Note: Robin Sharma is the author of the #1 international bestseller “The Leader Who Had No Title: A Modern Fable on Real Success in Business and in Life,” a book that is causing transformation in many of the best businesses in the world.

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The global economy is in a state of acute disruption. Competition has never been more fierce. Consumers have never been so well-informed and loudly demanding. And what worked yesterday just might be obsolete today.

But this time is also a great time, for the astonishing few who are ready to show leadership. Leaders are at their absolute best during messy cycles versus during the easy ones. And messy cycles bring with them gorgeous opportunities.

As I sit quietly on this airplane at 40,000 feet, away from the rallying cries of a wired world filled with endless interruptions, I’ve distilled what I’ve been sharing in my presentations to clients across the planet over the past months, from Kuwait and Dubai to Paris, London and Dusseldorf.

Here are 50 powerful rules to amp up your game so this business cycle is one of your best business cycles yet.

The 50 New Rules of Work

1. You are not just paid to work. You are paid to be uncomfortable – and to pursue projects that scare you.
2. Take care of your relationships and the money will take care of itself.
3. Lead you first. You can’t help others reach for their highest potential until you’re in the process of reaching for yours.
4. To double your income, triple your rate of learning.
5. While victims condemn change, leaders grow inspired by change.
6. Small daily improvements over time create stunning results.
7. Surround yourself with people courageous enough to speak truthfully about what’s best for your organization and the customers you serve.
8. Don’t fall in love with your press releases.
9. Every moment in front of a customer is a moment of truth (to either show you live by the values you profess – or you don’t).
10. Copying what your competition is doing just leads to being second best.
11. Become obsessed with the user experience such that every touchpoint of doing business with you leaves people speechless. No, breathless.
12. If you’re in business, you’re in show business. The moment you get to work, you’re on stage. Give us the performance of your life.
13. Be a Master of Your Craft. And practice + practice + practice.
14. Get fit like Madonna.
15. Read magazines you don’t usually read. Talk to people who you don’t usually speak to. Go to places you don’t commonly visit. Disrupt your thinking so it stays fresh + hungry + brilliant.
16. Remember that what makes a great business – in part – are the seemingly insignificant details. Obsess over them.
17. Good enough just isn’t good enough.
18. Brilliant things happen when you go the extra mile for every single customer.
19. An addiction to distraction is the death of creative production. Enough said.
20. If you’re not failing regularly, you’re definitely not making much progress.
21. Lift your teammates up versus tear your teammates down. Anyone can be a critic. What takes guts is to see the best in people.
22. Remember that a critic is a dreamer gone scared.
23. Leadership’s no longer about position. Now, it’s about passion. And having an impact through the genius-level work that you do.
24. The bigger the dream, the more important the team.
25. If you’re not thinking for yourself, you’re following – not leading.
26. Work hard. But build an exceptional family life. What’s the point of reaching the mountaintop but getting there alone.
27. The job of the leader is to develop more leaders.
28. The antidote to deep change is daily learning. Investing in your professional and personal development is the smartest investment you can make. Period.
29. Smile. It makes a difference.
30. Say “please” and “thank you”. It makes a difference.
31. Shift from doing mindless toil to doing valuable work.
32. Remember that a job is only just a job if all you see it as is a job.
33. Don’t do your best work for the applause it generates but for the personal pride it delivers.
34. The only standard worth reaching for is BIW (Best in World).
35. In the new world of business, everyone works in Human Resources.
36. In the new world of business, everyone’s part of the leadership team.
37. Words can inspire. And words can destroy. Choose yours well.
38. You become your excuses.
39. You’ll get your game-changing ideas away from the office versus in the middle of work. Make time for solitude. Creativity needs the space to present itself.
40. The people who gossip about others when they are not around are the people who will gossip about you when you’re not around.
41. It could take you 30 years to build a great reputation and 30 seconds of bad judgment to lose it.
42. The client is always watching.
43. The way you do one thing defines the way you’ll do everything. Every act matters.
44. To be radically optimistic isn’t soft. It’s hard. Crankiness is easy.
45. People want to be inspired to pursue a vision. It’s your job to give it to them.
46. Every visionary was initially called crazy.
47. The purpose of work is to help people. The other rewards are inevitable by-products of this singular focus.
48. Remember that the things that get scheduled are the things that get done.
49. Keep promises and be impeccable with your word. People buy more than just your products and services. They invest in your credibility.
50. Lead Without a Title.

