They say when you focus on something you get to see or feel it more, like the new car you want suddenly its everywhere, or the family vacation that is all over the news, as if its the only thing people are talking about, or the nagging boss that seems to haunt your dreams, just a few examples to refresh your memory of the strange things we take for granted and don’t know what to make of them.

A fine use of the word “INSTEAD”;

• Instead of wondering why you hit that car and ruined your new toy, think how lucky you are to be alive, and while steel remains steel, blood is thicker than water, water is life and you my friend are alive to breath and walk another day.

Imagine if I told you the man was crossing the highway and got hit head on! you would know he’s a goner, unless what hit him was his conscious and suddenly woke up to reality and ran back to the curb.

What if someone whispered to you that the CEO was told to leave, you always imagine him being booted out of his position for bad performance, but then again what if he was told to move out of his position to chairman? makes you think!

When that neighbor had his possessions repossessed and his car withdrawn in front of his family, you knew he was out. Then you look at the newspaper and see the very man being honored for his new company that solved the cities sewage problem in 3 months,(its been a problem for 25 years now) he had to risk it all, to win it all, makes you wonder what you really know.

1. How many times did I rehearse and define my sales presentation before giving it?
2. How many books did I read ( and re-read ) about my industry/career/service/skills?
3. How much time do I spend each day in the gym, and how many days each week, to keep myself physically fit?
4. How many thank you notes and follow up emails do I send to important customers, clients, volunteers, or friends?
5. How much of my income do I invest in myself to further my vocation and my passion?

You can breath. You are OK. You can see. You can hear. You can feel. You can imagine things. You can walk. You can run.You can swim. You can survive. You made it through life to another day. You can read. You can write. You can talk. You can understand. You can move. You can decide. You can think. You can remember. You can learn. You can educate yourself. You can be anyone you want to be. You can pack up and leave. You are free. You can drive, fly, dive. You can laugh. You can cry. You can sing. You can love. You can be loved. You can play in the sand.You can taste. You can sense.

How about that for milking opportunities, even before people know its coming, they kind of anticipate your need in the not so far future and place the bait a few feet away from you, then they wait… I just love visionaries!

A few of my intellect friends on Facebook were asking a question I hear every time someone comes back from Dubai ,and they are quite a few, especially with all the goodies the city carries and due to its geographical neighborhood. “ What does Dubai have that we Saudi’s don’t?” and the answers came showering in.

If I am correct the answers contain words like; Organization, services, regulations, systems, planning, strategy, optimism, respect for others, hospitality, entertainment, foresight, potential, and pride and a bunch of other stuff.

On the 12th of may 2010 Abu Dhabi entered history books by becoming the first to implement this new gold dispenser, think of it as one of those many faced PEZ candy dispensers, only a bit more expensive due to content.Gold ATM in Abu Dhabi

The recent Gold rush in markets fleeing distressed wallets to safety investments, something that actually has a real value”It’s not like a piece of paper driven by shaky politicians and unstable governments,” said Phil Streible, a senior market strategist with futures broker Lind-Waldock. “I feel a lot more comfortable having gold than the euro currency right now.” These people know what they are doing alright, gold broke its all time high today hitting $1250 we were checking and studying it for a while now, we all know its going further up( personal opinion $2000 an ounce soon), they took the matter to the bank.

The machines are said to handle cash only, soon credit and debit cards, but what an idea coming from Germany! saved some money, need to stash some glitter go for it 24 hours with prices changing every 10 seconds. The location is set at the Emirates palace hotel.

This is a country that has serious debt issues and investors watching them with hawks eyes, this is a place that embraced change and knew there would be rough waters, that’s what you get when you plan and act fast.

I can remember back in the early 90’s I was drawn to see Dubai for its duty free marketing madness. I was expecting disney world proportions, I got mom & pop store size, it was a joke! the magical idea was bigger than that, it was promoting a city as the hub of everything passing over, or near its skies. Stop, chill, relax, press continue.

Then they changed the way the world looks at the desert oil countries forever with their architectural dream come true oasis. The skylines suddenly changed, country like Islands emerged from the gulf waters, skiing in the desert was no longer a joke, as my friend Sami puts it” everything ending with (est) biggest, newest, tallest was there. ARMANI has a hotel there, TRUMP is there, investments include famous english football teams, air carriers brands all over the world, DUBAI is now an official brand all on its own.

