It feels unreal but quite a time ago I crossed the 50 mark. To my friends approaching 50 years of age: you are just starting! ☺ “Independent Waters” blogs are for entrepreneurs of all ages. Though in recent months I’ve been contacted by more middle aged readers than young entrepreneurs asking about issues awaiting them […]

In the Harvard Business Review (HBR) article “Stop Reading Lists of Things Successful People Do,” Emre Soyer and Robin M. Hogarth argue that such lists “may be not only useless but also potentially harmful.” As an entrepreneur, it’s always interesting to benchmark what some “successful” people have done. But as the article states, such evidence […]

“Dear Mehmet! Please take a look at my online store. Your opinion is very important for me.” Words from one of my long time online friends. I’m not an online store expert but a business is a business. ☺ Below are excerpts from my reply: – I like the products. – The design of the […]

The other day I was meeting with several independent artists (creative people not working at a company to produce art for a salary) due to a new fine arts project I’m trying to bring to life. We were talking about an exhibition when I deliberately made the “mistake” again: I described their creations as “products”. […]

Maybe it was because we had a piano at home. Around the age of 5 I found myself getting lessons from a teacher on that black box with white and black keys. According to various sources on Internet, piano, guitar, violin or the flute are the main instruments the parents see as best suitable for […]

Let’s say you dream about making a short film to participate in festivals. You are an executive in business life and have never made a film before. What do you do? Don’t say “How come?” I said it’s a dream. ☺ Using your business skills, you will probably first think about building a team to […]

Assume it is summer and you are at the seaside ready to enter the water. You can either walk into the water from the sandy shore or jump from the platform taking you out a couple of meters into the sea. Would you let your body feel the coldness of the water slowly by deciding […]

And the world is like an apple whirling silently in space Like the circles that you find in the windmills of your mind … words from the lyrics of “The Windmills of Your Mind”, made famous by Noel Harrison. It was written by the French composer Michel Legrand, with English lyrics by Alan and Marilyn […]

During the Thanksgiving break I wanted to visit a friend of mine in another city in USA when I was studying at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois. The easiest -and the cheapest- option for travelling was to go to Norris University Center and look for any announcements on the big billboard for suitable rides. And […]

“Knock Three Times” is a popular song credited to Tony Orlando and Dawn. The song was released as a single in November 1970. It is about a young man calling the girl living on the floor below: Oh, my darling, knock three times On the ceiling if you want me Twice on the pipe If […]