A Rewarding Effort To Get Twitter Back In Pakistan

If you are someone, who uses Twitter in Pakistan then chances are you already know about yesterday’s #TwitterBan in Pakistan.

Twitter was blocked in Pakistan temporarily on Sunday over some blasphemous content reasons. This  hurts the feeling of all those people who have understanding that  social networking sites are opportunities for a country with big population to spread the word.

While many of us were complaining, my friend Waqas was doing something different.

He wrote about the issue and emailed to some big tech blogs like TechChrunch, AllThingD, The Verge, and TheNextWeb etc.

Thankfully TechCrunch took an immediate action. They also admired Waqas’s past effort against Facebook Ban in Pakistan. That’s pretty amazing.

Other than this, he created this picture of Twitter bird behind the bar, which reflects what exactly happened.

Not only blogs like TechCrunch raised the issue, Waqas also get featured in one an only Techmeme.

And that is when Waqas and other activists wins. Ministry of IT had to restore Twitter in Pakistan.

Waqas calls it ‘a wonderful fight.‘ Indeed it was.

PS. Waqas is speaking about ‘How To Use Google?‘ in an event at FC College this Wed. Do come if you can/want.

Are your Strengths in Play?

The most common and familiar sayings that our ears come across on daily basis  are ” The Productivity of company or any organization depend on  HOW the employees are being nurtured. How they are provided the space and chance  to learn and grow.” We all understand the importance of employee’s growth and self-development. But how  can one make assure that one’s employees are really getting the chance to unleash their potential everyday.

Today My boss Waqas Ali,  CEO of HOMETOWN asked me that why was I disturb and look dull.

I did not answer because I knew if I told him I would eventually end up  start weeping which I would feel  shameful

I liked that he show the concern, So I decided to write a post and  to answer his question.

Here what I want to tell my boss.

I just want to tell that if your employees energies and strengths are not in play EVERYDAY then their output and strength will gradually start falling. What happens if  your employees are not making best use of their talent in building something great then

THEY WILL START

Feeling Miscast in their roles

Giving space to negative thoughts

Paying more attention to weakness rather than strengths

Feeling sense of worthlessness.

All these feelings not only lead to the personal destruction but also the low productivity of the company.

It is better to have few number of employees who are giving 100 percent output rather than having large number of employees with low productivity. For example if your employees giving 30 % of their strength it means the productivity of the company is only 30 percent. You cannot make 100% productivity by recruiting  more employees (who are just giving 30 or 20% of output) the graph will  remain the same.

Number of Employees                  % of Productivity                        Growth

4                                                          100                                               ↑

10                                                          30                                               ↓

The moment your team member start showing the symptoms of low energies the company’s CEO should pay attention to it  and make sure that by the end of everyday his or her employees are alive. The biggest challenge for the CEO is to define the right role for his employee in his company by looking at his strength rather than just weakness,  and making sure that his team is alive and doing the work in robust way.

I want my CEO  to make sure that the strength of his team is in play everyday.

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When you wind up lost……..

We human must need to stop once in our life to look where we are heading. One single pause can change the way we think and spend our life.  We must save sometime to rethink  some thing.

To complete a life of 50 or 60 years and to achieve a status we rush into a job without considering that whether this job suits my passion or not.  But we are so badly tangled in to the wires of poor economy that we blindly choose a job or profession that just provides us a financial security whether we adore it or not.  This is the way I choose a field without knowing myself who I am and what I really want. I was running so fast and so sure where I was heading and then I wind up lost. ……………………

When you wind up lost, this the best thing could have happened. You know why sometime winding up lost is so good because you are then destined to do another job, something different , new, fresh that may suit your passion and your dreams and that’s the way you find yourself. You find new friends, a different place and then you again go through the life and you experience some thing new that may spark your creativity, your art or may be not. There is possibility you may again wind up lost but the main thing is that we learn to embrace failures. we learn to kick out our fear of failure. Trying do different jobs and finding out what really inspires you because that’s the way you find yourself and this is the most important discovery of all.

We are so afraid to lose that cannot think to pursue our passion and dreams. This fear of failure creates awful feelings and slowly we start losing our real image of what we are and start becoming some one else. Don’t let your fear to make you someone else. when you go through the life and feel so  heart-broken at any point just remember what Brad Paisley  said in his song “when you wind up lost and it’s the best thing that could have happened ‘Cause sometimes when you lose your way it’s really just as well  because you find yourself.”

On the most painful feeling  is not knowing your place  in this world. Why are you here ? why you are chosen to be in this place?  Therefore when you take a pause to rethink something just remember that one the most powerful discovery is finding yourself. All other discoveries are minor in comparison to the discovery of yourself. Once we know who we are and how to unleash our potentials then we reach the height of humanity which this universe demands.

Launch With Confidence.

Launching a new product requires a lot of vigilance. Keeping few things in mind help you to launch with confidence.

one of the biggest obstacle that makes you uncertain about the success of your launch is the people’s refusing to change shopping or usage habits. For that your marketing strategies must include a more persuasive way to support your product.

This the way Google+ is doing because they understand the question why would people like to switch to Google+ when they have already build strong connections on Facebook and most of them addicted to Facebook.  This the reason to make Google+ a successful launch they are using more persuasive tone in their blogs and videos and telling that its more real life sharing way then any other. Therefore they are carefully testing the Google+ in their field trial to check whether its difference with Facebook will sway the users or not. http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2011/06/introducing-google-project-real-life.html

One of the most important factor that helps you to launch with confidence is the strong communication between manager, developer and marketer. It happens mostly that developer are always too excited and happy about the new product to appear or leak out earlier before the marketers and managers get completely ready but they don’t understand that manufacturing capacity and consistency that cause problems and distraction for managers and marketers. Companies are too much interested in product design that they delay in putting hard work in marketing.