Suddenly many Saudi cities started imitating the DUBAI styles and we started seeing nice looking buildings and malls, were moving, slow, but that’s a start. The Titanic can’t be compared to a jet boat, size matters. The mindset has been ignited, now we sit and watch, but everyone should be focused and determined in his own domain to change.

We should always cherish creativity and embrace change in everything we do, but we need to know where we’re heading? the mega projects initiated by the King have set the pace of things to follow, now its everyones chance to make it happen.

Yes we are suffering and we continue to complain on how things are done and the speed they are done in, but I know one thing for sure, we got nowhere, now lets all pitch in and make the change. Being burnt many times I know what it feels like to fail due to surroundings and bureaucratic government agencies, but I was not made to fail, I still move on. Thinking about our children’s future is a great motive, thinking of making history for our country is a main objective too, one step at a time, but faster please.

What do you think it is that we should do that can be done? its not the money, or the minds, nor is it the location, and its not the weather… so what is it? where should we look? how shall we tackle it? who is to blame? should we blame or move forward?

One area where we can hike the productivity levels and speed the rollout of services, products and technology implementation is higher service benchmarks, its the only way to go! we are not a service community, far from it. The other day someone posted a status asking what company or service in Saudi arabia should be mentioned? one company came back as an answer!

A search for talent should be conducted in various sectors, cross selling their expertise and bringing them up to one standard across the board. Really reward the good, so good they will never leave you. Remove the rotten and make them examples of what not to be, seek the weeds and pluck them one by one, reward the finders for their efforts. Reward the great and brave, give them more empowerment and trust, fuel their efforts.

Listen to the customer, do not rely on agencies, do it yourself, its easy, just go down to street level and ask them in the face on different times and occasions, and reward them for their time, respect!

Its a long story this DUBAI thing, I am sure they will push me to write something in the very near future, let me know what you think…

mamdooh.alradadi envying DUBAI for their success and wishing them more of it!

me@mamdoohalradadi.com

• Something happens in your life that changes your direction and thinking, travel more.
• Someone makes your day with a simple smile, just enough hope to make it through, follow through.
• Some idea sparks you up and ignites your genius, go get em Einstein.
• Some feeling is all it takes to make the switch, like an itch screaming for attention, listen.
• Some tragedy slaps you awake, learn and move on.
• Some hurt breaks you in pieces, your only human, the strong shall survive.
• Some girl betrays you and turns on your self destruct button, turn it off.
• Some little girl in the street catches your attention, do not shoo her away.
• Some fight makes you think about your belief system, is it time for an upgrade?
• Some things seem just that, accept the simple truth.
• Sometimes it seems that all the world is against you, probably is, change your mindset.
• Some foods, drinks, music bring memories, choose your foods, let the good times run.
• Some people know your hot buttons, diffuse them.
• Some actions are side steps and not the real deal, search, then react.
• Some beautiful things pass you by, slow down and admire, it brings wisdom to the wondering eye.
• Somewhere over the mountain, there is that fountain that quenches your thirst, seek it, enjoy.
• Some one told me a secret, it no longer is, she said she only told another.
• Some love affairs never see the light at the end of the tunnel, shine on!
• Some minute you get it, the other you don’t! welcome back to reality.
• Some idea seemed wonderful and doable, then that thing hit the fan, keep your drawing board handy.
• Some lazy afternoon you plan your life, good start.
• Some confusion becomes an illusion and the decision is made, move.
• Someones loss is your gain, and when you lose, someone too will gain, give & take freely.
• Some people are worth your time, how much is your time worth again?
• Some interactions make you wonder why not? some make you ask why?
• Some breakups happen for the right reasons, the other 90% are communication gaps.
• Some faces are remembered for ever, many disappear, let the important ones know it.
• Some one hugs you, do you really feel it, or are you faking it? some things you just can’t.
• Some colors make you smile, paint your days sunny.
• Some folk bring you down, others pick you up. You can never get enough of the good stuff, don’t forget to throw out the garbage.
• Some gossip for gossips sake, others seek truth, and some just get lost between the two, who got married? how could she? the &*(%$ thought I was going to steal him!
• Some artists become famous while living, the other 95% fame came late, a bit too late for them to witness it, passion.
• Some let you down, look up and you don’t need them no more.
• Some excite you, some make you, some love you, some hate you, some envy you, some cherish you, some can’t live without you, some anticipate you, some understand you, some walk with you, some run away from you, some seek you, some hint, some shy away, someone out there is in need for you, some.

