What are the opening hours?

Monday 08:00 - 20:00 Tuesday 08:00 - 20:00 Wednesday 08:00 - 20:00 Thursday 08:00 - 20:00 Saturday 08:00 - 20:00 Sunday 08:00 - 20:00

My Iron Axe, Bhatara (2026)

04/08/2021

In recent years, Amazon workers have revealed the gruelling working conditions of the warehouses, better known as fulfilment centers. Close surveillance, excessive productivity goals, limited bathroom breaks and an unsafe working environment have contributed to the quick burnout of workers. Workers find it physically and psychologically challenging to work at Amazon warehouses.

Amazon is very aware of it. And their solution to this problem is to replace the burned-out workers with fresh recruits. In fact, after three years of employment, they encourage workers to leave the company. In an article published on June 15, 2021, the New York Times wrote, "After three years on the job, hourly workers no longer received automatic raises, and the company offered bonuses to people who quit. It also offered limited upward mobility for hourly workers, preferring to hire managers from the outside." According to another New York Times report, their employee turnover rate is so high (about 150%) that Amazon executives are worried that they'll run out of people to employ.

Amazon is not the only workplace where workers face extremely harsh working conditions. Frito-Lay workers have recently gone on a strike to protest against what they called "Suicide-shifts." Forced overtime, 84-hour work-weeks and piping hot temperature of the manufacturing warehouses have left them with no option but to finally take to the street.

Activision Blizzard has recently been subjected to a lawsuit and severe backlash due to its "Frat-boy" culture. According to the lawsuit, multiple female employees have encountered sexual harassment, gender discrimination and unequal pay. Last year, Ubisoft was also accused of having a similar toxic culture.

These are just a few of the many recent examples of companies practicing toxic cultures. Culture sets the norms, social behaviour, beliefs and customs of a company. When leaders sacrifice employees to protect their own interests, a toxic culture evolves that encourages unethical practices. As a result, employees feel unsafe and paranoid, incorporating a "survival of the fittest" mindset. This type of culture ultimately wipes out all trust and cooperation and leads a company to its downfall.

We may think companies like Amazon, Frito-Lay (owned by PepsiCo), Activision Blizzard are too big to fall. But we have seen big companies fall countless times. Companies like Enron, General Motors, Lehman brothers etc., had terrible cultures. Their big-money couldn't save them from going bankrupt.

Creating a positive culture where employees feel safe is extremely important to a company's survival. When a company cares for and protects the interests of the employees, the natural response is trust and cooperation. And when trust and cooperation emerges, innovation within a company flourishes and prosperity follows suit.

[Source:
1. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/15/briefing/amazon-warehouse-investigation.html
2. https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/06/15/us/amazon-workers.html]

01/08/2021

Our lives could have been so beautiful if we all had a decent life. By a decent life, I mean a life without having to worry about paying bills and fees constantly, being able to support our family, and live a satisfying life and say, “Life is pretty great!”

But not everybody has that kind of privilege. Too many of us suffer from poverty and financial instability. Not being able to support ourselves and our family must be one of the most painful experiences. But this should not be the case.

Why can’t we be humble beings? Too many of us have become so self-centered that we no longer care about the well-being of others. We have created egoistic profit-driven businesses that only serve the investors and care nothing for the employees. While the employees live a stressful life, not knowing how they will pay the rent, bills, and fees, many of us are too busy counting profit. This is not okay! I believe we, humans, have the ability to take care of each other, make each other’s life easier and build a better world.

We should be working together to build a beautiful world where all of us can live a decent life—a world where we are paid and treated fairly. A world where life is satisfying and secure.

My vision is to create a world where we all have financial stability and strong moral values. I want to create job opportunities. I want my employees to be happy, fulfilled, and financially stable. Ultimately, I want to inspire them to start their own businesses so that they, too, can create job opportunities and help other people.

That’s why I have created my business—a web design service called “My Iron Axe.”

What is your vision? How do you want to see this world transform? How do you want to contribute to making this world a better place and improve all of our lives?

