- ๐ฆ๐ป CHILDHOOD
- ๐ HIGH SCHOOL PERIOD
- โ ALUMNI PERIOD
- ๐ UNIVERSITY PERIOD
- ๐ฅป MARKETING EXPERIENCE (2018)
- โ Attempt to Go Abroad – I. EGYPT (2019)
- ๐ Aluminum, Anchorage Sales Experience (2019 – 2. Write Class)
- โ Attempt to Go Abroad – II. AMERICA (2020 / WORK & TRAVEL – Legal Problems)
- ๐ท PANDEMIC PERIOD (3rd and 4th Centuries) Class)
- โ Attempt to Go Abroad – III. FRANCE (2021 / ERASMUS+ Exchange Program)
GREETINGS ๐๐ฝ
WHO IS THIS H.Y? While briefly talking about myself in certain lines in this section, I will try to record and transfer the parts that I think are noteworthy with the process I have gone throughin more detail in this section. This way, you’ll have more insight into me and gain insight into which processes give rise to which ideas. If you want to get information about me in a shorter way, ๐๐ฝjust click here๐๐ฝ.
I would also like to inform you that I will write here not only about important details and topics of the site, but in general for the purpose of recording my life. You can browse by skipping the details that are not important to you.
-Hikmet YOLCU
๐ฆ๐ป CHILDHOOD
I was born in Istanbul in 1998 and I have been living in Bรผyรผkรงekmece since the day I was born. Therefore, my childhood was also spent here. According to my parents, I had a very docile, calm and quiet childhood. My mother attributes this to the fact that she drank nettle to lower her blood pressure for ten months when I was in the embryonic stage. It must have an effect ๐
Ever since I knew myself, I like to produce and spend time with creative work. In the early stages of my childhood, in addition to playing games with my friends like everyone else, I would take tools from the warehouse in our backyard at every opportunity and make them out of wood and cardboard; I enjoyed making houses, cars, various toys and lingering with them, and I didn’t know how time would pass. Making toys that were different from the parts of broken toys was also one of my main hobbies. ๐จ
Later, when the computer was bought, I was mostly confined to my home and the last stages of my childhood were spent with the computer, which was a whole new world for me, and playing story-based computer games. But now I see that I have come across a really good period ๐. Because the complete presentation of the games of that time (2000-2009) such as story arc, meaningfulness and gameplay is not easily accessible even today. And of course, I can say that we (my generation) had a good childhood because these games were the product of a new technology at that time. Although the image quality and technologies of the games are increasing these days, it is sad to see that they have become platforms that are far from the plot and meaningfulness, focused only on gameplay, online and in repeated weaves, and where people are made dependent by competitive ambition. Obviously, we miss games with quality integrity…
I completed my primary and secondary school education in the same district. At that time, in order to settle in a high school, it was necessary to take the SBS (Placement Test) in 6th, 7th and 8th grades for three consecutive years while in middle school. When I mixed the hours with negligence and misfortune, I missed the exam in the 7th grade, so my overall average was low and I was able to get into a school with my normal school average. So I had to enroll in one of the ordinary schools in my town.
๐ HIGH SCHOOL PERIOD
The early stages of high school were normal and static, with more time spent myself and occasionally joining others. My knowledge of English was always better than my other classes as I was interested in it and played games regularly. Later, in the second year of high school, we chose a department and I preferred the “Foreign Language Department” and transferred to that department.
I can say that I had a very idle, indifferent and callous attitude on me. I would go to school, understand as much as I could listen, understand, and continue. After a while, I was already defeated by natural selection, which, like the vast majority of students, is the dark side of the current educational system. As the topics were added to the table and the clarity of the subject in me became more and more, I began to be crushed under the gap and over time it made me completely ineffective. As a result, after a while, like every unconscious student, I started to follow a path based solely on passing the exam. I didn’t understand what I was doing, anyway. I didn’t know the way, how could I know why I didn’t understand, was it as if we had received a learning-based education? When education began to be given, it was already accepted that everyone knew how to learn. However, only those who could learn how to learn on the road could continue on the road without any problems… (We’ll talk a lot about education and the education system later.)
Anyway, we were spending the days somehow, it took me almost 3 years to start my braces treatment in those years. I was going to start the sport when I was playing volleyball among friends in the second semester of the 10th grade, but my leg was broken in a ridiculous way, I couldn’t start. I had to lie down for two or three months. Then the summer or something came in and school started and I was in the 11th grade. In the 11th grade, I was a little more conscious than before, and with the change of our teacher, I was more enthusiastic and eager to study and start on the road again. Unfortunately, this time it was a blank year in English because our teacher was a graduate of Russian Language and Literature and was not proficient in English. To be honest, we were taking German courses in that year, but if you ask me now, I remember the A of German, it’s not because of our teacher, it’s because of my lack of interest and I didn’t get enough benefits. Of course, it took effort to achieve everything valuable, but it also takes benefit and meaningfulness to realize that labor. (I will write in detail about learning.)
Apart from school education, there were also good things that I paid more attention to during this high school period. As a result of my attempts to meet people I did not know, the problems I encountered in communication and the efforts to solve them gave me the chance to improve my communication and learn various types of people more closely. In addition, I started sports for the first time with the encouragement of a friend in this period and went to Fitness for a period of 2 months and gained basic information about physical development and my visible progress motivated me for more. In addition, it was very important for me to get acquainted with the “mentality of developing the will and the existing capacity by being exposed to pains and difficulties for certain periods of time“, which is the basis of sports and development philosophy during this period. Because success,
The ability to overcome a problem by enduring all its difficulties and pains with the aim of eventually achieving an internal or external reward
If we define it as, we see that this mindset is the basic mindset that underlies every success. In this respect, it was a very valuable process. In addition, during this period, I had half-baked attempts to meet the book , and although it was incomplete, it was still important for me. Later, somehow these relations would continue…
Anyway, then we were in the last year of high school, and this year we luckily came across a qualified English teacher. This year, I had the chance to take my English up to A2-B1 levels. It was going well, we were learning every day. We also had the same Literature teacher in high school for almost four years. Thanks to his intriguing and qualified teaching, he made us love this art. Although theoretical information such as poets’ names, movements and dates do not remain in my mind very much, I think that I have more or less digested information such as ways and methods through many poems, essays, article examinations and that this is what is more valuable.
