Choose Your Co-founder Wisely

Having a work partner or business partner is very good for whatever
you are working on... As long as the partner, is right for you. I
recently learned this while working on projects with a friend of mine.

The idea was great, we were both motivated and committed to making it
happen. But because our relationship was not working, we were not the
best choice to work together. Trust was lost, along with respect. And
demotivation was right there waiting for me when I saw someone else
getting the credit for my work.

Choose your co-founder wisely.

I think the best work partner, is your life partner. Your husband/wife
might be the best person to partner up with when it comes to work. I
heard of this when I was studying entrepreneurship in Melaka, Malaysia
in 2008.

Why am I saying that your spouse is best person to work with? Because
it comes with the assumption that if you have decided to marry this
person, then you are already compatible people. You understand each
other, you respect each other, you share some common dreams and
beliefs. And nothing will come in between you, not even business.

And the cool thing is, you can solve problems in love, not war.

Choosing a business partner is like choosing a wife. Again, choose wisely.

If you followed my words and ended up with a divorce, then I think you
chose the wrong life partner to begin with. Right?

Sincerely,

Sherif Maktabi
Twitter: @sherifmango

Fresh Pictures From Lebanon Better Installation Today

Here are some few pictures I took at the installation at Souk el Tayeb, Beirut, today! One new surprise for you is that half the wall is in Arabic, and the other is in English.

It didn't take a lot of time to fill up the wall, even the farmers and bakers from the Souk contributed.

See the full gallery on Posterous

A video will be coming up to give you a glimpse of the day at Souk el Tayeb.

Many thanks to Cedar Environment (www.cedarenv.com) for donating the 8 eco boards that I used for the wall. And Souk el Tayeb for sponsoring and making this happen. Marc Khairallah for staying with me and helping me take the wall down at the end of the day. Marie Melki for supporting me and helping with taking the wall down too.

Building Lebanon Better Installation at Khandak al Ghamik

There is something precious about small business owners in Beirut. I'm talking about craftsmen: carpenters and electricians and all those who still work with their hands to produce something in our city.

I keep on hearing that they are slowly Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 disappearing from Beirut, a place where there once was 'Souk el Najjarin' and 'Souk el Haddadin'... Souks for every little expertise you could think of! Maybe it is true, that these small businesses are closing shop. But I want to make Lebanon Better in the process of making the 'Lebanon Better' installation.

That's why I chose to go to Khandak al Ghamik to build the frame that will hold the Lebanon Better wall. This way, I am contributing to a local industry and helping local craftsmen to keep on doing what they do best in Beirut.

Khandak el Ghamik is the part of Downtown Beirut that Solider didn't take control of. So it is still inhabited by the same people that were there before the civil war. And everything still looks exactly the same. Maybe that's what Downtown would have looked like if reconstruction never happened.

Abou Ahmad will have finished work on the frame by tomorrow morning. And he would have contributed to make the Lebanon Better installation at Souk el Tayeb this Saturday. Hope to see you there!

With love,

Sherif Maktabi

Twitter: @sherifmango

Lebanon Better at The Souk This Saturday

Lebanon Would Be Better If more people can share ideas to make their country better. That's why Souk el Tayeb commissioned Lebanon Better to make an installation at the Souk this Saturday!

The installation is an 8 meter Lebanon Would Be Better If wall made out of eco board. What is eco board? It's a material made by Cedar
Environmental that looks like a plastic board, but it's not! It's actually made out of plastic bags that you throw away. It's an eco
friendly wall, that will be painted white and stenciled.

There is something really special that will be announced at the souk this Saturday. And we would like you to be the first to know about it. Join Lebanon Better at the souk at anytime between 9am and 2pm this Saturday 23, July! And don't be shy, Lebanon Would Be Better if you came!

Sincerly,

Sherif Maktabi

Twitter: @sherifmango

Lebanon Better at the Souk this Saturday!

Lebanon Would Be Better If more people can share ideas to make their
country better. That's why Souk el Tayeb commissioned Lebanon Better
to make an installation at the Souk this Saturday!

See the full gallery on Posterous

How To Become a Better Copywriter Everyday

Being a copywriter is all about using the right words in the right way
to convince your audience to do something.

"kills bacteria and keeps your skin moisturized. Use Safe Hands
sanitizer. The right choice."

"Hot pizza at your door in 30-min. Order Dominos Pizza. Worlds number
one pizza."

"buy 2 washing machines and get a free trip to china! Khoury Home,
satisfying your every need."

You can't know if yo are a good or bad copywriter easily. Because you
have to wait till you see if sales for washing machines, pizzas and
hand sanitizers went up after your copy was published.

Now you can change that, and become a better copywriter everyday.

Since twitter let's you publish 140 character messages including
links, it's a great way to train as a copywriter. Because if you write
good convincing copy, then people will click on your link and
sacrifice their time to check out what you shared.

How to become a better copywriter everyday?

1) Get a twitter account,
2) get a bitly account on bitly.com
3) share shortened bitly links with your copy.
4) study your real time stats on bitly

When you get the stats from bitly, you can get to know what kind of
copy works and what doesn't. This way, everyday, you can fine tune
your copywriting skills.

Why twitter? Since twitter let's you only share 140 characters, it
let's you think really hard of every word you are writing. And that's
a good thing.

