My life has witnessed many ups & downs, more downs than ups, down’s pave my future ups, each one higher than its predecessor. Dips they call them. Some small, some steep & deep. I eagerly await my next dip, for behind each dip, there is a valley, and with it comes my new mountains to climb & conquer, keep climbing!

I never saw a straight line climbing success. If you analyze the line closely you will see the downs and dips, with all the pain and suffering, the anxiety, the stress levels at boiling point, its al there cleverly disguised. People sometimes need to fake it till they make it, or in other occasions just contain and never complain about their day, while in reality they suffer as you speak.

Every two and a half years you will face a major crisis in your life, sometimes earlier says success guru Brian Tacey. Not just problems, major crisis and life changing happenings, you will be rocked, Your boat and everything in it will be rocked and rattled, shaked and baked, taken for the life thrilling test drive. To see what your made of.If you manage to stay afloat after this experience, then you are granted a gate pass to the next level, if not, you sink, and remain in the dust of the successful few. Success has a price you know, like everything else in life.

The only difference between success and anything else you buy, is the payment structure. For everything else you pay and receive on the spot or in a few days, for success you pay today in hard work and major contributions and sacrifices, and wait for your turn to receive it, no guarantees!

So why do people still pay upfront for this so called success? with all its pain and hurt, suffering and never clear roads. With all the books and papers, with all that waking up early and focus pokas training. With all those lost friends and fun time, You had to give up so many great activities, including just being a bum! Why?

If you ask me, I can tell you one thing I know, it has a great taste and after taste to it, one that stays long after you digest the fact. Success has a sweet smell and flair to it. Success moves your senses, sometimes you feel areas in your body that you never knew existed. Success is the potion that you rub onto anything you touch and it turns to gold. Success leaves trails and tracks, imagine they are yours? You write it, you ride it. “You can do it!” is one of the many driving factors I used along the way, and I scream out to you all, you too can, so what are you waiting for? start walking that winding road.

They say it has unknown lengths, it does not use miles of kilometers, it uses sweat, hours and more hours,sacrifice, focus, target setting and milestones all mixed up in a big juicer and then whatever comes out is the new measure for that part of the road.

When faced with doubt, doubt that doubt and cross it out. Go with the GROW and follow your gut feelings, your internal success compass knows more than the average friends that surround you, respect yourself and listen to your guiding systems at all times.

“If you want to take your mission in life
to the next level, if youre stuck and
you dont know how to rise, don’t
look outside yourself. Look inside.”

p.s. sorry for the short note, 1+1=2 and not some essay elaborating on the exact answer. Now you have saved more time to enjoy your day

mamdooh.alradadi

me@mamdoohalradadi.c

Back in the early days of my Banking career my Bank which was an affiliate of citibank introduced me to an amazing audit feature called whistle blowing. The main objective of this practice is to ensure everyone, including senior management hold a high level of ethics and morale towards work.

By this I mean not taking advantage of their seniority and the power they hold within their hands. It also is a means of making sure the lower people in the organization are not afraid of their seniors if they are committing a crime or taking advantage of a situation.

Whistle blowing can be used for big and small issues, it is done in a secretive way so as to not harm the blower. It strikes through all management layers one way, to the most senior powers, sometimes jumping them and reporting to the board. This was an amazing tool that helped save the Banks around the world Millions of peoples hard earned money. It was a workers dream come true against corporate crime.

This system does not work when it is taken lightly, and you can guess what happened in Citibank over the past 5 years, not to mention regional Banks. yes the big picture says mortgage backed securities, but look underneath the fat to uncover years of conspiring and bad doings, the end.

Governments have taken this approach in many forms and systems, sometimes whole ministries are formed for the sole purpose of checking on its spending and other related matters. The people are the ones that make it happen, choice is based on knowing the person in charge or simply a friend or family friend, and here we find the root of the problem.

Lets take a walk around the happenings from macro to micro levels and see where this whistle could have stopped the game. On a world level we can tell that many Bankers had a dirty hand in the so called economic melt down. They say too much easy money teaches stealing, hence the famous Billionaire Murdoch and his scam that passed by the commissions and securities like a thunder bolt making them look like preschoolers on a mission. The domino effect of the mortgage & financial over the counter products still haunts us till today after many months of government bailouts and buyouts.

