Ahmed Elnaggar

I was surprised with the amount of positivity and resilience I saw in the UAE society and business community in general. Surprise, surprise. I go to the office and almost 75% of the workforce are there.

This is the mentality and the approach that actually I've been taking for 4 years. I think the best we can do is to keep working and supporting our economy.

war or military conflict don't have lots of positives but if there's one positive from this is like how people unite

I get approached all the time in any social event I can be in a wedding I can be in a party and someone is like you're a lawyer I have a problem let me ask you that question if you're the one who's always saying please you have to pay me first doesn't work you have to give something back

what are the things that you think were responsible for your breakthrough

he told me Ahmed I don't think you're a good lawyer. I don't think your English is good enough and I think you should try to find a job where you use Arabic.

Hey everyone, welcome to the Be Yourself podcast, the podcast on expressing your true selves. Today my guest is Ahmed Alagar, who is a president at Emirates Legal Network. He's a practicing lawyer in United Arab Emirates and he's also a host of successful podcast called the jurist podcast. Ahmed, welcome to the show.

Well, thank you so much for inviting me here. It's it's an honor. Enjoying.

The honor is mine.

Obviously, we live in two countries uh that has an ongoing conflict right now. I'm based I'm located in Ukraine. You're in Dubai. So, my first question to you is how are things in Dubai and how the conflict impacts the business landscape in your city?

Well, thank you very much for asking. We're safe. I mean, we are feeling uh strange from this situation. We never had this. Dubai was one of the safest cities in the world, the UAE as well as a whole country. So, this is quite new to us and we're trying to develop uh understanding to the situation. Even the conflict is has nothing to do with the United Arab Emirates. We are just pushed into it somehow. Um, what we are trying to do at the moment is to act normal and we're trying to do our best to feel okay about the situation. And we're working. We're going to work every day. We have full trust in the um government and in the uh armed forces that they are trying to do as much as they can. And so far so good. We go to the beach, we go out, we go to the work, we see our kids, we see our friends. So life goes on.

This is the mentality and the approach that actually I've been taking for 4 years or how many years? Yeah. The war in my city. And uh I think the best we can do is to keep working and supporting our economy because um in addition to boots on the ground, there's also an economical uh factor that needs to work in order for the country to keep operating normally.

Right. Absolutely. To be very honest, I have to comment on that is that I was surprised with the amount of positivity and resilience I saw in the UAE society and business community in general. I saw like I can start with my team. I at the beginning the first week I asked everyone to stay at home don't come to the office just be safe and the second week I felt okay everything normalized I will go to the office but you should feel free to decide do you want to work from home do you want to work from the office or do you want to work from outside the UAE if you wish and if you can travel uh feel free to do that and surprise surprise I go to the office and almost 75% of the workforce are there. I even asked him like, "Wow, I wanted to come to the office alone and now everybody's here." It's so funny. But I I feel it that people want to live normal life. They don't want to be affected. They just take care of themselves and their safety, but at the end of the day, we want to continue our life in a normal way.

What are you seeing among your partners and clients? Is that the same as you? And or there's still some psychological, you know, duress and pressure that still kind of hurts some businesses or some professionals to work.

Of course there is of course the feelings of uh of of being afraid of being concerned on your safety at kids people with families or with elderly people are always uh more concerned than than the rest but at the end of the day people find something to relate to. For example, today I'm wearing the UAE national dress. I never wear this. I never um in media especially I always in a suit and a tie and um but but I felt like okay today I want to feel the solidarity today I want to feel to to wear the national UAE dress because I want to have this and a lot of people are dealing with these issues with these concerns in a different way some just lock themselves work from home they don't go out and don't socialize good for them that's how they deal with it and some others like me go out every day and uh and and want to live life normally and they just we just take care when we have the alarms. We stay indoors and we follow up with the news what's happening every day. But um there's also a social obligations towards the society and the community. I have my employees and my staff, my team and my clients. We have to continue working and serving them. life goes on. Um we have to also tell them how to deal with the situation. So we're trying our best to continue um our part in this fight because the forces of evil or whatever political situation that we were dragged into it cannot just dictate us how we go about our life.

