We all have been there, the ICO investment process;

1- You see some reviews about an AMAZING ICO
2- Than you see some influencers shilling it
3- Of course some big ICO Pools screaming its name.
4- You got FOMO’ed, and you invest your precious eths!
5- ICO was super successful, you are happy!
6- Yet somehow token price goes down?
7- Because some big investors bought the coins with 200% bonuses, no lockup period.
8- They are dumping it as soon as it hits the exchange.
9- Suddenly your five eth worth of coins becomes one eth worth ( or less)
10- And you scream “HODL!” for months to come.

Rinse and repeat! I was one of the victims of this vicious cycle as well!
And, the scarier thing is, this is not the worst part of it.

Hear me out;

There is NO ONE regulating the ICOs. More than 80% of ICOs are scam, less than 8% of it maybe will reach the exchange stage only. So there is 92% probability that your money is gone.

The founder’s responsibility is only ethical. No law, regulation or governance body controls the flow of the money, the quality of the work and the timeline. They have the money up front, so there is no tension. If they are authentic in their project and vision, then that’s good; otherwise, your investment is gone.

Don’t get me wrong; I am not against the democratization of funding. There were lots of shark VCs who paid a little for lots of equity and even drive outstanding startups to failure with wrong valuations and management.

However, ICOs needs to be governed and audited.

An ideal model would be something like this ;

• An auditor body to make sure that funds collected in the right way, protecting the long tail investors’ interest. This auditor body will make sure that ICO is not a scam, the project team is legit, and the process is reliable.
• A governance body to control the releasing of funds to the ICO team. So after the fund collected successfully, it will be controlled by a governance body that releases the fund according to milestones. I am not talking about entirely restrictive approach; more like making sure that team is working, the project is keeping up with the timeline, so on.
• Moreover, everything published transparently regularly to the investors, so they can follow up with what is going on inside the company.

What do you think? Share your thoughts in comments or reach me out on twitter ( @alemsah)

7 Months ago, I wrote this article about ICO marketing which got a huge attraction and sparked lots of conversation around it (thanks!)

Like everything in their infant stage, ICO marketing also transformed in the same period. 7 Months ago it was all about public sales and gas wars, and now it’s all about private seed rounds.

I’ve been working with several ICOs for their token sale process, and those learnings helped me a lot to understand the future of ICO marketing.

Let me share with you what I have been thinking;

Since ICOs become more and more invite only, and most of them are even not planning to do a public token sale, marketing need for the pre-ICO process is turning out to be less critical. Pre-ICO and during the ICO part of the ICO marketing becomes more about “investor meetings” and “road shows.”

In contrast, there were so many successful ICOs that failed to maintain the same quality of communication and marketing after the ICO process. This failure shows us a critical problem; most of those ICO teams didn’t plan for what would happen after the ICO. As a result; loss of trust, devaluation of the token, lots of angry followers and empty telegram channels.

Also, the psychology of the entrepreneurs can be understood; here you finally got 40 M USD, and at least that much money worth tokens, naturally you want to create what you were dreaming about and you want to focus on the product entirely, right?

No, wrong, very wrong.

Since an ICO is not a regular startup, you have to do things differently, you have to have at least two business streams at the same time ;

• First, you need an active marketing team, which keeps the hype increasing ( or maintaining ) POST-ICO. Call it marketing gimmicks if you want, but it’s necessary. You have to show timelines, milestones, create content for social media, plan to enter into exchanges, and you have to keep proving your face around. This is not a small task and since you have enough money, hire a professional team.
• Second, the product team. While the product team is working on the product, make them part of the marketing as well. Weekly updates, regular interviews, collaboration news, MVPs, demos, you name it, you will need it. There are blockchain startups out there who are doing a fantastic job with no PR at all, and their token value is regularly decreasing.

Now, some of you can argue that until the product is out, PR is not necessary. For a regular startup, I might agree with you, but with blockchain ICOs I think it’s about hype as well as the product. ( at least, for now! )

So as well as an excellent tech team and a CTO, you need a very smart CMO and -if needed- a marketing partner. Luckily, there are lots of good leading agencies all around the world, who worked with startups before and created success stories. So, use them.