What if they listened to the unpaid piper and his whistles? could have saved them a Trillion or so dollars, but why worry when its tax payers money anyway?

On country levels, we find governments like Nigeria still fighting to make it,The UNited Nations estimates that the population in 2005 was at 141 million, and predicted that it would reach 289 million by 2050.Nigeria has just recently undergone the start of the population explosion due to higher fertility rates.The UNited States census bureau projects that population of Nigeria will reach 264 million by 2050. Nigeria will then be the 8th most populous country in the world. Now that is a serious major explosive problem, the country is rich in oil, but say the word Nigeria and scandal pops up in your face!

Did they kill the people that whistle in that country? seriously?

Take it lower to city levels and look at my city Jeddah in Saudi Arabia, the city that’s different in KSA. The city by the sea, the center and major airport to the two holy cities that millions of people visit every year. We have the worst airports, services, roads, municipalities, the city was usually up for grabs.

The latest disaster that left the city officials paralyzed with shame and disgust on their predecessors and some of their friends and officials. The drowning of innocent 3 year olds and 70 year olds under bridges, is a shocking and shameful truth which we will be all held accountable in front of our maker.

They drowned because someone stole. They perished like cattle on a rampage. They died holding each others hands praying for the great Allah to save them, for they have been betrayed by their officials. They did not have to learn to swim, for swimming is done in a pool or the sea, not on dry land surrounded by mountains. They died because someone chose to build with sewage and drainage money a palace by the beach. While he and his beloved family sunbathed, they sank deeper and deeper into the drainage system he never built.

As my tears form with every part of this paragraph I can’t help but try to figure out what the last thought was on that little girl holding on to her mother who was trying to save her child and drowned in the process, and then the little girl swallows the last water before giving way for her soul to depart her 3 year old body, how can they do this?! animals have more pity for weaker ones, have mercy.

Here the whistle blower got fed up, as he witnessed the people listening dancing to his tunes in harmony and making fun of him, passing remarks like” it only rains once in this country” relax, chill…I wish you chill in hell I say.

Transparency is not for the weak hearted, face your mistakes and punish the bad, give way to the people that really love you, do not play with peoples lives. Next time a whistle is blown I am sure they will all jump up to action, I hope, I wish, I pray.

Going down the micro level, lets look at companies and organizations with thousands of employees. Here the whistler is taken lightly, and his tunes are muted for a while, please let us focus on the business he is told. He whistles some more, then decides to relax and chill. Then when the problem arises, they remove the source of the trouble after the stealing and power advantage is abused.

Here’s the funny part, management knows its mistake, so how does it play it? it continues to make the matters worse. They compensate the senior manager for the remaining time he would have stayed with the company, so he does not make any PR campaign against them! i am actually laughing my ass off! And he is given a letter that states he was a great employee, so another company gets burnt.

Whistle till you can’t take it no more. Don’t fall victim to the corporate bullies in your life, they live wild and fly high, but soon come crashing down, its one end for them, they know it.

Let’s go down to medicine and all its blunders and mistakes on peoples lives. How many hospitals have had their license withdrawn in the last 25 years in Saudi Arabia? Zero! please don’t go telling me about some small clinic on the outskirts of nowhere! Major hospitals continue to use their power and connections to save their own lives while poor people come in for a normal anesthesia for some minor issue, and leave in a coffin! Wrong medicine prescriptions, laid back attitude, wrong diagnoses, many fatal incidents, and still they advertise.

When a doctor whistled once, he was told to mind his own business. Multiply that on a daily basis by one hundred and you can get the picture. Keep it up new doctors, don’t stop till you get enough.

The grapevine is where you hear the stories and rumors of people stealing and others lobbying against someone for his bravery and in your face comments of what goes wrong. You can tell if a guy is stealing by his living standards, he get paid an average salary and lives a Sheiks life! come on people, and here I must say forget the inheritance and lottery winnings, and when the @#*! hits the fan, you say I thought he was living beyond his capabilities.

The obvious is obvious. The truth is always naked. The sight never appealing.

