All in Life

Fight - Even When You Want Flight

Fight - Even When You Want Flight

Omer Abdullah
Aspirations, Careers, Creativity, Entrepreneurship, Leadership, Life, Personal Codes, Strategy

Sunday morning, I woke up to watch the Arsenal-Spurs game, famously known as the North London Derby. It’s a game where form goes out the window and these two arch-rivals go all out for bragging rights as to who is the best team in North London.

It’s a game that hasn’t gone our way in recent years and as I anticipated the stress and emotional rollercoaster I would go through over the next couple of hours, I briefly debated staying in bed and waking up when it was all over. To just not have to deal with it all.

Just Focus On What's Next

Just Focus On What's Next

Omer Abdullah
Aspirations, Careers, Creativity, Entrepreneurship, Leadership, Life, Marketing, Personal Codes, Strategy, Teams

Sometimes, the goals we set for ourselves are overwhelming. The bigger the goal or the more challenging the objective, the harder it can be to fathom how we will get there.

We get caught up in the sheer scale of our idea, or we start setting all sorts of impossible timelines and expectations that we think we need to achieve on our path there.

Living On Your Own Terms

Living On Your Own Terms

Omer Abdullah
Aspirations, Careers, Entrepreneurship, Leadership, Life, Management Consulting, Personal Codes

When I got into consulting in the mid-nineties, I did so with the expectation that I was going into a field that was focused on driving change. That we were there to make a difference, and to improve the lot of our clients. And that doing so required people who were committed to that process, both within the firm I worked for and at the client. Generally speaking, that expectation proved to be the reality.

"It’s Like A Pizza..."

"It’s Like A Pizza..."

Omer Abdullah
Careers, Communications, Creativity, Entrepreneurship, Leadership, Life, Management Consulting, Personal Codes, Strategy, Teams

Many years ago, I worked with a senior consulting partner who liked to talk in puzzles. Instead of giving us specific marching orders, he’d talk around the issues and then ask us to put together a deck for his review.

For example, as we’d talk through a proposal we were working on, he’d talk about the client situation, the range of issues they were facing as well…

The Thing About Politics...

The Thing About Politics...

Omer Abdullah
Communications, Sales, Investment Banking, Life, Entrepreneurship, Teams, Personal Codes, Careers, Leadership, Management Consulting, Strategy

…Is that there really isn’t any such thing.

In popularity contests of any significance (where a sizable population is asked for its endorsement of an individual or a subject or an action), the landslide win is not a common occurrence. More prevalent (in my admittedly unscientific assessment) is the close race, where the margin of victory is in single digit percentage points.

The Thing About Mandates...

The Thing About Mandates...

Omer Abdullah
Strategy, Management Consulting, Entrepreneurship, Communications, Life, Marketing, Aspirations, Personal Codes, Leadership, Careers

…Is that there really isn’t any such thing.

In popularity contests of any significance (where a sizable population is asked for its endorsement of an individual or a subject or an action), the landslide win is not a common occurrence. More prevalent (in my admittedly unscientific assessment) is the close race, where the margin of victory is in single digit percentage points.

No One Likes Surprises

No One Likes Surprises

Omer Abdullah
Careers, Communications, Entrepreneurship, Leadership, Life, Management Consulting, Personal Codes, Marketing, Sales, Strategy, Teams

When it comes to the work we do, no one likes surprises.

It doesn’t matter which part of the organization you sit in - client management, operations, marketing or elsewhere - one of the fundamental tenets of corporate performance is predictability. We want to know what’s happening, why and, if necessary, what we need to do about it.

Using Your Anger

Using Your Anger

Omer Abdullah
Communications, Life, Careers, Strategy, Entrepreneurship, Leadership, Personal Codes

There’s a couple of stages we go through when we’re angered by a particular situation we’re faced with.

First, we lose our cool and debate and question our predicament. We turn the situation over and over in our heads, incredulous, bemused and upset that this is happening to us. We wallow in the ‘why me’s’.  This is sometimes inevitable but always unproductive.

The Problem With Getting An Education

The Problem With Getting An Education

Omer Abdullah
Careers, Investment Banking, Entrepreneurship, Management Consulting, Aspirations, Life, Personal Codes, Finance

We have this obsession, usually rightly so, with organized, accredited education. In an era when economic disparity and the income gap is at its widest, getting a “proper education” isn’t a nice-to-have, it’s a must-have.  

Which is something most of us agree on, plus the fact that a proper education is defined as not simply completing high school, but obtaining a college degree, at minimum. I think I’m on pretty safe ground when I say that.

To Inspire or To Intimidate?

To Inspire or To Intimidate?

Omer Abdullah
Aspirations, Careers, Communications, Entrepreneurship, Leadership, Life, Marketing, Personal Codes, Private Equity, Sales, Strategy, Teams

Think of the most exciting job you’ve done, the best initiative you’ve been part of, the most rewarding experience you’ve had. What was the underlying basis of that experience, the focus of the leadership in that situation? Were you excited? Were you focused on moving towards something? Were you inspired?

"Turn Them Off and See Who Complains..."

"Turn Them Off and See Who Complains..."

Omer Abdullah
Careers, Communications, Entrepreneurship, Finance, Investment Banking, Leadership, Life, Management Consulting, Personal Codes, Sales, Strategy, Teams

How many newsletters do you get in your inbox every day? How many emails do you get with an update on some issue or department or project? How many notifications do you get on your phone with the latest piece of “must-have” information?

Now, how many of them do you actually read?

The Myth of The Top Ten List

The Myth of The Top Ten List

Omer Abdullah
Aspirations, Entrepreneurship, Leadership, Life, Investment Banking, Management Consulting, Marketing, Personal Codes, Strategy

There are at least 15 colleges that deserve a place in the top 10 best colleges in the country. There are 20 restaurants that can credibly argue that they are one of the 5 best restaurants in your city. And if you and I were so inclined, we could absolutely name 25 guitarists who could reasonably stake a claim to being among the 10 best guitarists ever.

The Point Is Productive Struggle

The Point Is Productive Struggle

Omer Abdullah
Marketing, Strategy, Life, Sales, Personal Codes, Leadership, Management Consulting, Private Equity, Creativity, Entrepreneurship, Careers

We crave clear cut answers. We love How-To’s. We keep looking for the ultimate 10 Step Process.

Why? Because we’re always on the hunt for clarity, predictability and, more to the point, security. It’s a natural human desire.

The problem, though, is that when we’re creating (a team, a piece of output, a business), that’s not often possible or realistic.

The Myth of The All Rounder

The Myth of The All Rounder

Omer Abdullah
Careers, Entrepreneurship, Strategy, Life, Personal Codes, Leadership, Creativity, Aspirations

In school, we’re taught a range of different subjects - from history to math to science to art to music to physical education. We’re tested, judged and evaluated on our proficiency in each of these disciplines, and by the end of it, given a numerical average of our performance across all of these areas, otherwise known as our Grade Point Average (GPA).

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