Are you sure you are done?

Think about it again!

What are your dreams & goals?

I am not saying “Go for it!”

Say asking “ Are you sure?”

Yesterday, I had a great zoom webinar with 180+ college students from Turkey hosted by Bogazici University ( one of the most prestigious schools). I love to chat/talk with a young and energetic group of people. After I shared my story and some of my best business practices. I figured out all my business-related tips are not only for business but also for life.

Here are my extended tips for you to make your college life more fun, productive, and resourceful :

1. Read: Read as much as you can. It doesn’t matter what you are reading in the beginning. Reading they say in the beginning, junk food. After a while, when you know what you like and not, you can switch to other interesting topics for you. You will carefully select them, like choosing healthy food vs. fast foods.
2. Join or start your own student club: Join one of those student clubs. But, most of the clubs, at least in my time, had so much hierarchical structure. If you like none of them, start your own. You need to start only convince one friend. You can even start an unofficial “zoom club” before going back to school.
3. Work free: List what do you like to do. And find which one of them you really love, and you can even do it for free. Then find who’s expert in this field in your city, then reach out to that person and say, “ why are you a good fit? and how you can help him with a short/sweet message.
4. Travel: Travel is a good teacher—especially the ones who are not in your comfort zone. Go! Discover other countries/cultures. If you don’t have a budget, start to save (I’ll talk about the next tip). So many countries are super-cheap; all you need to buy a ticket in advance or might even walk or bike ( just google those people who are traveling the world with a bike or walking)
5. Money 101: Learn basic finance and accounting—so many free great videos on Youtube.
6. Eliminate Bad Energy: Be around the people who are adding value to you. Avoid power consumers. I should call them power suckers. All they do talk and suck your energy and never return anything to you
7. Learn failing: Try as much as you can. Don’t afraid to test/experimenting if you need motivation about this. Look at me! I started from the bottom and now running the multi-million-dollar revenue of a company with clients from 70+ countries and growing every day!
8. Be unique: This is your game! No Game Over! Don’t compare & compete with yourself with the “others”. They have no idea what they are doing anyway. Focus on only YOU! There is the only person you can change is YOU
9. Play Long Game: Anything, in the beginning, is hard. Don’t worry. Be patient with results. The practice is all matters. Don’t try to be famous or rich in a couple of months or years. The longer you play the game, the longer you will stay the game!
10. Give: Just give! Don’t expect your return. Write, Share, Teach, Sing, Paint…. Do whatever you want to do. But, don’t be greedy and ask, “what’s my cut”?

There is no mistake. Either you will or learn. Then, why are we calling those moments “mistakes”? They are happy accidents. It is a place that can help you to learn.

We all start to finish the lines as a winner. If we win all the contests, what’s the point of competing anyway?

We need to experience those happy accidents to accel and grow!

Let’s try to call our down moments “happy accidents” instead of mistakes.

You are asking for commitment in exchange for giving back.

Stay with me, Grow with me!

What are you waiting for? No answer will come to you unless you try and figure it out yourself! What’s this hesitation? Who’s life is this?

Did you love your life or just living?

Your power is your answer. Believe me, your authentic identity is the key to find yourself.

These two are growing up in my backyard. We don’t buy any lemon since we moved this house. Mints are kind of new! We planted them last year, and they keep growing by themselves. Lemons are the same too. We picked one lemon and tree gives back to us 2-3 lemons minimum. Very little maintenance. I think they are my favorite in this setup.

I try to be like lemon & mint to my friends. If they come to one step, for sure I’ll go minimum more than one step. Also I like the relationships without any drama. Don’t get me wrong I’m not expecting smooth ride all the time but I don’t like too much noises.

It’s hard to explain yourself to an audience who has no idea what you are doing or have been through in your life.

You might even not know what is going on with you? You think that you are dealing with all ups and downs in your life until you come across another person who has the same experiences as you. And, they know you without any introduction. They are like diamond miners. They know precisely what’s diamond and what’s trash. You are unique only in the right environment and under the right hands.

It doesn’t work out doesn’t mean you need to stop trying again. It means this time is not the right time. Change your approach and try again. It’s fun if you are enjoying the process instead of keep thinking about your outcome.

Let me give you an example from my end. I love reading interesting blogs, books, Wikipedia articles without almost n agenda.And, I do those things every day religiously. Because I can’t wait to get up and learn new things every single day. Does it mean after learning that much knowledge, I win my all battles? Not at all;) But, I f*ckin love my momentum. I feel it! Every night before I go sleep, I know I’m fully lived that day. No matter happens, keep learning!

We went to dinner with my wife today one of our favorite sushi places in our town. However, the place is very hard to find a table. You need to call a couple of weeks in advance to reserve a table. Opentable, Yelp or other online reservation system doesn’t work out for them. Or another option is to show up their front door the time they opened. We did the second option, and it didn’t work out. They said people lined up almost an hour before to eat there. That’s insane to me.

Anyway, my wife asked the guy where is the other place you eat sushi when you do outside of your shop? And he whispered a place only a block away. We went there and voila. The restaurant was empty, and we got a great table. I was in the beginning the skeptical because I never heard their name and we were the only people were dining. Later we had our sushis. Oh my god, their nigiris ( we only eat original sushi it’s called nigiri google it if you don’t know) were amazing. Almost as good as we had in Tokyo. If she didn’t ask the guy who is technically industry expert, we never knew the place. So, people trust the people who are in the industry. Especially the ones who do their work good.