And the point of unity is such a strong and powerful point because you know we felt that ourselves uh when we faced a common enemy that we're united like never before you know and uh what you said about your national outfit we have a day in Ukraine it's called vishanka day when everyone's wearing this beautiful Ukrainian t-shirt uh short I beg a pardon And this day has also become like really really different when the war started. Everyone wears their shorts and we not only wear it on the inter on the day of the this day but also you know in our regular life. So the unity is something maybe if we war or conflict or military conflict don't have lots of positives but if there's one positive from this is like how people unite in the face of common adversary uh party

absolutely and and um you kind of filter and understand a lot who is really belonging to the country. I mean the UAE is is is a country where the majority of residents are expats. People coming from all over the world who have the majority in terms of number. But you see these expats so much united, so enthusiastic and uh and believing in the um in in the country and in the government and in the decisions made and everybody's following it. And those who don't like they just leave. And you get to see the real filter of who really belong to this country, belong to this city and who believe in it and who stay and you understand that the people who will continue will will live this success because we are 100% sure that this will pass. Um, and no one ever have done the comeback better than the UAE. I've seen it several times in several occasions. There were COVID, there were 2008 and they were in the middle a little bit of slowdown economically and no one does the comeback better than the UAE. And that's why we believe in it. And we know that this will come back and I'm going to come back with it.

Beautiful.

on on this subject of diverse cultural backgrounds of the people in in Dubai and UAE. What are some things that people still don't understand about Dubai in terms of, you know, being a business hub? Why Dubai has has earned the reputation of this international business hub and things like that?

Well, I can I can tell you one thing we were selling for the last 20 years that Dubai is one of the safest uh cities and UAE in general is one of the safest countries in the world. And to be very honest, being dragged into this conflict have proven it again compared to uh all the other countries that are under attack at the moment from the same party. The UAE has shown that even being the one that got the biggest hit and the biggest attacks still is resilient and strong enough to protect the people who live in it. So safety and security is one of the things that we still continue to say about the as as a real strong benefit of the UAE. Um, another thing is actually the infrastructure that the UEFA app built economically and um and and life infrastructure from the uh roads, the buildings, the economic infrastructure, how many um diverse free zones and specialized economic zones that are established in the UAE, the tax benefits that these uh economic uh activities and businesses is can do it's very entrepreneur welcoming place diversity and uh um demographics of the UAE how how it's created itself build a lot of business opportunities for everyone um you you see huge communities from everywhere in the world are able to live their own lifestyle and at the same time being open to one of the biggest markets in the whole Middle East and being connected to Asia Africa Africa, Middle East and Europe as well. So if I can start talking about the opportunities in the UE, I will never stop because this is a topic and a subject that u it's a nonending uh speech. But if you go into deep details, I can say that uh it's the land of opportunities of the of the east is one of the strongest economies and one of the most resilient um places for businesses before being a place that is very safe and very good to raise kids and live in general and have a fantastic lifestyle. So I can speak about the UAE for many days.

Ahmed, speaking of your story of your journey as a businessman. Can you tell us a little bit how it started? Obviously you are a very successful lawyer and you are someone who I see um really represent the brand of Dubai in the in a very strong way. But how how did it all start for you? When did it start? And maybe you can just tell us um you know what are the things that you think were responsible for your uh breakthroughs.

Well, I believe the UAE in general I started here in 2008 very early 2008. So I saw one of the biggest changes that's happening to any city and because it was the the financial crisis that happened worldwide and UAE got a really big hit at that time. So what probably got me to start is seeing it on top deep dive and coming up again. So this experience have shown me how the UAE can do it and how they do it and how they deal with distress situations like this. I started as a professional. I worked for a Swiss law firm in Dubai International Financial Center. It was the first law firm to be registered there. So we were one of the first law firms to be providing the services. And of course with this situation there was an economic crisis there were problems and these type of problems needed lawyers. So we had to understand the uh the situation financially of businessmen and entrepreneurs or what problems they they deal with. So I've seen a lot of businesses shutting down and a lot of businessmen being in distress. So I understood the game. and I understood how they get to be held economically and legally as well because that was part of my job. And after 6 years, I've seen the ups and downs. I've seen the UAE going into the prime again and building it all over again. So the UAE itself helped me because I got the opportunity to see something very um significant like that. But as well I always had the ambition to start my own law firm to network a lot to do more than just providing services and um that what triggered me to go into starting Emirates Legal Network as a nonprofit association that focus on the legal industry and the and the lawyers and later on starting the legal blog which is the jurist and then later on going from uh writing media into audio and then into video and starting putting content out there, interviewing other lawyers. So, helping the community was one big driver. Providing value uh where I know I I can was also another driver. But understanding the the UAE in general was one of the things that I wanted to do it very early on. And by this understanding, it helped me a lot to be able to provide the value. And one thing after the other, I love my job and I'm good at it. So I use these two things to provide value. And the more I give, the more I get.