If you are a copywriter, get a twitter account and start. Twitter is
your playground.

Sincerely,
Sherif Maktabi

Untitled

Being a copywriter is all about using the right words in the right way
to convince your audience to do something.

"kills bacteria and keeps your skin moisturized. Use Safe Hands
sanitizer. The right choice."

"Hot pizza at your door in 30-min. Order Dominos Pizza. Worlds number
one pizza."

"buy 2 washing machines and get a free trip to china! Khoury Home,
satisfying your every need."

You can't know if yo are a good or bad copywriter easily. Because you
have to wait till you see if sales for washing machines, pizzas and
hand sanitizers went up after your copy was published.

Now you can change that, and become a better copywriter everyday.

Since twitter let's you publish 140 character messages including
links, it's a great way to train as a copywriter. Because if you write
good convincing copy, then people will click on your link and
sacrifice their time to check out what you shared.

How to become a better copywriter everyday?

1) Get a twitter account,
2) get a bitly account on bitly.com
3) share shortened bitly links with your copy.
4) study your real time stats on bitly

When you get the stats from bitly, you can get to know what kind of
copy works and what doesn't. This way, everyday, you can fine tune
your copywriting skills.

Why twitter? Since twitter let's you only share 140 characters, it
let's you think really hard of every word you are writing. And that's
a good thing.

If you are a copywriter, get a twitter account and start. Twitter is
your playground.

Sincerely,
Sherif Maktabi

How To Become a Better Copywriter Everyday

kills bacteria and keeps your skin moisturized. Use Safe Hands sanitizer. The right choice.

How to Become a Better Copywriter Everyday

kills bacteria and moisturizes your skin. Use Safe Hands sanitizing solution. The right choice.

In than 24 hours, Sherif gets the perfect laptop

See the full gallery on Posterous

Yesterday, I posted that I need a cheap old laptop. I was hoping that somehow, someone out there's grandfather owns a 2001 laptop, pentium 4, and doesn't need it anymore. Because his grandfather now has a Mac.

Something else happened. In less that 24 hours, I was able to get in contact with someone who had EXACTLY what I wanted and more.

My friend Joseph Massih from Active Identity 's brother, (not grandfather), has a dealership specialized in used desktops, laptops and screens that are in great condition.

His depot is in amchit, Jbeil. And as soon as I hung up the phone Joseph, I was on my way there. One hour later, i became te proud owner of a DELL laptop [1GB Ram, Pentium M].

I can now finish my project :)

Sherif Maktabi
Twitter: @SherifMango

Sherif needs a cheap computer

For the past eight months, I've been working on a project that is very dear to me. And the project is nearing it's completion. There is only one last sprint!

A part of the project is an augmented reality experiment. For that I need a computer (or laptop). For me age is not important, and I apply that to computers too. But the only specs that I need are:

1) computer must be in working condition
2) computer must have a hard disc
3) computer must have a USB port.

That's all I need and I will be happy again!

If you happen to have an old computer you want to get rid of,

Or if you know somewhere where I can get a used computer,

Let me know by emailing me sherif.maktabi@gmail.com.

Much love,

Sherif Maktabi
Twitter: @SherifMango

Full House at the TEDxBeirutSalon 2.0

A TEDx event is independently organized by people from the community, for the community. It is created in the spirit of TED, and ideas worth sharing. On June 30th, the TEDxBeirut team brought together more than 300 of you to AUB's Olayan School of business, in this same spirit, for our second TEDxBeirutSalon!... And we announced something really special.

There is something you should know about the people organizing TEDxBeirut. No one was expecting a full house. The team was working for many weeks to prepare the event, and to make sure the comments we received from our first TEDxBeirutSalon were studied. We wanted to make the TEDxBeirutSalon 2.0 better. And when we saw you all on June 30th, we were proud and happy.

We screened 5 TED talks that were chosen by the team, so that the topics will be varied and interesting. And one of the talks was chosen by you during the event! We asked you to clap for the talk you prefer to watch after showing you 1 minute of each talk. To see the talks that we screened on TEDxBeirutSalon, visit our facebook page www.facebook.com/tedxbeirut .

One of the talks, Dan Pink on the surprising science of motivation, showed that higher extrinsic motivators (higher pay if you are an employee) does not mean higher productivity. That technique most often fails, and actually decreases productivity! Business has been using the wrong technique to motivate people to create new and great things.

When we opened the floor for discussion, people used the example of Google and compared it to Microsoft. Someone shared his personal story. He told us about a working space with a pool and slides, and where it doesn't matter what time you come to work, as long as you get the work done!

You can watch the 19 minute talk by clicking on the link here.

I agree with Dan Pink that it is intrinsic motivators that can let people be productive and create great things. One of the intrinsic motivators is purpose: the desire to work because it matters and it is part of something more important than ourselves. I believe this is the engine of the TEDxBeirut team. We are working because we believe that TEDxBeirut matters. It is beneficial and positive for Lebanon. Because we want to spread the inspiring ideas that we have here, in our country,

Our special announcement has been a long time coming. And we finally decided to tell the world about it. The official date, of TEDxBeirut is:

September 24th, 2011

We hope to see you there!

With love,

From the TEDxBeirut Team

Sherif Maktabi

twitter: @sherifmango

Pictures by Hanane Kai.