Why are they so successful?

Remember my trip to Sweden? (these are all the links). After I arrived at the hotel, and settled down in the city, I sent an e-mail to my parents comforting them that I arrived safely. My dad's reply included a very interesting phrase; "Talk to the people and find out how they managed to be one of the top countries in Europe". After I got over my dad's well known attitude (go son, try to learn as much as you can everywhere), it caught my attention. The Swedish are very successful. They have one of the world's highest income rates. And... and what? Isn't the income rate thing enough?!
A couple of weeks later, I knew why they're so successful. Of course I didn't asking them how they got to be so successful. Let's just say that I observed.
Starting by the city itself, everything was in order. Everything is neat, tidy and in its right place. The organization of how the city runs was amazing. For example, since a few months ago, indoor smoking was totally prohibited in Stockholm. So they had ashtrays by the entrance of every single building. I mean, they didn't miss one! The subways, never late, never overcrowded and of course, never filthy.
But, in order to maintain such order and organization, the state itself cannot handle that alone if it weren't for the people themselves. Everybody follows the rules. I mean, for two weeks, I haven't seen anybody driving through a red light, or crossing the street from the wrong location (non-zebra lines). It's like the people appreciated the effort made by the state to maintain the tidiness and beauty of the city, and on their behalf, they acted back to keep the city as beautiful as it is.
Coming to look at the working environment, it was awesome. I mean, the offices there (at least the one I've been to) were so... I can't find a word to describe it. Let me just say, that it makes you love your job, love going to the office, and love your co-workers no matter how grumpy they might be. Accordingly, you would find the people there arriving to work on time, maintaining a nice atmosphere among the office, very cooperative, and delivering work output that is almost perfect. And around mid-day, they would go have their lunch in the awesome cafeteria. Doesn't that make you just love your job?
All of these factors together, along with their incredible discipline (that keeps it all together, running in harmony), is what I consider the keys to their success.

Tags: Sweden, success, discipline, work

Girls & Words

First of all, I'd like to clarify something to all the females reading this post; I am NOT a sexist. I totally believe that women are equal to men, and even better in several areas. So please don't get me wrong.
My thing is, regarding words, women are very very vulnerable. As some (if not all) guys would do anything to get laid, most women (if not all as well) would make themselves believe anything if they heard a few nice words. No matter how much women would argue to differ, this is true.
A woman would give away her virginity if she heard some love talk from her boyfriend. Of course the amount of words needed would highly differ according to the culture and social boundaries, but the concept is basically true. A woman would also stay in a relationship with a guy who hurts her in so many different ways just because he tells her that he loves her. Whatever the situation, and no matter what evidence that could exists to prove the contrary of what the woman makes herself believe, as long as she hears what she wants to hear, then the deal is closed.
I know that the examples mentioned sound a little bit of extremes, but I only exaggerated to stress the point. And I know also that some women might think that they are immune to this nasty trick. Believe me, they aren't, at least on the short term. It's only a matter of what words are being said and how. Bottom line, they're only words...

Tags: women, relationship, words

Why do we work?

Really, have you ever taken some time to think about that question? As obvious as it might sound, I am willing to bet that many people out there don't have a good answer to that question?
So, why do we work? And please don't start with the "because I love my job" kind of answers, because this is just wrong. This would be an answer to "Why did you pick this job/field of work particularly?"
Obviously a very direct answer would be "to earn a living" or anything along that line; "to be able to get/buy what I want", "to afford a certain living standard", or even "to get my wife all those expensive things she wants". And (although I really disagree with that reason, but that's another issue) for some of the ladies it might be "to prove myself"!
So, putting aside that last (mostly) female reason, it's all about money. But what if you don't want to buy all those nice things for yourself or your partner? Would you consider this scenario:

You, and possibly your beloved one, get a nice house. You have a small piece of land around it (a little bit bigger than a garden) where you would grow some vegetables & fruits. And just live like that. Very primitive & basic, and totally isolated from all the world.

What do you think? Wouldn't it be a lot easier, calmer and totally giving you that inner peace you crave for almost every day? Think about it ;-)

Tags: work, life, inner peace

My trip to Sweden; Part VI (the last one)

I'm finally back! Oh, I can't describe how I was feeling the last two days, and especially the last few minutes when the plane was finally landing in Cairo Airport. I really missed being home, but at the same time, I was really enjoying my time there. It's a beautiful country. And it was one hell of an experience.
First of all, the snow. I've never been somewhere (except maybe when I was a baby with my parents still) where there is snow. So being around that amount of snow was a nice experience. A pretty cold one, true, but still a different and very pleasant one.
From another perspective, working there was a pleasure. The nature of my tasks that I was supposed to do there was very interesting to me. Finally I got to do something that I really liked. I just hope that this doesn't go away on my first day back in the office!