That's how it works. So you are in the service business. Absolutely. In service to other people, helping. And you know, I had Alan Langanger on my show. He's an owner of sales academy and his main principle is that you should help people no matter if they buy from you or not and it's so powerful right and it's it takes time it takes time to develop this um mindset what can you say that this was something that was one of the main things that helped you build your brand and your business just helping people regardless, you know, if they pay you big dollar or not.

I I tell you, I mean, the the the we say it in Arabic, alhamd the the the the being a lawyer is is a mission, is a is something that is not just a job. It's it's a cause. Um, so I am I get approached all the time. All the time in any social event, you know, I can be in a wedding, I can be in a party and someone was like, "Oh my god, you're a lawyer. I have a problem. Let me ask you that question." You know, and with with a lot of this, people ask you all the time one thing or the other. If you're the one who's always saying, "Okay, I'm got please, I you have to pay me first." Doesn't work. it doesn't work as as socially you you would not be uh appreciated a lot. You have to give something back. And to be very honest, helping other people sort out problems or helping other people not to fall into trouble. This is one of the biggest things that builds your brand, that builds your image. You know what you're talking about and you can help and you can just provide the value for the people. They trust you. They think of you as the one who they go to and life is all about this interactions. You need to help the people so that they understand very well that you know what you're talking about and then you become the person who go to I the very first days of learning about networking and building um my my community in the UAE I was following an American um gentleman who um established something called business network international BNI very famous uh networking concept And one of the biggest words that they used to say uh was no one cares how much you know unless they know how much you care. So if the people you're interacting with them they they understand how much you care about them or about the topic or about the value of information that you or the cause you're you're you're talking about. That's what make them get interested. So never go into a networking event and never go into any meeting just showing off what you know is like I'm the smartest. I'm going to tell you what I know because I know better than anyone. It's like absolutely turn off and people don't really care how much you know. No one cares about this. You can be the smartest ever or the most rich or no one cares about that. But if you care about a value, if you care about the people who you're interacting with and if you try to give them help or value, they will care about you. And this is the biggest the best sales technique. The people reach out because they know you know what you're talking about.

It resonates with me a lot as a podcaster, as a business person.

It it takes some time to understand that we have to apply what Simon Synynic calls it givers mentality like make it about people and I think it also works in content marketing as well in storytelling if you make let people find themselves in your stories right they don't want to hear you bragging how good you are they want to understand that they are similar in a way and maybe what you've you've you've done in your life or what you've learned can be applied to their life.

Look, look at it this way. Try to sell me anything by convincing me I'm wrong. My ego wouldn't take it. Sorry. And this applies to everyone. But try to tell me, okay, what you say is right or maybe is is works for you, but let me paint you another picture about something else that I would like to um sell for you. This thing is much bigger, much better, much nicer, saves you money, and gives you uh better benefit. I'm probably going to throw out whatever is in my hand because you painted a picture that really resonates with me and makes me feel like, wow, what you're actually providing me is much better than what I have or what I um used to. I would like to try whatever you are giving me right now. So you have to understand that everybody is buying and everybody's getting convinced emotionally more than logically. If my emotions are negative towards whatever you're going to give me or convince me with or sell it to me, I'm not going to be listening to you whatsoever. We have in even in the legal field if I tell my client what you did is wrong or what you did is sorry is illegal you cannot do this this is absolutely wrong they will say it's like yeah but you know Ahmed everybody else is doing it why do I have to listen to you that you're always acting as smarter than me but we need to even use these sales techniques sometimes to convince our client not to hurt themselves.