And let’s list ICOs with successful Post-ICO marketing, send me your examples ( alemsah.ozturk@icoswat.team )

Your comments are always welcome, shout out to me @alemsah

ICOs are becoming the new standard for entrepreneurs to get invested by communities. If they can design it in a right way, that is.

In 2017, there is more than 4.2 billion dollar collected via ICOs!

But, although there are many ICOs out there, I think for most of them, their marketing plan and the way they handle user experience journey is really bad.

There is an opportunity lying there for advertising and digital agencies in that spot! Since we know how to create good case studies for award shows and clients and we design many apps/websites we know how to do it in its best form. Moreover, brand communication and creating impactful ads is our industry’s main power. So, new ICOs could use the advertising and marketing industry’s expertise to their advantage!

Let’s look at some of the common mistakes in the ICO processes from a brand communication and user experience perspective;

1- Lack of Clear statement of the project and why they are doing an ICO?

Let’s say you saw an ICO, went to their website, read the whitepaper, and you have this question:
“Why we need this startup and this service on blockchain?”

Currently, this is the biggest problem. How the startup efficiently use blockchain abilities to its fullest for their advantages? Why?

If you can’t find that, skip that ICO.

2- Lack of Clear Vision Statement for the future of product (roadmap)

Let’s say you understand the why portion of the project. The second question is the vision;

• When this startup will become successful, what will change in the world?
• How will it expand the effect of success?
• Do they have a roadmap for products and services they are planning?
• Are they planning to become part of a currently available ecosystem or will they become a new ecosystem?

These questions need to be answered. Look out for them.

3- Lack of the simplified version of whitepaper & “What this startup does” video

Yes, most of the ICOs have videos, but they are awful. Could you please work with a good agency to create a killer video? You are asking for 20M+ and that video is not gonna help you!

A good case video is like a good commercial; it creates a desire to participate, it helps you understand better what is the vision and give you a clear idea about how it works and how it’s going to create an impact.

A good one is ;
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1&v=ojCllvc0PZI

4- Lack of strong team communication & advisors

If you are an entrepreneur or angel investor, you already know that having an idea means nothing until you make it happen. To make it happen, you need the right people at first.

Same goes for ICOs;

• Do they a good team?
• Does that team have a previous experience in the industry?
• Do they understand the blockchain technology and what it offers?
• Do they have good advisors with previous experience with industry and/or blockchain? What will they bring to the table?
• Check the AMA ( ask me anything ) sessions of the founders. Challenge them, follow their Medium pages and their social media account. Make sure you believe that they can deliver.

5- Lack of a marketing plan

Even the best product out there needs a brand communication and marketing plan to reach out the right target. So, make sure the ICO team has the right channels activated. Lack of this represents the lack of understanding the business realities and means that in the future company will suffer.

Ask this questions;

• Do they activate the right channels?
• Are they using twitter/facebook/reddit/blockchain sites actively?
• Do they have an active telegram channel?
• Are they giving interviews in public channels like Business Insider, Huffington post etc?
• Are they working with influencers from both crypto world and the target industry?
• Do they keep the momentum going on? Creating buzz and excitement around the team, product, and the ICO process?

6- Not using the right online marketing tools

As part of the question above and also needs to be mentioned is ; the efficient use of online marketing tools, especially remarketing and retargeting.

Today digital marketing gives us lots of tools to target the right audience and use the data we have to create a better journey. This way we can target and find the right people to be part of our ICO.

Look for the signs, if they have a right marketing team, they should be optimizing content and channels for this as well.

7- Badly designed tokenomics

Token Economics or as we called tokenomics is the conceptual framework of how the token is going to work when it’s distributed and how the value structure will work around it.

So tokenomics means = token value, utility and usage.

A good framework we can share here is;

Understand the economy of the token also represents the future value of it. Will it be 2 USD token or 200 USD token? This represents the ROI of your investment, so make sure you understand how and why.

Also, investment cap ( for the ICO and personal investment both ) and how the money is going to be used, how and when founders would cash out their tokens is also very critical.

Everything leads to understanding if this is a scam ICO or a proper startup.