Now for your personal standards, do you check on your actions and their viability daily before you go to sleep? Do you know that what goes around comes all the way back around? let’s make sure our younger generation has a great example to take us through the next millennium without us splattering the books of history with shame and greed instead of honesty and growth.

Sorry for the long note, I had to, and now I feel relieved.

mamdooh.alradadi.com

me@mamdoohalradadi.com

Where did I put that manual on life again, I can’t seem to find it when I need it most? OH! I forgot I don’t have one. They never told us that we could do it again after falling down, they never gave us permission for another go, they never gave us the rules of engagement in this oh so ever exciting life. If you were to sum up all the various directions we got when we were young and wild, it would have to be GO!

If the only direction is forward, with some back momentum for push, then GO! would be it.

We seem to have a never ending supply of “Go, bump, move away, continue, go some more, walk,run, slow down, stop, look around, GO!” we know that one, but what happens when we have a head on collision and seem to be a bit dizzy and have a loss of direction and start to just walk on, in any direction, then we find that the road travelled has unfamiliar terrain, and is getting more and more harder to cover. We stop, analyze, think about the situation and sometimes get lost in the analysis.

We stall. Don’t! just GO!

Don’t take too long to uncover the bleeding and suffering, don’t take too much time analyzing the hurt, the betrayal, the shocks, the losses.. you need to keep moving, you need to think and move, we had a laid back life, now its faster and only the fit can survive or be left in the rubble, get up and move. Go!

People will not forgive you under any circumstances. They will laugh at you on your way down, and envy you on your way up, at least give them a hard time. This is the real exam in life to move on to the next level, you change course in due course, you take the first step up, you wave and smile, you GO!

When you concave upon yourself, you start the manifestation of a nation of negative village people, burn the village down, it will not be a criminal act, on the contrary you will be helping yourself and remember they are all temporary useless friendships based on that energy sucking I talked to you about in the past. They will suck you dry to the last drop, use whatever it takes to keep at least one spark of positivity and ignite yourself, GO!

Travel light. Dump the luggage. Use minimal tools. GO! back to basics. Reveal your true potential. Get close and personal with success. Fake it till you make it. Find laughter in your mishaps. Seek energy from food and sports, read, watch uplifters. Shy away from sad, explore happiness. Enroll in life’s bounties. Watch what you hear. Be clear and definitive on your goals. Unleash the beast within you. GO! back to age 4 if you have to. Pull on your wonderful memory. Hold that thought, GO!

When down, lower your negative intake. Claim the victory and celebrate your small wins. Strike evil between the eyes. Push and shove for your smiles. When you smile the whole world smiles back. Powerful emotions and eruptions take place when you strike X that marks the spot. GO!

NIKE says Just do it! we can do that, we can do it, we did it so far, we do it day in day out, doing is believing, just did it was what you did, you know how its done, you can move faster than before, doing it over and over again means you can, why not do it again?

Nothing beats a good days GO!

When we know, we grow, we show, we flow, we glow, we always GO!

March on. Do not tarry. To go forward is to move toward perfection. March on, and fear not the thorns, or the sharp stones on life’s path. Khalil Gibran

mamdooh.alradadi

me@mamdoohalradadi.com

It is very easy to identify low life rodents working in corporations hiding between the 20% that actually do the work. They tend to take strange forms and postures camouflaging themselves with whatever pretend work they can get their hand on.

You know the story of the rock that stayed put for a thousand years and turned into a diamond, this is not it. This is the story of the 80% of useless workers that just fill company chairs and offices moving day in and out for that pay, without the work. They occupy space that someone needed badly and just needed a chance to prove herself or himself, and in the process gets paid for his efforts.

These same critters make it from one place to the other after being caught for doing nothing! You see, sooner or later someone will come from another department or company and see what the previous management was not able to see or just didn’t need the hassle. When someone just fakes his work experience or capabilities, and enters into a medium, low, or high paying job he never steps forward and declares he cannot, on the contrary, he tries to get away with another month, or year or even in many cases a decade!

So when they are found, they are expelled one way or the other, and they are told to leave the place in a month or three. This is unacceptable practice, you give them more money for doing nothing? you let them contaminate the few good people? You let them use company property, time and email to find another job?