Let me tell you a little about Stockholm. Well, there isn't much to visit, from the traditional touristic point of view. Well, it is true that they have a decent number of museums, as it is the case of almost all European cities. The old (not even ancient) stuff isn't much though. I definitely won't compare their old ours ;-) Just a few hundred years old (as opposed to our thousands)! But the city is beautiful. I haven't seen a city with all those colours. The buildings' fronts' colours are so variant and so beautiful. And you can have a very nice view of that if you just stand at one end of a street and look from an angle at the line of buildings towards the other end. You'll see an amazing colour collection that contains many different, yet tasteful, colours. The architecture is also awesome. Many different styles, all so very nice. And the best thing about all of this is that you can have a really nice overview of all these scenes from their zoo. It is on a place that is relatively elevated towards the north of the city. It has a very nice collection of Scandinavian animals, and models of old houses, farms and shops. To me, it was a very nice place to go on the weekend, although it demanded a pretty long walk, but it was totally worth it.
During the evenings, I would go out alone, either fetch a place to hangout and take some more pictures, or just wonder around the streets, sometimes without even referring to the map. As you know, the best experience you can get when you're in a foreign country is to get lost. Of course not getting lost in a dangerous neighborhood, or very late at night (although in Stockholm, it was very safe), but at least not to stick to the defined places. Exploring on your own gives you the chance to see things not many people see. It makes you get the true essence of the country you're in.

So, after having all these wonderful experiences and visits, I was torn between my admiration and enjoyment of Stockholm, and my longing to get back to my homeland. The time flow on the last couple of days (of my 2 weeks visit) was very weird. I felt it was flying by, as I still wanted to spend more time there. And at the same time, it was crawling slowly, as I was missing my city like hell. As the plane was landing, I started remembering this song about Cairo. Maybe it's a bit overdue, but thanks a million Tomanbay for that wonderful post.

Tags: Sweden, Stockholm, home, Egypt, Cairo, zoo

My trip to Sweden; Part V

Well, this will be a pretty short post with no pictures :P
Today didn't start off really well, I overslept and didn't wake up in time. But fortunately enough, I wasn't very late, just 20 minutes or something. Anyway, we arrived at the office and started almost right away. It wasn't a training session, as it was over yesterday, it was more like a workshop to discuss several issues regarding our project.
I have to admit, I'm loving this. First of all, I'm as sleepy anymore as I was during the previous days in the sessions. There is still a huge temperature difference between the snow outside and the central heating inside, but still, when you're talking, thinking, writing, and listening to people talk to you directly, it's much better than sitting in a half-dark room looking at a projected screen and listen to someone almost reading the slides. Actually, and explaining them, I'll have to be honest, they're good presenters around here. But still, the presentation mode makes me sleepy anywhere, so you can imagine how hard it was for me to stay awake adding to it the temperature thing!
Anyways, I'll happily get back to the workshop now, and I'll see you later ;-)

Tags: Sweden, Stockholm, workshop, presentation, sleep, snow, temperature, heating

My trip to Sweden; Part IV

Oh my God! It's freezing today. I don't know how. Although yesterday their were snow showers and it was very windy. And also today it was sunny. I mean, of course, that the sun could be seen for a short while, not that you could feel any bit of warmth under it. As I was saying, it was way colder than yesterday. But fortunately enough, knowing that today was supposed to be colder than yesterday, I had put more clothes on before leaving the room. But believe me, nothing is enough in this weather.
Anyway, today was an interesting day in the training. More informative sessions, more relevant information that we'll probably actually use, and a detailed description of functions that we will really need. As we had lunch in the amazing office restaurant...oh, haven't I told you about it yet?! Well, simply and briefly, the menu is nice. You choose your main dish from about 3 or 4 options (as I remember). And then you have the dressing bar (if you're having a burger for example), and a very nice salad bar. And of course the drinks machine. And don't forget that the tables are not a few, and are widely spread under a glass front and glass over your head! So you have a very nice view of some trees around you. Well, not that much of a nice view, but when it snows...maybe it's because I'm simply not used to it, but it's an amazing scenery. Unfortunately I didn't have a chance to take any pictures of that scene, and as cold as it is, as much as I'd want it to snow that heavily again so that I can take at least a couple of pictures of something that I might not see again soon at all.
After work, and the traditional "throw our laptops at the hotel" thing, we went to a Museum. Wasn't bad at all. Pretty impressive actually, not very to be honest, but nice. After all, I enjoyed my time there, and took some good pictures. And to me, that's the most important thing to do wherever I go; taking good pictures, and lots of them.
As for the coming days for me in Stockholm, I'm expecting a huge load of work. As the training's last day was today, we were told that the training's days were almost the only days that we will be left to go early! I was like "how nice!" As most of the shops close at 6pm, and those that stay late close at 7pm. And since the "early" time that they're talking about is 4:30pm, then I don't think I'll be able to go anywhere except the weekend. Keep in mind that a majority of the shops are totally closed on Sundays, so I only have half their working hours next Saturday. Otherwise, I guess all I'll be able to do to keep busy is try to learn Swedish by watching the TV in my hotel room!

Tags: Sweden, Stockholm, cold, shops, work

My trip to Sweden; Part III

Quickly this time; yesterday was nice. The training is becoming more interesting. After we finished I dropped my laptop at the hotel and tried to go buy something. I arrived at the shop at around 6:05-6:10pm, but the sign said that it closes at 6 :( They open from 11am to 6pm only!!
So we had a small walk around the area, checking out the places and the closed shops. Then I went back to the hotel to play a little with some of the pictures that I've taken. Here's what I've done with one of them, hope it's nice.
At night I met Mustafa, the Turkish guy with me in the training, and we went bar hunting. After a walk in what seemed to be a very quiet neighborhood, and asking a taxi driver, we found a few bars. We had a quick walk around the block to check them out first, and ended up entering one of the first two that we saw :-s
It was nice, nothing much. But I like the experience of entering into the not-so-fancy places in foreign countries. So it was an nice experience with some nice pictures as well ;-)

Tags: Sweden, Stockholm, bar