I love Big Mac, but what does it has to do with my Travels?

It was 2010. I just graduated out of 4th class. Things look good. It was Humayun Road. We bought Fanta and boop! turns out I slipped and dropped the cup. Mom won't buy me a new one anyway. It reminded me of a time when I was still in school and mom arrived with a pack of 1/4 litre milk.
"What is this?", I inquired, "Mom, why you're here?"
"Son, don't you some kind of explosion happened nearby. It's in the news."
"What?! an Explosion!"
"Yes, didn't you hear it. Anyways drink this".
Now I unpack and drink milk of a favourite brand of mine.
I hear the news now, the word has spread: bomb explosion. Of course, I was in Army Public School, the place is still a hotspot 10 years afterward. I successfully graduated 10th grade and it's been a year since I heard any news from APS.
Back to Fanta, by 2010. I am not sure whether I'm recally two events mixed up or was that a single event. But I remember taking the report card. It was final parent teacher meeting and we left. On the road, from Humayun Road to 502 Park, it was at least a Kilometer distance. We walked it alone: me, mom and my little sister via the Fort Road, which was still under construction at the time. I was so afraid of concrete on the road.
We see 502 park and enter. The first thing we do is take the rail that goes through the whole park. The train made us excited and a bit in fear as we passed above the track providing a bridge above a giant pond that was at least 10 meters deep(or more, who knows? it was still scary).
"We're done", said the rail driver.
Dad calls mom, "Where are you?"
"We're in the 502 Park near the rail".
I remember taking see-saw and swing as we saw dad and shouted, "Dad!". The emotions were as if one was from East and the other was from West. We begged, "Dad please buy us a ticket for the jumping jack". Jumping jack is a Pakistani term for a a bed filled with air that kids could jump on vertically. The point being these moments were small, but offered us an opportunity to bond and make good memories. Not that the time we were worried about money but were enjoying without any regard to accounting. Of course I was a kid.
Who knew I would one day be writing this blog. Nor had I thought of exchanging emails and tweets with celebrities. When I say celebrity, I mean Mike Maples.

Thanks! I like The Top Five Regrets of the Dying by Bronnie Ware.

— Mike Maples (@m2jr) April 3, 2018

What I do do now, was only thought of as dreams. I'd been obsessed with tablets. Not my tablets, but the one my selfish uncle owned. So you know I bought my PC, earn $500-$1000 in one to two years. It's 1/99 ratio. 99% free stuff and the 1% of the material would sell like crazy. Not only that, as a kid I would cry and ask, "How can someone be successful like these people are?", "What do they do that allows them to do this?". Of course the default reply was, "Work hard, Study, Go to school, get a degree and land a high-paying job". Why do I have to wait 10 years for something that could be done in 6 months or less? nonsense. So it was me vs computer and my motivation? that guy who'd just graduated from university, readily, able to bang my ass.

It's not that I have it all figured out. No one has. Even Bill Gates(that would be too cruel). But I pretty much attempted to answer questions I'd ask myself back then after 2011.
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Life gives man options. For it's not the lack of options alas the lack of knowledge, freedom, common sense and insufficient mental models (mental toolkits) that kills 90% of people. Competing for attention, as a school kid, against an A-player in sports was a sure way of losing. I was not to agree too much, but still agree a little bit. I would master one thing (programming) until I became top 1% in that category. My skill was not quite programming, but that the speed at which I could learn programming. Give me a new language and I would first do mastery of the meta. I was on fire. Now of course, you would say master 3 or 4 things, combine them to create a unique mix only I can offer. This would put me in the top 25%. Elusively, my competitors would have more options and I, would narrow options for myself. So I was the popular kid! I could choose who I can talk to and who I can ignore. But still I was focused at one thing at that time, without any regard to what I'd be doing in future. Knowing fully well, if I want to learn something else, I could do so later. Let's enjoy the opportunity I'm given, at least for this time.
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Interestingly, middle-class know McDonald's products. They're obsessed with the Big Mac. Only tiny fraction of people can actually point out the real secrets to success of McDonald's. McDonald's has a lot of business advantages. Its franchise system works well in creating the network lollapalooza effects for its own brand. Now you put on total 2 million dollars of investment to own a McDonald's Franchise and you harness power of the Ray Kroc empire. Its competitive advantage is that it's not for everyone. No new founders would try to compete with McDonald's. It's like killing your own self. Only a fool would try to out-throw McDonald's unless you are a founder of Pets.com.

"If skill could be gained by watching, every dog would become a butcher." - Turkish Proverb

 What is something you have to subtract in order to maximize other stuff that does produce output. Get rid of the trivial as to maximize on 20% of stuff that produces 80% of output.

"The beauty of life is in elimination of the nonessentials"

"Macro Patience, Micro Fast" - Gary Vaynerchuck

 Meaning don't be stupid to be too fast on long-term stuff while ignoring the micro stuff like how are you going to spend the next 60 minutes of your life. Party and then try to do PhD at 23! You can be 43 and still be a PhD, like father of one of my friend is. I want to save money for that life-changing trip across United States, or maybe New York as I'm born in Pakistan. I want to invest my time to understand and research where my travels should lead. I want to put time to become better at my thing. Arnold Schwarzenegger, with Reg Park, migrated to US and the next thing we know is Mr. Universe, Conan the Barbarian and The Terminator. One admirable thing is Arnold never had to care he had to pay his bills. Before entering Hollywood, Arnold became a millionaire by offsetting his career with Real Estate investing. If the best in the best of the world move their ass and stand on the shoulder of giants, why shouldn't I? why shouldn't you? Did he know his bodybuilding career and Reg Park of United States would far outdo the risk or pain associated with leaving Austria? No one, idiot. You never know how your life can take turns. What opportunity turns into your version of Conan The Barbarian. Throw pancakes on the wall to see what sticks. You got to double down when something does work. The journey, the process of planning itself is far important than the plan itself. Plan will change, your vision won't. I consider it my luck to be able to write on Blogger. Why? because I not only benefit from this blog today, but it is my hope I would enlighten myself for the years to come. It will be my no BS guide when I'm blinded by my own success. It will keep me smart, happy and beautiful in some way or another. I hope it does to you same it has done to me.

Magnum Bonum,
Aaliyan.