What we practice is wrong on a macro level. If one staff member or manager is worthless in one company, the next should know about this useless employee and get a paper that states the reasoning of his release. But systems and easy going attitude lets the bad take the place of the useful and able many.

Here when a staff is fired for stealing or bad behavior, to my astonishment I find him getting a paper that states he was of great ethics and standards. So he is soon working for another company awaiting his chance to repeat his stealing or low productivity standards and in the process affecting the whole economy.

We should stop hiding work fugitives and display their faces and names in a certain way that gives the other companies( even if they are competition) a better chance to hire capable and higher talent than what one company considers trash. In the end, we will all benefit from a better economy where the strong make things better and services raise with it the whole industry changes positively.

In the name of unions and fair treatment companies have come crashing down to their knees, economies have suffered, whole Banks declared bankruptcy causing chain reactions affecting other Banks and companies to fall, you never know it could be one of your own that you let on the loose coming back to haunt you.

As I watch and walk the corporate and service walls of our country, I see empty headed bodies roaming and complaining about work that they never touch, or think about. I see waste upon waste of corporations time being wasted on stupid subjects and wasted hours covering silly subjects such as football and food. I also know from the malls filled with teenagers and college grads that they need a chance and have lost the willpower due to the companies refusing to hire because they have enough mistakes inside their walls.

Measurements should be enforced to weed out the garbage producers and attract in the capable many. Teams should be formed to identify superior managers who can spot the good, the bad & the ugly and take action. Hard working people should be generously compensated for initiative and creative solutions, this shows dedication and a strong love affair going on. Bad employees should be warned and managed or removed and forgotten. Salaries of these bad employees are in the hundreds of millions, and we have millions needing jobs. Work & reward should be the focus, rising company stock only happens when the bees are busy doing what they do best, make honey.

A simple success formula is to identify the performing and profitable areas in a company: Copy what makes it perform, cut the bad performing areas, paste the copied. Make sure you identify the areas that these people will be heading for before you release them, and be professional and let the other competition know about it, so they take them under their responsibility, maybe they can change them when they know their past?

We all have children or brothers and sisters, relatives, friends, people we don’t know personally but know they are good. Shouldn’t these people have a fair chance? Should they not get a better working environment so that they thrive instead of dive head first and join the dirty dozen? Why do we insist on the wrong? why do we insist on saying it was done this way when I joined back in the days, let them figure it out? Why not look at the bright picture when we separate successful from failure?

• What would our economy feel & look like if we managed to stop hiding ignorant, selfish, useless refugees and let the new blood rush into the economies veins and nourish its stale and aging form?
• How much will we save when we hire right and ignite the bright young ones? How far will we fly with these strong and healthy giving wings replace the battered down old and rotten engines?
• When will we see people taking the reigns of power in companies & all related work places and making things happen?
• Why do we accept it for others & refuse to own the problems?
• When will people understand the binocular far away effects and stop looking at it from a microscopic today view?
• Who is sitting next to you wasting your time, company time, money, other peoples jobs, your teams success. your future?

I say we all stand tall and remove the bugs from the harvest, take care of the crop, and wait for the future to unfold on the hands of the bright capable many.

A site foreman had ten very lazy men working for him, so one day he decided to trick them into doing some work for a change.

“I’ve got a really easy job today for the laziest one among you,” he announced. “Will the laziest man please put his hand up.”

Nine hands went up.

“Why didn’t you put your hand up?” he asked the tenth man.

“Too much trouble,” came the reply.

mamdooh.alradadi

me@mamdoohalradadi.com

This is the story of a little girl who grew up in a country called saudi arabia, another country in the planet with opportunities for those who seek them. Why did I relate it to opportunity? because it is and always will be, very simply put any place on earth is, some more than others.

She grew up here, studied some time outside, came back and refused to sidetrack from her friends negative vibrations that seem to have doubled ever since she left them four years ago. She had one friend that adored her, believed in her, knew she was going places. This other girl was a local by all means, and studied at local schools, local colleges, even had a few gigs on the side to help with her expenses, some secretarial, hospital, sales to name a few.