8- No personal cap for investors

This is an instant red alert. If there is no personal cap means some whale could invest 500 eth and then dump it when it hits a certain number that satisfies him, letting the market collapse for that token.

So, instant red alarm means get away or invest in your own responsibility

9- No defined hard cap for ICO

Again, another red alert. This means we want as much money as possible and don’t care what is going to happen to the startup because we want your money! Hard cap means a plan, a structure.

A good ICO should have both: a personal cap for investors and a hard cap for the ICO.

10- Lack of game theory approach

Gamification methods are widely used by ICOs. The best one I saw so far is definitely Gems and Beetoken. They both manage their community very well, create bounties to spread the word, make users understand the product better and get more attention.

Also, the community creates content around the brand, that content later becomes the gifs, reaction stickers and so on, basically creating a meme, a culture around the brand.

Bounty programmes are good, but it should clearly define several bonuses for different types of contribution.

Gamification could be a combination of the good referral system, rewards, and some viral activation ideas. Working with an agency could help ICOs spread faster and create high-quality content for users.

11- No referral system or badly designed one

Referral systems help people get excited because they can get extra tokens for free. So, they start inviting friends, post into forums and groups, thus creating buzz around it as well.

The best system should have 3 features;

• A bonus for inviting people and get award by registration ( small reward)
• A bonus for people who invested into the ICO ( big reward, usually a percentage)
• An instant notification system showing when and who joined via your referral id, so you can get more excited.

12- Badly designed forms for registration and KYC

Everyone that works in the UX business knows that a badly designed form is an instant doom. So why ICOs have bad forms? Probably lack of right partners.

But especially for Know Your Customers ( KYC ) processes a solid ICO works with external partners to make sure that process goes flawlessly. Some of these partners are have more detailed forms but it pays in the end.

The challenge here is the managing the hype. When your ICO gets the 50k submission and you have to start your ICO in a week and can’t handle the load, you create your own PR nightmare, people screaming in twitter and telegram.

So;

• Design a well-thought user journey
• Work with the right partner
• Expect a heavy load and get your resources ready

If you are investing in any ICO, look for this signs as well.

13- Lack of high-quality community management

Let’s say you did everything right and create and amazing hype around your ICO, people are flowing into your telegram, screaming “SHUT UP AND TAKE MY MONEY”.

And you didn’t plan it right, you are understaffed. Can’t handle the love.

Instant Crisis! Welcome to the hell.

So, whatever you do, don’t plan on spending less money on community management. Work with a proper size team with knowledge of managing the community, especially angry mobs. ( telco background works wonders )

If you are an investor, planning to invest into ICOs, look how they manage their communities. It shows how they will create and manage their ecosystem in the future.

14- Lack of crisis management knowledge

Shit could happen. Period.
Shit always happens. Period.

Even the best designed ICOs, has problems and will have problems. That’s the nature of any business. The trick lies in knowing how to manage a crisis.

The smart ICO team should have a crisis management plan. And should execute it seamlessly and efficiently when it’s needed.

Biggest crisis we are seeing are ;

• Scamming the ICO participants with wrong addresses
• Dates shift because of unseen problems
• Websites can’t handle the overload during the sale process
• People scamming / flooding telegram channels
• ICO Website hacked.

So, make sure the ICO you are investing managing the processes in a smart and efficient way. That’s a BIG plus.

And, the end! Make sure that everything checks out before investing an ICO or starting one. Hope you will have a good investment!

Alemşah Öztürk is helping brands become successful in the digital world since 1995. He also invested in 20+ startups and marketing consultant for upcoming ICOs.
Contact him here : http://linkedin.com/in/alemsah or send him an email

Common mistakes of ICO marketing and how to spot them! was originally published in Startups & Venture Capital on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

If you are a fan of manga and anime, you know that most of the time, the structure of the story is similar yet it works every time ;
- the protagonist is a fragile character,
- let’s say it, he is a loser,
- he has flaws,
- he is vulnerable,
- along the way he made huge mistakes, caused his friends harm, sometimes even death.
- he trusted wrong guys, made even bigger mistakes,
- but he never gives up,
- he kept on trying to become what he always dreamt of,
- he seems to have an infinite source of willpower,
- and finally, he becomes the hero and saves everyone.