Every once in a while you must stop, collaborate & listen. Every once in a while you will lose something in exchange for something, with or without that someone, you need to keep on moving. Every once in a while you need to understand to be understood.

mamdooh.alradadi on some lazy friday afternoon.

me@mamdoohalradadi.com

In a cluttered world filling up with more complications to this oh so simple and wonderful life, we find ways to cut through the clutter. We first start to look inside before we look out, we start to peel our layers to get to the buried long forgotten truth we hold in some safe inner sanctuary, all that for a decision based upon inner approvals.

We face life head on wether we are in bed killing the day or out in the fields farming and making a living. We peel away year after year and wish we could peel faster, little do we know that as time goes by we solidify our inner treasurers, our real deal, and give some selected few someones skeleton keys with a lifelong period. All others will have to prove worthiness of such benefits.

Life moves, people come and go, days seem to be on kick down, changes occur and become the norm, love happens, your heart is taken for a thrill ride on some never charted dangerous waters without safety nets,”Every man for himself” screams the neon warning up ahead! we all love thrill rides to some degree, the scared souls seem to settle down with the first sign of happiness. The thrill seekers seem to become the christopher Columbus of their own seas, they either hunt or get hunted down and sink their fleet.

When each one gets the list of wants and needs for the following years, its all you can eat buffet time! depending on ones greed people fall upon the options as if they were sealed away in some ancient dungeon deprived of minimal human needs. The list consists of choices like being wanted, needed, loved, looked after, beautiful, different, everyone wants to be different, yet we all love the basics.

As time flies by faster than you wanted it to, you look in your rear view mirror and start looking back as your face changes moods in milli seconds to each feeling you get looking back. The laughs, tears, joy, happiness, feelings, successes, wins, misses, people, places, personal victories, defeats, moves, craziness, the ones that got away, the ones the let you go and thats life!

People come visiting every once in a while into your space, they come check you out, say hi, perhaps have coffee, get to know you only a bit better, but they always say we thought we knew you, then you both go further apart and see if you miss them, and so on. You go visiting, we all need people you know. You come across many, thousands of people in your living years, and you seem to attract certain people depending on many factors.

The attraction meter can be controlled by you in many cases, so you attract and distract based upon personal taste and requirements, you also fall into other peoples scan zones, people looking, searching for that one in 6 Billion, what are the odds of finding the right answer to yourself? imagine a jigsaw puzzle with 6 billion pieces and you had to fit somewhere, keep looking, unless you already fit, don’t move someone is looking for you to complete the picture.

When you think you know someone, when you say your sure, when you say I have it figured out, when you say all of those things, ask yourself this; Which layer did I reach in this persons life, how deep did I penetrate? am I close? will she/he let me access more? have I reached a wall? what do I need to do to know more? if you really want something, I guess you should continue digging and never stop the discovery of someone else’s real self. The problem with us is we all fall into the know it all category.

When the danger sirens are turned on and a new layer has been breached, you have reached new frontiers, the penetrated soul will attack to defend its grounds and then be tamed like a wild stallion if they like you, otherwise you will be surrounded and thrown out to the front gates, just like everyone else, depending on how much you want IN you charge forward and use tactics and strategies to move on and in.

Depending on the age and experiences each one of us has, our layers laid one over the other should spell how safe one is, problem is…you can never tell or see such hidden layers, only at very close interactions are they revealed and for small windows in time, then they shut down automatically again. Day in day out people come and visit and get shut down, some are given chances, some are forever forgotten, its as easy as that.

When you judge me, take a closer look, maybe that Mona Lisa is not that after all, maybe the generosity and kindness of Mother Teresa is actually the devil in disguise, maybe the father figure is just a con artist on the run form a previous break in, maybe the playboy is just a front for a loving family man, maybe you are not what you are, maybe I am exactly what I look like and act like? maybe we are all in a big playground needing some love, fun and affection?

