Key Guiding Principles

1. Time is a commodity:
It is critical to understand the value of time and how it is managed to optimize the use of it while identifying the cost of time for different skill sets. Everybody is allocated 24 hours in a day and we are differentiated by our utilization of it. Some of us spend maybe only 5 hours sleeping and 19 hours working, while others spend 7 hours sleeping, 2 hours exercising, 10 hours working, and the rest is discretionary. Nevertheless, the importance of understanding the value of time as a commodity is to recognize how we invest our time, and the time of our resources, for a better future. A good balance is essential, as in most things in life, but more so a wise allocation of time is critical. On a personal level, a wise allocation of our time can give us endless satisfaction while at an organizational level, a wise allocation of our subordinates’ time and organizational resources provides a competitive advantage.

Early days on offshore oil platform

Early days on offshore oil platform

2. Invest all efforts in yourself:
Although it may sound selfish at first sight, it is important to recognize that we are only in full control of our own thoughts and behavior so it should be our primary focus. We are all certainly interested in many things and we draw joy or frustration from the world around us. But it is only our reception, understanding, feelings, and behavior that are under our immediate control and should therefore be the focus of our efforts.

3. Add Value:
Maybe contrary to focusing on yourself, I need to focus on adding value to the relationships in my life. How can I contribute to my world is a founding element to being of value to the significant people in my life. However, the trick is in aligning my intentions with the preferences of my relationships in order to make my efforts fully effective.

4. Distinguish between Urgent and Important:
Nowadays more than ever we are bombarded by all sorts of communication channels and we have a tendency to feel busy when in reality we are not contributing to the important goals in our lives. More so, we consume our time by working on what seems to be urgent or even other people’s urgencies. It is critical to distinguish between the urgencies in our lives and the important elements that will help us reach our long term goals.

5. Embrace Conflict:
Most people are inherently adverse to change and consequently shy away from seeking it. In other words, why would most people feel the need to change? The only reason to change is out of conflict, a sort of self preservation drive that out of adversity we feel motivated to adapt in order to survive. Similarly, we learn and most importantly, we evolve when we change or we evolve out of conflict.