Don’t believe me? Start watching “Naruto” or “Bleach” or “My Hero Academia” and you will see what I’m talking about!

Sounds familiar? This is exactly like Spider-man!

The main problem with super hero universe in Hollywood is that no hero character is a really fragile, messed up and low-esteem type of personality. True, they have ups and downs, but they are all cool, always come up with solutions and in the end, they shine. They are not dark enough, they are not loser enough.

But that’s how Spider-man character started. That was his core design strength.

Quoting Stan Lee;

“Until Peter parker, no super hero need to worry about making a living, getting along with girls, being popular or have all the problems…” ( see the whole interview here )

And that’s why, every time Hollywood comes up with a new Spider-man movie, it fails. Don’t get me wrong, it gets better but it fails nonetheless…

But japanese culture thrive on personal development. Most of the successful anime/manga franchises feed on those process that I mentioned above. Embrace your weakness, become better at fighting with that, make mistakes, lose people that are precious to you, learn your lesson and voila! you are a real life hero!

Just look at these quotes from Naruto and Bleach ;

That’s why I believe if Naruto or Bleach anime director shoot a spider-man movie, it will be much better than Hollywood version!

If you support my idea, please share this article as a proof of concept!

Thanks!

12 Maymun filmini izlediğimde çok etkilenmiştim, o yüzden Syfy bunu bir televizyon dizisine çevirdiğini öğrendiğimde de sevinmiştim.

Yoğunluk, iş güç derken diziyi seyretmek geçen haftaya kadar mümkün olmadı. Haftasonunu kapatıp 2 sezonu 3 günde seyredince ne kadar başarılı bir dizi olduğunu daha da iyi anladım.

Bence serinin asıl başarısı derin mesajında yatıyor. Dizi, salgını durdurmak için geçmişe giden kahramanımızın öldürmesi gereken kişiyi öldürmesine rağmen hiç bir şeyin değişmemesiyle başlıyor.

Ve 2 sezon boyunca bir çok ölüm ve katliamdan sonra kahramanımız önemli bir şeyin farkına varıyor, ne zaman ki intikam ya da ölüm hisleriyle değil de sevgi ve şefkat hisleriyle hareket ediyor o zaman ilerleme kaydedebiliyor.

Bu mesaj her ne kadar basit gibi gözükse de aslında en zor ve çaresiz durumlarda bile daha iyi bir çözümün arayışından vazgeçmememiz gerektiğini hatırlattı bana.

Umutsuzluk ve çaresizliğin getirdiği öfke, bize keskin, geri dönülemez ve bazen de tek çözümmüş gibi gözüken yanlış yollara itebiliyor. Ama her zaman ve mutlaka, vazgeçmediğimiz, perspektifimizi değiştirdiğimiz ve yeniden baktığımız takdirde kendi hikayemizi değiştirecek o çözümü bulabileceğiz.

12 Maymun dizisinde James Cole’un dediği gibi “The only failure is giving up…” ( Gerçek başarısızlık vazgeçmektir. )

Let’s face it, being happy and feeling fulfilled is a rare occurrence in today’s world. I can only offer you my advice based on what I have experienced.

Working in the digital business for the last 21 years, I have had the opportunity to establish agencies and create start-ups. With these opportunities, I have had to face the failure of some, but I looked at my failed projects as a privilege to learn and apply. Over time, failures occurred less and less. Success proved itself to be a process, not a destination. This process made me realize that happiness is not as simple to achieve as we are taught as kids.

Since I could probably be classified as a scatterbrain, it’s easy for me to mis-allocate valuable time and energy. I try to avoid being side-tracked by micro work and try my best to find the easiest and most effortless way of organizing my thoughts and work process.

I have discovered many solutions to this problem, but let’s start with “Mantras”.

By coming up with new mantras which are easily memorized, I am able to codify the way I work and live every day.

This is the most recent one I follow and I can tell you that so far, it’s proved itself to work over and over again.

The 4 R’s to happiness: REMOVE, REPLACE, REFINE, REALIZE

Let’s get into the details:

1. Remove

Start removing unnecessary people.