During this period, I was introduced to Taekwondo, I gained various basic knowledge such as flexibility, coordination, strength, technique, but I had the chance to continue for about 6 months, which is a very modest period for this sport. Then we were already coming to the end of high school, and now it was necessary to do something for the future. During this period, I had no goals for the future until I finished high school or even graduated. I had no life purpose, and as I said, there was always an indifference, always a callousness on me until I graduated.
Despite all this indifference, I still had a book on the subject of language and expression, and I was making little progress in it. Anyway, it’s time for the exam, it’s cracked, we took the exams and we came out. Naturally, I had a low score, and in a foreign language I still had an average result. As far as I remember, among the departments that came were the departments such as German Language and Literature at Hacettepe University. But I wasn’t even sure what I wanted to do yet, and I never worked until I got that result. Therefore, I had not made any effort to realize my potential until that day, and making a direct choice would cause me to go somewhere far below my potential and, of course, would lead me to an endless unrest and regret that ate me from the inside…
At that time, I needed a certain amount of money and since I had time, I went to work in the factory for 1-2 weeks. I was witnessing in amazement and sadness how people lead such a life, how they are dragged into such a situation. They work in shifts for 12 hours a day, without being able to go home and meet their primary needs properly, before the day rises or in the middle of the night they come to pick them up, they get on the shuttles like prison vehicles that come to pick them up, they return to their jobs with disgust and yet complacency, they experience petty happiness when there is traffic because they are going from shift hours, like robots to perform the job that is imposed on the head of a machine all day. they were working. People were mentally dulled over time by the definition and limits of the work, constantly suppressing them because they had no time, money or energy to realize their needs & desires, and eventually this would either turn into complete indifference, callousness and surrender, or cause them to erupt in proportion to the violence of repression in the opposite direction of the feelings and thoughts they were repressing. But for the most part, the behavior seen was submission and learned helplessness. Every day here was alike, and as the days went by, you couldn’t even perceive where they were going. Although I worked there for 1-2 weeks, when I looked back at the end of this period, I only saw that, it was as if I had lived a day instead of 1-2 weeks. That’s when I realized:
Even if you live 1000 years, if every day is similar, you have lived only one day, not 1000 years!
This is because the brain learns by grouping, and living in this respect is to collect remarkable memories:
The poorest in the world is the one who is mired in the garbage dump of monotony and cannot go beyond.
If so :
The criterion for living is not how many days you live, but how many different memories you accumulate!
At the end of this process, as someone who was terrified of this system of modern slavery and had acquired these awarenesses, I saw that I had two options in front of me. Seeing that the first one was no different from selling its soul to the devil, that it laid the foundation for the story of an extinction, and that experiencing this trailer already gave one enough motivation not to do its best not to fall into this fiction. There was only one way in front of me, and I should never have fallen into this vicious circle and created a life fiction that I could live to the fullest. In addition, seeing that I could progress in my language & expression book that I mentioned earlier gave me a special courage to stay.
Then I made a decision: In order to unleash my potential to stay for another year and to get the life I desired, I would work day and night if necessary, and at the end of a year that would not put my best behind me, I would make a clear choice with my peace of mind and mind…
โ ALUMNI PERIOD
As I said before, I didn’t have much awareness of myself and now I had to choose the path that would earn my living. Later, when I questioned myself a little, I realized that I enjoyed thinking about people’s behavior and trying to find solutions to their problems. So I discovered that the Psychology department was the closest to this situation, and when I examined its returns, various features of the department, such as social status, return, and the likelihood of finding a job, made the department attractive. Of course, above all, it was the most important for me to be able to read, feed and work in this field with pleasure. Since it also meets these conditions, I set out by setting this section as a target.
At first, I was trying to work on my own at home, but when I realized that I was not very productive, I enrolled in a classroom and planned everything all over again. For me, it was to open a new page in my life. So so that I could prove this and my dedication to myself and make it feel tangible , I shaved my hair and shaved my beard to zero, froze all my social media accounts, shelved my smartphone, and got a phone that could only serve as a conversation. I signed up for the gym. Thus, I opened a new page concretely.
From that point on, it didn’t matter much how I looked or was perceived. What really mattered was my perception and belief in myself. Along the way, I would have to destroy and rebuild myself, and the excitement of building made destruction irrelevant.
Because
Sometimes it is necessary to demolish it in order to do it.
It does not matter how ugly or good the structure looks during construction, what matters is the project.
Then I started working. I had classes in the classroom every day from 09.00 in the morning to 13.00 in the afternoon, as soon as I left at 13.00 I would eat, rest, return to my studies at 14.00, and work non-stop until 19.00 in the evening. I had identified the ways, methods, and resources for how I would work, and when my goals were clear, there was nothing to confuse me.
For the first few months, when I got out of there at night, I would go to the gym and it would be around 11 p.m. until I got home. Actually, it was going very efficiently, but I had to quit because of the concerns such as you can’t take both of my family together, you are very tired, you can’t give yourself to classes, and I continued the sport at home once or twice a week. In fact, it may have been good on the one hand, because no matter how motivated and disciplined I was at the beginning of my period, this accumulated fatigue could turn into burnout syndrome and cause me to lose control of the whole process.
Anyway, I then focused entirely on my studies. It proceeds in the same way of work, 09.00-13.00, from 14.00 to 19.00 without a break, I was working non-stop. I was only studying for one lesson every day, and I wouldn’t get over it until I finished the topic and finished the tests of the lecture and all the tests in the test book. By the time I had already completed them, the day was over. I didn’t deal with anyone in the classroom, I was just focused on my lessons and worked non-stop. I ๐ even remember that I dressed like a jacket-shirt-tie at one point to grasp the seriousness of the matter. In this way, I worked for maybe 3-5 months without a break. When I went home at night, I would faint around 10 o’clock, as if the system was shutting itself down. Then they took me to another upper class, and after I had a few friends there, I would go down to the break with them and when the time was full, I would immediately go back and continue working. I would collect my questions, and when I caught up with the teachers, I would not let go. I would collectively ask my questions and dwell on each one until I learned about it. Special days, Ramadan, Eid al-Fitr, etc. did not interest me at all, I was more motivated when others stopped working, and even in those days I did not compromise. In this way, I am grateful that I was able to lead the semester to the end with an orderly, systematic, fully dedicated and uncompromising mindset.
