Life lessons archive at Conceptualist.com, By Sahar Sarid

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Archive for the 'Life lessons' category

Playfully Killing The American Dream

Published on December 12, 2009 in Business, Domain Names, General and Life lessons. 5 Comments

I got online for the first time around 1996. The first thing I did once online was lookup where to play Chess with others. I quickly found the Internet Chess Club and became a regular. I played many hours a day, at times north of 16 hours a day. Later I started hanging out on Efnet, the oldest IRC network online. There, between various chat rooms, I found myself “killing time”. Let me repeat, “killing time”. Yes, time, the most valuable asset we all have. I ended up “killing” it. I was not your ordinary murderer of time, I was a serial killer of time. Day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year, I was there, “Killing time”.

At the same time during those years, Rick Schwartz was getting started. In 1996 he bought many great domains for registration fees and even some in the aftermarket, million dollar names for $100 a pop. In 1997, during my time playing Chess, Scott Day and others were also building their own future. They figured out how to register expired domains, and were collecting million dollar names on a daily basis. In 1998, while I was still playing Chess and hanging out in chat rooms, Roy Messer, Yun Ye, and others were also getting started. Yun Ye later ended up selling his portfolio for around 164 million dollars to Marchex. I got in the game late, when the secret was out, and the whole world got to know about the domain business because of the Business.com sale. Nevertheless, I made my way, I put the time, the hours, the energy, and for once, it was not for nothing, and there was no more “killing time”. Now it was spending time “building a future”.

It’s astonishing to hear Zynga’s numbers. Many are doing what I’ve done, killing time. Many are struggling in their financial lives, many are unemployed, many are young adults. The same time they spend on games could be spent on building a future, on being productive. I know it is more difficult to get into the unknown, into new beginnings, and I guess it’s why many hear about new ventures (like the domain business) and never get into it. They explore it for ten minutes, maybe an hour, or even a week, and call it quits. Saying to themselves: “It’s not worth it”, “Only a few get lucky”.. their reasoning may be infinite.

The truth is, whatever you invest your time in, that thing will grow and evolve, likely for the better. If you invest your time in games, you will undoubtedly become a better gamer. If you invest it in your future, you will have a better future.

Have a great weekend !

Sahar

The Choice Of Making No Choice

Published on May 18, 2009 in Business, General and Life lessons. 1 Comment

(image source)

After a long weekend, I’m finally glad to be back home. See, I spent this last few days somewhere in Trinidad, “meeting the Fockers!”. Good food, great hospitality, was good to finally meet the family. The place is as hot as Florida if not hotter. A lot of things made no sense to me. Why the rooftops are made of metal sheets in such a hot place? Why Rum is so popular? Why the roads, houses, and living conditions are so horrendous when it seems the country is doing well from its natural resources (Gas, Oil)? Why many are not trying to better themselves?

During the weekend we spent quality time with the family, drove around the island to meet Michelle’s extended family, and in between I had time to chat with some about business, life. Internet there, while common, isn’t yet to where it should be. It should be all over, it should be more affordable.

Rum and killing one another seems to be the favorite past time there. Laventille, one of the most dangerous places in Trinidad, counts well over 200 killings since the beginning of the year. And Rum? Not only locals make little money, they choose to spend it on drinking for the most part. Pausing reality keeps one away from making a better one. I found that sickening.

On the way back to the airport after spending the weekend there, seeing a stray dog walking on a busy highway calmly towards cars as if they were not there, head down, described my feeling there. Feeling of no hope, no future, nothing really matters.

I’m going to stop here, let you think it over for a day or two.

Have a blissful day!

Sahar

This Is The Best Day Of Your Life (.Com)

Published on May 29, 2008 in General and Life lessons. 1 Comment

This all happened May 23rd 2008, last day of Traffic East.

Via This Is The Best Day Of Your Life:

On rare occasions, we all meet remarkable people who share a common spirit and outlook on life… Its almost as though you have known these good people in another life.

On May 20th, 2008 that’s exactly what happened… in of all places the Magic Kingdom… (during an internet conference in Orlando, Florida)! The following photos tell some of the story, but there is a lot more of this story to be told … And the story continues to be written.
Our sincere thanks to Dr. Christopher Hartnett, Divyank Turakhia, Gregg McNair, Lizzy Grant, Caroline Grant, Rob Grant, Ron Jackson & his family, Ray Neu & his family and so many others who made this occasion so unique… and one of the best days of our life!

Perception Is The Solution

Published on July 29, 2007 in Business, General and Life lessons. 8 Comments

As many of you know I’m an avid reader. For the majority of my life I read every day, at least a chapter or two of a couple of books a day. Over the years I tried to learn Speed Reading in order to read more. In general, most of Speed Reading is about skipping information and picking up the main keywords and main points. I didn’t like it as much.

Few days ago, on the flight back home from San Francisco, there was this young lady sitting next to me, about 18 years old, reading the latest Harry Potter book. If you wonder, this book has about 740 pages in it. So she reads and reads and reads, and when she took a short break I had to ask her how long it takes her to read the book from cover to cover. Her answer? one day!

I was totally surprised as I was just reading a similar sized book recently and it took me over a month to finish. When I do read I tend to take breaks every couple of chapters to think of things through. It worked well for me but I always wanted to read more and more books as there’s just so much great information out there.

So after that flight, as I got home and got back to reading, every time I wanted to stop after a couple of chapters, as my old habit was, I resisted. I’m now able to read hundreds of pages a day and not feel unusual, as now my perception and standards are that girl on that flight, with her Harry Potter book.

As for processing information, while I thought reading more will disturb processing the information effectively it really doesn’t. I tend to still remember most good points I read, and still think it over as before, only instead of having few points now I have more points to process and think of after and during reading.

In your life, did you go through similar situations, where perception changed a life-long habit of yours? And how did that improve your life?

How Leaders think?

Published on July 22, 2007 in ASSISTA, Business, Life lessons and Questioning Skills. 1 Comment

An eye-opening article in the NYTimes of some prominent leaders in our time who are committed to learning.

Michael Moritz (note: picture above), the venture capitalist who built a personal $1.5 billion fortune discovering the likes of Google, YouTube, Yahoo and PayPal, and taking them public, may seem preternaturally in tune with new media. But it is the imprint of old media - books by the thousands sprawling through his Bay Area house - that occupies his mind.

“My wife calls me the Imelda Marcos of books,”? Mr. Moritz said in an interview. “As soon as a book enters our home it is guaranteed a permanent place in our lives. Because I have never been able to part with even one, they have gradually accumulated like sediment.”?

Serious leaders who are serious readers build personal libraries dedicated to how to think, not how to compete. Ken Lopez, a bookseller in Hadley, Mass., says it is impossible to put together a serious library on almost any subject for less than several hundred thousand dollars.

Perhaps that is why - more than their sex lives or bank accounts - chief executives keep their libraries private. Few Nike colleagues, for example, ever saw the personal library of the founder, Phil Knight, a room behind his formal office. To enter, one had to remove one’s shoes and bow: the ceilings were low, the space intimate, the degree of reverence demanded for these volumes on Asian history, art and poetry greater than any the self-effacing Mr. Knight, who is no longer chief executive, demanded for himself.

There’s no doubt a commitment to learning is key to success. This article is yet another acknowledgment by business leaders that our education system Assista is in right direction. Among many benefits, Assista expands your mind by exposing you to questions you may have not originally thought of.