Anyone who doesn’t bring good energy to the table, should be gone. Today.

Anyone who doesn’t add to your journey or enrich your life, should be gone. Today.

And finally, anyone who doesn’t teach you something new once a while or fails to support you through your failures, should be gone. TODAY.

Start removing unnecessary things.

Stop spending so much time on the couch.

Stop wasting time on things that don’t contribute to your personal development.

Stop making unconscious choices. Think clearly and choose consciously.

In the office:

Remove unnecessary tasks from your shoulders.

Every day we do tasks that are actually someone else’s work. Either because “they can’t do it they way I can” or “I can do it faster and better”. We are bombarded with stuff that is not related to our primary work. All it is doing is side-tracking you from what needs to be done to accomplish your greater goal. Cleanse yourself.

2. Replace

After removing things and people and creating a healthier empty space in your mind and life, start replacing.

Im not perfect- far from it actually.

There are things that we hold on to, no matter what. (for me, that’s sweet stuff. I just can’t help myself) To a certain extent, this is also healthy. Since I am still developing myself, I see it as my getaway ticket on my journey to becoming a stronger-willed person.

So, let’s replace these “sweet things” with better choices.

Replace couch time with activities.

Replace sugar with healthier alternatives.

Replace your “could be worse” attitude with a “how can I learn from this and apply” attitude.

Sometimes we settle, we push ourselves to believe that “enough is actually ok”. It’s not.

Replace “good enough” things/people with things/people who enhance you and your life.

The difference you will experience once you start replacing the things/people you have consciously chosen to remove, will make you wonder why you didn’t do this years ago.

It’s a conscious step towards a better life, a better you. Success and happiness comes with consciously choosing which micro steps to take and taking it with stride. Millions of them. So start by replacing. If in the future you feel as though the replacement doesn’t contribute to your development any longer, remove it. It is a conscious choice. Make it every day.

C. Refine

After removing and replacing, it is time to refine what you have chosen to keep and add.

Start by refining your goals. Make them crystal clear. Imagine them with all details. Imagine the road you are taking, the process that you will endure, the energy you need to achieve those goals. Set your mind up for success.

Now start asking the right questions to yourself, every day.

• What is my goal for today?
• What did I achieve today?
• Am I making progress on the right path?
• Is it necessary to do this?

Sharpen your focus. asking the right questions will allow you to make better choices and enable you to be smarter in planning your work process and ultimately have you doing less.

Trust me, you will do less but you will achieve so much more!

D. Realize

Here comes the hard part:

After all these preparations it now comes down to you. You have to do it. You have to work for it.

You consciously removed the unnecessary from your mind & life,

You consciously replaced unnecessary things with better versions, choices,

You consciously refined your goals and cleared your mind,

Now you need to realize that you are ready to realize them!

It looks so easy. It’s not.

Most people’s specialities are finding excuses to avoid doing things just because they are afraid of failures. Or even because they are intimidated by what new stresses success will bring along with it.

Failure is part of the natural cycle of growth and towards success. We fail gloriously through our life, we apologize, we f*ck things up, we lose people, we lose jobs… But in the end, we become a better version of ourselves.

So, just try it. Start small. Feel the difference and slowly apply it more and more. There is no other way.

That’s it, The 4 R’s of Happiness.

If what you have read here motivated you and made you realize that you also need conscious changes to be made, please SHARE this article and CONTRIBUTE to the self-improvement of those around you.

Tell me about your journey, your stresses, your challenges or how this article made you feel by COMMENTing below. I look forward to hearing from you!

Ao.

Yorumlarınızı merakla bekliyorum!

Başarılı insanların daha iyi yaptığı şeyler.
Başarılı insanların haftasonlarını nasıl geçirdiği.
Başarılı insanların sabah kalktığında ilk yaptıkları.

Bunun gibi olarca yazıyla dolu internet ve sayısı gittikçe artıyor. Kitaplar, yazılar bu konuda hazırlanmış TED konuşmaları ile de çılgınlık büyüyor.

