Dreamers of the Day
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One of Columbia’s most notorious professors, Dr. Melvin L. Moss, Father of the Fuctional Matrix Hypothesis and world reknowned authority on anatomy, was fond of introducing the academic year (in arguably the most difficult course, Anatomy) with the following quote:
“Sleep for five hours…fail”
“Sleep for four hours…pass”
I guess the equivalent in the world of entrepreneurship would be:
“Sleep for five hours…fail”
“Sleep for four hours…funded”
All parallels aside, any entrepreneur that is not putting in 16 to 20 hour days is surely not working hard enough, or is perhaps not lucky enough to have found his or her passion.
While the stereotypical government worker in the Gulf may work -3 to +3 hours a week, especially those stupefied by a super stable sinecure, entrepreneurs must endeavor to reverse this status quo of non-productivity.
Whatever dreaming must be done during the day.
This ties my story neatly with yet another luminary…Lawrence of Arabia. In his seminal book, “The Seven Pillars of Wisdom,” (a must read for any Arab) Thomas Edward reminds us that “all men dream, but not equally.”
The WWI Colonel goes on by adding that “the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act their dreams with open eyes, to make it possible.” No wonder Sir Winston Churchill extolled Sir Lawrence’s magnum opus as “one of the finest books ever written in the English language.”
In conclusion, let’s swing back quick to Dr. Moss. While our former feared dean may have had many puerile idiosyncrasies (for example, he never interviewed any candidates with facial hair and absconded students in short), he did have one particularly sound piece of advice:
“You know when you have studied enough for anatomy…when you start to dream of anatomy.”
— Dr. Melvin L. Moss
To paraphrase those famous Melvian words for the purposes of entrepreneurship:
“You know when you have worked hard enough on your business…when you start to dream of your business.”
— Dr. Mussaad M. Al-Razouki
Dreaming not just in the day, but actual dreams at night as well. Thus, one could really consider entrepreneurship, true zealous, passionate and proselytizing entrepreneurship, as a full time 24/7 obsession!
Post Script On Anatomy
Although I was a few dissections short of my Da Vincian goal of 36 cadavers, I did manage to top my class with honors in anatomy and even became the Resident Prosector during my third year at Columbia University Medical Center. I even ended up taking an extra two master classes of Anatomical Sciences (towards a Masters/PhD in Anatomy) just for fun.