I still stand strong with my beliefs and ideas, yes it only took me a life to get here, but you see I only get one, this is no video game with a reset button, its one chance, one big trial and error period, over time I found that I love to fail, the more I fail the more I know, the more I know the better and clearer I see, the wiser I become, the less mistakes in choices occur, the layers grow, one by one, heavier, thicker, more high tech, more dynamic adapting to change as I grow each day, I still stand.

When you want me, take me, for I am yours, but before you lock me down, take a closer look and make sure I am the right one, for I too seek in this cluttered world, and I too have the option to choose, and when I decide its time to move on, you will be nothing more than an image in my rear view mirror, accept that and move on, you had your chances, just like everyone else, stop being selfish, and one more thing; Thanks for the lesson, I owe you. Now let me see the door, I think its the new contractor here to build a new wall

mamdooh.alradadi just before heading to work on 12/5/2010

me@mamdoohalradadi.com

In the Arab world, just like the western world and actually around the globe we notice certain nationalities thriving while others diminish or erode over time.

Survival techniques have been with us since creation & inception of mankind, the further back we go in history the more visible and apparent the subject. From cavemen to Vikings & Pharos, Prophets and World wars, it all boils down to survival of the fittest. Monarchies have vanished, new ones have evolved, species wiped out, new ones introduced or discovered in some distant land, nothing stops.

A man sweet talks a young lady at the corner while taking a smoking break, he appears to be a master of his own game, she smiles and listens with some flirtatious moves every once and a while, he continues with his manipulation, getting closer to his goal. She first blows him off guard by stating she is married, he enjoys the game, continues by asking her where her loving husband is while she smokes alone? suddenly she finishes her ciggy and looks him in the eye and asks” what do you do, your words are that of an actor or some famous intellect?” ” I’m kind of a writer” he boasts. ” Kind of…?” she replies, ” what do you do?” replies the master of deception, ” I’m a hooker” she smiles ” People pay for my services, call me” and walks away laughing. Two masters of their own game collide, each moves on as survival has made them what they are today.

Comfort zones are those areas where we stop to relax and get comfy and forget to move on. Eventually we lose track of our original clever well detailed map in life, we stop and stall till we get rusty and attract like people into our lives. These new additions become the extra baggage you keep adding. They are known to relax, chillax or whatever you may call it until it becomes their destiny. Then there are the others.

When you love something you never feel the pains that others feel while doing the same thing, to you its passion, play if you may, to them it has another word, I think they call it ” work”.

What’s the big picture on survival of the fittest? on a macro level can we see countries that demonstrate hard ambitious survival lifestyles? the answer is yes! only if you simplify the answers without the statistics and economists of the world fiddling with a bunch of national GDP( Gross domestic product) and other economic indicators. Let me elaborate and simplify things here, lets take some man made products and trail them back to their makers.

Cars: Mercedes Benz, BMW, Toyota; Germany & Japan, Top notch engineering and the relentless pursuit of  perfection. When the stakes are high, when the determination and goals are continuous improvement, anticipating consumers next requirements, meeting them and modifying the flaws fast and without the blah blah, you get high survival measures and cultures that lead the world.

Technology: ipod, Google, Facebook; USA… I thought that technology lately came from the east? well it did for a while, then the marketing Gurus of the world today took the reigns of power and leadership, read into peoples natural habits and lazy needs and made it happen. Build it and they will come. Entrepreneurship is at its best in the last two decades, it is much easier and faster to get an idea to market and market to the masses today than the preceding decades, what do you think the creativity levels are in those areas?

A Man. A plan. A Dam- that was the business plan for the Suez canal by the way, that’s it, with 99% determination and dedication.

When I look at the roller coast ride we have in the Middle East on a survival and cultural viewpoint, I can tell you today who the pioneers of Survival fitness are, the number one nationality that has managed to succeed in every corner of the world is the Lebanese people. Why? a bunch of hard facts and internal lifestyle standards makes them my number one choice. They managed to outlive several wars, a scaring diverse populations with a bundle of ethnic backgrounds, a small country neighboring a war zone for the last 50 years or so, toughness in daily lives but they chose LIFE.