Looking back, I wonder how I was able to show such dedication, frankly, how important it really is that human psychology and the underlying dynamics of motivation really matter. For me, this period was truly the embodiment of the concept of extraordinary efficiency. Right now, I’m looking for the keys to get back to that mindset. I hope that as I find it, I will share it with you from here and I will pass it on to you. Because this fundamental issue is the only bridge between reality and potential. If you know how to build this bridge in the healthiest way, you can progress to the life you desire in the fastest way and reach the life you want in a more effortless way. Because the effort is directly proportional to the difficulties faced by the person, the comprehension of issues such as motivation and discipline, which will minimize these difficulties, will greatly reduce the effort required to overcome the difficulties.
The fact that I did not have any working life before this period has always kept me away from discovering my own talents and qualities. During this period, the fact that I gained many different information and fed intensively from different disciplines almost started to work my wheels. Now I had interesting product, business and system designs in my mind and I was very pleased with it. I started to write them down in a corner. It was as if I had returned to my childhood creativity and remembered how much I enjoyed such creative activities.
Anyway, we came to the end of the semester, I did my best and got exactly what I wanted. Now it was necessary to make a choice. I visited many guidance counselors, and most recently I went to my guide teacher in high school. Thanks to him, he helped a lot, greetings ๐ from here There were two paths in front of me and in my mind, Psychology or Business. He told me: There is a slightly clearer path in the psychology department and you can make your life a click more secure than in Business Administration, because the way to go is more or less drawn, specializing and working in a certain field by supporting it with a master’s degree and many side education, but of course you can progress to a certain point even if your earnings are above average, unless you incorporately or become a brand. In business, competition and therefore risk is very high. You can work in any field, depending on which field you improve yourself in, you can work from the lowest stage to the highest stage in the hierarchy system, you work for the minimum salary, you earn millions. It all depends on your self-improvement.
I wondered if I should go to Psychology and get a double major or a Business Administration with a second university. He told me to go to either of them and try to be the best at it, and that was really important advice for me.
I had already come out of the harsh competition conditions that you had to improve myself in the morning and evening, and as a result of overcoming such a struggle, my self-belief and respect had increased, so I had become a person who dreamed more, demanded more, and now I had to go to the nearest department that would help me to implement the product, business and system ideas I had and that would help me to acquire the relevant qualities. And as a result, as someone who had enjoyed these processes tremendously, I was sure that the Department of Business Administration was exactly what I was looking for, and I made my choice in that direction. Thankfully, when I arrived at the school in my heart, I was ready to move on to the second stage…
๐ UNIVERSITY PERIOD
The main reasons why I prefer Istanbul are that I can go back and forth from my home, that I have many free information resources such as ฤฐSMEK and other Public Education Courses at my disposal and that I can also benefit from them during my school period, that many qualified and powerful companies gather around Istanbul, so there are more job and internship opportunities. In addition, if I talk about my choice of school, I made my choice for this school because Istanbul University has internationally recognized accreditation such as AACSB, it is the first Business school in Turkey, the courses are entirely based on Business functions and disciplines related to Business Administration, and they have mutual agreements with qualified schools in many countries for Erasmus+.
Now that I was clearer about what I wanted to do, it was much clearer how and in what ways I would move towards my goals.
Having an absolute belief that leaves no room for doubt about one’s own empowerment and goals are two conditions that must be found in order to overcome tough challenges. People who are mentally unprepared, who set out with a fuzzy mind and who engage in tough struggles by forcing themselves into the process only because of the necessity of duty are doomed to fall and lose after a while.
When there is a struggle, there is always a war.
Every struggle is a war.
Especially a defensive battle against your castle.
Your castle is your mindset.
The weaker your mindset, the quicker it falls, and the more solid it is, the faster your mindset will defend and defeat the enemy. A weak wall, a weak gate, unqualified soldiers fall on the first attack against a strong enemy. That’s your mindset. You must develop an unshakable mindset and a solid mindset towards a powerful enemy. Your soldiers should not flee to save their lives in the first attack. Your walls should not come down. You must understand the seriousness and necessity of the struggle and make that kind of preparation. You should try to anticipate any attack you may encounter, analyze the weaknesses and strengths of your enemy, develop defense and attack plans against possible scenarios. Only in this way can you overcome this arduous struggle.
First of all, I researched the fields in which Business Administration graduates work. I went through the job postings and basically identified the common needs in each of them. These were generally the main basic qualifications such as Office Programs, Advanced English. Other soft skills included other skills such as basic communication skills and teamwork . Other requirements were shaped and varied according to the specific needs of each job.
From the moment I started college, it was basically clear what I wanted, I wanted to be an entrepreneur. When I explored this further, I discovered that I wanted to be financially independent more than entrepreneurial. There were only two main disciplines that could achieve financial independence:
1) Entrepreneurship
2) Investment
I’m going to write at length about why these two disciplines exist, what they serve, and how they lead you to financial independence. You can follow it from the relevant section.
That’s why I made my university choice to Business Administration. Now was the time to acquire the necessary basic qualifications in the market and the skills and knowledge that would help me on my entrepreneurial journey.
Immediately after the results were finalized and I registered, I started researching where I could get these qualifications. As soon as I found someone working in a business department or a place related to management, I would interrogate them. So I was learning more about the field, seeing up close how each episode worked, what kind of situations people were into, and how they couldn’t get rid of these terrible fictions. Witnessing them made me understand more deeply how serious my situation and circumstances were. And of course, I was seeing, we see, we see people who live to very high standards. So the real question is what separated us from them? Why did the life that drove one of us into misery offer wealth and prosperity to others? Isn’t that the main cause of almost all our problems? Isn’t this the system that limits us to the core, steals us from our lives, forces us to make others rich for two cents for an entire lifetime? So what is the comfort of these people? How do they live in this prosthetic, cancerous system? In these captive and dying bodies?
