It’s About Damn Time by Arlan Hamilton. I like the read other entrepreneur’s biography. It is always shocking how easy we can access someone else’s life long experience via books. Arlan had a very tough life while she was growing up. She never attended college also didn’t have a proper family and house while she was growing up. Now, she ended up running her own VC firm in Silicon Valley. Being black and gay women from underprivileged in society in the USA made her who she is today. Definitely worth to read it. Overall she wants to show If she did it, you can do it. She wants to be a role-model for underestimated people.

The Dip by Seth Godin. I think the first time I read this book while I was in college. Somehow I needed to re-read this book. Overall this book all either get in line or get out. That means if you know what you are doing is worth it, you should keep doing it. But, if you don’t believe in what you are doing and you are an ok performer. You gotta stop it. Move on a new thing. Seth Godin is my guy I inspired by his daily newsletter every day.

The Narrow Corridor by Daron Acemoglu & James A Robinson. I’m a big fan of Daron Acemoglu. Because maybe he is from Turkey, also living in the USA and still connected where he is from and that geography. Anyway, I bought this book couple of months ago. But, I had a chance to re-read especially the topics I’m more interested in such as the Middle East and Liberty. I am reading all kinds of topics these days. One of my favorite topics in Comparative Politics. That is not an easy book to read. But definitely makes you connect you why and what is happening in today’s political arena.

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Don’t judge me! Accept me who I am.

Try to understand me. Don’t try to change me.

Be with me if you want to be with me. Don’t force yourself to be with me.

Don’t have to like me. But, you have to respect me.

Me and You….

We are not different not each other. We are here for this world to be happy.

Ship it! It doesn’t matter what it is. It’s not going to stay the same forever anyway. If you are done the first version of anything, you are not going anywhere. It is all about iteration.

Iterate better next time then Iterate it again. Most of the time, people don’t ship it because they are a super perfectionist. There is no perfect in this world. Because the world is not perfect anyway.

They scared of what “others” are going to think about them. Forget it! Best gift to yourself is: “Increasing your shipping ratio”

If you hold your breath too much, you will be out of breath. If you hold your thoughts with you too long, you will end up being miserable and tired.

So never hold it anything too long. Just share it. Let other parties know what you feeling. It can be written notes or phone calls. Start the conversation. Don’t expect others to take the initiative. If it bothers you, don’t hold it

Michael Altshuler says, “The bad news is time flies. The good news is you’re the pilot.”

Are you the pilot? Or, Are you the passenger?

Do you know where are you heading to?

Who forced you to take this trip?

Do you think to settle in when you arrive at your destination or that is the only a temporary trip?

Life is figuring out these and many more questions while you are flying one plane to another one.

The best way to excel any skills is: Teaching

It doesn’t matter how good you are. Just start to share what you already know with others.

Start with saying “ I’m also new in this field but so far I have learned this much, If you interest in learning with me, yeah let’s have a call or video chat”. You are setting expectations not high. Even if you are an expert, still a lot of room to grow and learn within the field. Never get satisfied with what do you have. You will surprise how much you will gain knowledge by sharing and teaching others.

These days, I don’t want to stop working. The time I am not with my computer, still thinking day and night about work. It doesn’t give any anxiety. Although it gives me joy.

Some of you might think this is not healthy, working that much. I respect your opinion. But, for me, work is not working. Work is my way to accomplish new things I want to achieve. No one is forcing me.

Work & Life balance sounds amazing. The biggest advocate of this “balance” idea is either people who accomplished a lot. Biggest achievers are saying because they think “I wish I spent more time with other things” But, If they did it, I don’t think so they would able to get shit done that many things.

Today, I completed 1 hour “Doing Nothing” meditation. Literally, you sit down and close your eyes. And “Doing nothing”. Literally, nothing. No mantra, no breath, no focus, no background music.

All you do just sit down and let your mind go wherever wants to go. Yesterday, I did between 7:00 to 8 pm. It was very challenging. I never sit down in my life and closed my eyes doing nothing that long. After 10-15 minutes I said I’m done. But, I didn’t give up. In the middle of the meditation, I actually enjoyed and didn’t even remember how it ended.

Today morning, I did between 9:40-10:40 am. I think I’m going to do more earlier. Normally I get around 6:30-7 am during the weekdays. So, I need maybe get up 6 am to try to do it between 6-7 am.

This 60 days challenge started with one of my favorite guys in the world Naval Ravikant. I never met him in person but I introduced by my friend back in 2014 the time we were raising Angel Round. And, he passed to invest us 🙂 But, somehow I know him more than most of my close friends.

If you want to learn more about “Naval’s The Art of Doing Nothing” Challenge check this tweet thread

This week I had zoom meetings with people from various countries, some of which I have never been to like Switzerland and Russia. We rarely meet with our customers in person. Mostly our meetings happen through hangout links, zoom, or via email. Because our customers are very fast forward and agile like us, physical location really doesn’t matter. What matters most to them is how we are helping them.

Many of my meetings are internal ones as well. We have a pretty well-distributed team (Turkey, UK, Japan, USA, and Korea). I hope we can continue to expand the size of the team. 

Honestly, I don’t believe in location anymore. If you are committed to helping customers either you work in their timezone or solve their problems while they are sleeping:) 

Note: Having customers from 65+ countries I want to say “ I’m very grateful for what my team is accomplishing” They are the best.

When you feel, you feel it. That’s what I’m feeling nowadays. Things are finally working. Things I have been trying to figure out the last 7 years just started to bloom.

Don’t give up if you really believe what you are working is soooooo BIG! If you don’t believe it, just quit today. Don’t try to be mediocre. Aim to be BEST!

It takes time there is no short cut win. I’m not saying I’m winning big time. I just started to see results lately. Even seeing early results drive me more than ever