Yesterday, upon finishing a great business meeting, an associate mentioned to me:

“How LUCKY you are,
You have a great partner (a great wife), and you really enjoy what you do for a living…”

I thought: LUCKY no, FORTUNATE yes.

Generally, the terms luck and fortunate are used interchangeably.

The thesaurus has 'luck' and 'fortune' as synonyms, although they are not identical.

LUCK is success or failure apparently brought by chance rather than through one's own actions. You are lucky when the outcome of a random event is more often in your favor instead of not.

FORTUNATE tends to imply an external force, a consequence or outcome of a decision taken; a consequence of your own actions.

To accomplish great things, first you need to dream and believe that you will be able to accomplish it, then plan and act... The result, fortune comes.

For Nesrin and I to get married it was an uphill battle. I decided that we were going to get married and it was not by chance.

Also, our relationship for the past 23 years has not been always consistent; we went through some hard times as well as some gratifying times. But through out these times there was always something constant, we were always determined to make it work.

On the other hand, our business and projects have behaved like the stock market. The arrow has moved from top to bottom constantly. In 2008 during the great recession we could easily have given up… 
but then we would not be here today.

I chose who I was going to marry (yes, she had to agree with me) and also I chose my job and my profession; I love my wife and I love what I do.

Yes, I am fortunate that my choices brought me to where I am today; 
but NOT lucky!

I was determined to accomplish my dreams and never stopped looking for an opportunity.

Shallow men believe in luck. Strong men believe in cause and effect. - Ralph Waldo Emerson 

I Returned to Washington, DC for business for a week, which happened to be the same time the Government is shut down.

After seeing what is going on in the city I thought about leadership, poor leadership!


The Far Side by Gary Larson



The dictionary defines leadership as the action of leading a group of people, an organization or a nation.
If you are following the news, the US government has been closed for business for the past 9 days. Although it has only been 9 days, our company is feeling the effects of the shut down. We are a small business  but the impact is strong. 

The catering company that we own has had 3 important events cancelled and a contract on a rental business property was canceled, all due to the government shut down.

So if a small business like us is getting impacted, what about the rest of the nation? How about the big corporations with thousands of employees, the army, the universities, government employees… how are they getting affected from this shut down?
It is amazing that it took just a small group of “leaders” to screw up a system and the people.  I quoted the word leaders because these people are not leaders, they are just regular people that were able to get elected to become part of the leadership of the United States.

People with big egos, no integrity and only have one goal… to stay in power as long as they can. Self-centered people without any regard towards others.

These people did not earn the right to be leaders. They are great communicators, charming and that is how they were able to get elected into office.

In history we have plenty of great communicators that were able to excite and mobilize the masses… but very few were great leaders

A good representative for this select group was Adolf Hitler.
He was an incredible communicator, except he was a dreadful leader!
Today, this is something that is taking place all over the world.  Our leaders are charismatic and convincing. Always making promises, fake promises knowing that they will not deliver since their real goal is their private agenda.
So, after expressing my frustration in public, lets talk about the qualities of a good leader.
Kevin Daum put together a list of 10 traits… What are the traits of a good leader...

1. Ambition : Great leaders boldly drive forward, passionately rising to new heights, clearing a path for those who follow.

2. Patience: Great leaders use the wheels of time to their advantage, knowing that fast and first are rarely the attributes of long-term success.

3. Humility: Great leaders are energized not by being right, but rather by the glory that comes from the entire team reaching the pinnacle of success.

4. Humor: Great leaders never take anything too seriously, especially themselves, knowing full well that people need a congenial environment to succeed.

5. Vision: Great leaders are able to see a future and can articulate, in crystal clear language, a strategic plan to get everyone there.

6. Compliance: Great leaders know how to play by the rules since even a rebel has to build respect and order for sustainability.

7. Tolerance: Great leaders accept that people are individuals who thrive best when allowed to choose their own approach to risk and happiness.

8. Courage: Great leaders blaze a trail in the dark and shed their own light, despite knowing that terror lurks around corners.

9. Accountability: Great leaders take full accountability when their team fails regardless of where mistakes were made or whose performance was substandard.

10. Gratitude: Great leaders demonstrate appreciation loudly and often to those who give of themselves to support the group's success.

Inspiring traits!!!
After reviewing them all, I realized that I have a long way to go before becoming an ok leader, (LOL).
Anyway, if we understand what are the qualities that make a great leader how hard would it be to make the right choice of leadership?

We should have a printed copy of this list in our wallets and next time we give our vote we should review it and analyze which candidate has the above traits. Not allowing our selves to just get excited over their speeches and fake promises. 
For everyone in DC, we know that this is just a temporary situation and soon everything will go back to normal but with a few bruises.  
No Worries!

A genuine leader is not a searcher for consensus but a molder of consensus. - Martin Luther King, Jr.