Press "Enter" to skip to content

The Need To Succeed – عبدالله أبو شيخ | Abdullah Abu Sheikh | TEDxYU


salam-o-alaikum how do I become a
successful entrepreneur or how do I
become a successful businessman those
are questions often asked by a lot of us
at different stages in our life but in
order first understand how to become
successful businessmen or a successful
entrepreneurs I think we first need to
know the difference between
entrepreneurs and everybody else in the
business world or in the corporate world
and to explain that I’m going to use a
story story takes place in the nineteen
hundred’s United States of America where
two entities were in competition over
inventing the exact same machine the
first entity was Professor engineer
somewhere Langley who at the time was
financially sponsored by the United
States government
happened to be a member of the board of
a member of the high board of
universities and was one of the most
famous and prominent characters of his
time the other entity on the other hand
were two brothers who did not finish
high school who got all their financing
from a bicycle repair shop that the
small bicycle repair shop that they
owned and who lived in one of the most
remote locations of the country which
didn’t give them as much Network as that
of Professor Langley’s now if I were to
ask all of you here today who would you
bet on or who would you invest in who
would you think will succeed at
investing the machine I think most of us
would go for the first person for
professor Langley because he has more
qualifications but to everyone’s
surprise in the year 1900 the Wright
brothers set flight to the first
aircraft known in mankind in mankind’s
history so what is it but they had and
he did it what was their secret
ingredient of success was it money it
wasn’t it wasn’t the network connection
it wasn’t even the scientific knowledge
what the Wright brothers had that
Professor Langley did not was a need a
desperate need to succeed
because for professor Langley success
was an option had he failed which he did
he would have still been a famous and a
rich character of his time for the
Wright brothers success was their only
way out of their suffering if they
failed nobody would have heard about
them they would have still been poor
they would have still lived in poverty
that made success their only option and
this is the case of almost every
extravagant success will ever come
across it stands out of absolute
necessity when you make success your
only option
you’re probably bound to succeed to put
this in perspective in the early 1500s
there was a Spanish general by the name
of Hernan Cortes he had a dream of
establishing an empire on the shores of
today’s world Mexico so he built a fleet
of ships sailed all the way across the
ocean got to Mexico and the first thing
he did when he got to Mexico was to
order his soldiers to burn all the ships
Curtis did that to instill a sense of
urgency in his soldiers to show them
that their options were either death on
a foreign land or winning the war and
that led them to winning the war and
establishing what was known as the Aztec
empire one of the most prosperous
empires in human history
this stands to prove that success almost
never stems out of comfort but always
stems out of hardship and suffering does
that mean that entrepreneurs are
successful people are the only people
who suffer in their life does that mean
they’re the only people with hardship
everybody has hardship in their life
everyone is born with a certain amount
of hardship that they go through day to
day the difference is a lot of people
find a slight spot as a very small spot
in their life with the slightest sense
of ease or comfort in it and they settle
in it they stay there they call it the
comfort zone and I’ll tell you a little
secret about the comfort zone it is
never really comfortable that is why I
often run through people who have been
working the exact same job for 10 15 20
years when you ask them about it they go
like I hate my job I hate my house I
don’t like my boss I hate my salary I
like my wife know my wife like I’m
probably something about their life this
is because this person at some point in
their life
on this little sweet spot and settled in
it stopped resisting stop moving forward
and just stayed in it and this is true
of the human condition as well a lot of
nation go through a lot of risk
prosperity when they start out of
suffering they keep going up until they
get comfortable and then they start
feeling one of my very good mentors and
professors dr. bi Shetty taught me that
success has two mothers and one enemy
but the Shetty told me that the enemy of
success is comfort because we human
beings are adaptive creatures in nature
a Lassa paralysis in the Koran Majuli
Palance anova eva and mankind were
created weak the weakness of mankind is
our natural inclination towards comfort
towards doing what’s easy towards
staying content and this is also true as
I said of the human condition we’ve seen
a lot of nations throughout the history
they rise and the minute they get
comfortable they fail and this also
applies to the business world and
business in the business world you have
a saying for family businesses it says
the first generation builds the second
generation sustains and the third
generation demolishes or destroys this
is because probably the first generation
had a sense of urgency they needed to
build the second generation did not
build anything but at some kind of
education from their elders the third
generation what I like to call the
children of comfort destroy everything
and I want to stop at one point here and
just emphasize because I’ve seen it
happen a lot in my generation a lot of
people come up to me and they think that
