Ed Sheeran's Top Rules For Success

He is an English singer-songwriter and an occasional actor. In 2014 he  was nomintaed for best new artist at the 56th Annual Grammy Awards. He received the songwriter of the year award in 2015. He is Ed Sheeran and here are his top most important rules for success.

1) Connect with people:

"Carrying on the momentum i think that's the biggest challenge for any artist. You know like to get up to a stadium level for any artist is kind of the peak but then the challenge from there is staying at that level, you know to remain at the stadium level, to keep releasing records that are not necessarily a hits but just connects with people. You know i have never been worried about my record selling millions of copies but i have been really intent on writing songs that come from me but when they go out they belong to people and there people can relate to them and get into it and then they'll come to the shows. The show's always the end goal, the album, i see an album as a commercial to a show Buy the album or download the album or stream the album or however tou listen to the album and then you think 'i wanna go see him live' and you go to the show.

2) Just be you:

"I guess my advice for young performers is just do you. Like there's seven billion people in this world and there was no one like you and there is no one who is going to write songs like you and theres no one whose gonna sing like you as long as you keep it exactly yourself.
I mean imitate people to a point to get your influence and kind of help you write songs and help you learn guitar and help you sing but once you've found your voice just do thatvand stick with it and even if it sounds like it's odd and people are telling you it wont work, just stick with it and eventually it will. Because there's seven billion people in the wotld and there's bound to be one person that likes you music."

3) The more you do, the better you get:

"Have you heard this theory about the '10,000 hour theory?', so that theory works right so when i first started out, i saw Damien Rice in concert and i mentioned it in a song, i said "i wont stop till my name's in lights, stadium heights with Damien Rice" and litrally like, i watched him and was like, i wanna do that one day and wrote millionsy songs, did a million gigs and ended up kind of doing a similar thing but it litrally came from writing a song a day or two songs a day or five songs a day and just getting all these songs out of me doing a million gigs. Sometimes three gigs a day, we did six gigs a day one year at Glastonbury. But, i think, you view it as a dirty tap, when you switch a dirty tap on it's going to flow shit water out for a substantial amout of time and then clean water is going to start flowing and now and then you'll get a bit of shit but as long as it gets out of you, its fine.
So with songs, you are going to write shiy songs at the beggening, you are.
My songs were terrible, my raps were terrible, i listened to it the other day, it was awful. But i got it out of me, and the more and more you write, the more and more you experience, and then you start flowing clean water and songs starts getting better and better and better. When you are on a good streak, you are writing good songs, you will write bad songs too but as long as that song is out of you, you can move on. And its the same with gigs, you will always play bad gigs at the begenning, thats what you need to do, but the more gigs you do the better you'll get but now or then youll have a bad gig but thats alright because as long as you have got it out of you and you have experienced it.
Just saying that the more and more you do, you put in your ten thousand hours, write as much as possible, gig as much as possible."

4) Be a likeable person:

"What i have learnt about music today is that no one has to buy your record anymore, like no one has to. Usually they buy your record if youre a likable person. Adele is incredibly likable, taylor is incredibly likable, bruno mars is incrediblly likable, i like to think that im likable. You have to be likable person. But for people to be likable persons, you are have to get to know them and twitter is very much instant thought, and snap chat is very much instant thought, facebook, instant, intsant, instant. And its all right, your personality coming out through something, and you would find kids instead of being like 'oh well i will illigally download the album beacuse i want to hear it' they would be like, 'oh! I think they are nice person, im going to support that' and then they go and buy the album, and that i think is really important now a days. And I have never been disproven, anyone that comes across as a person with a bad attitude, does not sell that many records.

5) Everything has a silver lining: 

"The lesson i have learnt from my break through success is that everything is not what it seems from the good things to the bad things. Everything thing has a kind of silver lining and i thing it helps you to live when you are in this industry to be a little bit concious cuz i came in this industry with very very wide eyes, going like, 'everything is so great, everyone is my friend' but then you kindof realize, the deeper you get into it, you kindof shrink a little bit"

6) Start off as early as possible: 

"My dad always said to me like, if you dont need to get a degree to do a job then go out and experience it. Like, if you want to be a doctor, then go get your grades and stuff but if you want to be a musician, your education is going to come from doing shows, writing songs, practicing, meeting people, networking. So start off as early as you can."

7) Learn from others:

"Iv been influenced by many people, iv even watched a coldplay dvd numerous times and taken little tricks of Chris Martin does with the crowd, even if its just like 'Sing this part here!' And one thing i learnt quite early on was that my friend, he went to U2 and they were singing Something and he like payed money to be on front row and he was there. And there about to get to the chorus and the singer goes 'now you sing' like that and my friend goes 'No! no! No! no, you sing. I payed to come and see you!!' so now everytime when i play, i make sure that i do the whole song and then the song along happnes so i make sure people get what they paid for and then like having the crowd sing it back is the most amazing thing in the world and i kindof want to have that for the whole concert but then also you need to give so i give as much as i can then you do the sing along" 

8) Commit to One thing:

"Basically i was an actor before i was a musician. But that was my main thing, i loved acting, i was in loads of theatre groups like did that in school all the time, but then i quickly realised like the weird thing is like, i can show you in 30 seconds how talented i am in music but i cant show you in 30 seconds how talented i am in acting and i realised like i cant really have a succesful acting career without having a good part first and i just dont like auditions so for me, the was a point where i auditioned for this ItV show and it was music and acting and said to myself 'this would be fun' and said that 'if i get this, no more music just acting and if i dont, no more acting just music' and i didn't and just did music and it kindof all went well but i always wanted to act, i never wanted to do somethiing for the sake of it."