I think uh one of the mistakes or what's that sales people do? They show intellectual superiority, you know, and it I don't want you to look smarter than me, at least in the beginning, right? Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. or if you want to make this sale, don't make me look stupid, you know, because I'm not going to give you my money if you make me look very stupid. Like, makes no sense. Like, I don't like you already. Why do I have to give you a commission for a car or a house or something like that? Make me feel good about myself. Explain to me that this is an amazing opportunity that exactly fits someone of my profile and then the sale is done. But if you push me towards the feeling that I'm a stupid guy, I'm not going to be doing business with you. Absolutely not.

Absolutely.

Ahmed, I heard that you are actually writing a book on personal branding. Is it for lawyers only? Can you elaborate a little bit on the book and why you writing it and some concepts maybe?

Okay, that's a long story I will tell you about. This is a book I've been working on for a while for uh some time right now. I really like the idea because I want to just summarize my experience uh with the legal industry. You know, I have I'm running a law firm in in two countries in three different cities and with with four offices and a big team that spans all around the world. I have the nonprofit association that is really the biggest professional association for lawyers in the UAE and I have the podcast which is started as a blog and I'm been seeing and experiencing a lot um for the last few years but I grew up in a law firm. I was seven years old when I entered a law firm for the first time and I was 10 years old getting paid from the law firm by wow arranging books on doing stuff you know my three elder sisters are lawyers my dad is a lawyer as well I have seen law firms since the 80s I understand how it was done how it developed I've seen it happening since then until now. And I want to explain that what worked in the 80s and in the '9s and what worked in the early 2000s absolutely don't work right now. You have a chance to be a legal star. I know how to do it. I've seen it happening and I have the right information for you. So this is part of me trying to provide value for other people. Part of me trying to give a blueprint of how this is done because I've done it and I've seen other people done it in different time and why it doesn't work right now. So my book is exactly about that.

Can you reveal some secrets uh of how to become a legal superstar?

Um, you don't need to let let me put it this way theoretically and historically as well. Everybody envision that the lawyer is the one who understands and memorizes the articles of the law, all of them. And he needs to be the smartest person in the room to be able to win any case. All right. And in order to know how to select this lawyer, you needed to know someone who knows someone or you needed to go to the one with the highest reputation. And those ones with the highest reputation again historically needed to be very expensive, right? That does not apply to today's world at all. with the rise of AI, with the legal tech and access to information, with social media, with crossborder um um accessibility, a lawyer can be in Dubai, practicing law in UK, the judge can be in a third country, they can be arguing the law of China. in one case at one room. Okay, that did not exist 10 years ago, 20 years ago. So the whole dynamics are different and in order for you to understand how to excel today, you need to understand what happened in the past and why and what happened now and why. And in order to excel, you have to I'm not saying there is a shortcut to success, but you need to learn the game. And the game is not what's written in the previous books. New books are there to explain to you how life goes on. And even though the consumer behavior, let's go back to sales, okay? The consumer behavior in the past choosing a lawyer is absolutely has nothing to do with the consumer behavior to choose a lawyer today. If you are not out there, if you don't promote yourself, if you don't talk about yourself, no one knows you and no one knows how smart you are behind 100 walls. Even if you work for the top law firm that is, I don't know, have 100 lawyers or 200 lawyers in each city, you might not have the same chance of me, going on social media, explaining how smart I am every day, what are my experiences, and telling you that you can hire me for that particular job because I 100 cases in there, and I'm going to be providing you for free information ongoing all the time educating you before you come to my office because I don't want to play the smartest again and I I don't want to gatekeep all the information again. I want you to be well informed and now to sit down for 1 hour for with me you're going to have to pay my charges and I'm not chasing you. You're the one who's looking forward to have one hour with Ahmed and Nagar.

What you're saying dovetales with what we've started doing with my agency. We started educating people on podcasting, sending newsletter and you know we're not worried that people going to know too much to not use our services because just as you said our services is like a premium right? It's something that you won't ever know on the wide web, but I'm I'm I'm generous enough to share what I know, right? If you want to do things your way, and I think it's really um follows our previous topic of giving back. We give back, give back, give back. If people don't need our services, we should be totally fine with that, right?

