DISQUS

Eid saeed Ya Ustadh. You have a devoted student and mentee in South Africa.

Barak Allahu feekum.

Hi Chris. I think you've made some good points here. We have to work hard, but work with some smart and fun mixed in as well. I think that you should enjoy your work as much as you can. Because of the type of work we do, we can work anywhere - so I regularly work at coffee places etc. It gives me different perspectives, a new environment for a few hours, and this boosts my productivity.

I regularly go to the beach as well. My office is in the city, and the beach is 5 min away - but I bet I'm the only one in my building who does this. People get so caught up in their stuck-at-the-desk mindsets that they forget to have fun. I normally go there to have a break, lunch, or even just a coffee, other times I'll read, catch up on Twitter, but when I leave there, I'm totally refreshed and energised.

I also believe in investing in the best work tools. Expensive wireless mouse that does a few neat tricks, etc etc. My work experience is a totally fun one. So it's 9.47pm now in South Africa and I'm still working - because I enjoy it.

Who said hard work had to be dreadful?

May Allah Almighty bless and elevate Imam Siraj, Ameen. I had the honor of meeting him a few years ago, Alhamdu'Lillah!

Hi Chris, this is an excellent resource for us educating about Web 2.0 and online branding. Thanks. When I get to the office tmrw I'll send it to the printer. :)

Vinny I agree that we're not in a bubble. This stage that we are in, I feel, is an inevitable evolution of the Web that could only manifest after certain growths were undergone. There might be little bursts, but that again is inevitable. I don't foresee a crash and a tumble though. I think we're on a firm platform and only more change and moving forward can be expected. The industry is maturing and so are the communities that make up the industry.

Justin it takes a lot of guts to be open and honest like that, I applaud you. Balancing family and work is very tough these days - especially if you're an entrepreneur. We always seem to have the need to go that extra mile in order to make our ventures succeed.

I've been trying to manage this with my wife as well. I've actually just returned from a non-business trip. Friday morning we hopped on a plane with 2 friends to Durban. Besides one report I had to do and email off, I did absolutely no work this weekend. We had loads of fun and it was well worth it.

I've been trying to latch onto a lesson by Stephen Covey - about the emotional back account. He says that the more deposits you make, the more withdrawals you have available when you need them.

This weekend was a huge deposit. If I have to work late this week - for example - that's a withdrawal, but it'll be okay because I'll still have a smiling bank balance.

I hope your marriage and business ventures are filled with all the goodness and splendor that you deserve!

Jamaal

I think we're heading for some hot competition Vinny. With Facebook's exponential growth I think it's going to be very difficult for Google to grab all those users quickly. Perhaps if they offer multiple languages they might win over a bit of FB, and some of the social networking sites in other languages.

Google's been getting some negative publicity over their PageRank technology from top bloggers recently, so that is also an area we're going to need to watch.

As we all know, the rise can be as quick as the fall - unfortunately.

Personally I wish everybody could "play nice" and let everyone have a decent share of the pie. Like the lion and zebra story - a tale for another time...

Don't worry Vinny, you were close enough. I also blogged about this about 2 hours ago. Let's see what happens from this point...