Two girls one mission. Who are they up against? the rest. They know how hard it is to succeed in a country that had nothing in store for ladies and was trying hard to fill the gap steadily.They know many girls who made it to the top of businesses across the country, these girls were not doctors( they seem to have had no problems). They pin pointed their targets in terms of success. They identified the models, the goals they went for, the average time it would take them, and most of all saw the end, felt the success, actually breathed it in every day from that day onwards.

They would meet up casually to talk about their milestones covered, obstacles removed, threats that lay ahead of them. All this while their friends whined some more and stuck to the crowd doing what they do best, follow like a herd. The two girls enjoyed it day by day and had sweet little victory celebrations every once in a while.

They faced society with all they had, faith. They saw every problem as a challenge, tough or soft, they knew it when it came and handled it with care. Many people tried putting them off, including their families and closest of friends, asking them to get married and settle down, they had greater visions not apparent to the eyes of the jealous and clueless many.

As days are numbers and months are more digits, years come and go, a few years later, the two are celebrating their major milestones. Each has managed to carve a place for themselves in prestigious corporations head to head with their rivals, men. Although men seem to want to help, they also have their own back to handle in a fast paced ever so changing competitive business atmosphere.

They start to seek mentors for their coming years of success, all by the book, every inch of the way clearly planned and put to practice. They know that they have moved mountains so far, now its time to move lands,change the face of the earth preparing the arrival of the next generation of female workforce which make up for 50% of the population or a bit more based on some late figures.

Who ever said it was easy they think out loud, but it was real fun and what kept us going was the following major points they write:

• A true visible vision of our dream.
• Real faith in our abilities.
• Not to walk on previous peoples failures, walk around them.
• Keep our vision on track no matter what.
• Leaving the box and living out of the box, wether people liked it or not.
• Faced our fears head on, eye to eye and spoke up.
• Used our brains as well as our hearts on our quest.
• Never looked back only to see how far we have covered.
• Took the negative words and down force communication from people and recycled them positive.
• Worked smart not hard.
• Thanked people for their help all along.
• Always asked questions and respected peoples views, that way we always got the very best.
• Were grateful to be living in such great moments in mankind’s history.
• Networked like bees, always giving then receiving.
• Used the buddy system.

You see it can be done, stop penalizing yourself for false things you think that keep you tied down. Things that only live inside your head, always growing heavier never moving you forward. Just as there are girls with no future in the near horizon, many boys face the same perils due to ignorance and giving up too early. Billions of words have been written on this subject, but few go digested. There is only one way in my opinion to move, make things SIMPLE!

What do you want? what do you really want? do you want it really bad? does it ache when you don’t have it? do you see yourself having it day and night? does it shake you inside out? does it hurt you? does it live in you and all you can see is IT? if it does then you are ready to move, if not work harder at what you really want.

We all know it, we all feel it and I have rarely been wrong on things to come in this world, only because I listen

Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go.  ~T.S. Eliot

Goals are dreams with deadlines.  ~Diana Scharf Hunt

mamdooh.alradadi

me@mamdoohalradadi.com

When I look back and think about my earlier years and all the fun I had with all its good and bad stuff that anyone would encounter when he’s a ball of fire waiting to explode. Having fun was easy, all you had to do was be awake. Even the family meals would be great, especially when one of my brothers or sister would have made my mother angry at something or the other and the others would try and make him laugh.

Not going to sleep at night when we should and play stupid games like who blinks first, or who laughs first. Ideally you would have to make really retarded faces so the other would crack up before you, faces that I sometimes make for my little darling girl, who goes off telling the world what daddy did! making me pretend it wasn’t me.

Playing pranks 24/7 and when there is no one looking I play the pranks on myself. I remember times when me & my sister used to record my younger brothers private teacher’s talk with him, especially when he told me he was screaming at him. The damn thing shut down and the teacher heard it, found it, and got angrier than before. What we did later was fill his shoes with little rocks and sand at the door and waited to see his reaction, our little brother hated us!

Fast forward and you find me running away from my father who was not really a great driver, so I had to guide him daily through our homes gates, he left dents on each side of the gate. One time he was exiting and I was pretending to be an airplane guiding controller, you know the one with big paddles that go left and right, till the plane parks. Well, what happened was i was wearing those big platform 80’s sandals, wearing a short thobe, thin as a  stick, and guiding my father through the gates.

