Tatakai

In the beginning I would like to apologize for the delay and also I would like to apologize for the long post and I hope that it will be worth your time.

As we’ve seen from the results of the survey that the choices differ for each point some of the choices were selected due to past experience for the participant some were selected according to instinct and some were selected according to logic analysis of the situation anyway all the participants made their choices to ensure that the results of this meeting will be for their benefit and that is natural, since I’ve mentioned that it is a very important meeting that would affect your entire life so it is natural for a person to do his best not to mess up, BUT (and that is a big but) as might be seen by the results of the survey that everyone have done their best but not their all and that is also natural it is not because that they r careless at the contrary I believe that whoever to be put in such situation will try his all to ensure his success BUT (and that is another big one) is he really trying his all? Is he really doing everything that can be done?

A great samurai once said “When fighting an enemy and your sword is broken hit him with your hands, if your hands r cut press him with your shoulders and if your shoulders r cut bite him with your teeth” many people may find that a bit extreme well I think the contrary since if I may add “if your teeth r damaged kick him with your legs and if your legs r cut then keep your eyes fixed on him as u honorably pass away regretting nothing”.

Now what could make a person go that far? And how can anyone go that far? Well it is simply that when u r fighting for your life or what is really important to u (more important than your own life) u should not hold back and about how can he do it well that was the samurai of these days was trained, lived and died for.

Now everyone must be wondering, “What the hell does that have to do with the survey” well the situation that I’ve requested the participants to imagine themselves in is the situation of a very important business meeting that their future depends on, in other words it is a situation similar to that of the samurai in a battle since in both situations the person is fighting for what is important to him and in both situations the person should not give up till he reach his goal.

Now let’s get back to the survey, for the first point that concern the preparations for the meeting the majority had chosen to focus on the subject of the meeting focusing on ones self and that may work out most of the times but not all of the times since we can’t forget the influence of the other people in the meeting since by knowing their strong points and week points u would be able to control the flow of the meeting to your interest.
The second point is when having extra time before the meeting. The majority selected to do a second check for the points u r going to propose while others thought that it will be a waste of energy to do the same thing twice and that u should rest to be fresh when going to the meeting (well in my opinion that it depends on the level of confidence in your primary preparations).
For the third point which is the dressing up for the meeting I may say unfortunately we live now in a world that the appearance is more important than the person himself so u should be well dressed for the occasion but that will fall also in the field of knowing the likings and dislikings of the people u r meeting with.
For the forth point which is about how u r feeling before the meeting. Well if u worry u won’t get anything of that, if u convince yourself that u won’t succeed in order not to get disappointed if u get rejected then u’ll probably won’t succeed and that is due to the fact that when u set your mind to losing your motivation will be decreased to minimum since u’ve put in mind that it is OK to lose and u’ll actually lose but when u convince yourself that it is a peace of cake and that u’ll surely succeed then u’ll think high and work reach your goal no matter what since u won’t settle for otherwise and for that u would succeed.

The fifth point, which is about your state inside the meeting room. A lot of people may think that whether u sit at the same level with the others or a bit lower will not be an issue but I assure u the contrary and if u want to make sure of that then the next time that u have a conversation with someone sit in a chair that is lower than the chair of the person u r talking to and u’ll notice in a while that your spirit of arguing is starting to get weaker and that u start to lose motivation while when u r on the same level or higher (I mean the level of height u r sitting in) u’ll get a boost of confidence that will dramatically helps u in your argument.

The sixth point, which is about the level of your defense when the people u r meeting with starts to attack a weak point in your proposal. Many people may think that it is OK to acknowledge your opponents abilities and allow him to take that point against u but unfortunately that won’t do in our life, why? Simply because if u give your opponent an inch then he will take a mile, he may acknowledge your honesty but how is that useful to u if your proposal is going to turned down.

The seventh point, which is in the case of failure. Let me quote from the new Rocky Balboa movie (yeah even I didn’t see that coming) “it is not important to be able to take hard punches but most importantly how u’ll deal with them”. I’m glad that no participant in the survey had chosen to give up after being turned down and that indicates that the world is not as decayed as I thought it is…;D

Now how can a person make the right decision let’s say not all the time but most of the time especially when u can’t afford to mess things up? Well I’ve mentioned many similarities between the situation at hand and that of the samurai in battle and that wasn’t for nothing since life itself is nothing but a constant battle whether battles with outer opponents (people in a meeting) or with inner opponents (fears and desires).
(When I say life is but a constant battle I don’t mean that u should live your life with force and violence at the contrary a great samurai once said, “The real victory is the one u win with your sword unsheathed”)

Some people doesn’t realize this fact or may be chose not to, they just choose to drift through life without having to stand for anything they choose to live a simple easy life and try to run away from any hardship that would meet them in life thinking that they r living a happy life with nothing to disturb them. Well it is enough just to call them drifters.