We’ll talk.
Everything about man begins with experience before thought, and the result of any human creation is the result of motivation and discipline.
In this way, my thoughts took shape, I learned various opportunities from people. I was taking lessons from those who were in a bad situation about not falling into that situation, and from those who were in a good situation, I was trying to learn the way and procedure on how to reach that situation. Along with these, I was personally looking for various opportunities. I had learned about ฤฐSMEK and Public Education courses. ISMEK is a great educational opportunity, and so is Public Education; You can get thousands of pounds of training and improve your skills without taking five cents out of your pocket about the course. (I’ll explain it in detail in the Development Resources section.)
As soon as I made the registration, I enrolled in the Basic Accounting course at ฤฐSMEK, Computer Management in Public Education (a course on Effective Computer Use and Office Programs), and when the schools opened, I enrolled in the fitness room of the school. I think I had classes 4 or 5 days a week, some of which started at 8:30 in the morning and ended at 5:30 p.m. Some of them were intermittent, one by two hours in between. I think for a day or two it would start at 8:30 and end around 1:00 p.m. or something. Anyway, you know, I could have free time.
Between classes, I would meet other people and socialize. On long breaks, I rarely hung out with others, often went straight to the library to read books, study English, and sometimes check out the lessons. I had a basic accounting course 3 days a week. 3 consecutive days coincided with the days when the full classes were intense. On the weekends, I had a Computer Management course from morning to noon. On the days when there were no courses, I would go to the hall immediately after the classes were completed and do a heavy exercise. On the way home, I was either reading a book or listening to music.
Well, as you can understand, it didn’t go that way, in fact, it went for 1.5 months or so, but after that, I started to faint in the accounting course I went to after school, Of course, then I forced the accounting course, it was already very heavy for me ๐. It was the best as it wouldn’t go with that much work either. At least when I left him, I was able to keep the others going ๐ .
Later I realized that accounting was not for me ๐ โ although it was necessary and important as a work discipline, it was not necessary for me excessively. What mattered was the basic financial information, the statements, and of course Finance in general. Although finance also covers the accounting operations of a business, it is more about investment and investments.
And of course, the more important lesson I learned was that one has to know one’s limits. In fact, the issue of what the limitations of man are is one of the biggest question marks for me. I think this is not a result that can be reached only by reasoning, but a question that many disciplines and sciences about human beings should answer together.
Even so, we need to learn to balance our lives in some way, and this can also be learned through repetitive experiences. Although the boundaries of each person on average are similar at the time of birth, man is a changing and developing being.
Man is a being capable of limiting his limits.
Man is a being that can constantly develop capacities and evolve. Therefore, its limits are also dynamic. Even by looking at what is difficult for whom and what is easy for whom, it can be measured cursorily who is limited and how limited in which subject. Therefore, through repetitive experiences, we must recognize our limits, learn, and expand our freedoms by finding the root causes that cause these limitations and weakening them.
In general, my years were similar, with courses being replaced by different courses, books by different books, and lessons by different subjects. My layout was similar. I already list them in detail in different sections and update them as new ones are added, you can follow them from there.
Apart from these, on the way to the Diction course towards the summer of the first year, a job advertisement caught my eye. They were looking for a Real Estate Consultant. No matter what I did at that time, no matter how much I read, no matter how much I filled my day, I was not satisfied. I even remember that I used to take a JavaScript course from Khan Academy or something at one point. It was an interesting time. Anyway, there was a constant sense of dissatisfaction in me, I think I knew I had to work and do something. I wanted to try my luck, I entered at that time, I asked about the job advertisement, they said that the person in charge was not there and they gave me his card. Then I went again the next day, it was already right next to the course center. This time they were there and we met in detail. I talked about my dreams, my goals, I talked about why I wanted that job. Then I got hired and started commuting.
On the days when I was available, I think I would go out in the morning and come out at 17-18 in the evening, I don’t remember right now. I started by listening to the speeches and taking the guests and showing them the house. It was very useful to listen to their business conversations, to see how they communicated. Apart from these, we were searching the internet and street by street looking for houses for sale from the owner and we were communicating with those we found and offering to help them. That’s how the days went.
๐ฅป MARKETING EXPERIENCE (2018)
I think it took a month or so. Normally, my plan was to work long-term, but the desire in me to make a concrete venture as soon as possible kept me from holding back, and when I met with a friend and had a common enthusiasm, we decided to start a bargaining business together.
Those who do not learn big lessons by paying small prices will learn their lessons at great prices.
It was almost summer time and we could now fully focus.
So I left, and we explored questions like how can we start with my friend, what we need to do. The last time we found a night market in Kumburgaz, we agreed with the owner and rented it for 3 months. We were going to sell women’s clothes. We found places where we could buy goods, selected the goods and bought them and loaded them, at first we kept the goods in the friend’s house. Later, the friends who were marketing at the counter next door said that we have a suitable place to put it, and then we started to store the goods there.
As I mentioned, this was the night market, after 18.00 in the evening or something, the market was set up. We would go and set up the counter around 18.00-19.00. Then we would take the goods out of place and try to arrange the counter in a way that would attract the customer’s attention. Then, trying to fully understand the needs of the incoming customers, we tried to offer them the most suitable products. Every once in a while, we would argue about how we could improve things.
We said why don’t we go to the morning markets because we are available in the morning, and then we started to go to the morning markets as well. We would go to the morning market, and when it was over, we would go out and go to the evening market. No matter what we did, we could not reach the volume of customers we wanted, our sales were going badly, and despite so much workload and physical fatigue, the fact that we could not get what we wanted was starting to wear out spiritually. After a while, despite the workload, we decided to release the morning market when we could not get exactly what we wanted.