He suddenly hits on the gas by mistake and I try to make my escape, as fast as I could run, wishing he would hit one of the gates instead of me, he manages to speed through the gates, hits me hard. I fly in the air, land like a chicken in a puddle of fresh mud, my father gets a screaming from my mother, me and my sister crack up! and that’s my dad.

At my first job I would bring pizza for the boys, cakes, candy just to freshen up the place. I get slapped with a first year appraisal stating that I should go back to high school, I am not ready for the real world. I used to handle foreign exchange dealing, some serious money at stake. While I had breaks from the international market, I would handle the branches requests and pretend I was a computerized answering machine. They would be pressing buttons for 15 minutes and then I would say something like if you want to speak to an Arabic speaking dealer dial 1 again, when they do, I would repeat the whole questions to 10 again. The moral of that story is that the Bank does not exist anymore!

We once gave a senior manager a whole weeks supply of laxatives, he hit the toilet more than 50 times that day, and he could not make it home without spoiling his pants. The real visionary was a highly paid senior belgium dealer that hated the irish manager who really looked like colonel sanders.

Pretending to be a loud mouth person in a taxi is my favorite. The driver would be jumping all around the drivers seat every time i open my mouth, my brother in the back would crack up! Pretending to be an american in arabic countries gets me 50% discounts on taxis, cool.

I continue to do the same throughout the years but cannot and will not disclose them here,they could get me in serious trouble is I made any disclosure now.The weird looks I get from people who are expecting some serious response from me when all they get is a meaningless clueless answer, simply priceless. Its all good.

What I will be doing tomorrow is simply doing the same, but with less intensity, I want the real stuff the teenage craziness. The one that the worst than can happen is being sent to bed early or grounded. Society tends to mature when it should relax and ease off a bit. If you realize lately a switch over the years in movies, even horror ones. Funny rules, funny is good for you, funny makes you alive.

Imagine what it would be like to have a new goal on your annual appraisal to check your level of fun? How much fun does this dude add to the workplace? i would love to be the first to start such a transition in the workplace. One of the greatest Bankers I met in my life who made it to the top of the ranks in an International top 5 Bank told me his secret was he played more than he worked. He said this in front of all us management associates coming from more than 15 countries on a Singapore training course.

Seven days without laughter makes one weak.  ~Mort Walker

mamdooh.alradadi

me@mamdoohalradadi.com

This traveller had more millage than any airline could handle. He has vowed to travel the world to explore and report his findings to the #1 travel channel 1000th episode. They needed to uncover the best of the best in everything worldwide.They wanted him to travel freely and explore everything everywhere money was not an issue. He had been to the fanciest of places first to uncover the realities on these over marketed destinations.

In many cases he reported and pictured countries that were once the pinnacle of tourism that finally came crashing to their knees, and in other cases discovered new countries on the rise, He was one of the first to discover the beauty of the Croatian coast line and the tourism fever going on there. He also pointed out how the foreign fidiling and seminar business ended Budapest’s rich culture with all the fake fancy hotels.

He also pointed out that Dubai was the best, the largest, the fanciest, the spendiest, the trendiest new thing in the world, but astonished his viewers when he said its got that FAKE feeling attached to it, unlike the utter magnificent european heritage and history feeling it gives any traveller.

His mission this month was to visit to a new country that has surprised many travelers, both business and passerby’s with its uncanny levels of service that was simply shocking for that region in the world. He decides to get over with this country as fast as  possible as his next destination is Uzbekistan where he will take the silk road all the way to China.

He arrives on the countries national air carrier. He cannot complain on his 12 hour flight he was pampered like a baby. His smallest details in economy class were taken into consideration. His seating was larger than the normal airlines by the exact width and length, I wonder what first class is like he thought to himself. The food was just as if his mother was cooking it( that was there secret). The attendants were not only smiling, they were making the whole plane crack up in humor! ( Their previous jobs were stand up comedians and a 2 year intensive training program in service and sales).

As the plane landed he was wondering why the flight had to end so fast?

