• Humility clears the path for curiosity, and pride is an obstacle to it. Humility frees from your constricted views on problems to a broader and wider view of the problems and tasks at hand; it gives you the ability to openly and empathically listen to others and their experiences and points of views.

It’s like how a sahabi came to Rasoolullah in the battle of Badr and asked, is this a revelation or strategy of war? And when Rasoolullah informed him it’s a strategy, he advised him of a better strategy. And Rasoolullah readily accepted the idea of destroying all the wells so that Muslims maintain control of the water during the battle.

• Curiosity is the driving force to finding a broader meaning to things. If the person isn’t curious, he will see the problem (or task) as it is, but when person is curious, he will try to find more different dimensions of the same thing.

It’s like a person in search of truth; while majority of the people are satisfied living the life they are living, the curious people are demanding more out of life. It’s like what Islam does to an individual? When a person submits to Allah in humbleness, he is freed from a constricted view of this dunya to the expansive view of this dunya and the hereafter.

• Set aside what you know to learn something new. Often times we will rely on what we know, and hope that will get us through anything. Ego says that you already know what is best.

With your ego, you think you know exactly what you are doing; you believe in your decisions and are confident about them. Then, why do 80% of the businesses launched fail in the first five years? Why do 80% of the products launched never succeed? Why are 50% of the decisions forced upon other team members? Why is it that managers feel more and more confident in their decisions, but 60 to 70% of those decisions fail?

An engine consists of two benefits for you; one, the potential it has to produce; and two, the production itself. You do the proper maintenance on the engine, make sure it is well oiled, and the engine will continue to have the potential to produce. In order to do that, you have to take the engine off the streets – just a temporary decommission. But if you neglect to do so, and the run the engine constantly without any rest, initially it will produce, but the performance will gradually decline. For engines there is an optimum potential, but for humans, optimum has no ceiling.

Principle of self improvement endows you to gain more knowledge, constantly improve yourself and add value to yourself by increasing your potential. The more potential you have, the greater the results you can produce. How?

Ever used a wrench to hammer in a nail? Here’s my definition of strategy: to utilize the best tool for the task at hand. Here’s my definition of effective strategy: to have enough tools in your tool box, so that you can find the right tool for the task at hand. Your tools are very limited if you rely only on your personal experience.

When you learn, you pick up tools from the experiences of other. Learning is not limited to school and books and teachers and professors, but actually listening intently to others to learn from their experience, to learn for their view points and how they see the problems and solutions to those problems.

• Hear out others and their ideas. Actively seek other’s perspective and viewpoints that is different than your own. Explore their ideas, find worth in their ideas, and give them credit. Don’t just try to prove your own point. People like to surround themselves with like-minded people, but how does that bring about any growth; no one is pushing one another outside their creative boundaries.

Most people don’t listen to understand, but rather with intent to reply. People go through different spectrums of listening from ignoring, to pretending, selectively listening, to attentively listening; but the most effective listening is empathic listening – listening with intent to understand – emotionally and intellectually.

Remember: Ears, eyes, heart. Only 10% of communication by words, 30% sounds, 60% body language.