Mastering something takes 7 years of doing the same thing based on Brian Tracy, I truly agree with him on that note. What is it we do different than the world that makes us stand out? do we have what it takes or do we need a push for each step of the 1000 mile race?

Ask yourself these questions, or ask it to someone dear in your life;

• What if you woke up in the morning and found everything gone, can you start again?
• What if you were suddenly deported like some illegal immigrant to some undisclosed new location on this planet? can you start living? can you adapt?
• When was the last time you learnt something new?
• Who is your father figure?
• What’s your invisible carrot? do you have one?
• If asked what does your country stand for? do you have an answer? what is it that makes people want to visit your part of the world? when they leave what memories will they take back home?
• Is your culture driving you faster to your goals or taking you to the end of the line?

I am pissed at the levels we have reached in terms of evolving and changing, we are imitating and never innovating, we love the back comfortable back seat and never learned to drive, and if we drive we wouldn’t know what to do when we break down, let’s continue to import the pros, while the pros are defining our future down the road.

In the 80′s the young men and woman who finished college wanted desks for their first job, irrelevant of experience, to be the boss was all that mattered, that’s why you have an idiot for a boss today, the fundamentals of business were upside down, only to find out 20 years later that we need to start from ground zero and build the foundations then move on up.

Maybe I’m being harsh, but the truth of the matter hurts. When I say I can start from zero I better mean it, we can lose track and get back on track if we new our destination, are you not sick with clueless captains guiding organizations into Titanic waters?

Enough said. Just one thing before I leave, I salute the brave foreign bodies residing in some foreign country making a living, producing wonderful products and services, paving the way for future generations to come, making a better life for their families and indulging in their momentary comfort STOPS, the Zones take too long and make them weak and disillusioned.

p.s. find your survival degree and earn it.

mamdooh.alradadi late for Friday prayers!

me@mamdoohalradadi.com

I wanna slip,trip,drop and kick, I wanna flip, flop, make that a flippaty flop.

I wanna jump, up so high in the sky, I wanna fall down and get up again.

I wanna wake up, jump up, run out and never look back again.

I wanna stay late, feel afraid, and fear my mom and dad again.

I wanna stay awake for three days straight and forget my colgate, I wanna stink and rot with my buddies and friends.

I wanna mix things up and down you see, look upside down and into people for free.

I wanna have so much fun my buns start to ache, from playing football, swimming and volley in no particular way, get outta my way!

I wanna hide and seek with my younger bro’s you see, it’s never like that again, no matter what you say to me.

I wanna jump out of bed as late as can be, run outside and have a big smile on my face and ask “am I late for school? shall I continue my sleep?”

I don’t wanna know what awaits me today, no formalities, no normalities, or anything that ends with “eeeez” except for a string of parties and bowls of my favorite smarties and if you use your imagination, end my night inside some total strangers jamies.

I wanna be considered bad boy material, eating late lunch cereal, with full fat english milkman material, and still pull up my shirt and say check out my  packs, and smack you on your paddy whacks!

I wanna be left alone, when all I need is some soul time, the kind of time thats stamped with “all mine!”

I wanna be surrounded with cool cats and wild cats, funny cats and creative cats, ok dog lovers, throw in some puppies, lets get this party started.

I wanna get lost, and found, then lost some more and never found, and one day I come back, and check who missed me the most, trust me on this, its only those that care to dare and stare you in the face that day, slap you straight and hug you hard, you tear, they take a way the fear and hug you some more, true love for free.

I wanna be reckless, careless, fright-less, inconsiderate in my own domain, removed from societies stamp machine, proclaimed and famed for my solo individuality, let him blunder, cause with my blunders, I make wonders.

I wanna flip, flop, flippity flop, don’t stop till the last drop, keep on flippin and floppin till the break of dawn, and go crazy with a hip and a hop, excuse me now, I gotta flip the page for my next stop.

mamdooh.alradadi  at my home, on a weekend.

me@mamdohalradadi.com

In any business organization we have the doers and the blamers. The doers push and shove till they get it done. The blamers sit on the sidelines pointing fingers to attributes that the doers posses like they are rude, they are show offs, they think they know it all and so on. We have all been part of both sides at some point in our lives, by coincidence or by default.