“ Ladies & Gentlemen, thank you for letting us serve you. You have been a great company, and we enjoyed every minute of our time together. I have delivered to each one of you a thank you  card with the flight details and your picture with me for your diaries. You are all getting a 50% discount for choosing us on your next flight to wherever you may wish and it is valid for 3 years. Free auto transport in the city is available for all passengers. If you are not satisfied with our flight or service at the airport, you can email me or call me for a full, no questions asked refund of your ticket. We hope you enjoyed you flight, Have a wonderful stay” “

He laughs out loud! is this a joke?” “No!” say’s the guy next to him. “its real i had my tickets redeemed when a guy at the airport called me by another name last month”.He leaves the airport without checking in at the customs, he is greeted with smiles and more smiles from the men at the gates, they are in uniform, but all smiles? he asks someone at one of the every few desks that has a sign that says “ please ask me something, anything, anytime” it had 4 people as if waiting to jump at you in enthusiasm, “ why don’t I need my passport stamped?” “It has sir, as soon as you landed, we have you on our systems, stamping is now optional as a souvenir if you may”

His bags are held by a man dressed in a suit and his name is clearly printed on a large LED sign on the baggage trolly. He rechecks his eticket to make sure its economy?His large black 2010 mercedes drives up his 5 star hotel, the doors open and he is welcomed by a senior manager looking man, he looks around him and everyone arriving at the hotel is getting the same treatment. He is fascinated by the smiles . He starts to look around him in all directions to find an angry looking

individual, no one in sight. The front desk ask him his preferences, he is asked if he has been here before? No, is the answer, he is upgraded to a suite and executive level on the spot. He gets in, takes a shower in an amazing display of oriental oils and soaps, everything is brand new, but as if at home. he finishes, gets dressed and decides to have lunch at a local restaurant which he walks to, he is walking in a desert country and the weather on his   iphone reads 16 degrees? how come the weather channel said 36 today? he realizes that the walking path is air-conditioned with the right mix, the area is well landscaped and he has been walking for a few miles now!

The people in the street look familiar to him, the faces seem to be smiling all along, some even offered to help him by stopping their cars. He could not help but notice the parked lincoln taxi’s that read FREE on top all parked every 500 meters or so. he was looking at the clean roads, the marble floorings, the neat little shops, the endless bluetooth messages to guide him through the city. What is this place? how can they do this, how did they manage?

He gets to the place, has lunch, wonderful food, amazing people, it just gets better. At night he manages to get to the local mall. There he wonders if these people working here are from earth or part of an experiment in service standards. He actually tried finding a face not smiling or waiting to serve him?

He tried so hard to make an argument with one shop, then gave up when the person in the shop felt he was not happy and decided to hand him a 100 dollar gift voucher, the irony was he was bargaining on a 30 dollar item.He tries to get more involved and starts a mission to visit Banks and government agencies, hospitals and other food outlets.

He finds that a battle for service excellence was going on between the whole service industry. The target was to go beyond pleasing the normal customers, the target was to find real service measured in decency and honesty, real versus fake, the fastest efficiency versus fast, WOW versus thank you’s. This place was going places he thought.

As he drives to the airport he remembers his month in SAUDI ARABIA and wonders why other countries can’t copy what this amazing new world number one service provider? He loves his tan, his desert adventures, the food was impeccable and achieved full marks by any standard,

“Boy do I have a story to tell the rest of the world” he sinks into his first class upgrade bed, closes his eyes and thinks when he can bring his family here?

He who serves is the master of the game.

mamdooh al-radadi

me@mamdoohalradadi.com

Our city is witnessing a chamber of commerce election period ending today. I went over to vote for one of my school buddies who suddenly made me feel old! Never again I said to myself, who wants to grow old? I want to run wild like I did back in school and worry about my giant pimple on my nose. Well my pimple is not the idea behind this post, its what I would preach and talk about to make a fool of all the candidates that don’t fit the shoes of such an important position, and the dreams of their voters that go shattered every other year when they loose track.

Here goes nothing:

The short version would be: “My way or the highway!”