Frankly, it is said that the evening market was full of people before us or a year or two ago. However, the year we were, people almost didn’t come in properly. There were a handful of people coming and going, and they were usually old and looking for cheap goods, and we were positioned in the opposite direction of the market because we had quality products mostly for young and middle-aged women. But if we were positioned in that direction as well, there were a lot of people who did it, and it would be pretty hard to compete because we were newcomers. Because they were buying wholesale goods very cheaply and selling them quite cheaply, it was very difficult for us to find such a connection and buy a good of that volume. As you can understand, there were many barriers to entry to the market. As a result, the circulation of our audience was also quite low, so it was difficult to reach them no matter what we did. At one point we said let’s go online, but we succumbed to inertia. I think neither of us was keen enough on that we couldn’t act. Somehow we had to close it off with partial losses in the end. But frankly, I think I’ve learned important lessons for myself:
10 Important Lessons from Marketing Experience
- If you are struggling with a problem, the first thing to do is to define it clearly. Otherwise, the wrong problem definition will cause the loss of available resources.
Since we were amateurs at the time, I think we had trouble analyzing exactly what was caused by what, and we attributed some problems to common causes. The simplest example is that the lack of sales is attributed to prices, and this is really one of the mistakes that can be most easily deducted. Pricing is quite important and we pay out of our own pocket the missing price of each asset that we do not properly value, that we cannot determine, and this tends to make us believe at every opportunity that the problem is in price.
If you have a quality good, you cannot reduce your price because there is a demand for cheap goods, on the contrary, sometimes you have to raise it so that it sees its real value. We often made this mistake and had to lower the price, and eventually our rate of profit fell and our cash flow began to shrink. - There are golden rules such as keeping records of transactions, looking at buying and selling prices, tracking income and expense, monitoring and controlling cash flow, not trading below a certain rate of profit.
For a business, “Cash flow is like blood in the body. If new blood cannot be found when it begins to run out, death is inevitable. ” “
Bankruptcy waits for the cash impasse at the door. “
This was perhaps one of the most important reasons why we sank. When we were lazy and didn’t exactly watch what was sold and bought, just looking at the money we had, we couldn’t normally keep a clear track of our performance. Sales were insufficient, we were going to reduce the price, and when this was not reflected in the sales amount, it took away from the profit. When other costs were on top of this situation, which eroded the profit, we started to eat from the principal after a while. Cash flow had turned negative. Continuing with the same strategy would only lead to us ending.
In general, what we did was to buy goods, sell them, buy goods again with the money that came in. Since we were not working above an adequate rate of profit, these profits were crushed below the costs and began to turn into a self-destructive fiction over time. As such, we had to leave because we could not find a clear solution. We sold the remaining goods wholesale to the seller at the counter for a very small number, divided the money and looked our way… - If you think the problem is with the goods, you can exchange the goods quickly by selling them cheaply or at no cost to find out by experiment whether the problem is in the goods. Of course, it is important how much this discount affects normal sales after the experiment. If this discount makes a very small change in sales volume, it is not worth applying. In this case, it will be more useful to avoid this strategy in later processes.
- Regardless of the situation, before entering a business, the market should be analyzed well, the target audience should be well known, the product/market compatibility should be looked at, information should be obtained about general cost items, many internal and external factors such as market entry barriers should be analyzed and all strategies should be built on a solid plan based on detailed research to be done at first.
- You’ll never be able to sell unless you can get the attention of the crowd that passes in front of you. The beginning of everything is to attract attention. Do your best to get attention. Whether it’s a situation that can be perceived as absurd if it is wrong, the important thing is to first draw attention and then to be able to turn this situation in a direction that can create sympathy. The possibility of selling only arises after interacting with you. What goes unnoticed has no value. Make a difference to get noticed. Positive or negative. Being noticed, even negatively, is very valuable when it can be managed, and you can turn this situation into a positive one. The worst case is never going to be noticed.
- Highlight all your positives and strengths that can create sympathy for you. This will increase awareness of you and your likelihood of selling.
For example, our image was of university students trying to be self-sufficient. For this reason alone, there have been people who have made many purchases for support with feelings of compassion and sympathy. - Persuasion is very important, and for this your interpersonal skills need to be developed. The ability to read people’s looks and body language, discover the basic motivation and core desires behind their words, and present the associated product with pinpoint words is the most basic situation and skill that leads to sales.
- Being social and extroverted always increases your opportunities, and although it brings with it a number of risks, you will always be in control when you learn to manage them.
Since I was sitting in a place opposite to the position of the current market, I was talking and agreeing with the sellers who would go in that direction. While this was often gratuitous, it could rarely be in exchange for help such as arranging the shelves and hanging some items at night. So I could get home without having to take a taxi or pay anything. It was also about getting to know many different personality types and witnessing different stories.
You never know if something can be yours or contribute to your life without asking. You can’t even imagine the extent to which this opportunity will contribute, what kind of rich experience awaits you. That’s what often keeps us from taking action. To ask is to demand. Nothing comes easily to the undemanding person. Life is a bundle of actions, every step you take out of your comfort zone expands your comfort environment. Every time you stay in it, you are in danger of losing what you have. (We’ll talk about it in detail.) - Never judge anyone with stereotypes. People are never uniform. On the contrary, it is quite complex and versatile. Although their appearance conveys various meanings through a number of symbols, the person may be hidden under this appearance, or they may also have a completely opposite mindset and point of view that would rather only look that way. In addition, man is a dynamic and ever-changing being. While thoughts can be constantly influenced by other opinions and thoughts in one flow, the physical appearance often changes shape only after radical decisions. An image is not something that is changed by saying that an image should be changed today, and some appearances may not be changed even if desired. This is due to a number of external pressures or the fact that the change is painful and difficult. And let’s not forget that one thing is in man. the more rooted it is, the harder it is to change. Just like the desire to uproot a rooted tree. For such reasons, while a person seems to be a kind of person, he can be a completely different person from the inside. Although expectations are mainly shaped by the meanings taken through symbols, it is always useful to leave a question mark. In other words, it is useful to keep in mind the idea that the person you are interacting with may be a completely different person.
