Mohsin Rasool – IAM & IGA Consultant

Fire the Complex, Go for Simple

February 26, 2010 by Mohsin Rasool

It is very bad to be an entrepreneur and also try to prove the world how genius I am by presenting complex solutions!

Man it has happened to me and often i find myself in this trap. I see a simple problem in the market, and when I try to solve this, wow I have got the simple solution…but my damn genius mind will not accept that so simple solution.

My genius mind wants me to bring something which makes people wonder, which is so complex and difficult that no one in the world can do that.

That is great if I am going to run for Nobel prize..but for simple business I observe that simple solutions always win, Simple is HOT! Simple and Easy is what is called Miracle!

I tried to come with a graph, a grid to help focus our energies, for me and my team and i came up with four cases as shown in the following image:

Now you see there are four different cases for problem and solutions with respect to simplicity and complexity:

1. Simple – Simple Scenario:

Simple Problem and Simple Solution. Wow I think it is where the money is. When i observe my big money makers so far, it is always the case..but problem is we kill the idea as simple-simple case scenario fool us and says who is gonna buy this, people will laugh that how simple it is, and i will look like a stupid guy with so simple solution/product. Lol our genius mind always wanted to add some extra crap/steps to add the complexity to the solution to show how genius we were to discover this combination.

2. Complex – Simple Scenario:

Complex Problem and Simple Solution. Awesome, one thing to focus on long term, this is where you earn respect and fortune both in one basket. Long term but good to have in the mission statement. I think it is not where cash flow is, if you need money to run the following three months, better you focus on CASE:1 Simple-Simple!

When you have money to fund your time and energies come to this quadrant and amaze the world, bring something which brings WOW, FUN and Happiness to the world. Yeah you push the button and problem is gone because solution is so simple.

3. Simple – Complex Scenario:

Simple Problem and Complex Solution. Wow this is what genius minds always come up with. A pure genius mind trap. How irrational i sometime become, that I often find myself in this scenario, there is simple problem, and damned i have got a genius solution which takes 20 days training , 12 hours to operate and 27 steps to follow to kill that little bug 🙂

Forget this, fire this, whenever technology changes, i find many people who do not want to learn new technology fall in this trap, they do not want to show the people new simple solution but wanted to tie up them into their big-dinosaur solution. Sure way to go out of business in coming years.

4. Complex-Complex Scenario:

Complex Problem and Complex Solution Well that is interesting case. Many time I have thought this a good option to consider, but then one thing dawned on me , that come on, we can take this case to case 2, if we spend more energy and bring more creativity to the table, we can take this complex problem to Case:2 where we have SIMPLE solution to this complex problem instead of complex one.

Again I have crossed this one too from my goals list. I think for a short life like us humans we have much to do on first two cases / quadrants. Specially for the entrepreneurs as I said in the start of this post, let’s stop fooling ourselves and forget about complex products and solutions.

Let’s bring more simplicity to our customers’ lives and I am sure they are going to give us more money to bring more simplicity. Let’s declare to ourselves that we do not have to prove anything to anyone that how genius we are!

We just want to add value to our customers’ lives by solving their simple and complex problems and bringing SIMPLE solutions to them. This is the only thing which will justify our title of Entrepreneurship. What you say my friend? Let me know your thoughts in the following section of comments.

Best Regards,

Mohsin Rasool

Forget about todo list, Manage Your Energy

January 26, 2010 by Mohsin Rasool

Yes, I was talking with my friend, and we concluded this:

“You know if you can manage your Energy….you cannot stop yourself
doing Great Things…”

How do i know this? Can I verify that above statement is true and practical?

Yes, I can say it is 100% correct. As just this week I have been following a routine which generates huge personal energy in my body and after that I have been able to complete many unfinished to-dos which were taking months to finish them.

Here is another observation my friend observed:

see i used to work and be productive
WITHOUT caring about health, energy, sleeping, etc.
so i just thought i could continue like this..
but i think my body has had enough.. i’ve
abused my system so much.. i’m surprised
it’s still working..
so i totally agree that it all has to work
in harmony..

Now this is my closest friend and I know he is extremely successful in his online business ventures but just recently he observed that he is not having great feelings sometime and sometime he feels down for no obvious reason. I know the same situation have been with me for last four years. I have my share of success but sometime I just feel very depressed and down.