What I will do:

• Make sure I get what I want as fast as I can so I don’t waste other peoples time to have my place.
• Make as much money with my power and declare it.
• 100% guaranteed results for me, then you.
• I will reduce costs of chamber fees from one pocket and take from your other pocket.
• You will never find me at the office to bother you.
• Who needs meetings when you have me?
• Say yes to me driving a new BMW every 6 month’s from your money( I promise to show off BIG TIME!)
• You will always remember my face, I will give the chamber’s building a face lift, and replace it with my mug shot.
• Never worry about the economy and your business, with me you only worry about the important things in your life, how to feed your family.
• I will never let you worry about mobile phone bills, I will be sending each one of you a 1000 messages to vote for me next year/all year long( so you won’t be able to call anyone).
• Trust? who are you kidding? at least I’m honest.

My advertising would be a music video with Snoop Dogg and J-Z, Emenem and Beyonce, playing on all major channels for 2 years( I might be on the top 20, meaning more BLING BLING for me)

Let’s place a bet today and see how many votes I get.

MO DIDDY: The future as it really is, no Bull, The real deal, even if it hurts.

Mamdooh Al-Radadi

me@mamdoohalradadi.com

WWII – A desperate time when humans found new and more terrible ways of killing each other. Out of this desperation came the Japanese suicide bomber. To the Kamikaze, bomb and bomber were one and the same. Called into power by Emperor Hirohito and creatively offered the rank of “God”, 2,500 men were to spend their last terrifying moments as human artillery streaking towards their target encased in airplanes, mini – subs, and bomb loaded speed boats. These “Knights of the Divine Wind”, so horrifyingly accurate in their attacks, took the lives of over 7,000 Allied servicemen during the reign of the first initiated, and there were still another 4,500 Japanese men being prepared for Knighthood. The fear of their human weapons became a critical factor in the U.S. decision to avoid an invasion of the Japanese mainland , and drop the Atomic bomb. The tactics of the Kamikaze continue to haunt the world to this day.

That was then, today the same is Kamikazi marketing. The marketing world is vast and large and takes different kinds of strategies and tactics. We are all aware of conventional marketing, then came Guerilla marketing which takes marketing to a whole new frontier,Typically, guerrilla marketing campaigns are unexpected and unconventional.The objective of guerrilla marketing is to create a unique, engaging and thought-provoking concept to generate buzz, and consequently turn viral. The term was coined and defined by Jay Conrad Levinson in his book Guerrilla Marketing. The term has since entered the popular vocabulary and marketing textbooks since.

What I am about to talk about is the new version of that, Kamikazi Marketing, suicide marketing, take all or none. The stakes are high and the casualties many, rewards are enormous, if any.

I don’t have a clear example other than the one i will share with you performed by one financial organization( affiliate/service admirer) in the heart of another financial organization. One comes to mind from my banking years, when SAMBA Visa was advertsiing non stop on MBC fm and other banks had music playing in their branches. SAMBA would be singing its tune in the core of the competitions operations. They later found out and shut down the music systems or changed the channel( Duh!).

I have in this post two pictures to tell my story, and thats all that he wrote folks!

This is one organization. If you look close you will seethe advertisement of the other.

Read the other financial organizations name, and guess what they have special offers for teachers!

Someone is not doing his job, or is it the lame fasting excuse?

When someone comes to me with a cv and it has “computers, internet, swimming, football” put in the other skills area, I just laugh.

If we take them one by one; 

Computers;

what are you? do you write programs or do you make them? do you install networks, are you an IT guy? or is it because you surf the web on weekends you think you are a pro? Never put that as a skill, get over it!

Internet: 

What are you saying here? i can’t hear you? aha! you know how to surf the net! oh and you do tricks too? when I get people like this i ask and mine into the subject to show how dumb it is to say internet! and in the end they say that they “chat”. 

Swimming: 

Apply for a job at Sea World.

Football: 

when I see you on TV in a football game, then you can say that you are skilled. Or maybe the interviewer can be invited to a game to watch you play soccer and cheer you” Go Interviewee Go!”

Your personal skills should reflect your true capabilities that make sense to the job you are applying for. for example if you can :

speed read
speed type 
fix computer problems 
write
speak in front of an audience
sell products
marketing skills 
networking and connections
telephone skills
correspondence skills
travel experience
leadership
managing people
interview skills
investment skills


Never go with the flow and ask your friends what they put in the other interests area, always revise your capabilities.
get my drift?