Making money is no fun. changing the world is a lot more fun.

It was one of these nights, full of excitement, anxious-ness and guilt. I was high on adrenaline alone. So, it was a wonderful morning al7amdullah, started with an easy smooth beginning and ended up with finding a dear friend that i have not seen since i was in junior school. But putting aside this wonderful event, Actually before I ended my night, I was struck by another gift.

It was TEDxNile and my friend Ahmed Hayman was the guest speaker. I always knew Ahmed was an exceptional character, so vivid, unique and full of life. I never knew specifically when did it click with him, for shame I was not there. This is not about Hayman as a person, but the message he is conveying, I was touched and ashamed, I was touched by the fact one truthfully captured photo can change the world, I was touched by the positive attitude towards change, instead of following our excessive nagging about what the government or other organisations did or didn't do, he got out and he did what needed to be done without shying away, and continued to aware other to follow his footsteps, Allah would not let men like him down. And I was ashamed that despite I allegedly call myself a community person, I really never did anything to my community, maybe pinched here and there, but not with an effective magnitude, and here it was the realization of truth.

I realized that what do all these technologies, information and education mean if It was not for the sake of others, for the sake of changing unfortunate lives, contribute in building the infrastructure of mis fortunate villages and meeting the people basic needs of food, clean water, health care, encourage micro-businesses and finding new opportunities of investment for others. And then I realized I don't have artistic talent, nor am I a tycoon or a government official to inflict change, I am an engineer, a technology geek who will be slash entrepreneur soon. What can I do?

I turned to the internet and started looking for how others contributed, and I was looking to get inspired, this is where I stumbled upon India and The Grameen foundations, Bill Gates Foundation, UNICEF and Reports about mobile technologies, video conferencing, water contamination sensors, it hit me, the imagine cup themes and all other similar organisations and events I saw before, started to make sense.

How did I go so wrong, how did my university and school work became so shallow and self centered, why can't I go and set real life targets and do real solution that would add value to my society and why did nobody told me anything about this, where was I ! Then I remembered my friends Hussein's fascination with the concept of the software park build in a remote village called Hagen-burg, Austria, and I remembered a  quote by Grameen Bank Founder

Making money is no fun. Contributing to and changing the world is a lot more fun.

and it all clicked (0_o).

Like a movie with a really good twisted ending I was struck, and then I went to sleep like 3.00 AM to wakeup at 6.00 AM on the voice of microbusinesses and teleclincs, schools, children and university students. I am still in shock as I am writing this now, I wish this is my TRUE calling.

Thank you my friend for this inspiration.

See these references

• http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/05_52/b3965025.htm
• http://hptruth.info/2010/11/18/bill-gates-mobile-health-technology-will-save-lives-help-overpopulation/
• http://mobilephone.firstblogfirst.com/2010/10/17/can-mobile-phones-help-people-in-previously-unknown-ways/
• http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE69D4XA20101014

Ahmed Hayman @ TEDxNile

• Part1
• Part2

A friend asked me : How can I think out of the box ?

I have heard this term thousand of times before, think outside the box... and I keep trying to think but it seems that this thinking is inside the box, proof ? all these thoughts are neither applicable nor creative.

So creativity, how can somebody be creative, what is creativity... well, when I viewed over the past models of success and creativity, I find that these ideas are indeed creative, some are very complex, others are just too simple that you can't help but yelling why didn't I think of that, but what I actually found in common, these guys knows what they are talking about, they know their problems, they know their target, and they know too well about the boundaries and obstacles surrounding them.

So what is really thinking outside the box,

"It is in the question you find the answer"

Think outside the bad practices, physical boundaries, social-norms all these factors that force our limitation and stop us from reaching our ultimate goal.

So what do you do ...

you have to define the problem, and then the box...

Knowing that the box is the limits and the boundaries that are forced by habits, bad practices or maybe physical or mental obstacles that stand in front of you and your ultimate target.

So once you know & understand the box pretty much, these limits and obstacles, you can actually try evading or eliminating these obstacles in your model. thus thinking out of the box, that invisible boundaries people surround themselves with.

Remember the box is ever expanding and is never defined by true boundaries we can only try to move one step ahead of it.

The more you know and get familiar with your problem, the more you know it's weaknesses and the more you can "become" creative in solving it.

It is a gift I can not deny that, but we all have it... it all depends how much are we dedicated to our cause.