I encourage you to share + discuss + debate these with your team and throughout your organization. Within a quick period of time, you’ll see some fantastic results.

Note: Robin Sharma is the author of the #1 international bestseller “The Leader Who Had No Title: A Modern Fable on Real Success in Business and in Life,” a book that is causing transformation in many of the best businesses in the world.

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A greater ‘hole in the wall’ you cannot imagine. A small fading sign on the top saying “Cellphoon reapars” barely visible through the street vendors crowding the Juhu Market in Mumbai. On my way to buy a new Blackberry, my innate sense of adventure made me stop my car and investigate. A shop not more than 6 feet by 6 feet. Grimy and uncleaned.
‘Can you fix a Blackberry ?”
‘Of course, show me”
”How old are you” ‘Sixteen’
Bullshit. He was no more than 10. Not handing my precious blackberry to a 10 year old in unwashed and torn T shirt and pyjamas! At least if I buy a new one, they would extract the data for me. Something I have been meaning to do for a year now.
‘What’s wrong with it?”
‘Well, the roller track ball does not respond. It’s kind of stuck and I cannot operate it”
He grabs it from my hand and looks at it
“You should wash your hands. Many customers have same problem. Roller ball get greasy and dirty, then no working’
Look who was telling me to wash my hands. He probably has not bathed for 10 days, I leaned out to snatch my useless blackberry back..
” You come back in one hour and I fix it’.
I am not leaving all my precious data in this unwashed kid’s hands for an hour. No way.
“Who will fix it?”
‘Big brother’
‘How big is ‘big brother?’
‘big …. Umm ..thirty’
Then suddenly big brother walks in. 30 ??? He is no more than 19.
‘What problem?’ He says grabbing the phone from my greasy hand into his greasier hand. Obviously not trained in etiquette by an upmarket retail store manager.
‘Normal blackberry problem. I replace with original part now. You must wash your hand before you use this’. What is this about me washing my hands suddenly??
19 year old big brother rummages through a dubious drawer full of junk and fishes out a spare roller ball packed in cheap cellophane wrapper. Original part? I doubt it.  But by now I am in the lap of the real India and there is no escape as he fishes out a couple of screwdrivers and sets about opening my Blackberry.
“How long will this take?”
”Six minutes”
This I have to see. After spending the whole morning trying to find a Blackberry service centre and getting vague answers about sending the phone in for an assessment that might take a week, I settle down next to his grubby cramped work space. At least I am going to be able to watch all my stored data vanish into virtual space. People crowd around to see what’s happening. I am not breathing easy anyway. I tell myself this is an adventure and literally have to stop myself grabbing my precious Blackberry back and making a quick escape. But in exactly six minutes this kid handed my Blackberry back. He had changed the part and cleaned and serviced the whole phone. Taken it apart, and put it together. As I turned the phone on there was a horrific 2 minutes where the phone would not come on. I looked at him with such hostility that he stepped back.
‘you have more than thousand phone numbers ?”
‘yes’.
‘backed up?’
‘no’
‘Must back up. I do it for you. Never open phone before backing up’
‘You tell me that now?’
But then the phone came on and my data was still there. Everyone watching laughed and clapped. This was becoming a show. A six minute show. I asked him how much.
‘500 rupees’ He ventured uncertainly. People around watched in glee expecting a negotiation.
That’s $10 dollars as against the Rs 30,000 ($ 600) I was about to spend on a new Blackberry or a couple of weeks without my phone. I looked suitably shocked at his ‘high price’ but calmly paid him. Much to the disappointment of the expectant crowd
‘do you have an I-Phone ? Even the new ‘4D one ?
‘no, why”
‘I break the code for you and load any ‘app’ or film you want. I give you 10 film on your memory stick on this one, and change every week for small fee’
I went home having discovered the true entrepreneurship that lies at what we call the ‘bottom of the pyramid’. Some may call it piracy, which of course it is, but what can you say about two uneducated and untrained brothers aged 10 and 19 that set up a ‘hole in the wall’ shop and can fix any technology that the greatest technologists in the world can throw at them. I smiled at the future of our country. If only we could learn to harness this potential.
‘Please wash your hands before use’ were his last words to me. Now I am feeling seriously unclean.

