Be make sure where are you going?

we all live in fast paced lives. That’s almost impossible to ask ourselves “ Is this the place am I goin or I ended up be here ?”

We are in London for business meetings and building relationships. I always say don’t build a connection build relationship.

When we started in mid-2013, we were nobody in the industry. Now, we are one of the leading solutions in the app industry. On the first day of the PocketGamer Event, we met hundreds of our clients, friends, and partners. Also, we shared our best practices and insights with Game Industry leaders.

I have a chance to see the growth and failure of thousands of app companies thanks to the MobileAction Insights and Intelligence platform. I think the biggest success factor is Grit. No matter what happens you or what you are doing. Keep believing your cause of efforts and with passion. You will eventually learn from mistakes and you can always start over.

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Honestly, I can easily say it doesn’t matter what you are doing it’s all about how much do you want it. Sooner or later you will achieve what you are dreaming about. When we started MobileAction, I was trying so hard to convince the app companies to give a try to us. Now, hundreds of them signing up themselves our platform organically. If you stay somewhere long enough and keep innovating with keeping your bigger vision, it’ll pay off.

If you are interested in Grit, read this book by Angela Duckworth.

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I feel we are rushing all the time. Especially me.  I’m pretty much well known to get shit done.

Ok, I hear you. I know being aggressive is excellent if you are running your own company. Or anything you do. Sometimes we are mixing a busy calendar, and workflow equals more business opportunities. That doesn’t correlate all the time.

Look at yourself or your business like an investor. Do you do invest what you do if you are an outsider? What will be the first thing you will fix? What’s all the low hanging fruits? 

The first time I flew, it was 2007. I went to Istanbul from Ankara. It was a day business trip. I did a surprise for my potential client while I was working with my startup at the college. I set up a call meeting with an advertiser who wanted to run ads on my website. When he called me, I walked in their office:) I thought I was going to impress them to close the deal faster. It still took time. Anyway, It helped me to take my first flight. 

Now, I’m writing this post on the airplane. I’ll be in London for the next couple of days for a business conference. I’ll be speaking about competitive advertising intelligence in the game industry on mobile. 

Life is weird. A little bit more than a decade ago, I never went overseas and flew only one time domestic. Now, I’m flying for speaking on the  conferences, closing deals, doing business partnerships, etc

Every time on the plane, I do think about the past and future. Feeling zooming out yourself from daily routine. I definitely encourage you guys at least once a month take a short flight. Go somewhere it doesn’t matter where it is. Just jump on the place with piece a paper and pen. It definitely helps you and your business. 

Mask means “a cover or partial cover for the face used for disguise” according to Merriam Webster Dictionary. That’s a physical mask definition. I’m going to talk about emotional masks.

We all do have masks. We use depends on occasions. Those are all fine. You don’t need to explain to me or someone else why do you have a mask. That’s good if you are aware of them. You can able to take off when the occasion or situation over.

On the other hand, the ones you do keep them all the time. In the beginning, you did cover some of your weaknesses or parts you didn’t want to show others. Later, you might even forget their existence. Because you are not yourself anymore.

I know this is the situation we are always in.

I felt many times I’m going to say “No” to this person. In reality, I keep saying “Yes”.

Why am I like that?

I believe I wanna be known as a “ Yes MAN”.

Greg McKeown said in his book Essentialism

“One reason is that in our society we are punished for good behavior (saying no) and rewarded for bad behavior (saying yes). “

Yeah, we do like people who always help us. Then, we are building some bond between that if s/he says “NO”. We all forget all the “YES” and got mad.

Honestly, we can not keep everyone “Happy”. We should take our time before we make any decision. Here is the best practice for you :

-Don’t reply email or text message instantly, If it’s a YES or NO question. Wait at least 5 minutes. Go outside, have a coffee or do exercise then give your answer. I actually do a couple of pushups before saying anything.

Try the next couple of days and let me know how it works out.

We are all busy with thinking but not doing.

I know this is not the first time you heard this. Everybody keeps saying it.

Why and what are we scared of?

None of the thing around us depends on our control. It looks like we are controlling everything. All we can do control ourselves.

You scared of losing your loved ones. What you are going to do if they are already made up their decision?

You scared of losing your top paying customers. What you don’t know maybe your current client and competitor’s account executive have built relationships last couple of years while you were not paying attention.

Don’t be scared. You don’t know anything. All you know what you don’t know.

So, keep testing, learning, and experimenting till find it which one is going to work for you.

It’s been a while I spent time with my parents. They came to visit me and my wife last week. Honestly, It’s a good feeling when your mom and dad are around.

You don’t know what you exactly to do with them especially both of them are into different things.

I like the feeling of someone who knows since the beginning of your life journey. On the other hand, who doesn’t know what’s going on in your life too much.

After I turned 30, I feel more close to my roots. I don’t worry anymore to explain myself to others. I am who I am.

Meeting parents from time to time is a good reminder you are someone’s child. Like everybody else. It doesn’t matter how far from them.

Your value doesn’t come from what you do, It comes from who you are.

You should have a growth mindset. It means whatever happens to you, they are helping you. That mindset is super healthy to drive you to be a better version of yourself.

Every day is full of adventures, challenges and unknown. That’s why it’s so beautiful. We are collecting memories and experiences which are essential for our life journey.

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Remember this game is a long-term game. There is no game over. You can start over and over again.

Don’t be a short-term thinking person. You don’t spend your valuable time for calculating what’s my cut from every single transaction

Invest yourself and value relationships instead of connection. And you shouldn’t forget the relationship takes time. If you want to be good something, you need to be in 100 percent. It takes around 10 years to build knowledge, network, and trust.

You can’t buy this time. Be patient.

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