Focusing your life solely on making a buck shows a certain poverty of ambition. It asks too little of yourself. … Because it’s only when you hitch your wagon to something larger than yourself that you realize your true potential.
- Barack Obama

If you ever get a chance to read “The Millionaire Next Door” and/or “The Millionaire Mind” you’ll come to learn that most of America’s millionaires engaged in business that was at some level a passion of their and saw the benefit of what they did in the grander scheme of things.

Whether it’s the job you do, the business you run, the project you manage or the organization you volunteer at - in what way is it larger than yourself?

I took the above photo on my way home back from work one day.

A market is never saturated with a good product, but it is very quickly saturated with a bad one.
- Henry Ford

Jack Whelch’s strategy with GE was to be either #1 or #2 in every market that it engaged itself in. If they couldn’t reach that position, they’d get out.

It doesn’t matter what the competition or how many competitors there are. If you aim to reach the top, you’ll be successful.

The picture is of an AlMaghrib Insitute flyer I took a photo of a few years ago. When AlMaghrib started, almost every Muslim community across the western world were doing events, study circles and conferences on the topic of Islamic studies. AlMaghrib came in and raised the standard and got people to expect and demand more.

Currently AlMaghrib is a multi-million dollar organization. It’s #1 Islamic sciences institution in the western world, spanning over 30 cities across US, Canada, UK and Malaysia.

The purest treasure mortal times can afford is a spotless reputation.
- William Shakespeare

The image of a brand is built by publicity over a period of time. Social media has put a turbo charger on that wheel allowing brands to be built (and destoryed) faster. When you engage your audience, do it with integrity and in a manner that’s praisworthy. Otherwise life will become difficult.

This is photo of the minerate of the Islamic Center of DC.