How we tackle this situation, we discussed and thought and shared our ideas and so far we have come to this conclusion which I have written on first few lines, let me repeat it here:

“You know if you can manage your Energy….you cannot stop yourself
doing Great Things…”

Question is how we manage our energy? Personal energy so we get unstoppable drive to do great things!

There are few things if you can take care of them you can achieve the goal we are trying to accomplish, like:

You take highly concentrated sleep (Only possible in the dark NIGHT 🙂 so no night shift workings!
You take care of your food, there are two important thingswhen we talk about food:
- First you take healthy diet and second you take food often and on time, no skipping!
Then after awesome sleep, you try to get up early in the morning and do some sort of exercise, no I am not talking about GYM workouts in the early morning, you can do that in afternoon if you like. It should be light exercise , best exercise you can do is: Jogging, Simple Walk, or what Great Gary Halbert (late) calls: Road Work . He advised this to his son, Bond, that do nothing in the morning unless you complete your Road Work. Read his great series of Letters he wrote to his son while he was in federal prison: Boron Letters Series : First Letter
Do not work continuous four or eight hours in a row, take short breaks and work in 45 minutes time blocks. I know it is impossible to work that much in single sitting, but unfortunately we Internet Marketers can sit in front of computer long hours without accomplishing much and only abusing our natural body system.
Try to work on ONE thing at a time and nothing else. If for that ONE thing internet is not necessary, i suggest you disable your Internet and work on that ONE task at hand. I recently have been doing this and wow, i completed my Fit4 Report which was a work in progress since a month. But applying this tip i got it done and it is already sent for review to my great Mentor before I release to the marketplace.

If you are successful applying above tips, you will have enough energy and brain juices to get most of your todo stuff done. You will get the outrageous results from your actions as now you are unstoppable with the kind of energy your body have.

For my morning exercise routine, I have been lucky to find a YOGA class in near public park with plenty of greenery and like mind peoples and great coach. If you can find something like this you will feel the great difference in your daily life after attending that Yoga exercise class. (BTW it is also great to see sunrise while doing Kings Like exercises there 🙂

UPDATE- 28-Jan-2010 I shared the same on my favorite forum, Warrior Forum, with my forum buddies..and they had few things to add, so I am going to quote them below, hope you like it:

exercising every day really helps me clear my brain out for some reason.
–Daniel Brock

Then Igor suggests this:

Eat fruit for breakfast. They are filled
with fluids and charge you up for the
whole day.

The first meal sets the tone for
the rest of the day. If you start the
day off a bad meal-then you’re setting
the whole day to be as bad.
–Igor Kheifets

Paul contributed to this thread with following great insights:

I have found out that exercising is REALLY important. I have kept
track of my productivity over the last few months, and on the days
when I got at least 30-60 minutes of exercise I found that I had so
much more energy to do things and it also helps to put you in a more
positive frame of mind.

Another thing to note is to have a fairly light mid-day (2nd meal)
that is not heavy on carbs. If you eat something heavy then, you go
through this carb-induced haze afterwards that makes it a little hard
to really focus on things. If you end up feeling tired in the
afternoon, it does not hurt at all to either meditate or take a short
nap to refresh yourself. You’ll be amazed at how much more productive
the rest of your day will be by doing that!

“Solid sleep and exercise are definitely prerequisites, and meditation
is the icing on the cake that really supercharges your focus and
productivity.”

–Paul Chow – Warrior ID: paulie888

Allurre gives awesome tips to Internet Business Owners to save their body from upcoming crash in IM Lab:

1. You will definitely need adequate sleep.
2. Exercise – get out your house; don’t be holed up in your so called lab. It’s killing you.
3. Stay positive – be enthusiastic with your online business. If you’re mentally frustrated, that alone will disrupt your energy flow.
4. Have a healthy dietary regime.
5. Make sure you still have your social life.
-Allurre

Peter sums it up nicely for all Internet Marketers:

Regular exercise, drinking lots of water, and eating good food
everyday is crucial to maintaining a healthy lifestyle IMO.
–Peter

Source: Warrior Forum, Energy Managing Thread by Me

Credit Card Interest Rate Puzzle & Banker’s Bomb

December 31, 2009 by Mohsin Rasool

Just today I received my Credit Card statement and maybe this have been the first time I misplaced my one check which was supposed to be in the drop box. So only partial payment got through but the finance charge (interest) payable is just unimaginable. No problem will be cleared this month but this made me think HARD!

