5 Minute Reading Series-pt.1

Hi folks,

Indeed one has come alone and so shall he leave this world on his own. Every relation is as worthless as a particle of dust rather even more worthless. A man experiences two types of relationships over the span of his life: 1. Relationships contingent on purpose and 2. Relationships contingent on priority. Let us examine each in detail.

1. Relationships contingent on purpose: These kinds of relationships are mostly the strongest in one's life i.e. parents, spouse etc. But the strength and all together, the existence of such relationships is all based on some purpose. A purpose which connects the parties to the relationship, unifying them to such an extent, that the parties begin to ignore the existence of a purpose for which they are sharing the relationship. At times they may find themselves so engulfed and taken by it, that nothing else seems more important then satisfying the needs of such relationships. But are they really that important?

2. Relationships contingent on priority: These are the next strongest relationships a person has in life and they include his friends, the extended family, work partners etc. The basis of such relationships is superficial, and gradually, as time moves on,the existence and the effectiveness and the satisfaction derived from such relationships is decided by one factor. That factor is 'priority'. To what extent the parties to the relationship see it to be a priority in their lives, will determine its strength. This calls for equal contribution from all sides, in order to create and sustain the equilibrium, unlike in (1), where the purpose supersedes individual priorities.

-To be continued-

Success-Briefly defined and understood

The philosophy of success varies from one successful person to another. The more you'd look for, the more and the more different interpretations and explanations of success you would come across. Some say success is all about winning while some say success is all about winning consistently. Some also say that success is all about the number of times you get up once you fall; some say success is about thinking you can and you will. So what is the best definition and the best interpretation and explanation of success? What is the most appropriate philosophy of success?

If a person has all the resources he needs to achieve his goal and he achieves it, this is what I called ordinary success. i.e. if an athlete steps on the race track with a desire and belief to win and he is in fact the fittest and the fastest among others, and if he wins, that's ordinary success.

Now if a person who has inadequate or insufficient resources all together for achieving his goal and if he is able to achieve it still, then this is what I call extra-ordinary success. i.e. if an underdog boxer comes out as the winner in a heavyweight bout, then its success is extra-ordinary. (remember Rocky?)

So what makes a person achieve extra-ordinary success? The following should help us understand:

1. Desire:

For a person to achieve something, he ought to have a desire for it. The desire forces thinking and regulates his efforts towards achieving that goal. To be precise desire is what pushes a person to work hard and go that one step further. Desire instills persistence, resistance to distractions and ensures a flow of energy all the time. It is the impetus for everything in the direction of achievement.

2. Belief:

It could be said that desire and belief are indeed one and the same thing. But they are grossly different. A desire is a longing while a belief is a feeling of being able to achieve what one has a desire for. Indeed many would tell you that they have a desire to be a professional soccer player or a cricketer or someone like Bill Gates etc, but ask them if they believe they can? Belief is what sustains a desire throughout one's pursuit of achievement. Without belief all desire is worthless. It also helps us release positive energy and attract the same.


3. Skill:

Skill is the ability not a capability. Capability is one's potential. Potential when polished becomes skill. Skill is what come in use when working for your goal. It has to be relevant to your aim otherwise your efforts will never bear fruit. One can turn his potential into his skill by practice only. This practice is a combination of working with inherited as well as acquired knowledge about a particular characteristic and applying the same again and again, till one becomes experienced and a master at it.

4. Timing:

Every dog has his day, as we say, but its quite true. Time can play a major role in one achieving and one failing to achieve. Time is a quantity which has a direct link with energy that surrounds us. We are all made up of energy and attract different types of energy at different times. Hence, the timing of the kind of energy we release will determine the kind of energy we attract from our surroundings. So, its advisable that we remain positive at all times, no matter what the circumstances.

5. Natural Law:

This is something perhaps beyond one's control. It is something knitted in the fabric of universe. Like no one thing remains the same or should I say, change is the only constant, so are success and failure prone to change. An individual in life can become no.1 and stay no.1 but not forever. Similarly, what is a zero today may climb up the ladder one day but how much, depends upon the aforesaid factors also.