Yeah. I mean, this is part of also social responsibility. I'm not going to be happy if I'm having to to to be dragged into the police station every other day because people are just forwarding WhatsApp rumors and they don't know about the cyber crime law. So when I go online and tell them sharing a WhatsApp forward means that you are contributing into sharing a rumor. So stop these things at your place and don't get in trouble. They understand that I am helping them for free not to fall into trouble. Next time when they have a question, when they have something related to it or when they have a doubt, they know who to go to. But if I'm the expert, if I'm the one who wrote the cyber crime law, okay, then I'm the one who have the highest authority, but no one knows my name. How am I going to get business? How am I going to get recognition? It's impossible. So, you just need to understand the dynamics of today. Back in the days, 100 years ago, people were going to the scholars, to the teachers, at the universities, to the academics to get help. But today people want the professional who know what he's talking about can simplify it in a normal way in an easy way and is approachable as well.

Correct.

You've mentioned that you've invested a lot in your um association. So it's it's a new it looks for me because this is not the first time that I see this type of business which is network first right we have a lot of business clubs and everything. what mainly enticed you to create uh a networking uh business and as well as your podcast which I believe is a great addition to this business. Right. So tell me a little bit about that.

Well, creating the community itself is also following the nature of the human behavior right now. People would like to belong. People would like to have something to relate to. The relatability of the human interaction is very important. So lawyers and professionals in general, not just lawyers, they would like to uh communicate together with people who understand their worries, they understand their concerns, they understand their business. Um the young ones want to be mentored. the uh the the the the senior ones want to feel that that they they still belong into the community and so on. And so this is something kind of a need already and especially in the UAE with a country where expats constitute a very big number of its uh texture the need for having specialized communities is very important. So you find people most of them are expats and they build communities around work and communities around lifestyle and communities around where they live. So if they they they do sports with a group of people and then it becomes a my sports group and they have kids together and they become a school community for the parents for example and they get together. So having the need into building business around communities is a smart way of connecting and relating to a specific group of people where your values and your um targets are shared which makes it very easy to communicate. And at the same time if you want to benefit or accelerate your benefits and understanding a familiarity of a certain society or a certain profession you have to relate to a community. So Emirates Legal Network when I started it was maybe a few people maybe 50 people in the beginning who started the whole um group and we were just a WhatsApp group and people talking to each other updating each other on the law on their new regulation arguing legal topic asking legal question and maybe every one or two months someone is looking for a job they post their CV and then by word of mouth by clearing it by regulating it you become institutional um activity and people come to uh for market entry they want to do understand the UAE they will belong to the biggest community and when we grow too much now we have more than 600 professionals in the same place the whole ecosystem of the law industry is running in one place any new law firm for example want to get introduced to the UAE or they want to start doing business in the UAE the first point of contact becomes Emirates legal network sometimes me sometimes Emirates legal network because of all the activities that I'm doing but at the end of the day bringing the people together understands uh their needs and connecting them together becomes something and through that you can identify who are the people who are able to provide the best value and you select them and tell them why don't we create very good valuable content Let's write article or let's shoot a video. Let's bring you up to speed with the whole UAE or let's bring people up to speed to your expertise and let's talk about this sports law or IP or immigration something that you are specialized in and at the same time can you provide some good value to the society where people learn something from you which is an exchange of value to society where we live to the community in a in a in in in general as legal profession and the person who's doing providing this value as well if they understand the game they understand that they are the ones who get the most benefit out of this

you said the word values value uh multiple times I have a question what are some values your because the name of the podcast is be yourself and obviously I see you're someone who's uh understanding your strength right and uh leaning into them. What would do you think if you reflected on your life have have been the values that help you uh with your success and help you create great meaningful relationships maybe not only in even on the business front but also a personal front as well.

Um yeah, I think tough question. Um I relied a lot on uh kindness. Uh to be very honest because um at every stage of your life, you will find people who will support you and people who will not support you at all. People who will just be against you, not because they hate you or they want to do something. It's just this is new. what whatever you're coming up with as an idea. Doubters, people who are not haters, but they will doubt your idea because it's new. Okay. And it threatens their life beliefs or how they see the world. Absolutely. Yeah. Absolutely. So there were always a two way to react to to to this. One is being very aggressive and just push back and say, "Hey, you don't understand whatever I'm doing. You don't tell me." And I don't like this negativity. Okay. Or you're going to lean into kindness and tell them like, okay, thank you very much. That actually is a helpful insight and get the benefit out of this. So, put yourself down. Be kind to yourself. Don't beat yourself up and and just listen to everybody who will doubt your ideas. And don't beat other people for trying to put out their opinion or even trying to help you but they don't know how by telling you not to do that. Just this kindness helped me a lot to be very honest and I find it a very strong value that uh my my family um put in me and the let's say the benefit of this kindness reflected a lot and that every person who doubt me in the beginning because of my kindness they are now kind of supporters.