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Oil prices have hiked to record highs in the history of mankind and as the MENA region, especially countries like Libya still having political constrains it cannot be predicted to what, highest peak the oil price  finally reach. That said, most of our economical situation are now relying on oil as an energy source, the fossil fuel has caught human kind into a tight glitch.

During these though times it is the government’s role to ease and promote small scale industries and small businesses rather then trying to bail out giants on the costs of the near to getting unemployed common citizens. It would be more wiser for any government to ease the process of setting up small businesses and helping it reduce over heads in terms of fees and certification processes and so on, let the business create further employment opportunities and wider get more market share. It would be more wiser for the authorities to back businesses that grow and develop on non-borrowed capital rather then depend on banks and financial institutions for liquidity. Such borrowing would not only rise overheads and add to costs of commodities but add uncertainty in the stagnant market.

There are times when businesses can afford perfection and there are times when costs need be considered for the growth of an economy from a macro level.

How unwise would it be for authorities to simply issue fines and levy illogical fees and charges to fulfill their extravagant needs and expenses. If businesses are hit by fee hypes in accomplishing the legal aspects of running it, they will either pass-on the costs to the end user or cut down on operations by simply shifting to more preferable places. The most annoying of any additional overhead that a business could bare is the implementation of hidden charges which are levied every now and then. If the authorities do not consider setting up proper measures to its own act of ignorance, it would result in hurting the economy of the country at the end of the day.

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Have lived in the UAE for many years, right from schooling to adulthood and even being married here makes the country my home away from my birthplace which I haven’t even known for a tenth of my age. Indians in this country have really played a role in the socio-economic development of the nation and we do really feel to be proud of the fact. During childhood, I used to have Emarati friends and go to their homes, play Attari and stuff even. I remember my father’s sponsor and a friend rather, would insist him to visit often when we used to greet him on Eid. He was an old gentleman and we used to know of him as a distant relative and an uncle as kids rather then an Emarati who was our sponsor. Another Emarati uncle I remember from those days was a neighbor who used to help us with water during the hot summer days when it was scarcity. Those days were so peaceful and calm. We used to walk home from school 3 Kms away, play cricket and football but today at the same age my kids would never think of putting a foot out of the home due to the heavy traffic.

I remember seeing the then Ruler of Ajman, a simple and elderly figure sit in public and meet everyone with a friendly gesture. Today is an altogether different story, though having met the now Ruler several times during Eid and other occasions the protocol is different. He is down to Earth and have seen him drive his own car once as he waved from his Merc on a Red Signal stopping on our side.

We have always believed that this country has given us a different view of life, a different dimension to it and a life of prosperity and happiness.

Today as the country marches towards Emiratization in the private sector, I believe that best way to create a better workforce out of the countries youth is, not only to give them opportunities and security of job but also train them for dignity of labor. Uplift them to mingle freely within the corporate culture while not being foreigners in their own land. A skilled, learned, trained and hardworking employee is a corporation’s asset and such human resource are valuable for the entire nation as well as the community. I think the country should encourage the youth to work and have pride in doing so, as well as provide encourage the institutes that want to play a role in this endeavor. Together with all the love that the people here have for this land and nation, everyone can put their piece of brick as we grow.

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Recently I had been to India where you can get a 128 kbps broadband connection on your mobile phone with a limit of 2 MB per month for less then a 100 INR or say 2 USD. The connection would be off course over the 3G and can be used on a laptop provided your phone has the proper supports. The other mobile services are so cheap with a second wise pulse billing going down to a paisa per second, the Indian market is booming with so much competition around.

Back in the UAE the monopolistic trend prevails with not much competition to look at when it comes to the Telecom sector and it is far from being a consumer market. I happened to visit the Etisalat Main Branch in Sharjah for registering a few .ae domain names, which cannot be registered other wise, such as over the Internet. There were 12 counters with only 4 of them active and it took me about an hour to get the 2 out of the 3 domains registered. The remaining one was available when checked on the NIC and aeDA websites but could not be registered because of some technical problem in the Etisalat system. For which I had to go to customer service and report the matter so that it could be escalated to the IT Department, which took another hour just to be informed that it would be solved in 3 working days.