6. Planning:
Failing to plan is like planning to fail, and yes, we know this by heart, and why shouldn't we? Planning provides a system for you to follow to achieve your goal. The whole universe runs according to a system, so how can you do without it? Planning has the quality of providing for you even if it's the eleventh hour. It helps you become efficient and effective and also keep a track of your performance in achieving your target.

Moreover, when a successful process of extra-ordinary success is repeated once it has achieved the desired goal, any further achievement will no more be extra-ordinary but ordinary. And the many times ordinary success is achieved, the more consistently one shall remain successful. And if one is at the bottom, then each cycle shall help him rise toward the top gradually.

This is how success can be defined and understood, perhaps.

Thank you very much for your patient reading.

Mustafa Mustansir, CFC

If you want me to write more on this, please request so in your comments. Your feedback is warmly welcomed and highly appreciated.

Find out more about me on www.greenspotservices.com

I want to be an Accountant!

I want to be an Accountant!

                                

Accountancy refers to the practice of recording and reporting changes in an entity’s assets, liabilities, revenues and expenses, over a period of time. Accountants worldwide prepare financial statements of companies and other organizations, file tax returns or work as independent or employed auditors and even as consultants and advisers on financial planning and management, taxation and financial decision making. Accountants are mostly employed by audit firms. But they are also employed by almost every organization and sector of the economy i.e. banks, governments, insurance firms etc.

The profession has been one of the most lucrative since the 20^th Century, and day by day as economies expand into newer dimensions, and public reporting and the need for compliance with the corporate laws increases, and as the states make smarter tax laws, the need for accountants is set to keep growing in the future too.  According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, job prospects for accountants and auditors are expected to grow by 22 percent between 2008 and 2018.

Accountants all over the world, especially those with notable certifications earn well beyond their respective countries’ Per Capita Income, and enjoy a more than modest lifestyle. Estimates suggest, that entry-level accountants in most countries, earn in the range of USD$ 55,000-USD$ 70,000, annually, which jumps to USD$ 70,000-USD$ 80,000 after four to five years of experience and exceeds USD$ 100,000, in case of partners of audit firms.

Moreover, Pakistani accountants are in a relatively high demand, mostly in the Middle-Eastern economies, like the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait and Bahrain. This is mostly due to the dynamic and rigorous accountancy courses like the Chartered Accountancy course offered by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Pakistan (ICAP) and the extensive internship, which the students must go through to earn their certification.

These courses not only meet international standards and requirements, but surpass them as they are supposed to-primarily-meet the requirements of the Corporate Laws of Pakistan, which are some of the toughest and smartest laws, in world. An evidence of the effectiveness of these laws is the ever-resilient banking, financial and corporate sector of Pakistan, under the supervision of the State Bank of Pakistan and the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan.    

However, today accountants are mostly certified by the respective worldwide accountancy bodies chartered by the State. Other than these, some independent private institutes and professional associations worldwide, also offer credible certification programs in accounting. The pursuers are mostly required to clear mandatory examinations and fulfill experience requirements, to be eligible for a Certificate of Practice.

In some cases, a Masters in Accounting or a related field is a pre-requisite for a certification. Notable designations remain the FCA, ACCA, ICAEW, IAT, CPA etc.  Alternatively, students can enter the profession with either a degree in Applied Accounting or a Masters in Accounting, or any other relevant field, with sufficient experience. It could take one, three to five years, depending on the program on an average, to become a recognized accountant.

If you are good at crunching numbers, keeping records, remembering laws and practices and applying them appropriately, time and time again, and have enough motivation and are a diligent worker with a mind for good social status and a top-notch salary, accountancy is a career you could go for.

But becoming an account with a notable certification was never an easy game. It still isn’t! Some of the certifying institutes are well notorious for their unexpected, insufficient release of information to the students about the curriculum and a constant mismatch between the syllabus content and areas which are ultimately examined. This is further exacerbated by outrageous demands on the students’ intellectual capacity, with syllabi that are highly versatile and advance and vast in their approach, along with severe time constraints.

Nevertheless, the esteem and benefits a coveted certification brings, is worth it all! Hence, the number of students opting to be accountants, especially Chartered Accountants, has trebled in the last decade. The traditional charm and the fact that economic recession has left lesser opportunity for other career professionals or made competition tougher for them, more and more students want to be accountants and hopefully, get a highly rewarding job in Pakistan or preferably, abroad!