30/07/2021

We, humans, have made a lot of progress. From a species that committed genocides repeatedly, we have transformed into a species that considers genocides a crime. Although we still commit atrocities and unethical acts against our fellow human beings, we learn to become better human beings every day.

Just in the 17th century, companies conquered lands, murdered civilians, practiced slavery and committed many other inhuman crimes. From having such savage companies, we now have companies that care about their people and the environment. Some companies even take it further when it comes to treating employees well, becoming role models and appearing on the list of “100 Best Companies to Work For.” More and more entrepreneurs are creating purpose-driven companies that work to transform society and improve human lives.

We have come such a long way that we often forget about the progress we have made so far. But we still have many problems. We still have hatred, discrimination, wars and suffering. We still have companies that put profit over people and bring torment to the people and the environment. We still have a long way to go. And that’s okay. We human beings improve through continuous effort. It’s not about winning or ending all problems. It’s about working together toward a better future continuously because there’s no end to improving human lives.

It’s all about trial and error. There’s no ultimate solution to a problem. We tried shareholder capitalism, and it did wonders to many countries. Especially war-broken Asian countries such as Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, and even China utilized shareholder capitalism to lift their people from poverty, improve their lives, and establish a stronger economy. But we have come to realize the horrors of shareholder capitalism. How it creates massive inequality, increases job dissatisfaction, encourages unethical practices and reduces corporate lifespan. Now we are looking for a better alternative to solve the problems created by shareholder capitalism. We are now talking about stakeholder capitalism, customer capitalism and socialism. Each of these options has pros and cons. We are still arguing about which would be an optimum solution. But while deciding on a new idea, we must keep the interest of all human beings in mind. Improving lives should always be the deciding factor. We also have to understand that the new idea will not be the ultimate solution. There will be problems. We’ll improve as we go. And we’ll always find newer and better ways to improve all of our lives.

Improving human life is a continuous effort. There’s no end to it. There will always be self-centered people who would put their interests before others and bring suffering to the people. But then again, there will be compassionate human beings who would come together to challenge those self-centered people and bring prosperity and progress to everyone.

27/07/2021

"𝙏𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙩𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙚𝙢𝙥𝙡𝙤𝙮𝙚𝙚𝙨 𝙗𝙚𝙣𝙚𝙫𝙤𝙡𝙚𝙣𝙩𝙡𝙮 𝙨𝙝𝙤𝙪𝙡𝙙𝙣’𝙩 𝙗𝙚 𝙫𝙞𝙚𝙬𝙚𝙙 𝙖𝙨 𝙖𝙣 𝙖𝙙𝙙𝙚𝙙 𝙘𝙤𝙨𝙩 𝙩𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙘𝙪𝙩𝙨 𝙞𝙣𝙩𝙤 𝙥𝙧𝙤𝙛𝙞𝙩𝙨, 𝙗𝙪𝙩 𝙖𝙨 𝙖 𝙥𝙤𝙬𝙚𝙧𝙛𝙪𝙡 𝙚𝙣𝙚𝙧𝙜𝙞𝙯𝙚𝙧 𝙩𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙘𝙖𝙣 𝙜𝙧𝙤𝙬 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙚𝙣𝙩𝙚𝙧𝙥𝙧𝙞𝙨𝙚 𝙞𝙣𝙩𝙤 𝙨𝙤𝙢𝙚𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙛𝙖𝙧 𝙜𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙩𝙚𝙧 𝙩𝙝𝙖𝙣 𝙤𝙣𝙚 𝙡𝙚𝙖𝙙𝙚𝙧 𝙘𝙤𝙪𝙡𝙙 𝙚𝙣𝙫𝙞𝙨𝙞𝙤𝙣." - Howard Schultz

Great leaders are always servant first. By prioritizing serving others, servant-first leaders inspire people to follow them and be united under one vision. We often see companies led by visionary leaders regularly featured on Forbes magazine's "100 Best Companies to Work For." Those companies practice a culture of servant leadership.

"Servant leadership" is a term popularized by Robert Greenleaf. It simply means to be in service of others. It means you put priority on benefiting others over yourself. The primary benefit of every decision you make goes to those you lead.