If you are like most people you were placed there for survival reasons, you manage to survive your first 3 months, first year, then the real you emerges from all the ashes of the formation that made you a wiser worker.

When you are placed in the front line and need to swim or sink, you should swim unless you’re a chronic habitual complainer that needs to ship out or sink by force, as with most business ventures and organizations, the good the bad and ugly all work together under one roof, some uglier and some better, but yes, all together.

When the sh** hits the fan and the organization makes less profit, loses money, discovers a fraudulent case the stronger good workers take the reigns of power from the bad and evil ones, or simply the dumb ones that have had the chance to be someone, but chose to be better idiots, blinded by their near zero smart meters.

These good workers/managers know the mistakes were taking place all along, they had no heart or guts or were not ready to take action against the older so called management crowd, but when they were instructed to blow their horns and start cleaning they moved, we need to have a more powerful and initiative like behavior in the Arab world to make sure we stop falling prey to idiots on the loose.

Taking a macro look at the world economy over the past few years, you will be blind not to know that a global economic melt down took place and destroyed Billions of hard earned dollars like a Tsunami combined with a domino effect hurricane chain taking everything in its way and undermining anything hidden in weird investments cooked up by bad investment bankers hungry for year end bonuses.

So did every business and bank fail to meet its objectives? did they melt down and get drifted away into the wilderness of the global shake up? did every viable business go under? here’s a series of questions to answer in a split second;

• Did your favorite coffee shop stop serving you a freshly brewed cup in the morning?
• Does your fast-food joint still serve you those big burgers?
• Did your favorite auto brand disappear?
• Did the malls shut down?
• Did the famous luxury brands close shop?
• What about your clothes, they still there?
• How about the apple store? I heard it was doing fine?
• What about travel, is your airline still flying you places?
• Hotels. motels, holiday inns?
• Disney world? cameras? pens? real estate? they still deliver, I guess.

Its a matter of perspective, if you can’t change what you see is wrong, move out before the ship sinks, and you are nothing more than a statistic. They say that the law does not protect idiots, that should be your rule in life, keep learning and stay awake, at least when you work, don’t get drifted away by the crowds, in many times your true YOU is all you need for wisdom, following the herd is dangerous and a high risk to the many, good to a few.

Chain reactions take place in industries and depending on which side of the chain you are on, you will feel it sooner or later, ask anyone invested in the stock market for clues, also mortgage backed securities, or any kind of investment. But wait a second, why am I talking about investments? because an investment is your extension to an idea that you thought was viable and should make profits, thats the reason why you invest, not for any other reason.

Investments come in all flavors and appetites, high risk high reward seems to be the only one we remember, what about the flip side to that? so if any investment is an extension to a living business producing goods or services, you being employed or making money belong to any one of those industries, how well are you doing? how well is your organization doing? are you on the “DO” side of things or the “BLAME” side, choose the winning side and move on.

My special request to anyone in a chain of business in any form or size should consider actually loving what he does, staying focused on two important areas to succeed : Bottom line results, amazing customer service( external & internal), the rest of the puzzle falls in place by hook or crook once these two babies are handled with care & love.

Do you want to be able to pick the best & worst organizations in less than one minute? I guess its a yes.

Go to ground zero at any company. Ground zero are the troops, the salesmen, the account opening clerks & tellers at banks, the service reps that answer your inquiries and solve your problems at telephone companies, you know what I mean.

Choose your target, enter the store or call the center, what do you feel? true, real, respect for your visit or call? or fake, disgusted, disrespectful arrogant vibes? the latter one will cause a quick chain reaction that will trickle all the way through the cashier( less), finance, business units, management, share holders bottom line, losses, sacrifices, fire fighting, no focus reactions all the way back to the loose, useless soldiers and in your face!

Here’s the funny part, this person that did not give a damn twitch for your presence or importance is the same one that gathers in the smoking room/water cooler and complains and blames, the winners are busy working and saving the company from a guided bankruptcy path.

On either side of the coin in business, have your say, make way for a positive and profitable day, remove obstacles including whiners and complainers and most of all the “ Blame it on the rain people”.

Blame is just a lazy person’s way of making sense of chaos. Doug Coupland.