Now how to prevent yourself from becoming a drifter? The world is a scary place full of pain and hardship and it is possible that at one point of your life u become tired of all that and think how nice it will be just to run away and just to drift through life. Well to prevent that all u have to do is to write down your goal, what u believe in and your principles. It will be your code of honor (just like the Bushido to the samurai) and try to remind yourself from time to time of that Bushido of yours. Whenever u r about to make a big decision in your life u just have to remind yourself of your Bushido and u’ll find out how easy it is to make that decision, whenever u meet a fearsome foe u just have to remember your Bushido and u’ll meet him heads on. In summary once u set your mind to it and know what u r fighting for u’ll be able to move with determination and confidence to accomplish your goals not letting anything getting in your way.
Well this is one of the techniques that would help in our constant battling (LIFE) and I think that I’ll discuss the other techniques in other posts and in the end I would like to thank all the people who had participated in the survey and thank u for reading this post I hope that it wasn’t as boring as it seems to be…

Survey results

Now let’s discover some of the results of the survey…
First let’s examine the survey and the answers that were provided by a group of people (whose participation was really appreciated) of different backgrounds and as a reminder the situation that the survey mentioned is when a person is having a very important business meeting that your future depends on it and here r the questions.

The first point is to cover the preparation that u would make before the meeting. The collected data shows that choice A is the most preferable choice. The reason for that in my opinion is most people would choose to focus on the subject in hand to be sure that they’ve got all the points of the subject covered and that would increase their sense of security (one Bird in hand is better than ten on the tree) and frankly this choice works most of the times.
Choice B on the other hand was only chosen by the minority I think the reason for that is it require more work than choice A and it gives less feeling of security.
I guess choice C is the worst choice to be taken here (I won’t go as far as saying it is a choice for losers) because the situation is said to be very serious and for a person to go with only minor preparations I don’t that is clever at all.

The second point is to check the person’s behavior when the preparation is over and u still have some spare time.
The majority has selected choice B to do a second check for the preparation to ensure not missing anything and that might be the smarter choice. Choice A on the other hand is to relax and preserve your energy and may be have some sleep and that might be useful most of the time if u r confident in the preparation u’ve made. Choice C which is to worry about what can go wrong is absolutely useless but the sad thing is that there r many people (not among our participants) that got actually caught with their fears.

The third point is how to dress for the occasion.
70% of the participants have selected to wear something neither too fancy nor informal for the occasion while 30% have chosen to wear something really fancy.

The Fourth point is how to act exactly before the meetings.
60% of the participants have chosen to think positively that the meeting will go smoothly and it is just a peace of cake, while 30% have chosen not put their hopes high in order to make it easier in case they fail and 10% chose not to think about the whole thing.

The Fifth point is about the state inside the meetings room.
60% of the participants have chosen to overlook the fault in the chair that they’re using while 40% decided that it is important to be on the same level of height as the other people in the meeting so they’ll substitute the chair with another one.

The sixth point is about the behavior when confronted with a weak point in your proposal.
80% of the participants have chosen to be honest and admit that there is a flaw in the proposal but yet its strong points r much more than its weak points while 20% have chosen to act confident and escape the immediate confrontation and then to make a strong comeback.

The seventh point is about the case of failure.
90% of the participants have chosen to research the reasons of your failure and to try to be better next time while 10% have chosen that there is nothing wrong with the proposal and there must be something wrong with the people who rejected it.

These where the opinions of different people from different backgrounds and I repeat the survey is not about judging those people and their choices. The survey is about helping me in my next post where u’ll discover what the fuss is all about. I’m sorry for making anyone wait this long and I hope that it will worth your while…

Introduction

First I want to thank again the people that have participated in the survey and special thanks to Ridha Hameed a hard working gas containers delivery guy (I don’t mean that the other participants r not important but I promised him that his name will be on the Internet).

And now for what the survey is about, it is really something simple and it might be very simple that u may had never spent five minutes thinking of it and for some people it is something that they had settled upon ages ago and they r so convinced that it is the right thing and that no one can convince them otherwise so I say to those people “PLEASE just give me a chance and I assure u that the benefit will be all yours, u just have to be a little patient”.

If u had read my previous post u may find that I’ve mentioned that the situation that u have to imagine yourself in is the situation of having a business interview that is very important as it will make u or break u and I’m sure that u’ve been there or will be there someday. My point is that life is not fair and u may find yourself in a very serious situation, whether u like it or not, but the decision u would make then might be crucial for your future, your life or for what is really important to u and believe me u don’t want to mess that decision up. So the big question is how u make sure that u don’t?

An obvious answer for the previous question is “KNOWLEDGE” and that is quite true since knowledge is power and u do need to be powerful in life so through knowledge u may acquire the wisdom that may help u in your darkest situations but here another question rises “How do I acquire that knowledge?” and here another terms pops up and it is “LEARNING” since acquiring knowledge requires a great deal of learning, to learn about science, history, logic, art…etc. Another way of acquiring knowledge is from experiencing and learning from life itself and that is a process of a life time so u may live and learn from your mistakes and I assure u that eventually u will acquire a great amount of knowledge but I’m afraid it will be too late to benefit from that then.

Knowledge is very important yet acquiring it will require a great amount of time and a greater deal of effort and frankly many people don’t have enough of them both and another thing is that u may not have the time to acquire that knowledge and that the moment of truth would come when u r still making your first step along the long path of knowledge and it is a very branched path and that will add another burden of picking the right path and relating that to your way of living. So how in the world will we be able to secure ourselves against life? How can we be sure that we r not missing anything and that when the moment of truth has come u wouldn’t give it just your best but rather to give it your all in order to regret nothing and even if u fail to stand up for what is important to u (as I said life is unfair) u would be able to be in peace with yourself.

I guess this is too long to be an introduction so I’ve decided to make it a post of its own and I promise that part two will be coming soon…