My memory of this was when I witnessed an older lady I met in the market trying to fulfill the five daily prayer requirements in Islam, despite having a “punk” appearance. It was a diametrically opposed appearance, but it was on the same person. Of course, although there are many different situations and people like this, I can say that this situation really made me experience a state of enlightenment. - If you’re thinking about doing big things with one or more friends in the future, get into some small things together now. In this way, you will get to know your friends better at a low cost and decide whether to enter into bigger jobs or not. In everyday life, you often see the good and pleasant sides of your close friends, and you are less likely to have a crisis together. However, when you embark on a business together, you are now sharing an important responsibility, and sometimes when things get stuck, you can get nervous and have crises, at which point it becomes clear how you balance each other, how much you can help each other or how much harm you do to each other. When money and relationships with other people come into play, you now have the chance to get to know each other more closely in a different context. In this way, you will get to know the sides of your friends that you have never seen and you can make decisions about your future relationships according to the direction of this relationship. The continuation of the relationship will depend on how much you support each other and how well you can manage this challenging process in a quality way.
โ Attempt to Go Abroad – I. EGYPT (2019)
I was now in my sophomore year, and I felt more deeply the discomfort of my lack of English, which is an absolute necessity. Because my plan was to complete the qualifications that the best internship programs were looking for in myself at least until the third grade and then do plenty of internships in the remaining time. In addition, going abroad was a very important value in itself, as it would bring many problems and improve my adaptation abilities. I had already started researching for this, and finally I found AIESEC, which offers various services such as internships and social responsibility abroad and is relatively economical.
After contacting us and obtaining valid information, I learned that they could only ship to a number of countries. In particular, projects in countries such as Ukraine, Egypt, India and Brazil were directed. Tickets to Brazil were quite expensive. Although I was inclined towards Ukraine at first, my English practice was not enough. Despite this, encountering many concepts that I did not know during these interview processes and having to express myself gave me an acceleration to improve my English level more. Later, there was a social responsibility project for a position in Egypt that taught art to children, so I turned to it. I also passed the interview processes and received acceptance. This was a project that would take an average of 1.5 months and was around New Cairo.
Especially under my desire to go to Egypt, I had motivations such as experiencing the desert, seeing magnificent ancient buildings, witnessing the Arab cult, embarking on a different challenging adventure, meeting people from different cultures and especially practicing English and learning Arabic at least at a level that can solve everyday tasks. In fact, since I was going to go, I had already started working through an Arabic workbook and many applications months in advance, and I had already deciphered letters and many everyday terms. While managing the processes, I was also carrying out the work.
I had completed all the paperwork until the last stage, such as hotel reservation and flight tickets, and it was time to apply for a visa. During the period when we applied for a full visa, mutual relations were quite disrupted as a result of the death of former Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi and the criticism of Egypt’s coup president Abdel Fattah al-Sissi by many high-level politicians, especially the president, in Turkey. This unfortunately reflected directly on us.
While we are normally supposed to be there around June and return towards the end of August, there was no notification despite our repeated commutes and hours of waiting in line under the sun in an area of 6-7 square meters. Ultimately, after the end date of the project, that is, 2-3 months later, my friend was told to come and get your visa as if mockingly, I did not even receive that e-mail anyway ๐, so we were in the middle of a political crisis that you can understand and the bill was paid to us.
At the last moment, we were able to save our tickets almost 4 people thanks to one of our friends who informed us that the company had canceled and refunded due to a disruption on the day we were leaving. As for Arabic, when I realized that we couldn’t go, it didn’t mean much anymore. I also left work because I completely lost my motivation to study and now I remember almost nothing if you ask :’)
Thus, we realized that we would not be able to be there this summer with our friends who would normally go to Egypt together, planned what we could do if we could not go beforehand, and decided to enter the sales business in the company of one of our friends.
๐ Aluminum, Anchorage Sales Experience (2019 – 2. Write Class)
This was a B2B company that produced aluminum wrought iron, glass balconies, anchors and mosquito nets. They had developed a new type of anchor patented, planning to introduce their product to the market and increase their sales. Since we saw these periods as more developmental purposes, we were looking for a place where we could improve ourselves, spend our time to the fullest and earn some money, and we started to work.
I was also more interested in the company’s various corporate needs such as logos, business cards, brochures. I can even say that I started from there. I was inexperienced in these subjects before, I was learning and progressing by researching and advancing in the process. I also had a good opportunity to improve my practice in Graphic Design and to gain various insights and I can say that I learned important lessons.
- Although the fact that the brand chosen for the mosquito net category was “Flossom” was not something that was in my initiative and I was not aware of it at the time, I learned over time from both my experiences and the books I read that choosing a “generic name” as a brand name was a big mistake. When people look at your brand when you choose a generic name, they perceive a generic category name rather than a company name. As such, most of the work of communication efforts you carry out may be nothing. For this reason, it is very important to position and build the brand correctly.
- Design and aesthetics are important, of course, but there is one thing more important than anything else, and that is whether you can clearly convey the message you want to convey to the other party. Your first goal is to determine your message correctly and clearly, then to realize the design that will clearly convey your message to the other party and attract the attention of the other party.
- Price balance is very important, if the price determined is above the value offered, this is clearly felt by consumers and acted upon. When the price is reduced to levels equivalent to value, it usually reduces profits, in which case either costs should be reduced or activities and benefits should be developed to close the value gap.
- The market price is quite important. No matter what market you’re in, you can’t think of yourself independently of the market, and it’s often hard to compete in this situation because most firms compete in price. Therefore, differentiating by creating unique value in the long run while reducing cost will be the healthiest for a sustainable profitability.
In general, our job was to identify the companies on a certain route and stop by one to introduce mosquito nets and anchorage models and to give prices. The competition was fierce, obviously. It was necessary to develop relations through a lot of effort, stability and repeated negotiations. This was something that could only happen in the long run. We were only there for the summer. Obviously, since we have just entered the market, we have not received the full return.
From time to time, we would take to the streets and distribute leaflets by hand in crowded streets and squares, wherever there was a high concentration of people. In fact, during the 2019 Istanbul elections, we made a craze and distributed brochures at the entrances of the rally area by equipping the accessories of ๐ the relevant parties (If I find the photos, I will add them here again.)
Later, we stopped by the construction sites to get their works such as aluminum wrought iron, glass balcony, pimapen and we met with the responsible person and took the details and gave the price in the following days.
We completed another article in this way, and towards the end of the summer I left and continued my own personal work.