So, for example, if you are a CEO of a company, you'd make sure not to make decisions to make a profit for yourself. Instead, the primary benefits of your decisions must go to the stakeholders. If you are a sales team leader, the primary beneficiary of your contributions should be your team, not you.

A servant leadership culture creates a positive work environment for all employees where everybody works to serve others. As a result, trust emerges, and egotism dies. As job satisfaction grows, employees become high-performing, which helps the company to become more successful. The best benefit of servant leadership is that it creates loyal employees and customers. Employees and customers who are loyal hardly ever move onto a different company, even with the notion of a better product.

A company's ability to be profitable and resilient depends largely on its culture. Unless a culture is centered around its people, a company can't survive in the long run. And a people-centric culture must begin with a leader who thinks of himself as a servant first.

24/07/2021

We often see people talk about “ROI, conversion increase, total revenue increase” etc. when it comes to building a website. They also go on about “making your customers take action” or “boost brand performance.” All of these fancy words actually reveal the egocentric personality of the business owners and how egocentrism has been normalized in the business society. Today, hardly anybody would bat an eye if profit gets the dominant focus on a decision-making process.

All those who make decisions primarily based on profitability treat themselves as the main beneficiary of the decisions and thus can be called egocentric. An egocentric company works for the benefit of itself. Making profits for the shareholders becomes the main goal of the company. But a company is not made successful by a particular group of people. It involves the contribution of many people who believe in the company. The investors, employees, customers, and other stakeholders contribute to making the company successful. Even the environment in which the company exists plays a crucial role in its success. The egocentric leaders completely disregard others' contributions. Their decisions put extensive focus on making a profit for themselves, very often at the expense of others. As the impact of their decisions harms other contributors, soon they stop believing in the company, which ultimately leads to the company’s demise.

To build a company that can survive even after our death, we must not be egocentric, instead, we have to think about all the contributors and make sure that all of them are fairly compensated for their contributions. We must stop making decisions based on profitability, instead, we have to make decisions based on their ability to advance our vision, the vision that all of the contributors believe in.

So, when it comes to building a website, don’t go after “ROI, conversion increase or revenue increase." Going after them will cause you to have an egocentric persona which will drive you away from the people who believe in your business. Instead, build a website with the intention of benefiting those who believe in your vision. And when they are benefitted, they themselves will work to achieve the ROI, target revenue, and other numbers on your financial statements.

20/07/2021

When Slobodan Simić decided to save a special endangered breed of Balkan donkey, there were less than 1000 of them in Serbia. Today, his dairy donkey farm alone is home to 250 donkeys. Along with successfully preserving the donkey, his vision has led to the creation of the most expensive cheese in the world, known as "P**e."

The interesting part of Slobodan Simić's story is that his business didn't start with a product or an intention to make a profit. He didn't go in search of a product with high demand and low competitors. Instead, his business started with a vision to save an endangered animal which led to the creation of a unique product.

Our way of thinking has made it very hard to start or run a business. We think of business as a way to earn money and get out of the 9 to 5 life. So, we look for a product that'd be the most profitable for us. Or we look for ways to increase our profitability. But the weird part is, with that mindset, you'd never be able to explore unknown opportunities. As it's unknown, it wouldn't make sense to you to capitalize on it. To you, only those products or opportunities that have already been explored would make sense. Unfortunately, those proven products or opportunities have already been proven by somebody and so you'd have to face competitions. You can spend countless hours on market research, positioning, differentiation, and developing value propositions. But even with all that, there's no guarantee you'd make enough profit to survive.

But when you start your business with a vision just like Slobodan Simić, you start to look for ways to advance your vision. It no longer matters to you if it's an unknown opportunity or not. As long as, the opportunity advances your vision, you take it. And when a better opportunity comes along, you can quickly jump to it. As a result, your business becomes more innovative and flexible. You no longer care about your competitors because it's not about winning anymore. It's all about advancing your vision. And people who share the vision as you come together to join the cause as employees, customers, and investors. Being inspired by the vision, they become more loyal to your business and continues to contribute to the vision even after your death.