Ok here are figures, solve this puzzle what rate they applied. Outstanding balance for the month of November was: PKR 46,843 , I have paid PKR 42,000 on due date and check of remaining payment was never dropped (forgot!) so outstanding balance was about PKR 4000 , and today i received this statement with almost PKR 2000 as finance charges. Wow only for one month it is about 50% for the payment. Which mean annually it would be 50*12= 600% for the year!

LOL impossible! I called their call center and they dropped a BOMB on my head and I got to realize how great this credit card banking business is!

He shared with me few things which were completely NEWS to me:

1. When you do not make FULL payment , every cent, it is called partial payment, and it does not matter you may 10% or 90%. Finance charges is calculated to FULL payment, not the outstanding balance! So while i was thinking they will calculate charges on outstanding balance PKR 2000, at the same time the banker was calculating the interest on the full payment of the month.

2. Also interest rate is calculated on each transaction daily, from the date of transaction to the date when the whole balance for that month will be paid. So it gets really worse.

Now after knowing these above two facts I came to realize how many close dear friends of mine got into Credit Card debt hell. It was the smart banker! But i do not blame only the banker, as we should take full responsibility of our acts. As we have signed and agreed T&C with the banker and we are using his money for the full month without any charges(if paid on time.)

If i knew the above facts before the due date, I would have made sure to make the full payment. I thought as we have paid almost 90% of the outstanding , very nominal charges would be due to us. But this is totally different world. I am posting this on my blog to make this the part of the record so you and I can be careful for the next credit card payment.

Seven Best Free Tools I Use Everyday in my Business

December 22, 2009 by Mohsin Rasool

Here is list of seven (07) best tools which are free to use and I cannot run business without these tools which I use everyday:

1- Firefox Browser

I know you may already use it, this is great browser made for Internet Marketers. I put this on #1 for its great plugins. Most of the Time I use Following Plugins:

SearchStatus SEO Plugin– Great plugin for SEO guys. Shows all stats you need about any website you are browsing right now.
DownloaderVideo – Using this you can download your favorite videos to your computer.
ScrapBook – Save any website page to your computer for offline use, with everything intact.
FireBug – Great plugin for website developers. It is just the awesome plugin.

2- VLC Media Player

Play every format of MP3, MP4, DVD format. VLC Player can play any audio, video, or DVD without asking for another CODEC to install.

This media player is Lightweight, Fast and Great when it comes to play any media on your computer. I just hate it is Cap like ICON 😉

3- Free Download Manager – FDM

Sometime we have many files to download to our computer. Thing is it is hard to manage and download all small files one by one. It is just boring and time consuming. So I use this tool. You can put every file to be downloaded in it and it simply keep downloading every file one by one.

I suggest you download LITE version as it is light-weight and faster and does the job.

4- CC Cleaner – SpeedUp Your PC

This is little tool i install at every computer I use, it does help me tune-up the PC, Windows, Vista garbage. I suggest you get this tool and cleanup your computer and see the difference in speed.

It also help you manage which program run on start-up so your computer loads fast.

5- Foxit Reader – Lightweight PDF Reader

I have used Adobe PDF Reader for years but just few months ago I came across this PDF Readers and I love it. This lightweight and very fast when it comes to open new PDF files and read them.

I simply love it. And suggest you get it to save your time when it comes to handle and view PDF Files.

6- OpenOffice – Create Free PDF

This is simply the free alternative to Microsoft Office. But best thing I like about it is that you can simply create PDF files from Word Docs.

You just click on FILE MENU, and click SAVE AS PDF..and You have your document in PDF format.

7- Live Writer – Free from Microsoft

I am using this right now to write this post. This is one of the ONLY best FREE product from Microsoft. You set your wordpress blogs account in it and you never have to login again to your wordpress blog.

This is just the ONLY best desktop blogging tool this time and I love it. It has many great features, and also easy to use as the interface is just like any other MS product, so if you have ever used MS Office, you will find it easy to use.

Hope you find at least one program in this list which you like and use!

Best Regards,

Mohsin Rasool

Paypal in Pakistan? Response to a Friend

November 21, 2009 by Mohsin Rasool

Hi,

I just wrote this personal message to a friend from Pakistan, Danish, who said this:

“Bro , Seriously due to unavailability of paypal i am really facing loads of troubles , do you have any alternative which you are using ?”

I wrote my answer there, but due to length of the message could not post there, and also I thought many other fellow Pakistani friends will benefit from this so I post this at my blog here:

Danish My Friend you are always welcome.