9) Practice:

"I wanna play you a song, so this is my thing, when people go 'ahhh! ohhh, you're so taleneted!, you're born with natural talent' im like 'ahh umm, nope!'. Have a listen to this. Basically all im saying is that when people say that artists are born with talent, you're not. You have to really learn and really practice. This is me playing guitar and singing. Im gonna put it on the mic like this (Ed Sheeran plays a song from his past that sounded terrible). But you know what? You know what? I did practice, yeah just, i probably needed it. 

10) Do something different:

On a question for singing out loud: "Theres like, certain things you can do to make your music video go viral, which is like, quite a difficult thing to do nowadays, you have to do something that makes somone click on the video, watch it, and go ' i wamt to share that with ten people'. I never appear in my music video, i always make like a little cameo if i appear at all. And im, im not very talented at much else other than music. But i wanted to make a music video where i did a ballroom dance. Like you'll say i can dance, but not on tv nor on reality, like i trained on tour 5 hours a day to learn this ballroom dance, shot the music video and wore a suit, like i dont wear a suit either , i was basically doing the opposite of what anyone thought i was as an artist and then seeing it and then everyone was like 'thats weird!' And the they shared kt with lots of other people and it just kindof blew up, but the reason i chose it for that song is that i knew that song was the biggest somg on the album so to do like most standout video for the biggest song, you combine it and it both blows up."

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How to win any argument

So you want to be a great debater and win every argument against your friends and family?

So here's the secret. A little know secret told by a wise man. This could win you any argument. 

Here it is, its to "Shut up". Now let me ask you a question, what happens when you win an argument? When you defeat your opponent? What happens?

Nothing. You gain nothing, just your egos. You get involved in this loud shouting matches but loud does not mean right. You walk away with nothing except wasted time, energy and an enemy probably but no real tangible gain. 

See the truth is, winning means walking away with a new information, a new perspective and maybe even a new friend. So no matter how bad you want to educate somebody on what you know or what you think you know, fight that urge; say what you have to say then close your mouth because that person might have something to teach you if you open to a new perspective; seeing it from their point of view.

So the next time instead of arguing, say "umm, that is intresting, tell me more". Thats how you win.

"Seek to understand before you seek to be understood"

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Get better at anything. Try the "10,000 Hours rule"

How many hours would per day would you recommend to work at a particular skill ? In totaly per week, to become outstanding at something.

Now a while ago in this famous book "outliers" Malcolm Gladwell came up with a 10,000 hours rule. This theory was that if you spent 10,000 hours working on something then you will get to Masterclass level. He gave examples of the beatles who toured Germany in the early 60's and built up their 10,000 hours of practice and Bill Gates who got his first computer as a young teenager and spent over 10,000 hours programmming on it. But do you actually need to spend 10,000 hours to become world class at a particular skill? 

So here is my three thoughts on it.

1) YOUR PASSION MATTERS:

You can spend hours and hours and hours and hours working at something and if you're not passionate about it, you're not going to become master class level.

Just think about when you are in school, there are some subjects that you love, and some subjects that you hate and no matter how much time you spent on the subject that hate, your growth would grow so slowly and painfully, but the subject that you love and genuinely intrested in, you would learn so much faster. 

And thats the problem with most people today, they are working the jobs that they hate. They graduated with whatever degree entered the workforce and they spent 10, 20, 30, 40 or even 50 years in a company that they hate. 

You can spend 10 years in a company and never get that big promotion, never get to be the CEO, or anywhere close to where even though you spent the 10,000 hours plus 20,000 hours and even 30,000 hours, you're never getting to the level you want to be because you're not passionate enough about it. If you are genuinely intrested in the subject you are learning, you are going to pick it up much more quicker than the one you are forced to do something that you hate. 

2)NOT ALL HOURS ARE THE SAME:

The fastest way to pick something up and the fastest way to learn a new skill is to model success. Get a coach, get a trainer or get a teacher. You need to get somebody to show you the ropes. The slowest way to figure something out is to try to understand that yourself and make all the mistakes other people have already made. So 10,000 hours trying to struggle to figure it all out for yourself may be equivalent to 500 hours of being taught by a professional and how to do it.

So not all hours are created equal. If you model success and learn from the best, you'll achieve results alot faster than someone who tries to do everything themsef. 

3)WHY DO YOU REALLY CARE?