Slobodan Simić' teaches us a way of doing business. One that starts with a vision. One that we feel inspired to do. One that makes us feel fulfilled. One that creates a better world for all of us.

It's amazing how Simić' puts his life's work into words:
"𝑰𝒏 𝒍𝒊𝒇𝒆, 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒆 𝒂𝒓𝒆 𝒎𝒐𝒎𝒆𝒏𝒕𝒔 𝒘𝒉𝒆𝒏 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒅𝒊𝒔𝒄𝒐𝒗𝒆𝒓 𝒔𝒐𝒎𝒆𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒇𝒆𝒆𝒍 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒊𝒕 𝒊𝒔 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒕𝒊𝒎𝒆 𝒕𝒐 𝒅𝒆𝒅𝒊𝒄𝒂𝒕𝒆 𝒚𝒐𝒖𝒓𝒔𝒆𝒍𝒇 𝒕𝒐 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒄𝒂𝒖𝒔𝒆. 𝑻𝒉𝒂𝒕'𝒔 𝒘𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝑰'𝒗𝒆 𝒅𝒐𝒏𝒆. 𝑰'𝒗𝒆 𝒏𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒓 𝒓𝒆𝒈𝒓𝒆𝒕𝒕𝒆𝒅 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒅𝒆𝒄𝒊𝒔𝒊𝒐𝒏, 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝑰'𝒎 𝒗𝒆𝒓𝒚 𝒉𝒂𝒑𝒑𝒚 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝑰 𝒘𝒂𝒔 𝒂𝒃𝒍𝒆 𝒕𝒐 𝒃𝒖𝒊𝒍𝒅 𝒂 𝒓𝒆𝒔𝒆𝒓𝒗𝒆 𝒍𝒊𝒌𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒔, 𝒂𝒍𝒐𝒏𝒈 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉 𝒎𝒚 𝒇𝒓𝒊𝒆𝒏𝒅𝒔 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒄𝒐𝒎𝒑𝒂𝒏𝒊𝒐𝒏𝒔."

[Source: https://www.businessinsider.com/why-pule-donkey-cheese-serbia-most-expensive-in-the-world-2021-3]

19/07/2021

“How much should I charge for my services?”, a question commonly asked by many business owners and freelancers. They stress over the price of their products or services. But there’s a simple answer to this question.

Before we answer, we’ll need to look at profit from a different perspective. Profiting should not be the primary purpose of a business. Instead, there should be a vision, and advancing that vision should be the primary purpose of a business. And the profit we earn from our business should be used to fuel the vision. We have to be completely honest here. The profit we earn is not for us to become rich. It’s for the vision to go on, even after our death. And if we want a vision to go on forever, we must take care of the people who support us throughout our long journey. Of course, it’s reasonable for us to wish to be fairly compensated for the service we provide. But we must do so carefully, not overlooking the contribution of others.

Let’s get back to the question. So, to find out how much we should charge for our products or services, we have to ask ourselves if we need a large amount of will and resources to advance our vision. Depending on the amount of will and resources, we may need to charge more or less. “Will” simply means the people while “resource” means anything other than the people we need to run our business.

When a vision requires a large amount of will and resources, it is to create an impact so large that in addition to benefitting all the stakeholders, it changes the course of industries and how we live our lives. Let’s take a look at iPhone for an example.
When asked Steve Ballmer, the former CEO of Microsoft, about the newly released iPhone, he laughed it off saying “Five Hundred Dollars?!”

He saw iPhone as just a product, a new competition in the mobile market. But iPhone was far bigger than that. Behind iPhone was a cause to empower individuals to challenge the status quo. Steve Jobs and his employees spent nights after nights, invested a large sum of money, and put their heart and soul to advance that cause. The result was iPhone. The intention behind iPhone’s costly price was not to make a lot of profit. But as their cause required a large amount of will and resources, iPhone needed to be costly. The customers who believed in the same cause as Apple bought iPhone because it represented their beliefs. Through iPhone, they felt empowered! To them, iPhone was more than just a $500 phone. It revolutionized their life. The benefits they got were well worth it. The impact of the iPhone was so great that it changed the cellphone industry and transformed our lives. iPhone produced huge benefits for all stakeholders. The customers got a revolutionary product that empowered them beyond their imagination at that time. The employees and investors who believed in Apple’s vision were also rewarded greatly. And finally, Apple received massive growth, and its ability to advance its vision grew stronger.