The manufacturing sector is a very bloody sector, we can say that it is the red ocean, unless you produce a product that is original and/or monopolized and in demand. If you’re already producing what everyone else is producing, all you can do is compete at cost. This is extremely corrosive. Even if you have an original product, it’s hard to penetrate the market if it doesn’t bring a disruptive innovation or clear advantages. Because people work with certain business partners and develop relationships mutually, which means mutual advantages. You need to offer more of these advantages and benefits so that they can leave the fiction they are in and take the risks and come to you in the face of the benefits you offer. People are pragmatic beings, especially when it comes to business, and pragmatism is heard the most. Otherwise, natural selection will emerge and drag organizations into intense nothingness. The main and ultimate purpose of a business is only to create high value and every step it will take must be taken by considering this. If the steps it will take do not increase or enrich the value it creates, it will only have the opposite effect because there is investment, and therefore limited resources…
โ Attempt to Go Abroad – II. AMERICA (2020 / WORK & TRAVEL – Legal Problems)
As I mentioned earlier, I normally had a goal to improve my English level by the third grade, or even by the end of the third grade at the latest. One of the various overseas programs I examined for this purpose was Work & Travel, which attracted my attention the most. Work & Travel, as the name suggests, is a program about working and traveling. It mostly offers university students who meet certain conditions personal development opportunities such as seeing American culture and improving the language at lower costs through working in positions such as waitress, cashier, housekeeping, salesperson, lifeguard in America for a certain consultancy fee.
One of the goals I wanted to achieve the most since I started school was to do Erasmus+. To do this, even if you win a scholarship, you have to have a certain amount of money, which was on average between $ 2000 and $ 3000 at that time. I completed this amount with savings, various investments and a number of family support. Similar amounts of money were required for Work & Travel. I was keeping this for Erasmus+, but on the one hand, the possibility of going to America before finishing school, working too hard, then traveling a lot and returning with a similar amount of money, although difficult, seemed worth the attempt. So I decided to join the Work & Travel program that summer and immediately set out to investigate.
I went to a consultancy company that I had visited before in the vicinity of Beลiktaล, Istanbul, normally I even went earlier than the previous registration dates. However, when I arrived, the quota I encountered was almost full and most of the jobs were taken, there were a few left. Of these, a job in the restaurant department of a hotel chain in one of the coastal cities of Texas seemed attractive, and I bought it with the advice of a consultant. I didn’t want to risk that either, as the availability was limited later and there were only a dozen jobs left. Since I no longer wanted to go abroad as soon as possible and miss another article, I paid the pre-registration fee in a short time, and then the remaining fee. Later, after the interview in English and after a while I interviewed the employer via video interview, when I came to the visa stage, the pandemic (Covid-19) started to appear, became stronger and stronger, and finally it would progress until all flights were canceled and the borders were closed. Unfortunately, the plan for this summer has also been cancelled. Not only was it still good if I couldn’t go, but the money I saved for Erasmus+ was also left inside…
In fact, all consulting firms experienced a significant crisis due to the pandemic, but the worst reflection was on the students again. The exchange rate difference, which was opened by the effect of the deteriorating economy, also fell on the backs of the students. They had to pay certain fees for a service they could not benefit from. I was one of them, then I took the matter to court to seek my right.
When I met with the consulting firm, they told me that they could only make a refund by deducting the pre-registration fee or transfer it to the year. However, there was a force majeure event, and the process of this situation was uncertain, so I was demanding my money back in full. After many meetings and mutual warnings, we did not take the issue to the court and tried to reconcile, but we could not agree. As I stepped back, they were increasing their demands, and finally I applied to the court when they said that you paid us in TL, we will pay at the rate of the day you paid. First they referred me to the mediator, then after meeting over the phone, we notified that we could not agree and I applied to the Consumer Court with a petition explaining the file and situation submitted by the mediator.
During these processes, I had also taken the Erasmus+ exam and was entitled to go with a scholarship, and unfortunately, the Erasmus+ dates and the trial date coincided. I applied to the court with an excuse petition and related documents informing me of my situation. Fortunately, it was postponed and the trial date was given 1 month after the date I was going to return.
When I returned, I entered the hearing. One of the opposing side’s lawyers came, we answered the judge’s questions mutually, and the judge adjourned the hearing to a later date of one month. When that day came, when I joined the court, the other party did not come. Although they were called both on the phone and online, the other party could not be reached. In the end, the judge decided that all the money I paid, except for the SEVIS fee of $35, would be reimbursed to me, including most of the court costs, along with the highest interest ever charged on a one-year deposit opened in dollars starting from the date I issued the notice. Then the other party applied to the Court of Appeal, and I prepared my files as much as I could and submitted my files to the court. It is still going on, let’s see when this process will be concluded… (09.01.2022)
I will inform you about the continuation of the process here.
๐ท PANDEMIC PERIOD (3rd and 4th Centuries) Class)
The COVID-19 virus, which emerged towards the end of 2019, completely disrupted the normal flow of life. The resulting outbreak has resulted in a ban on all kinds of activities involving social relations for a long time and keeping people in their homes as much as possible. While the problems were tried to be solved remotely and contactlessly without interfering with the community, everything started to become more digital, trainings and jobs turned into a remote working system. People who had been between four walls for a long time had fallen into a situation they had perhaps never encountered before, had to cut their relations with the outside and had to carry their routines in the outside world inside. Of course, usually…
The days were becoming more and more commonplace, and trying to live in a similar, consumed environment was almost exhausting. Previously, we saw and fed many different people, different places, different events and situations in the daily flow every day, but now consumption consisted only of the limits of the house. How many people were there, how were our relationships, what could be done differently within these limits, to what extent did our daily routines fit into the home environment? Questions like these significantly influenced the extent to which we could manage this process and how we would spend time.