On returning home it was discovered that the sales lady over the counter had made a mistake while entering the email address of the Registrar of one of the domains. Therefore I called the NIC helpline to know that they could not help me and that I would have to visit an Etisalat branch physically or send down a fax for the problem to be solved in 3 working days. I chose the first option and visited the branch the next day. 12 counters and 7 of them working. It took me another hour to get the mistake corrected.

On asking about the domain for which I had raised a request, I was told that the issue was still pending to be resolved by the IT department, even after 24 hours. Such is the quality of customer service you get when there is no choice left.

A request for the reader not to mention the so called competitor Du which is not better. Look  at its twitter notification service which is dead since a few months and all you find @dutweets are excuses.

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There was “Taare Zameen Par” and ’3 Idiots” by Amir highlighting the plight of students in our current educational system where talent is given less priority and students are rather HR products for capitalists, as John Gatto puts up in some of his speeches about the American educational system. Then there was the movie, “Paathshala” in which Nanapatekar was supposed to play a more better role then he did while the message was against private educational gimmicks that has turned education into a profitable industry, in the name of professionalism and commercialism. In either case the teachers are never the ones who get a bigger pie nor are they satisfied with their job.

“Do Dooni Chaar”, another such movie highlighting the lives of middle class families of India, including within it, the economical status of teachers in our society who produce highly paid officials and professionals but are themselves regarded as low class,  economic untouchables and are at plight if they try to live with decency. Rishi Kapoor has played an excellent role after so many years of acting.

Rishi Kapoor, playing a working-class loser who for the  first time in his career pitches in a near-flawless performance as a  maths teacher whose students  have gone on to own the best cars  in the world while he, the gyan guru,  remains frozen in his middle class karma. The movie has a practical illustration of an honest but frustrated teacher who would turn to selling marks for money, which does show the reality in some of our schools in real life. The reality is brought forward very cleverly. The movie careens towards a scathing comment on  the road taken by the underpaid teaching fraternity of the country, while the protagonist up the road of corruption is pulled back from temptation just in time.

The character sketch of both the middle class teacher and his wife Neetu Singh is done brilliantly, and there are some lessons to be learned by parents as well, as the math teacher declares his fault for not providing enough time for his kids while thinking that paying for a child’s fee at private school would suffice. The punishment or rather disciplinary action of Santosh (played by Rishi Kapoor) to his son, of distributing all the money to the poor, was just an exemplary lesson for parents.

The one thing that is prone to criticism is the huge amount of money given to the teacher for private tuition. Though the mithaiwala’s intent was to help the sincere teacher by offering him a handsome amount to create a ‘Good Man’ of his grandson but today the term tuition has also turned into a nuisance. Under-paid and desperate teachers have also turned it into a channel of extra income. Though one would not call it a corrupt practice but at times it results into the child being forced into extra classes for passing just so that the teacher could have a better life worth living.

On a level that goes beyond entertainment ‘Do Dooni Chaar’ is actually a timely warning to the architects of the country’s education system. The film says…don’t let the guru become a shishya of compromised idealism. Pay the teacher well, and start showing respect to them, else the product would indeed have its defects, as Kapoor explained, that, he would be remembered as corrupt person who taught that money could buy anything rather then a gyan guru.

Do Dooni Chaar, the title says it all, suggesting not only that the protagonist is a mathematician but also that he is constantly trying to count the ways to make his family’s life comfortable. The message is simple and clear.

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The writer brought back a memory of a nice photo I had cut from the News Paper a few years back which clearly depicts that a child would never prefer to be a teacher nor take teaching as a profession. Someone did tell the truth when he said that teaching is the profession of losers, and that teaching is taken up by those who dare not earn in another profession.  I also remember a lady who had completed Engineering and had applied for a teacher’s job. When asked the reason she replied that she did not find a job in engineering. A wonderful phrase is put forward by Bhaskaran in this article for today’s teacher, “economic untouchable“. The class or school is certainly not a place for biases for both the teacher or the parent who are responsible for the child, they like the fact or not. The school, however, today has become a commercial super mall where display pieces are held high for the prospective customers who walk in as window shoppers. Education has become a synonym for business and schools and universities just breading grounds for the hungry industries owned by capitalists who create career trends in the form of job opportunities. A concept well explained by John Taylor Gatto. Movie buffs would prefer the “3 Idiots” of Amir Khan.