So, in a nutshell, if you are confused about pricing your product or service, let your vision guide you. If it requires a large amount of will and resources, the price of your product or services should be higher. But if it requires a small amount of will and resources, you should charge less.

16/07/2021

Working on a new project: Solar Energify.

15/07/2021

As money has become the leading cause to do anything for many people, our ability to form trusted relationships has deteriorated. We see designers taking projects just because it offers them a good deal of money. We see clients hiring designers for ROI or return on investment. This way of thinking results in relationships being formed based on money and all of us trying to get the best of each other, caring only about our own interests.

Today, many clients seem to be doubtful whether the designer will charge them more and under-deliver. And the designers seem to be concerned with whether they will get a sufficient payment and a client who is easy to work with. A constant struggle to gain the upper hand over the other causes further rifts in the relationship. Both remain unhappy and uncertain during their project.

Now, in an effort to change that, we have to form relationships based on something other than money.

We have to understand that trust and loyalty come from understanding each other. When two person's beliefs and values are the same, they feel safe around each other. Feeling safe around each other has a lot to do with forming closer bonds. So, learning about the beliefs and values is the first step towards a trusting relationship.

When you are hiring a designer, instead of asking "What are your skills and experiences?", start by asking "Why do you choose to be a designer?" Knowing a person's values and principles will help you understand them and assess whether that person can be trusted. Ultimately, you'll be able to judge whether that person would be perfect for the project or not. A designer with the same beliefs as you will understand and care about the cause/vision of your business. The designer then wouldn't work just for money, they'd work because they want to contribute to the cause of yours that they themselves believe in. As a result, you'll not just have a designer, rather you'll have a friend who would support you throughout the whole project and beyond.

When you are a designer, the same is true for you. Work on the projects that you believe in yourself. Don't just work for money. Work because you care. This will enable you to find projects/jobs that you'll seriously be interested in. And you'll be able to work with clients who have the same beliefs as you. It'll be more fun and fulfilling working with them. When you work just for money, you'll constantly find clients who may not have the same beliefs as you. The result? You'll have a hard time getting along with the clients. You'll not completely understand their vision. As a result, They'll constantly ask you to make changes to the project because what you created is not quite right for them. There will be all kinds of doubts and trust issues. You'll just want to get out of the project as soon as you can because you hate it so much.

So, to form a trusting relationship, both the client and the designer should work together because they want to bring about a cause. Not because both just want to make money. Having similar values and beliefs, they will care about each other beyond monetary value and find each other very easy and satisfying to work with. And finally, their project will become more successful, advancing their cause in the process.

13/07/2021

JCPenny, just before filing for bankruptcy paid its CEO $4.5 million while thousands of workers lost their jobs. The executives of Hertz also received massive bonuses right before going bankrupt. During the Covid-19 pandemic, over 3,600 companies filed for bankruptcy causing massive layoffs and sufferings to the stockholders. Meanwhile, CEOs of many of those companies were given massive bonuses.

These companies used to portray themselves as the advocate of business ethics when the economy was soaring. But as soon as the economy started to decline, they revealed their true face. They hardly ever cared for the employees. Their actions, during Covid-19, revealed the selfish nature of the executives.

You may think JCPenny and other companies went into bankruptcy because of the tough competition, poor corporate strategies, and failure to reinvent themselves. But the real trouble began when the leaders started to work to protect their own interests, instead of the interests of those they work for. A leader should work to protect the interests of those they are in charge of. That means, all of the stakeholders of the company. But in many cases, the CEOs exclude the employees and sometimes, even the customers from their list of stakeholders. With the intention of making profits for themselves, the CEOs create a toxic culture where the company's focus shifts from people to profit. Over time trust, cooperation, and innovation among all parts of the company deteriorate. The company starts to crumble from the inside and an economic collapse delivers the final blow, resulting in bankruptcy.