This has turned this profession into a millions of rupees worth industry. Heavy-weight certification bodies like the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Pakistan and the Institute of Cost and Management Accountants of Pakistan; are also engaged in scuffles (locally and internationally), in order to protect and increase their supplies to the job market and enhancing the credibility and worth of their respective certifications, by virtue of continuously upgrading their syllabi to align with the local and international industrial needs.

In addition, where there were no formal teaching centers two decades ago, there are more than one could count on fingers, today. Each institute battling it out with others to get hold of the best teachers and attract the most students. Not to forget the neighborhood coaching centers and the self-employed house tuitions providers.

Surging demand has made room for hundreds of new and inexperienced teachers, to make good and easy money. Some well-off and experienced players, with a mind for business, are also setting up training institutes effortlessly. In all the drama, students are the major sufferers.

No institute is perfect! Some have the facilities while some have the faculty. Some have results while others have even better results. Some are new, while others have been around for some time and enjoy a good reputation. Each of them is bombarding students with their cheap promotion, scholarship offers and faculty and just about anything they can to sell themselves. And when teachers switch institutes or set-up their own, they use their influence and name, to attract prospective students.

This is confusing for the students, as they must now choose between the teacher and other training centers in the market. Not only this, in an effort to make the right choice, they must research about the background of each subject teacher, because there are just so many of them now! Should I go to a place that boasts high-achievers or should I join a place that has the most renowned teacher on their faculty? Do I have a rational answer to all this penetrating promotion? All this to follow after the grueling process of career selection!

 However, the key to selecting the best training institute is a combination of everything. That is to say, a preferable choice would not only possess a reasonable faculty but an equally good management and experience, along with good results or pass rates, complemented by the caliber of audit or training firms their students land in. As for a preferable certification or degree, it shall be discussed some other time. 

All the same, competition has led to making accountancy one of the most cost-effective programs to choose in Pakistan. Medicine, Business Administration and Engineering, and programs in Arts, if undertaken at private universities, are considerably expensive to be within an easy reach of the common man. On the contrary, state funded institutes are affordable, but are equally deficient in their curriculums as compared to private universities, in most of the cases. 

Plus, a career in accounting is a rewarding career in terms of salary and benefits, with a much significant substantial assurance of job security, and an ever growing number of positions for accountants in the industry. On the other hand, being an accountant still limits the prospects of climbing the organizational ladder in years to come unlike an MBA. Most accountants remain in the same organizations with little or almost no promotions, for their entire careers. This is changing!

Accounting programs are being modified to meet this deficiency, integrating in knowledge from other core areas of business, like management, human resource, marketing, and leadership.  Each addition or alteration makes the course more difficult, the demand for accountants to widen, and the competition in the training industry, crueler.

In any case, be it any profession, it’s the student’s ability, hard-work and commitment, which ultimately make the difference in end. Teachers and institutes are only stepping stones. Solid stepping stones will make the journey to the top, pleasant. Weaker stones or incorrect ones altogether, shall lead to a shaky and bumpy ride, a ride that could cause an accident as well! The war is on and it’s the survival of the fittest. The profession has been among the fittest for decades, but are we prepared to meet its standards?

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Thank you very much for your reading. Your valuable feedback is awaited.

Mustafa Mustansir, CFC

An urgent call!

Dear Readers!

Despite all the environment issues, our Planet still produces abundant food and potable water to feed the whole humanity sufficiently! Every year billions of dollars of surplus food produce is dumped in the seas by the developed nations, only for the sake of protecting their domestic farmers' incomes, so that they may grow the produce again next year and it goes on! If only we could overcome our hypocrisy and donate the surplus to the poor, especially to Africa, crisis could be averted. But we don't!

This is an urgent call! After reading this, THINK before you take your next meal or even take your next sip of water, POTABLE water-even the water for our domestic uses other than for drinking, is a thousand times clean than what 10 million people in the arid areas of East Africa have for now.

Even dirty water is scarce for them! No food! No water! Under open skies, these representatives of human race, are fighting a war of life and death. Stricken by disease and utterly malnourished, these people need our help desperately!

Please follow and also forward the given links and donate for humanity generously:
www.care.org
www.greatglobalfoundation.org
www.unhcr.org

This is an emergency! Please help!