Therefore a strong communication requires between manager, developer and marketer so that they can understand when to enter the scene and put hard work of getting ready for market. Managers learn to engage brand team and marketing, early on to get valuable feedback.

Consumer education plays an important role in making the launch successful. Consumer awareness about how to use a product effectively have great impact on your launching. This the reason Google+ is focusing on product features and functionality in their official Google blog.

Always have a back up plan to increase volume of product from low to massive, also maintaining the quality of the product if the product really takes off. Understanding the manufacturing capacity and consistency ensure the success. This is the reason Gourmet from the very beginning target only Lahore. http://gourmet-pakistan.blogspot.com/

Sorry If I Sounded Harsh….

If you seek out parents when looking for feedback, you will be surprised to know that you mostly end up doing things to please them. Parents adapting to conservative mindset force you to pursue jobs that promise high pay (in case sons) and force you to do a respectable job which they think is respectable in their society  like teaching, other profession does not suit you (in case daughters). They assume a firm attitude that shows that they only know what good for us and for our career.

They learn a single lesson and teach the same lesson to their children that is forget your dreams and identity and simply focus on work to produce and reproduce. They are so afraid to accept change and diversity that they only tell you to hide your creativity and do only what your ancestors did.

Their conservative mindset and fear kept us doing creative work or the stuff that’s come natural. They press you to do work something unnatural and you can imagine if you do something inherently unnatural you cannot do justice with your work and yourself, you will end up frustrated.

Have they ever told you to do what you want to do and what you have to give to your society, Have they ever told you to do work for blessing just to brighten your day, Have they ever told you to bring your creative self to work , If NOT then don’t look for parent’s feedback.  Do what you want to do, what comes natural, what keeps your creative self alive. Only that kind of work brings joy and satisfaction.

Is Euthanasia a Solution to Human Sufferings?

I read an article on euthanasia last night and I was surprised to know about the pros and cons of euthanasia. To get relieve from severe physical and emotional pains pros of euthanasia does really make sense? what pushes a man to choose euthanasia is somewhat complex than you might have think. One of the pros of euthanasia is that every one has the liberty to choose death on life. But I believe its not the liberty, its the only option we put in front the sufferer.

When a person finds no way out the option he lefts with is the euthanasia. This is obvious that liberty comes where there is multiple option to choose but when you have no option other than death than its ridiculous to talk about liberty. Even patients have no idea about how long they are going to live and suffer. No body want to give up the wish to live. Its actually the society attitude towards the sufferer that make him believe that his life is worthless. We make them realize that he is just a burden on society, money is just being wasted on him, the funds would be available to other patients if he quit life. Secondly to get relief from physical and emotional pain they find euthanasia, a solution. Solution to physical pain is to work in the field of medicine with dedications but what about emotional pain?

Emotional pain is always worse than physical pain and I think that before choosing euthanasia a person is already half dead. Because when a person lose hope to live he is already half dead. Because we forget to give them the care and love they need to make them believe that their life is worthwhile, some body really care about him, this may give them strength to fight with death

To recover the wish to live and battle with death is necessary, but who will give them the love and care? so that he again wish to live and start fighting with death. No matter how long we debate on the pros of euthanasia, euthanasia can never be a solution to human sufferings.

Why It is Necessary to Make Best Use of Our Life

The most beautiful gift a man is blessed with is life so make the best use of life. Once you realized its worth the level of enjoyment and comfort increases in your life. Different people are endowed with different qualities and characteristics. Some people are blessed with beauty and some are blessed with brain, some with health and some with money. But these qualities are not to differentiate between those who have it and those who are deprived of these qualities but in fact this is something to make us realize that this is our responsibility to make the optimum use of our life to make not only our lives easy and smooth but also other who have deprived back grounds.

How can we make the best use of our life?

There are many ways to use our life in positive direction. By working and striving for good is one of the best way to make our life worthwhile. Few year back I believe that only a self actualized person can make difference and can bring light in other people lives as well. Few days ago I read a book “THREE CUPS OF TEA” and now I have realized that even if you are not a self actualized person you can still make a difference. for example by working as volunteer you can use your qualities in positive direction. Because for working as volunteer it does not matter whether you are self actualized are not. Nowadays there are a lot of organizations who are working voluntarily you can join these and work as a volunteer according to your skills and qualities.

But what about the those people who don’t get the chance to join any organization how can these people utilize their qualities in the path of love and peace.

When I was free after my matriculation exams I used to think that there should be programs for students where they can use their energies in positive direction when they have long term holidays. That time I have no idea about volunteer works because in my home town there were no such organizations and still not. But these people can also work as a volunteer on their own. volunteer work does not only include huge task like raising funds for flood victims or working for red cross. You can do little things because little things means a lot. Like you can teach a children who cannot afford to go to school or feeding a hungry child. You can plant a tree, recycle trash, help a poor child in purchasing his books.

I believe all the things you do to bring merriment to a unhappy soul without being paid is volunteerism. You can just even pass a smile to a sad person share his sorrow, or you can become a friend of a person who have no friends, introduce him with your friends, do the work of a sick person’s share work, Feed a hungry animal, encourage a disheartened person by dedicating a poem, you can just say a kind word to someone who need care and love because kind words itself can make huge difference as a Japanese said that “one kind word can keep three winters warm”. And then may be some body inspire from you and start working with you and then another and then once a caravan start, it gradually gain momentum and then you people can make a huge difference.

Even if you just become successful in making a single person start loving his life and feeling good about himself you actually win the battle of life. Learn to use your skills and qualities in the path of love and peace. Make the optimum use of your life. Bringing happiness to unhappy souls will lead you to the valley of deep and true satisfaction, satisfaction which a person can only dream of.