Even at the time of bankruptcy, when thousands of people's life become uncertain, those leaders don't feel a little bit of remorse or shame to pocket million-dollar bonuses. They become so short-sighted that through their tunnel vision, they can only see themselves.

Those companies who put profit over people will always meet their end, worsening the lives of many people in the process. And the only one to blame is the leaders who work only to benefit themselves. Instead of being rewarded with hefty bonuses, They have to take responsibility for the suffering of the people caused by their actions.

11/07/2021

Let's say you have a vision. Your vision is to enable factory workers or people with lower incomes to lead healthy life. You noticed that as the cost of living is increasing, it's becoming tough for low-income people to lead healthy lives. So, to advance your vision, you have decided to open a restaurant where you are going to serve healthy food in a healthy environment for low-income people.

You have prepared your strategies on how you are going to serve healthy food at a low cost. But now, you have realized that to really succeed in your mission, you need help from others. You need to make sure that people with the same belief as yours come together with you and lead the way to the vision. Now, you are thinking about how you can inspire those people to join together.

That is where a website comes in. The primary purpose of a website is to communicate your vision with others. With Facebook and other social media platforms, you can do the same but there are differences. A website gives you a centralized platform where you can present your idea or vision in a structured way that makes it easy for people to understand the essence of your vision. On Facebook and other social media platforms, you post many types of information that although should always be aligned with your vision, can make it harder for people to understand clearly.

Your website paves the way to communicate your vision in a clear and concise manner. It attracts those people with the same belief as yours to join you and work together to bring your vision into reality. Those people can be your customers, employees, investors, or well-wishers.

Remember, your website serves only to advance your cause by communicating your vision with the people who believe in the same cause as you.

11/07/2021

Do you actually need a website to run your business?

Whenever I ask this question to somebody, the most common answer I get is "Yeah! How could you not need a website? Everybody has a website." Or "How could you not get a website when all of your competitors have one?" Or "It builds trust!"

But those answers don't quite feel right to me. So, the only reason we need a website is that it has become a standard? But standards change every day. A website should have a real purpose.

Some people give a different answer that sounds somewhat right. It looks like this, "Well, that depends on your customers. If your customers are more used to Facebook than websites, then you'll do better with a page." Perfectly reasonable, right? Well, not quite. That's because focusing on your customers' mannerisms is a short-term way of solving problems. What if you decided not to get a website because your customers were not used to it, and then one of your competitors introduced their website that the customers found more useful than a page? So, you should not make long-term decisions based on such volatile factors. Instead, focus on the vision you want to achieve and make decisions based on that.

Everything we have achieved as human beings was possible only due to a large collection of people coming together under a common cause or a vision. Every scientific breakthrough was possible because people came together to advance a vision. Even before Charles Babbage's concept of a programmable computer, there were computation devices. The vision to compute existed long before Charles Babbage.

Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak started Apple to empower individuals to challenge the status quo. Growing up during the Great Depression, Sam Walton started Walmart to help the average joe live a better life by lowering the cost of living. Every giant company today was founded to advance a vision. Not just to make a profit.

So, every decision you make for your business should be in alignment with your vision. "Would a website help me advance my vision? If yes, how so?", start by asking these questions. If you find it convincing that a website will truly help advance your vision, only then should you decide to get a website.

So, In a nutshell, get a website only if your vision requires it.

My Iron Axe

04/08/2021

01/08/2021

30/07/2021

27/07/2021

24/07/2021

20/07/2021

19/07/2021

16/07/2021

15/07/2021

13/07/2021

11/07/2021

11/07/2021

Address

Opening Hours

Website

Alerts

Shortcuts

Share

Category

Monday	08:00 - 20:00
Tuesday	08:00 - 20:00
Wednesday	08:00 - 20:00
Thursday	08:00 - 20:00
Saturday	08:00 - 20:00
Sunday	08:00 - 20:00