Size ilginç bir şey söylemek istiyorum;

Benim tanıdığım gerçekten başarılı insanlar bu tarz yazılar yazmıyorlar. Onlarla bu konularda röportaj yapıldığında tabii ki bir takım detaylar veriyorlar, günü nasıl geçirdiklerine ya da işlerini nasıl düzene koyduklarına dair. Ama bence asıl başarıyı getiren şey bu değil.

Başarıyı getiren şey daha basit. Belki de bu yüzden çoğu zaman gözden kaçıyor. Çünkü her ne kadar beynimiz, bu problemi daha karmaşık, çözülmesi daha zor bir hale getirip, başarısızlık ya da tembelliklerimize mazeret olarak göstermek istese de, aslında cevap hep gözümüzün önünde ve belki de bu yüzden bunu duymaktan ve aksiyon almaktan kaçınıyoruz.

Ne mi cevap? Vazgeçmeden denemek. Planlamakla günler aylar geçirmek yerine yapmak, durmamak, tekrar tekrar üşenmeden çalışmak. Israrla yaptığı işte daha iyi olmak için çabalamak.

Başarılı her insan, daha az başarılı olan her bireyden daha doğru çalışıyor, daha doğru okuyor, daha sık insanlarla görüşüyor, daha iyisi için uğraşıyor.

Başka ne var? Şuur. Bu insanlar şuursuzca çalışmıyor, yaptıkları şeylerin sonuçlarını analiz ediyor, yanlışlarından ders alıyor, daha fazla değil daha akıllı çalışıyor, büyük resmi görmeye ve başkalarının kuramadığı bağlantıları kurmaya çalışıyorlar.

Yetmedi mi? O zaman bir tane daha sır size; her başarılı insanın net bir başarı tanımı var. Sizin için başarının tanımı ne? Herkesin başarı tanımı aynı olmak zorunda değil ve olmamalıdır da. Bazılarımız için bu huzurlu bir aile demek, bazılarımız için hobilerine zaman ayırmak, bazılarımız için ay’a gitmek, bazılarımız için akşam keyifle bir puro tüttürebilmek, bazılarımız için bağımsızlıkları ve bazılarımız için de başkalarının mutluluğu…

Bu yüzden de önce sizin için başarının tanımı yapın, önceliklerinizi net olarak belirleyin, sonra şuurlu bir şekilde vazgeçmeden çalışın. Başkalarına bakmayın, kendi içinizi dinleyin yeter. Ama samimi bir şekilde.

Çünkü bunun önündeki en büyük engel ne biliyor musunuz? Kendinize yalan söylemek. Çünkü kimse kendisinin zayıflıklarını tamamen kabul edip, gerçeklerle yüzleşmek istemiyor. Bunu başarabilirseniz, zaten çok çok ileridesiniz bir çok insandan.

“Başkaları yapıyor, çünkü onlar benim bilmediğim şeyler biliyorlar”
(Öğren o zaman!)

“Başkaları daha başarılı, çünkü onların ailesi buna zemin hazırladı.”
(Tamamen yanlış bilgi, azıcık araştır!)

“Başkaları daha başarılı, çünkü çevreleri var”
(Sen de o çevreyi kendin için oluştur!)

“Başkaları daha başarılı ama ben ailemle daha çok zaman geçirdiğim için başarısızım”
(Belki de, büyük ihtimalle onlar senin yerinde olmak isterdi.)

Bu yazıyı sevgili Onur Cengiz’in facebook’ta açtığı bir tartışma’dan feyz alarak yazdım, kendisine buradan da teşekkür ederim :)

Beğendiyseniz, paylaşırsanız sevinirim.

Medium da dahil olmak üzere bugünkü internet dünyası bize “özgüven” pompalıyor. “Daha iyisini yapabilirsin”, “Sadece 10 adımda yaratıcı zeka”, ve benzeri yazılarla toplam imajımızın ne kadar hızlı ve kolay bir şekilde yenilenebileceği ve o özlediğimiz ve istediğimiz insana dönüşebileceğimiz anlatılıyor.

Size kötü bir haberim var; bunlar gerçekler değil. Ya da en azından gerçeğin tamamı değil.