So my third point is that, why do you really care? I ask this because if you're asking how many hours it takes to get really good at something, how many hours you need to dedicate in your week to get good at this particular skill, then it kindof tells you that you're not really that intrested in learning the skill.

If you really want to get better at something, then you should feel like you're getting lost in it. Like you could wake up in the morning and start working on it and then look up and its already six o'clock at night and you're not keeping track of the hours to say " ohh only hundred more hours untill i get really good at this". Its like a man who opened up a business just to make alot of money. You find that they never do. They struggle and struggle and they tell themselves that if i keep this struggle up then eventually ill make my millions of dollars. But they never get there because they never loved it in the first place. 

You should want to get better at that skill, it should drive you, it should fuel you and it should make you happy and excited to learn and get better. 

So if you have a number in your head like that's your end goal, like when i get to that number of hours then i'll become really good and im going to achieve success, that's the wrong way to look at it. Instead you should find a skill or goal that you really want to get better at, something where you stop tracking the hours, something that you can really have a positive impact on the world with.

And if that's your intention and you work hard at it, you will achieve masterclass level.

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The Impact of Gwadar port on China, Pakistan and the world

Gwadar port is a warm-water, deep sea port situated on the Arabian sea at Gwadar in Balochistan province of Pakistan. This port is the major destination in the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).

History:

The word Gwadar is actually made of two words, 'Gwat' which means wind, and 'Dar' which means Door, in The Balochi language.

For almost hundred and fifty years Gwadar remained part of Oman. The town of Gwadar was purchased by the Government of Pakistan from the Sultan of Muscat in 1958.

At that time it was a small village of fishery with a population of few thousand people.

View of Gwadar in the 1950s.

Construction:

Gwadar port was developed by the government of Pakistan at a cost of $2.48 million.

Phase 1 of the construction started in 2001 till 2006. Status: completed

Inaugrated by General Pervaiz Mushrraf on 20th march.

Phase 2 started in 2007 and is till going on. US Dollars 932million has been invested. Status: underconstruction.

Operation: 

Gwader is owned by the "Government Owned Port Authority" and is operated by state run Chinese firm "China Overseas Port Holding Company (COPHC)".

Earlier it was operated by "Port of Singapore Authority (PSA)" but failed to make it operational.

In september 2011, the wall street journal reported that Gwadar is doing little business as a commercial port, and that Pakistan has asked china to take over the operation. China confirmed that it would be taking control over Gwadar as it had many strategic advantages.

Pakistan on 18th February 2013 was formally awarded a multi billion dollar contract for construction of Gwadar port. Under the contract, the port will remain the property of Pakistan but will be operated by state run Chinese firm.

Strategic Importance:

The Gwader port is important not only for Pakistan, but China, the Central Asian Republics (CARS) and the entire region. The Corridor will help cut the journey time for Freight between Gwadar port, West China and the Central Asian regions by 60 to 70 percent.

China used to take a whole round of thousands of miles in the sea in order to get its oil import ships. Transportation of oil from Persian Gulf to China used to take about 2 to 3 months. Now it will enable China to more safely and reliably import oil.

Just by attracting the oil import, Pakistan will be making atleast $4 to $8 billion dollars in annual revenue and this Chinease petrol import is just one piece of the business.

Gwadar port importance for China:

China has the largest population of around 1.371 billion according to 2015 Census report and to fulfil its energy needs, China imports oil from the middle east. Now for that China has to travel a long distance in order to get those oil. 

Gwadar on the other hand is surrounded by countries having two third oil reserves. Gwadar can act as shortest trade route to China.

Importance of CPEC for China:

The Chinese industries are facing trouble competing in the global market due to high transportion cost and delievery time. China is using a longest way due to which gives a competitive edge to competitors example Japan and The United States.

Now this new route from Gwadar Pakistan has solved many problems for China and will save Billions of Dollars and will reduce time. A bonus for both the countries.

Importance for Central Asian Countries:

Land locked countries such as Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan since they have no sea-port and Gwadar is shortest way to sea, these countries have shown great intrest in Gwadar port and will use Gwadar port for trade purpose.

Importance for Pakistan: 

The Gwadar port is the corridor for billions worth of trade, not only that but it will also place the Pakistan Navy in a very strong position, relationships with neighbouring countries can be improved and trade can be enhanced, Pakistan can improve its foreign exchange reserves and improve the overall economy of the country.

Importance for Balochistan:

Last and most importantly, Balochistan. Due to this project, 200,000 new enterprises and a million jobs for locals will be created, three hundred new factories and with that four hundred jobs will be created.

According to minister Ahsan Iqbal, Balochistan will generate a massive total business revenue of $40 billion plus in the next decade crossing lahore as the second most revenue generating city, according to 'brandsynario.com, Pakistan's Gwadar is "The next Dubai of Pakistan". 

Gwadar will not only be a "port gold mine" for Pakistan but also a revolution of real estate world. More than 12 housing schemes worth more than 9.5 billion have started building millions of houses.

Nine skyscrapers, roads highways and Universities are also underconstruction.

How Gwadar Balochistan could look like in 20 years

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