Taking the Plunge from Being Employed to Starting Your Own Gig by Mohamed Adel (Guest Blogger)

When Esther kindly invited me to contribute to her inspirational and successful blog, I wasn’t sure what to write about. 

Perhaps I should write about my fascination with world cultures and my passion for snail mail in this age of technology as a means to connect with people from different backgrounds living thousands of miles away? Should I write about connecting with people who might be different from our norms and our beliefs and convictions? Or should I write about understanding and accepting those who are different to us? Or conflict resolution in our communities and in the wider world? 

Instead I decided to settle on writing about entrepreneurship, that glorified and feared word. I wanted to write not the regular everyday PR talk you find in magazines and on websites, but share honest straightforward advice from everyday entrepreneurs and business people who experienced both success and failure.

I came from a long family of employees. My mother was a teacher and father was a military officer.

After completing a degree in Pharmaceutical sciences, and contrary to their advice, I passed on taking a comfortable government job or choosing a career in academia.

I chose to work in retail, sales, and marketing to develop the most important skills to transition from being employed to hanging out my shingle. But taking the plunge isn’t everyone`s game and it isn’t for the faint-hearted.

Over the years I have probably talked to hundreds of entrepreneurs, friends, contacts, and acquaintances, and took paid and free consulting and freelance gigs to be close to founders and entrepreneurs to experience the action first hand and observe their attitude. I asked them questions, seeking advice, trying to analyze their actions and attitude. I loved to listen their insights on various matters from sales, managing human resources, life goals, success to macroeconomy. 

I agreed and disagreed with their opinions, but learned some valuable lessons. I will try to summarize some of those lessons to you:

1. It is true what they say, you can’t “over plan.” Economy changes, situations change, forecasts in many instances turn unrealistic. But planning makes you prepared. Ready for the unexpected. Like armies when conducting war games to maximize preparation. And don’t forget to write everything down
2. It all starts with a dream, a decision, and setting your goals, then keeping an eye on the ball, and committing to those goals. The situation might change, and your plans and strategy need to change, but not the essence of your goals.
3. Surround yourself with like-minded people - those who took the plunge before you. Learn from them, ask questions, listen to their chatter, discuss business with them, seek advice. This will help you to sleep, breath and live your dream.

If you followed the previous points, a lack of capital or dire financial responsibilities won`t deter you.

1. A good idea, a plan, experience, commitment and consistency and right attitude is the equation to building a successful business.
2. Failure and committing mistakes is a part of the game. Even most seasoned business people fail sometimes. But their experience, knowledge and acumen developed over years of trying lead them to success. Don`t let your fear of failure and the uncertainty take control of your life. 
3. Don`t believe all what you read, hear. Analyze, examine, reflect, and filter all advice you get. 
4. All those business leaders we hear about in the TV and read about in business magazines aren’t flawless. They have biases, anxieties, and they commit mistakes on daily basis. 
5. Growing up in a rich family, or a family of business owners and entrepreneurs really helps, but it is not mandatory for success. 
6. You don’t learn starting successful businesses in classrooms, you learn it in the battlefield, in the market. 

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Mohamed Adel is a healthcare sales and marketing professional and pharmacist by education. In 2004, he moved from his home country, Egypt, to Dubai, UAE, where he currently lives and works. He is a snail mail enthusiast and is interested in travel, art, eastern European classical music, entrepreneurship, current affairs, and conflict resolution.

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This blog post was curated and/or edited by The Ardent Reader, Esther Hofknecht Curtis, BSOL, MSM-HCA. The views expressed in this blog post are those of the guest blogger. Visit Esther's page at www.parrotcontent.com for more information

Being Lost by Kenny Durkin, Jr. (Guest Blogger)

I’ve been feeling lost lately.

That’s not to say that I’m running through the woods in the dark and screaming my head off. It’s not a panicked kind of lost, but more of a calm and collected attempt to find true North and get back on track.

To be honest, I’m glad for it.

For the longest time, I was grounded in religion. Christianity was what I thought defined me, which was technically true, but probably not in the way I had hoped.

I grew up believing much of the typical right-wing evangelical garbage that gets thrown around today. Even the stuff I didn’t fully believe had enough of a hold on me that I assumed I was being weak in my faith for questioning it. When I failed or screwed up, a small screw-up was enough to make me feel worthless, and a big one was enough to break me down almost completely.

I was the kind of Christian who held onto beliefs such as, “being gay is a choice and super sinful,” and “abortion is wrong no matter the reason.” I can imagine myself now saying “hate the sin, not the sinner”. Looking back, it’s all so cringe worthy.

My opinions started to slowly shift as I met different people and through my own humbling experiences, but the biggest changes came in the past couple years and was caused by one big, fat, amazingly beautiful occurrence.

Donald Trump’s run for and winning of the Presidency with a large evangelical endorsement.

Did I say beautiful? Sorry, I meant to say it was like getting hit by a freight train filled with shock and disgust.

If it had just been him rattling off horrible crap on TV, that would have been one thing, but seeing so many Christians I had respected and looked up to jump on the Trump bandwagon was a hard-enough jolt to knock me out of my complacency and leave me questioning everything I had ever thought I knew about myself, the world, and God.

Before Trump, I was more than willing to be the ignorant guy in the background, never making a splash and keeping my mouth shut.

After Trump, I found myself jumping into conversations I would have gladly kept out of before. I would argue for a change instead of bowing out to keep the peace, and found that I was having fun doing so.

I wound up in a place where I realized it wouldn’t be enough anymore to trust anything anyone else had told me. I was going to have to find out what I really believed on my own and through my own effort.

Luckily there were a precious few people who were greatly encouraging, who gave me a starting point, and let me run from there.

I’ve read more books in the last year of my life than I did the whole previous decade. I’ve branched out into subjects and authors that I would have completely disregarded before and enjoyed almost every one of them. I’ve read books of prominent atheists and religious outcasts, and even a right-wing book or two, though they left a bad taste in my mouth. I’ve found that some of the thoughts I had discarded as foolish while surrounded by religion weren’t all that unheard of outside of that setting.

I haven’t yet managed to find the right path, but I’ve been able to mark off many that I now know for sure are not for me. Even some of the paths that haven’t been for me have been filled with enjoyment and learning. They were like stumbling upon a quiet oasis, even if just for a few hours.

I feel that I can confidently say that even if I remain lost for the rest of my life, that at least the searching has been worthwhile.

It’s not so bad being lost... it was far worse wrongly believing I knew where I was.

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This blog post was curated and/or edited by The Ardent Reader, Esther Hofknecht Curtis, BSOL, MSM-HCA. The views expressed in this blog post are those of the guest blogger. Visit www.parrotcontent.com for more information.