Before the pandemic, I had a very productive and busy life. I could go to school and sports on weekdays, socialize with my friends during the rest of the time, participate in a number of activities, read books, and spend quality time working in a very active and focused way. However, after COVID-19 emerged and I was confined to my home, I unfortunately stayed away from all courses, schools and similar institutions and organizations. However, formal courses were very important sources of nutrition for me. In addition, the fact that I actively attended classes at school, realized myself with interactive lessons and was in a continuous learning process kept me very motivated. With this energy, I was able to solve any task that followed with a sharp mindset. But after the corona came and I was closed in, I was unfortunately deprived of all these stimuli. When I tried to move forward at the same pace without realizing it, I started to fall in the process. I was trying to progress at the same level of work, going so far and getting stuck, and seeing that I couldn’t do it was totally demoralizing. This process continued until I finished myself, until I became completely inactive.
No matter how much you say I’ll accomplish, your belief in it is only shaped by whether you can overcome the problems you face.
Empowerment is an emotion that is felt only as a result of success, only it makes you demanding more and gives you more power of action.
Much later, I realized that the factors that gave rise to this inefficiency were the result of being away from the stimuli in daily life and the depletion of social energy. Social energy, and especially stimuli, were highly related and important to self-perception. Feeling competent in society will increase your daily energy and sharpen your ability to act. In this way, you can be more active and productive, but when you start to be deprived of these, your spiritual energy will begin to collapse after a while. Humans are not singular and individual beings. On the contrary, they are social and co-existing beings who have many social needs such as self-expression, being understood, appreciated, loving and being loved, and the repression of these feelings outside of sociality only harms the person. Of course, although personal rooted motivations are successful from time to time in suppressing sociality, they continue for a while and give rise to inefficiency after a while. At least once a week, spending quality time with loved ones in a different place will increase personal energy and efficiency. Otherwise, burnout syndrome will inevitably manifest itself. These were perhaps the most important lessons I learned during this process.
If we clarify the issue of stimuli, every situation we are exposed to on a daily basis will find a response in us. Positive or negative and sometimes neutral. As a result, they affect our mood and thoughts, and in this way we can say that we feed off of them. For example, if I give an example from my point of view, Istanbul is a big city and even during the journey, you can see many different personality types, people with many different social statuses. When I witness most of this; For example, when I saw those who were worse off than me, I could create an intrinsic motivation by saying that I should definitely not fall into this situation and considering how I got to the position I was in, or when I saw those who were in a better position than myself, I was no different from these people, I even had much stronger sides and I could create intrinsic motivation by suggesting that I should definitely be better than them and have more. Of course, these processes were more unconscious, and I noticed them with questioning after the corona period. I was aware of these things when I went out. Because sometimes you get used to things constantly being in front of your eyes, you don’t even realize they’re there until they disappear and make a difference. That’s when it can be noticed by the effect of contrast. In fact, I noticed this awareness when I went out days after the corona days, especially in front of a gallery.
After explaining the awareness I have acquired, let me talk a little bit about how I managed the process:
Actually, I can’t say that I can manage much, like every individual who happens to him for the first time, I am often worn out. The problem of sleep, in particular, was a big nuisance. No matter how much I tried to sleep, I couldn’t sleep until midnight and I couldn’t sleep during the day. Although I tried many times to establish order, I could not succeed. Normally, while establishing a sleep pattern was a subject I was suffering from, it became absolutely uncontrollable in the process, and while I could sleep as I normally put my head on, I definitely couldn’t sleep, it took me hours to sleep. This lasted a long time, or maybe 3-4 months. It was really bad. I don’t know if maybe the anxiety about the future, the economic troubles, the lack of sociality, the many different troubles fueled it, but somehow I got rid of it, maybe it was the result of some hope that I would enter a better fiction, I don’t remember clearly.
During this period, although I continued to play sports at home, I decided to continue Taekwondo in a newly opened club close to my home. In the beginning, I went 3 days a week, but after 4-5 months, we were going 6 days a week and we were doing sports quite actively, I started to lose physical weakness after so many cardio-intensive exercises because I could not eat fully, at the same time I had a very severe illness as a result of dealing with Work & Travel problems and suffering from many different problems and corona on it. I stayed in quarantine in a separate apartment for an average of two weeks, and at the end of that process I recovered, but my sense of smell was especially impaired in terms of meat, chicken and its derivatives, and until I returned from Erasmus+, that is, for an average of 6-7 months or so, my sense of smell was impaired. Various vague and unwarranted palpitations were forming in my heart. It seems to have damaged it and I had lost about 5 kg. It was a very bad time, and luckily I recovered over time. Eating a sound diet, sleeping patterns and staying vigorous are very important for the immune system. Especially during the pandemic period, attention should definitely be paid. Otherwise, you could immediately find yourself in the arms of the virus.
During this period, I was able to continue Taekwondo for 1 year without interruption for the first time, then Erasmus+ intercepted and when I returned, I continued and left for another 5 months, I myself train occasionally. I’m glad I was able to evaluate it from that perspective. At least I wasn’t completely confined to the house. I think this would lead to even more psychological wear and tear and perhaps even giving up and not enjoying life. So I was able to manage a little bit of psychology. Apart from that, I would read books from time to time, sometimes watch movies & documentaries and thus spend the time.
Laying the Foundations of https://hikmetyolcu.com with WordPress
Another valuable thing I did during this period, I think, was to learn how to build this platform and work to lay the foundations. After I did research on WordPress, took courses and became competent in this subject, I put it into practice. I’m still learning. I will also present to you various resources on these.
Even if you do not have knowledge of WordPress coding, it is an open source platform where you can build your own website with various interfaces and drafts.
– Especially being open source, – Constantly being developed by members of the platform,
– Being able to integrate many features with many plugins with very little effort.
You have two options to set up your website with WordPress:
– If you want, you can have an independent web page by getting domain and hosting, or
– You can create your blog page connected to WordPress.
But if you have a long-term vision and want to earn your own income, of course, it will be much healthier to start by buying your own domain name and hosting service independently. Another nice thing about WordPress is that it’s completely free . You can do your job without paying anything other than domain and hosting. Only when you want to get a wide range of services from the add-ons can they be paid. Thus, it is recommended for those who will set up their own website.
โ Attempt to Go Abroad – III. FRANCE (2021 / ERASMUS+ Exchange Program)
โ All the information you might need about my Rennes experience and Rennes ๐๐ผ from this link ๐๐ผ .
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