Hadi gelin gerçekleri konuşalım;

• Hayatımızın boyunca acı çekeceğiz ve bu çok doğal. Çünkü gelişim için zorlanmamız gerekir, kendi rahatlığımızın dışına çıkmamız, efor sarfetmemiz lazım. Kaslar da böyle çalışıyor, kafamız da… O yüzden acının, gayretin, iniş çıkışların olmadığı bir dünya hayal etmeyin, hayal kırıklığı yaşarsınız.
• Ama hangi acıyı çekeceğinize karar vermek sizin elinizde. Hem acı çekip hem de sonuçlarından mutsuz olmak SİZİN kararınız, başkasının değil. O yüzden doğru acıları çekmek lazım; mükemmel bir vücut mu istiyorsun? O zaman sabahları kalkıp koşacaksın, o sıcak yatağı terkedeceksin, en sevdiğin yemekleri yemeyeceksin. Başarılı mı olmak istiyorsun? herkesten çok çalışacaksın, arkadaşlarınla gezmek yerine okuyup araştıracaksın, içine kapanacaksın bir süre belki de…
• Acıları “kiminle” çektiğimiz de önemli. Sizi beslemeyen, geliştirmeyen, zorlamayan her insanı hayatınızdan çıkartın. Nokta. Bu konuda hiç tartışmayın bile. “Ama çok eğlenceli” dediğiniz insanlar bile size en azından birşeyler katıyor olmalı, yoksa hem vaktinizi boşa harcatıp hem de sizi beslemeyen, geliştirmeyen, sadece anlamsız vakit geçirdiğiniz gereksiz bir insan topluluğunun parçası olacaksınız. Yanlış anlamayın, arkadaşınız olmasın demedim; sadece onları kendiniz gibi insanlardan seçin diyorum. En iyi arkadaş size değer verendir, size değer veren bir insan da sizin boşlukta sürüklenmenize izin vermez, vermemelidir. Aynı şey sevgiliniz/eşiniz için de geçerli tabii ki.
• Dürüst olun, her şeyden önce kendinize. Dünyanın en basit ve anlamsız şeyini yazmışım gibi bakmayın bana, çoğumuz kendine dürüst olmadan yaşıyor ve gidiyor. Kendine dürüst ne demek? “Ben böyle mutluyum” mesela en büyük toplumsal yalan bugün. Değilsin, kabul et, değişim acısını yaşa, kaçma bu gerçekten. “Beni böyle seviyorlar” da deme, seni öyle sevmiyorlar, sana katlanıyorlar. Aradaki farkı görebilirsin, dikkatle bak. “Şimdi bunlarla uğraşamam” deme, çünkü o doğru zaman hiç gelmeyecek sen bu kafada olduğun sürece. Hadi bırak bunları, kendine dürüst ol, bak göğsünden bir yük kalkacak.
• Toplumsal ve kişisel önyargıların ötesine bakmaya çalış. Bazı insanlar ilk başta soğuk, ukala ve rahatsız edici gelebilir. Herkes aynı olmak zorunda değil, daha derinlere inip, karakterlerini anlamaya çalış, paylaşımlarınızı bulmaya bak. Önemli olan değerler ve prensiplerdir, bunları ara, bunları değerlendir.

Bunlar doğrultusunda hareket ettiğimizde en azından gerçeklerle yaşadığımız için birilerinin tesellisiyle yaşamak zorunluluğumuz ortadan kalkıyor.

Her şeyin güzelce paketlendiği, gerçeklerin hafifçe dokunularak anlatıldığı ya da anlatılmadığı, kimsenin kimseye yanlışını söylemediği ve ortak boş değerlerin pompalandığı böyle bir dönemde, kendimiz olmak, gelişimimizi sağlamak daha da zor.

En azından başlangıç noktamızı doğru tanımlayalım derim.

Bu yazıyı beğendiyseniz, paylaşırsanız sevinirim :)

You make to-do lists every morning, yet you’ve finished none.

You follow Product Hunt s productivity posts and install “all” of the apps and …not yet use any.

You’ve read “top 10 productivity hacks of all time” posts … All of them.

You follow processes more than you follow what those processes for.

You profoundly care about “getting things done”, but which things you don’t care.

You have the best Moleskine notebooks, but you never used one to the last page.

Yes, you are a master of productivity! The illusion of it, apparently.