Stand out not blend in

The troubling decline in conscientiousness - https://www.ft.com/content/5cd77ef0-b546-4105-8946-36db3f84dc43 https://twitter.com/jburnmurdoch/status/1953811277463122162?s=48 Auto-generated transcript: In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful. And all praise is due to Allah, the Lord of the worlds. And peace and blessings be upon the honour of the prophets and messengers. Muhammad and the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him and upon his family and his companions, are very much in acceptance. And after you, my brothers and sisters, today I want to talk to you about something different. The other day I told you there are two ways of learning. One is to make mistakes yourself, feel the pain, suffer. You learn, you don't learn, we don't know. And the other way is to learn from people who have experience. So people who have made those mistakes learn those lessons, and now they have that ready-made experience which they are happy to share with you. My experience of people, is that if you approach them respectfully, sincerely, then they will share their experience freely. I've never in my life had anybody who did not share his experience, provided they are approached respectfully and with interest. What any potential mentor wants to see is whether you are going to waste his time or not. Because if you are going to waste his time, he doesn't have time to waste with you. So if you are kind of, you know, yeah, I would like to know, so tell me your story. No, sorry, I've got other things to do. Like feed my chickens maybe, right? That's more satisfying. Why would I tell you a story? Who are you? So you have to show who you are. You have to show your desperation, you have to show your seriousness. And that when the person is talking to you, he's not wasting his time, he's not wasting his experience. With me, my first and foremost, I have a checklist in my head to check seriousness. And my first check, first point of checking seriousness is, if I give you a time, will you take the time or will you argue? Simple as that. No matter what the time is. I might tell you, I'll see you at 4am. Will you say, yes, sir, I'll see you tomorrow at 4am? Or will you say, oh, 4am. Oh, you know, I, that's not convenient. I am sleeping at that time. I'm in the second installment of the third dream. Sorry, then goodbye. Find somebody else. I mean, I don't usually say 4am. I say 2am, but that's a different issue. Seriously, bye. Many people come to me, many young people. Can you mentor me? I say, sure. But I have a criteria of mentoring. I say, what's that? I say, what's the date today? It's the 9th of August, 2025. So I tell him, come back to me, on the 9th of August, 2026. One year. This one year, you must pray tahajjud every day. And this is between you and Allah. You can tell lies to, to me, you can't tell lies to Allah . Pray tahajjud every day. And if on the 364th day you miss tahajjud, you go back to counting one. When you complete 365 days of tahajjud, then you come to me and talk. I want to see how serious you are with your own life. Because you want advice about yourself, right? You're not, you're not asking me advice about how I should, how I will succeed. You want to know how you can succeed. So prove to me that you are interested. And somebody who is not praying tahajjud, doesn't really want success. He's doping. Because if you have no time to stand before Allah , Allah is coming specifically for you to the first heaven. And Allah is announcing, is there anyone who needs anything from me? Is there anyone who needs my help? Is there anyone who needs my protection? He says, no, no, not me. Because I'm busy sleeping. Then why should I be interested in you? I'm not interested. So that's the first thing. Second thing is, if I have a mentoring contract with somebody, there's zero tolerance, absolutely zero tolerance for not keeping time, not arriving at the right time, whatever time slot was given, you are late and then you want to waste my time some more by telling me some story of why you are late. I'm not interested. Why should I be interested? You are supposed to be here at first. You are supposed to be here at 4 p.m. You're not there at 4 p.m. I'm gone. Why you are not there at 4 p.m.? Believe me, that's the least interesting thing in my life. I'm not interested in that. So seriousness with that. Third thing is, demonstrate that you are serious about learning. So number one, carry a notebook. Take notes. Nobody has the memory which they think they have. Nobody. Take notes. And then any assignment that is given to you, make sure you complete that assignment. No excuses. Again, no excuses. Many of you go to college and you get college degrees and you think that when you get hired, that people are hiring you because of your degree, because of the number you got in the degree. Believe me, I have a book on hiring. It's called Hiring Winners. I probably hired more people than all of you put together. Including I've hired general manager above positions in General Electric, global positions. There's only one thing that people look at. I'm not talking about professional courses. Doctors are different. I'm talking about general degrees, MBA, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. I'm talking about the degree that you got in the first quarter. The person hiring you is not hiring you for your degree because there are 10 zillion people like you. There's nothing special that any college teaches you. I can tell you because I have an MBA from the best college in India and I teach that stuff. There's nothing that anyone teaches you which is any different. The same story. What they're looking for is seriousness. They're looking for conscientiousness. They're looking for commitment. So if you completed a college degree, you have evidence that you can show up every day for three years or four years. That is important. That you showed up in class for these days. You have proven that you have completed assignments. That's how you got the degree. What you wrote in the assignment and so on, zero interest. The fact that you did the assignment, this is important that you read the assignment. And you are showing that you had consistency to stick through that for three to four years. So I will hire you for that reason, not because of your degree or what numbers you got. That's immaterial. That doesn't mean don't study, don't get numbers. Do by all means, if you're doing it, do that. That also shows that you have some interest in excellence. But the real interest is, the real reason you get hired is because you are showing that there is consistency. Because conscientiousness, the willingness to go, the willingness to keep your word, the willingness to keep promises, that is the reason why there is such a dearth of this in this particular generation especially. And I'm not bashing you, believe me. I will say this. I will send you. I will send you articles by experts in the area who are saying this. What is the, how does that translate? That translates into you will not be able to keep a job. You will not be able to maintain relationships. You will get married six months later, you get divorced. And you think it's the wife's fault. The wife thinks it's your fault. Then you get into another marriage and you get into another marriage. And finally you are, nobody wants to touch you because, you know, too many people have touched you. Because no conscientiousness. No willingness to go the extra mile. You know, in golf, you have the, when I was running golf, my caddie used to teach me, and he used to tell me that when you hit the ball, he used to say, follow through and keep your eye on the ball. So hit, twist your body, feet are in the same place. You don't move the feet. Twist the body completely, club over the shoulder. And you're looking at the ball, where the ball is going. And he would say that the ball will travel the farthest, longest distance if you do that. Now I know enough physics to know that once the club has hit the ball, and the ball has taken off, I can look at it till I die, the ball is only going to go that far. Because it depends on what it got from the club, right? But believe it or not, the ball does have to fall. I don't know. I don't believe in magic, but it happens. I don't know how it happens, right? That follow through, the point is the follow through is full. You do the full movement. You do the full movement, you look at it, no matter what. You have translated that into life. That is the meaning of following through on commitments, on your word. You give your word. The Quran actually in Surah Al-Baqarah, the longest ayah of the Quran, the entire Quran, the longest ayah in the Uthman-e-Mussaf, it is one full page, 15 lines. You have to look at it, you have to look at it, you have to look at it, you have to look at it, you have to look at it, you have to look at it, of course, but then the Holy Qur'an says that Fuara J itself is the one man who is above order. Paan Q наzmain wayari Mudha Maharaj Maqeer need chỉ a Darkeen, The meaning of that is not to say that if you don't record the transaction, you can do whatever you want. No. The recording of the transaction is for those who will come after you. If you and I do a deal, right, and we don't have a written transaction, written record, and then I drop dead, and then my heirs come to you and say, my father, my husband had this deal with you, they have no evidence. They have no proof. So Allah said, record it. For the people who will come after. That does not mean that if there is no record between you and me, then I can play some game with you. No, no, no. I gave you my word, that's it. If I give you my word, and I break my word, believe me, I will answer to Allah for that. And it doesn't matter what. It does not matter what it was. It does not matter what it was, whether it had to do with money,