because someone is born into a more
financially comfortable background or
someone is bought as born richer they
have better odds at succeeding in life
and I want to say that this is
absolutely wrong because people who are
born into comfort usually live with the
handout mentality mommy gave me this
that he gave me that there used to being
hand fed they’re used to being given
stuff they don’t have it in them to go
out there and suffer and strive and
persist to get what they want so if you
think that because you’re poorer than
someone you’re not that you don’t have
the same odds of succeeding you’re wrong
in my experience which people are the
first ones to fall there’s a there’s a
saying that
that that we have a lot of people
nowadays because of mainstream media
this also relate to the way the media
controls her our perspective of success
a lot of the time the media tries to
romanticize and dramatis eyes the idea
of success they try to glorify overnight
successes and most of the time they try
to monetize success they try to put
$1.00 but a dollar value on successful
people and I want to argue this point
using an analogy made by Peter Thiel one
of the most successful entrepreneurs of
our time
Peter Thiel says imagine a man who is
very poor coming out of poverty starts a
very small business and year after year
starts growing it up a little bit at a
time in 50 years this man had done a lot
of deals traveled the world and made 100
million dollars if I were to ask you
would you say this man is a successful
businessman I would say yes if I told
you now that this man on the day he died
his two-year-old son inherited 100
million dollars from him would you say
that the two-year-old kid is a
successful person a successful
businessman probably not although both
of them at the exact same dollar figure
in their bank accounts the father was a
success story the son was not this
stands to prove that success is not a
destination
it’s not somewhere you get success is
just a journey it’s the zero to 100 it’s
not the hundred and this time to prove
that money is never the endpoint of
success but it’s just a byproduct on the
path of successful people so to those
who ask what is the formula of success
or how what are the steps to becoming
successful I think this question in
essence is wrong I don’t I don’t think
there is a four-minute to becoming
successful but I know what is not the
formula if you think that success is
gonna come overnight you’re wrong
if you think is gonna happen without
sacrifice you’re also wrong and if you
think you’re going to get successful in
your comfort zone you are absolutely
wrong but if you’re asking what is the
first step on the path of successful
people it is to get out of your comfort
zone it is to get out and start giving
up on the things you think you can’t
live without you might lose sleep you
might lose some friends you might as
well lose some stature or money but if
you are not willing to sacrifice for
your dream then your dream is probably
not precious
for you a mama chef has a famous quote
of poetry says suffer to Drebin a man to
father who leave and you will find
better than what you’ve left behind one
sub finality that I see philosophy and
set new homes for that is the beauty of
life fellows do lowlife Europe will rob
him after Assad for had Lions not left
the forest we would have never known how
fierce of an animal they were was Samuel
Ola Philip about Scylla musubi and had
the arrow not left the bow it would have
never hit its target and if you never
leave your comfort zone you will never
get to who you want to get it’s just as
easy as that
now you might wonder what is it that
keeps those people feel those successful
people what is it that keeps them going
what is it that makes them give up so
much on their way to become successful
without complaining without feeling the
fatigue without getting tired without
getting angry this thing is called
passion anyone who’s achieved anything
worth mentioning at life had probably a
very deep deep passion towards it so
what is passion from an intellectual
intelligence standpoint imam al-ghazali
defined passion as the mixture between
love and anger love and anger two of the
most powerful emotions experienced by
humans entrepreneurs in nature are angry
they don’t want to be poor they don’t
want to live in poverty they don’t want
to work 18 hours a day they don’t want
to have a boss and that creates a sense
of urgency to leave their current
situation in but at this in the other
hand they have deep deep love towards
their end point towards their goal
towards their target they can imagine if
they can see it they can envision it
while everyone else thinks their
elucidating when no one else believes in
them they can see it happening and this
is what keeps them fueled this is what
keeps them going this brings me to the
last part of my speech and that is woman
and entrepreneurship in the science of
emotional intelligence and in the
science of psychology it is usually
argued that women have a much deeper
emotional capacity than men and
throughout history a lot of women played
most pivotal and important roles and the
prosperity and well-being of their
cultures and economies at some point
though men happened to forget or forego
the importance of a woman and the
economy they insist namely in this part
of the world and to my surprise you
often hear them blaming it on religion
you hear people saying it’s Haram it’s a
it’s not a woman’s place it’s a man’s
world those sorts of things so I want to
give the good example of Khadijah of the
allah or anna who was a woman out of the
Arabian desert
run a trade organization that spanned
all across Arabia and happen to have a
lot of employees one of those employees
happened to be prophet mohammed salah