Thank you for your patience!

Hi Readers!

Today I have decided to talk about materialism or 'thinking about one's own self-interest only' as is widely perceived. However,  I would define materialism as the believing and doing of what is the best for you and when you follow such a principle as the philosophy of life, life changes automatically, and your desires get fulfilled and your aims achieved.

How is a good materialist?

A classical example of a materialist would be a person, who weighs everything in line with the costs and benefits associated with every such thing. For example, when you want to do something you just don't do it rather you contemplate and ask yourself these questions:

1. What am I doing?
2. Is this going to benefit me?
3. How long will this benefit remain? Is it short-term or temporary or long-term and perhaps permanent?
4. What will it cost me?

Nothing comes cheap! Even what's for free. Somethings are more expensive while others are less expensive but they are all expensive because, everything costs you TIME! Time is one such item that can neither be held, nor restored nor bought back nor substituted, it's gone forever, once it's gone. A materialist must realize this importance of time.

Moreover, a good materialist should be an asset for the society. In trying to maximize his benefit or gain, a materialist would make every effort to make the best use of the resources available to him, cutting on waste, helping the welfare of the society. But it must be noted, a good materialist, shall never do anything which might cause a loss to any other being in the society, he shall never break the law but follow it at all times!

That will be all for this post!
Thank you for your patient reading.

For more information on my work, please visit the link:
http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/mustafamustansir

In to Win

Hi readers!

In this post I shall discuss my second book, titled, In to Win. A crime/thriller novel. I began working on it in October 2010 and finished it by December 2010, literally two months! For the time invested, it is still a masterpiece that makes me proud.


This book is quite special for me because of its vivid and an extremely engulfing plot. The book begins with the murder of five people of a family, professionally whose bodies are loaded in a truck and then the truck abandoned in the Baton Rouge Mall parking lot, with a notification sent to Detective Sergeant Robert Knowles of the Baton Rouge Police Department Homicide Division.


In the morning, when Detective Sergeant Robert Knowles arrives for work, he receives an envelope, opening it, he is welcomed by the news of the deposited bodies at the Mall. Ignoring the fact it could be a joke or a prank, he sets-out for the Mall and within hours, a truck with five bodies is found and the investigation kicked-off!

What happens next? Well...all I can say is that initial investigation develops complexly, but leads to a dead end. However, a phone call to Detective Michael Cook, Knowles' team member, by a notorious man, gives the investigation a new life! The investigation then expands to Europe, involving the FBI, the Interpol and the Italian police, and open on two fronts; one in America and the other in Europe (Italy and Ukraine), exposing a Mafia conspiracy, and leading to the arrest of the assassin, ultimately.

Anyways, for all the thrill, the action and the mystery, this book is a treat for all types of audience and as the author of the book, I can guarantee you guys, a reading full of pleasure!

For more information on my work, please visit the link:
http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/mustafamustansir

Thanks for your patient reading,
Have a nice day!

First Post

Hi readers,

This happens to be my very first post and I am glad to take this opportunity to welcome all the readers. 

Anyways, I will begin by talking about my very first book. It's called 1st of March, available on www.lulu.com for purchase and other online bookstores like amazon, ebay, ibookstore etc. It was written in 2010. I had begun working on it in September 2010 and finished it in April 2011. It is a work of fiction but inspired by real life situations and in some cases, situations from my own life.  

Often it is assumed that people from the elite business class, have lesser room for valuing emotions and family ties, owing to their environment and the goal of profit. This book proves this wrong! It showcases the events from the life of a young man, Steve, who is an orphan looked after by a billionaire and then, is named his heir. He is different from the most of his age. He finds the love of life in Tanya, unexpectedly. But on 1st of March his life changes forever. As all the merry turns to sorrow, and he's drowned in depression, and desperate to get out. Almost six years later, on 1st of March, his life changes yet again!

The story begins in a Paris cemetery, where an abandoned body is found. Who's body is it?

And then the story moves to London. Why?

And then, it moves to the US. Why again?

And then, back to London. Why?

And then, eventually ends in Paris. Again...Why?

I will leave you guys without an answer to the above questions. But here's a tip, 'READ IT FOR YOURSELVES'. LOL.

Thank you very much for your patient reading.

Have a nice day!