Yeah you are right Paypal problem we face here… But I use and recommend 2Co as this solves about 80% problem, i mean with 2Co you can receive payments from customers who want to pay though Credit Cards as well as also from the customers who want to pay from their Paypal account balance!

As i said this does not solve 100% problem as still you have no means to use those funds online, until they get into your Local Bank Account.. So we cannot make payments online as we could have made through our
Paypal account…for this i recommend to get hold of Credit Card, of yours or someone in your family who can trust you , and you can trust him/her!

Also if you have digital product and you want to tap into Affiliates market, you have also Clickbank there…to handle your Payments, and payments to affiliates!!!

MAN it used to be hard in the days when 2Co Would not accept
Paypal…
No Paypal, No Clickbank, No Problem | Mohsin Rasool
(Also download the report from there i wrote once for friends like you
facing NON-Paypal problem -)

Note: Above post/report was written before clickbank was available in Pakistan,,
but now as clickbank is in Pakistan…i suggest to use Clickbank for Affiliates
and not 2Co’s very limited affiliate program.

and when Clickbank would not allow Pakistan

…but now you have both!!!
ClickBank in Pakistan WoW! | Mohsin Rasool

You see we are making progress… so do not worry and keep working on your Goals you are going to make more than thousands who have Paypal account but have not made money online due to inaction or no work!

Wish you best there, hope this gives you some ideas,
Mohsin Rasool
PS. Oh I wanted to share this with you:

I used to earn very less money , say only Adsense…
And used to think and focus on the problem that how sad
i have no PayPal , no clickbank…

Then One day a very great friend of mine from Singapore, Ameer Salim,
said this:

“Mohsin do not focus on problems (Paypal) focus on opportunity (2Co!)”

That day was the turning point, as I said OK , No Paypal NO Problem!!!
I am going to sell and I am going to use 2Co..After all they are multi Million Dollar
company,,, why cannot they process my first Million Dollar 🙂

Then I started to offer services and some products and it really has become my
integral part of bi-weekly income…yeah 2Co sends weekly/Bi-Weekly your money
directly to your bank.

So Danish I recommend you go with 2Co and forget about Paypal problem for now.
When you have made some stuff, you will have some great friends here online.
And if you must need some payment to be received through Paypal you can ask
your friend to accept that payment on your behalf. But your sales system should
be fine with 2Co as they are going to take payment for you from all non-paypal and paypal buyers.

Oh live by revenge LOL…i mean if Paypal says : No Pakistani… Say: NO WAY! NO PAYPAL! … hahah Paypal Sucks! This will make you feel great and really this
will FREE you from the thought of absence of Paypal as disadvantage to you!
http://www.paypalsucks.com/ 🙂 – Now sometime I joke ,No it is not Paypal which does not accept Pakistan, but it is Pakistan which does not accept Paypal . HAHAHAHA!

Have a Great day! Let me know if you have any question in this regard.. I will update this post or reply in comments.

Google Apps – Future Of Business Communication

November 19, 2009 by Mohsin Rasool

Google Apps is one of the best invention in the history as far as business communication is concerned. It offers everything you need. It has all the scalability your business ever is going to need. And It has no user manual for users and no training course to use as it is THAT easy.

Are you using Google Apps for your online business? I hate the standard email packages which comes with any hosting account. I always wanted to use GMAIL for my business communications but sometime customers do not like the fact that some business is using FREE email address like you@gmail.com .. BUT it all changed…

Yeah with Google Apps you can have backend which is built on GMAIL , but in the front-end you could have you@yourdomain.com and so on! So you enjoy the both worlds!

I suggest you take a look at Google Apps today if you have not considered it before. For a business with up to 50 users it is free. So for a small business online with few employees this is not going to cost you a cent! Check out Google Apps here.

Flippa for Flipping, Good as Sitepoint?

November 15, 2009 by Mohsin Rasool

Well when Sitepoint guys launched Flippa it was not much welcomed by many pro flippers and buyers. But today i have a good news for you regarding Flippa and your flipping projects.

I just met long time Website Flipper at Sitepoint and Flippa, very experienced and successful with his flipping ventures. He told me that Flippa is now doing just as best as it used to be at Sitepoint.

Also he said that Flippa has many great features which were not available at sitepoint marketplace. Like Flippa guys have really taken Social Media seriously and they can now send your message to your Twitter followers as well as Facebook Friends and Fans.

I will share more but for now i have to quit. Good Bye.