salem this stands to prove that not only
is islam for women and that for a woman
being in the economy or being in the
business market but it’s Lamas for women
leading in the business market and and
if the prophet salaallah alayhi assalam
worked for a woman i don’t think any of
us can have a problem with with that
economically speaking today more than 9
million economically speaking today more
than nine million businesses are run by
women and those businesses grow at two
times the rate of same sized businesses
run by men this shows that the economy’s
cultures countries that do not utilize
women their absolute full potential
lose them lose out and miss out on a lot
of great opportunities of economic and
financial prosperity and social outcome
I personally I as a man I was taught how
to read walk talk and dress neat by a
woman so I don’t find myself or any
other man for that matter in a position
to dictate or impose what a woman can I
cannot do now in the end where we’re all
going to fall someday we’re all going to
fail and it’s just the case of nature if
you ever dare to try anything new you’re
prone to failure you’re prone to failing
the problem is most of the people and
most of us spend a lot of time a
tremendous amount of time trying to
build something to fall back on to try
to build a safety net those people never
really make it further away from their
safety nets they’re stuck if you’re
going to fall
and you are you might as well fall
forward fall out of your comfort zone
because at least then that will bring
you one step closer to your target the
word used in Arabic to describe this
world is dunya comes from the root word
then I add new dunya
it means the lowest place or rock-bottom
and if you’re already at rock bottom the
only way you’re meant to go is up you’re
only meant to ascend
but the path up is difficult the bath up
is full of resistance
my friend is shunned Azhar likes to call
the path down the path of least
resistance because anyone can slide down
but the path up is full of resistance
it’s difficult and when life resists you
you need to present life you need to
have resistance in you and take it from
me nothing in life can take the place of
resistance talents cannot the world is
full of unsuccessful talented men genius
cannot the the the word unrewarded
genius is almost in the dictionary now
it’s almost a proverb education cannot
there is nothing more than ignored
intellect out there and abandoned
intellectuals talent and the resistance
and determination only are omnipotent if
you need your dreams to happen I know
you all came here today because you have
dreams you have ambitions you want to be
something you have opinions you want to
vocalize it but that’s the easy point
everybody has an opinion everybody has a
dream everybody sees something that they
want to be if you want it to be reality
you need to get out there and do the
work you need to get out there and give
yourself a reason to wake up in the
morning every day and put in the effort
you need to stop giving yourself the
excuse if you think you’re not
succeeding because you’re not rich
enough Steve Jobs started out in a
garage if you think you’re not
successful because you’re not strong
enough Stephen Hawking change the world
from a wheelchair if you think you’re
not succeeding because you’re not
educated enough prophet muhammad
sallallaahu salam was an illiterate so
you need to cut down on the excuses stop
you need to stop giving yourself excuse
you need to stop waiting I hear a lot of
people nowadays waiting for the right
time and the right place the right place
is right here the right time is right
now I don’t know why people get the
notion that their promise that tomorrow
nobody promised you a tomorrow nobody
you’re not entitled to waking up in the
morning so if you were up to do
something you need to do it right now
that’s the only time you have one of my
favorite things by Oscar Wilde says that
this world is a merchant and it will
sell you anything at the price of labor
this world is a merchant and it will
sell you anything at the price of labor
so you need to get out there and pay the
price you need to get out there and
labor and work hard if your dream is
dear enough to you and you want to see
it happen if you believe in the beauty
of your dream you need to get out there
and make it work
a very famous coat of Arabic poetry
sesemann Canada Holloman Watanabe he’ll
modified me when he asked me are you
born of Sahu men told me he fell muak
below usher on vo me why Ossie do they
know Daria at that yes the hail for the
style italic Muhammad Abhiyan when kulla
shay’in willfully La Habra will put here
Ali Mooka Phaeton have a superb journey
if you have a dream and you believe in
the beauty of it protect it and protect
yourself from it because dreams grow
much faster than their owners and the
death of time increases until it’s
impossible because you keep saying
tomorrow tomorrow tomorrow and tomorrow
never comes and when the death of time
is impossible you will accept whatever
cheap price life’s gives you life gives
you for your labor you will take
whatever life’s pays you for your years
of struggle
if there is one thing I know in life if
there is one thing I have learned is
that nobody will ever pay you what
you’re worth
nobody will ever give you what you’re
worth nobody knows your full true
potential
nobody knows what you are except for you
so if you don’t go out there and set
your own price name your own value you
are about to take the price of life and
if you leave it to life to set your
price life will give you
he’s on your dollar my friend and I’m
pretty sure – all of you will get out
there name your own prices and be very
successful people and thank you all very
much [Applause]

Please follow and like us: