The news on Wednesday, December 11

Can people enter the trade industry?

What is the role of the mafia in trade?

Is trade exclusive to privileged individuals?

Is it possible to become a trader without trickery, nepotism, or connections?

Download Podcast: Does Trade Have a Mafia?

2. Special Article for Newcomers

According to all traders and business enterprise owners, the most challenging part of trade is the first call.

Let me ask you a question to understand where this difficulty stems from.

A first call will, at most, take 10 minutes.

Is it difficult for you to talk on the phone with your father, mother, or loved one for 10 minutes?

Not at all.

So, do you agree that the difficulty of the first call is not inherently due to speaking on the phone? After all, statistics show that you are perfectly capable of talking for hours on the phone with someone you love, to the extent that it has often happened that when your call finally ends, others around you jokingly say, "Praise be, they finally hung up the phone."

My second question is: if all your first calls led to profit, and everything you said was agreed upon by the person you were speaking to, would the first call still be difficult?

Not at all, it would instead be an easy and delightful task.

So, do you understand where the difficulty of the first call comes from?

It stems from your ego.

It’s because, when you are not validated, you feel internally unsettled. This issue is not physical—you cannot claim your ears get tired of listening or your tongue is exhausted from speaking.

Rather, it is the human ego, which craves validation, that struggles when faced with rejection or, in common terms, hearing a "no."

To solve this problem, there are two options.

Completely abandon trade.

Find a way to address the issue.

Most newcomers choose the first option because most people focus only on immediate obstacles.

To those who choose the first option, I have a question, although I doubt they will read this text line by line or even visit the website.

My question is: assuming you abandon trade, will your ego not suffer from the lack of money and the humiliation of poverty?

Do you only feel unsettled because of the difficulty of the first call?

Does your ego not ache when you can’t provide for your daughter, forcing her to depend on others, or even worse, to exploit men to fulfill her needs? Do you ignore and turn a blind eye to such situations?

If I were to delve deeper into this matter, it would breach modesty, and the devoted members of Arad who belong to the second category would become disheartened. Therefore, I will refrain.

Thus, there remains no choice for a person with self-respect but to find a solution to overcome the difficulty of the first call.

To eliminate this difficulty, there are again two options.

The first option is for people to change in such a way that they no longer reject trade. It doesn’t matter whether you are a business owner or a trader. One way is to ask people: "Oh people, please agree with everything we say, so that our dear Arad member doesn’t feel unsettled and can eagerly make their first call to you and others."

But you know this is impossible.

Neither the devil will allow it, nor the widespread ignorance of people.

When people refuse to change to suit our desires, only the second option remains: we must change ourselves.

To bring about this change, I offer four suggestions. If the reader carefully listens to these four suggestions, understands them deeply, and then believes in and applies them, they will achieve such peace of mind in a short time that they will say, "I see no difficulty in the first call."

Interestingly, all four suggestions relate to your beliefs, requiring no special actions—only a correction of your mindset.

You don’t know the person who is rejecting you, but you know yourself and the suggestion you are offering them.

Take a moment, honestly and carefully, to review your own proposal and ask yourself: If a wise person hears this, should they accept it or reject it?

For example, business enterprises should ask themselves: If a wise person hears an invitation to trade with Arad, what would their reaction be?

Employees are in a better position to testify to this. When major business figures, national officials, and ambassadors visit Arad’s offices, what do they say?

Isn’t it true that, as they themselves testify, their minds are blown and they collectively acknowledge, “This isn’t Iran; we can’t believe such a company exists in Iran”?

They even say this phenomenon is unique in the world, and they have never seen such a company in any country.

So, wise and knowledgeable people deeply praise Arad.

Now, the person who rejects your invitation, what level of intellect do they possess?

Are they wise or foolish?

If they are wise and still reject you, I understand why you’d be upset because, in the eyes of intelligent people, you seem weak, and it’s only natural for someone to feel shaken and motivated to improve.

But if it’s a fool rejecting you, I honestly don’t understand why you’d be upset.

The first call is over the phone. Imagine if you could see the person rejecting you in person.

You would realize they’re just a small-minded person with no proper attire, no real character, and certainly not someone who deserves to be in trade.

If you saw them in person, you’d think, I got upset because such a foolish person rejected me?

You’d laugh at yourself and feel embarrassed for letting a mere insignificant character affect you.

A person with the intellectual level of algae rejected me, so why should I get upset about it?

Let me ask all of you a question.

Do you consider yourself pure and virtuous?

If a shameless person rejects you and says, "I don’t like you," would you feel upset?

On the other hand, if a shameless person approves of you, would you feel shaken and think, God, does this mean I have something impure in me, that they think I’m like them?

Do you consider yourself honest and upright?

If a thief rejects you and says, "I don’t like you," would you be upset?

On the contrary, if a thief approves of you, should you feel upset and think, What impurity do they see in me that they would approve of me?

Now, you Aradi traders know that two-thirds of intelligence is in trade.

If a wise person is rejected by fools and ignorants, should they feel happy or upset?

Consider a broader range of contacts.

Don't just think about this one call where you were rejected.

Think about making 100 first calls.

Out of every 100 calls, how many people will say "yes"?

A business enterprise owner, which is much harder than trade, has 3 successful outcomes out of every 100 calls.

In trade, this number can rise to 10, 20, 30, 40, and in some reports from strong traders, it can even exceed 50 successful calls.

We’re proceeding with the logic of business enterprise, where rejections are the highest.

You make 100 calls, which typically take 15 to 30 days.

Out of those 100 calls, three people say "yes."

That’s when you make a profit.

Now, divide this profit by 100 people.

You can think of it this way: every 33 people will bring in one person who pays, and you want to divide the profit from this payment among those 33. So with each call, you can say to yourself, I made this amount of profit.

For example, I make 30 million tomans with those three successful calls.

Now, I divide the 30 million tomans by 100.

That means each person represents 300,000 tomans.

So, when the first person rejects me, I say, Yay! I made 300,000 tomans in profit!

When the second person rejects me, I think, Another 300,000 tomans in my pocket!

If you were making 300,000 tomans per call, would you eagerly continue making calls, or would it still feel difficult?

This is for business enterprise owners, who often face the worst circumstances.

In trade, both the rejection rate is higher and the profits are better.

So we can calculate the profit in total and divide it by the total number of contacts. Then we’ll see that every person who rejects us has actually brought us good profit.

In short, out of every 10 rejections, one must pay.

And this is the saying of Amir al-Mu'minin (Imam Ali), who said: "Whoever raises a flag, surely a group will gather under it. So, look carefully—if you raise a flag, are the wise ones gathering under it, or the ignorant?"

When you contact people and invite them to trade, in reality, you’re raising a flag, and as the Imam says, every flag will gather a group beneath it.

The important thing is to see who gathers under your flag.

Arad has also raised a flag.

You can judge for yourself, who remains in Arad?

The patient ones or the fickle ones?

The friends of the Prophet or the enemies of the Prophet?

The dignified and the ones with character, or the fools and the ignorant?

The wise ones or the foolish ones?

The logical and reasonable ones, or the illogical and nonsensical ones?

The people of understanding and honor, or the lowly and dishonorable ones?

Let me just point out one thing: In any group of men, women, boys, and girls, when they get too close, reports of moral decay often arise. But Arad is incredibly pure and safe, to the extent that girls and women breathe easy there, and all of this is due to the sanctity of the Quran.

The verses of God, the sayings of the Household of the Prophet, and the commemoration of the Prophet’s family, which are very prominent in Arad, make those who are unworthy flee, like frightened mice.

All you need to do is tell yourself, I’ll contact 100 people, and some of them will bring me profit.

When you divide the profit among those 100, you can think, Even the rejections bring profit.

In short, in order to reach the profit from those who pay, I must talk to these rejecters as well. There’s no other way.

When you realize that even those who reject you bring you profit, you’ll find yourself saying, Oh, I’m glad you’re rejecting me because your rejection will bring the money!