money. Not money because it's for free, but worth the money, meaning worth your while to spend some time and read it and think about that. I want to give you a taste of that. He has his. He has a thing called 10, 10 of his pieces of advice which let me share them with you one by one and see. While since we are on this, our own fajr reminder, khatiras, which are linked to Islam, I want you to see how closely what Sahib Bloom is saying matches Islamic principles. Right? So I'm not saying that with any way of devaluing what Sahil Loom is saying. I'm not saying this to say, oh, but you know, big, big deal. So we know this 14th, 100 years ago. That's nonsense. People who say these things, they don't act, they don't do anything. They just say this nonsense. And like, for example, if you say today is Mother's Day, oh, but you know, for Muslims, every day is a Mother's Day. Ask how many Muslims treat their mothers like that? Right? So you will not treat your mother well. But because somebody says today is Mother's Day, oh, but you see, in Islam we have every day is Mother's Day. So let's get out of this living in this false world. Now to come back to Sahil Bloom's advice, first thing he says is build a reputation for reliability. For reliability. What is the Arabic word for that? Amana. Right. Who is somebody who's reliable? He is Al Amin. What was Rasulullah's title? Asadiq wal Ameen. Right. Now he says build a reputation for reliability. He says you can get pretty damn far by just being someone that people can count on to show up and do the work. Being reliable is entirely free. Being reliable is entirely free. And being reliable is a competitive advantage. That's my addition to that. So become reliable. Number two, be the person who can figure it out. Early on, you will be given a lot of tasks you have no idea how to complete. So in your, in your, in your early years of your career, you will be given a lot of tasks that you have no idea how to complete. There's nothing more valuable than someone who can just figure it out, do some work, ask some key questions, get it done. Believe me, people will fight over you. Meaning that people will want to hire you, people will want you on their teams, they will fight with each other to get you on their teams. And you will never, ever, you will never ever want for. For supporters. You will have supporters like you won't believe, right? So, but if you do that, if you are somebody who can get things done. I was in Guyana in 1979 and I suggested to my boss that we should set up a sawmill to take advantage of all the good timber that was there in the forests, which otherwise was just being cut down and burnt. And my boss says, great idea. Make out a project report. So I did that. I made out the project report, cost benefit analysis, projected profit and loss statement, and so on. And then of course, as far as the capital investment was concerned, what is the machinery we needed? And so I did all that. My brother, my boss said, okay, I approve. Go get it done. I said, get it done? I have no idea. I mean, I said, I just thought of the idea. He said, sure, you thought of the idea. It's your idea, so get it done. When I hesitated, my boss says, so if you don't want to implement your own idea, who do you want me to give this idea to, to implement it? He said, this is your baby. 1. You are supposed to be the mother of this baby, right? So go implement your idea. If you're not interested, then forget it. I mean, don't come back to me with this thing. And I went and I implemented. Now ask me in 1979, was I, did I ever see a sawmill before that? Did I ever work in a sawmill? Did I have any idea? Nothing. I just went and I did it and I figured it out and I checked with people and I. And I went here and there and I found out things do become known for someone who will get or who can get things done. Third point he says, is work hard first and smart later. He says it is trendy to say that working smart is all that matters. Wrong. Let me repeat that. Sahil Bloom says it's trendy to say that working smart is all that matters. Wrong. If you want to accomplish anything significant, you have to work hard. Work hard early, take pride in it. Then you can start to build leverage to work smart. If you don't work hard, you don't even know the job. Working smart means. What does working smart mean? People think working smart means not doing enough work. No, working smart means that you know the key things in that job where if you put your finger on one thing, everything else falls into place. But to get to that point where you know where to put your finger, believe Me, it takes a lot of very hard work over many weeks and months and years. And this is where the 10,000 hour rule comes, right? Read the book. I always keep recommending outliers. Read the book. Outliers. 10,000 hour rule. You have to put in those hours. If you don't put in those hours, you cannot build competence. And without competence, there is no working smart. You don't know enough to be smart. You don't know enough to be smart. Fourth point he says is build storytelling skills. He continues, world changing CEOs are not the smartest people in their organizations, but they are exceptional at two things. One, aggregating data and two, communicating it simply and effectively. Data in, story out. Build that skill and you will always be valuable. Right? He says aggregating the data, which means collecting the data and then converting that data into something which is motivational, which is energizing, which makes sense to people and doing that simply and effectively. We are not talking about using 10 words where one will do. No, the opposite. Use one word where somebody else will use 10. Data in, story out. Build that skill and you will always be valuable. Point number five. And we end with that today. And the rest of the five, I will tell you tomorrow. Swallow the frog for your boss. Especially people who are young getting into the organization. This is one of the greatest hacks. You get ahead early in your, in your career. One of the greatest hacks to get ahead early in your career. This is not buttering up somebody. This is not, you know, licking somebody's, you know what. No, this is just being smart. Observe your boss. Figure out what they hate doing, learn to do it and take it off their plates. Very easy win. In any case. That is something which you will need to know. That is something which will be beneficial for you. So tell your boss, leave this with me, right? Leave this with me. I'll get it done. Don't worry about it. And believe me, you will be the most, the coolest thing that ever happened to your boss. And that's how you build a reputation. And that's how you build your career by becoming indispensable. Boss can't do without you because you are the guy who has his back. You are the guy who catches his, who takes his catches. Right? Swallow the frog for your boss. Now again, remember in this one, I'm not saying compromise your principles. I'm not saying go buy your boss bottle of whiskey. No, no compromising principles. No bribing, no corruption, no immorality, none of that. You're just talking here about doing the difficult tasks. For many senior managers, they are landed with something which are routine, which have to be done every single day. They hate doing it, but it's part of their job. Now, if you come along and you say, let me do this for you, why don't I do this and bring it to you? Just take a look at it and we'll send it out, believe me, he will love you. And it's very good for you because from your perspective as a young manager, this is stuff you have to learn. So if you are getting to see your box, your boss's inbox every day, that is worth money. That is worth money. So don't lose that opportunity, right? Your boss is giving you the opportunity of seeing his inbox every single day. He won't invite you to come and do that. There's something you got to figure out, but that comes by you offering to do for him what is routine and what is probably tiresome for him. And also remember, especially in today's world, a lot of young people, they have a lot of IT skills. They have a lot of skills at doing things with gadgets and with software, with AI and so on, right? The older people, the senior bosses, they've got tremendous experience in running businesses, in running organizations, but they don't have experience in doing this stuff. Take this off his plate and he'll love you for it because you will make him look good before other people and they'll think he's very tech savvy, whereas actually it was you who helped him out. Now, don't go and blow it by telling people, no, no, no, you know, actually, I did it. No, no, don't be stupid. Do it. Let him take the sunshine that comes out of that. But believe me, that's the best thing you can do for your career.