The relation of the master and disciple or apprentice is truly a  divine and heavenly one which has lost its true charm just like most of the things that have lost divinity and spiritual worth in today’s capitalistic world and mindset of the society. I met my teacher who had taught me Arabic and Quran during my early age a few months back. He was truly torn down my the society and I dare call him poor for he holds a very high stature in my heart. I could see the feeling of loosing on his face, as if he was ashamed from my presence. I reminded him about how he I had recited Surat al-Mutafifeen to him by heart and also reminded him of his caning. I could see his face fall as I asserted how tall he stood before me and how thankful I was to him for the discipline he had induced in me. I ever wish I could have done something that day to be a grateful student.

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Since the dawn of civilization man has always been obsessed of communicating his thoughts, the knowledge that he acquire through a long learning process of understanding, experimenting and experiencing. The hunger and thirst for knowledge is what differentiates us humans from all other species that dwell this planet and probably make us feel superior.

The revolutionary age of information has digitized these thoughts and turned the ink into bits and bytes nevertheless the urge for holding a book in ones hand and swallowing the vast knowledge implanted in ink never lessens. The scent of the books its lustful binding and bright pages with shinny ink is what attracts readers to love the hard copies. Mind well that ink is called “rosh’naee” in Urdu because it radiates the light of knowledge and enlightens the soul. Love of books has grown and deepened within my heart and I could hardly resist a wonderful title except when the dept of my pocket is shallower. The Sharjah Book Fair is a place where I find relaxation skimming through pages and titles over the bookshelves and in stalls, and at times the clock stops as I just swallow a finer piece of work rather then just window shopping. The love and passion is never ending.

Though I am a book lover and like spending on a good title but the purse is not quick to open up. Though we are growing in terms of knowledge, education and information which is readily available everyday our lives are becoming shorter and homes smaller, with no spare time nor enough space to store the thought provoking work of authors. Even today books are a luxury for those who could afford to maintain its high costs.

During my recent visit to the Sharjah Book Fair, a thought popped up my mind as I looked up on the large banners that declared “Love for the written word”. The thought of being fortunate to own some of the worlds lovely titles published and happy to have read through the minds of some of the worlds brilliant men time has known was the most prominent. While another thought did sneak in to declare that since the authorities of Sharjah and its leadership are braving such a huge and massive event why not arrange some sort of a pre-owned books fair as well. The reason this thought popped up was seeing the tons and tons of paper displayed at the fair. The rate at which we are producing paper and coping up with demand is growing at such a high pace that I dare to say we might be out of paper in a very near future.

A book fair where people could dispose their pre-owned collection, share, sell, exchange or even give away for recycling would be another such massive event of equivalent impact to the community and our culture as well as our environment. Maybe such a stand alone book fair would not be possible but a well organized section in the International Book Far event could make a huge difference.

To be very much frank and truthful I even do not have an idea of how such an event or a part-event could even be organized but such an initiative would surely be a step forward for the intellectual beings that we humans belong to.

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His Highness, the ruler is always present on this spectacular event each year and finds time for it from his busy schedule which indeed reflects his love for education and imparting of knowledge. Personally I have been very lucky and fortunate to be present during the opening and visit of the Ruler. Its his humble self that any person, be it a citizen or an expat, can extend his greetings to the scholarly personality as well as accompany him as he scrolls past the hundreds of stalls erected by the participants from all over the world. His Highness Dr. Shiekh Sultan al-Qasimi, signed the English copy of his book (Sard al-Zatt) as well as the new book (Hadeeth al-Zakirah).

It was an overwhelming occasion as he skimmed through the booths, surfing through the titles exhibited on each stalls.

Personally I find great pleasure even window shopping at such a beautiful place and time passes by in such a way hours just seem to be minutes and there is never enough time to inspect each section of personal interest even let alone adventuring into a new field of growing knowledge.

Being a fan of this yearly event in Sharjah, there are a few critical points at mind do need to be considered by the organisers. On this very first day there were no carry bags with the publishers at the booths provided by the organisers nor were there any invoice books, no trolleys and so on. Buying the books was hard on the first day though its better later on. But the situation is the same year after year on the first day.

Once again all the applaud to this event for the sake of the love of knowledge and books.

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