Wow. Wow. That's cool. That's really cool.

Yeah, I can give you a very nice story. One of my very early career shocks um that I turned kindness and resilience uh together into success. So, one of the my colleagues I was really uh looking up to was very one of the smartest lawyers I worked with and I saw him growing and doing very well. So it was probably the second year of my career and he left the company where we used to work together and he did something very big and fantastic and I meet him out for coffee and I told him listen I need career advice from you. I'm doing XY Z and I don't think I um I figured out my career very much and I need some help. You worked with me. you understand how I am. Why don't you uh give me an advice? And his advice was really shocking. He told me, "Ahmed, I don't think you're a good lawyer. I think you should change this. I don't think your English is good enough. And I think you should try to find a job where you use Arabic language because I think you need to understand the limitation of your skills. And I really got shocked and I was like, "Wow, how am I going to figure out my life right now?" You know, and this guy I'm looking up to is really smart and he was really um I I was looking for something else for completely something else. But kindness um I I that was really a bad day for me just to let you know. It's not it's not a good I don't know if it was good thing on his part. I mean I looked at it in a completely different way. I wake up in the morning and I said I think I'm communicating something wrong. I have to be kind to myself to understand because I know I'm not I'm a good lawyer. I believe in myself. I know that my language can be better and um it was not that bad honestly and I felt that okay let's be kind to me and let's be kind to him. Oh so I was kind to myself that I didn't beat myself up so much and I was kind to him enough to say he did not mean wrong he just got a wrong message because I communicated something in the wrong way. So let me figure that out. And from that day, I focused on let me fix how I dress up. Let me fix how I talk. Let me fix how I deliver my messages. Let me fix how I work and deliver my work. And actually, that was one of my transforming points by being kind, really kind to myself and to person who gave me a not very kind remark. And I was very resilient at that moment is that I decided I'm going to do everything right because I really know my target. I want to reach out to a place where I am a very good lawyer and I communicate myself in a very good way and honestly I feel so good about myself right now.

Wow. And you're saying that you have good relationships with this person now? Until now?

Yes, of course.

Wow. Wow. This is very uplifting story

and he have a very good uh feedback and he's one of the people who always um refer business to me. Oh, because he trust that my work is really good and he see how big is my company right now. He see how big is my podcast and he always talk very well about me. But to be genuinely honest, I took his comments at that day in a very positive way. Of course, it was really 12 hours. I I felt so bad.

Were you mad a little bit at him in the beginning?

And no, no. Oh, wow. Not one second. I just felt I listen, this is one of the most important things. If you have the tendency to blame other people for things that will make you mad, it's your problem. Okay? This did not come out because of him. He saw something that allow him to think like that and to communicate such a message to me. Of course, I got upset. I got really upset. But if you get upset for the wrong reason, you get the wrong results. Because I could have got upset from him and I say that how come this guy talk to me like that? He don't know me. He don't see my value. He don't this. But wait, wait, wait, wait. Who are you? You know, don't think of yourself that much, you know, like who are you in reality, you know? You're so full of yourself. Then take accountability. be accountable. You know, talk to yourself. What did I deliver wrong that someone else got a wrong idea about me? I'm pretty sure a lot of people who look at me right now would think like, "Wow, this guy is great." No, no, no. Take it easy. I'm not that great. You know, I just deliver a message that looks so great and you can do that as well.

This is just a master class on mature um self-consciousness and on mature way of uh looking at yourself and in mature relationships with your ego. I think we as business people uh who want to achieve a lot we really need to keep our ego at bay and it's really difficult. I remember Simon Synynic who I mentioned said once that um the problem with the ego is not when you have when you think of yourself like you can achieve more. The the bad the problem with the ego when you think you are better than others like it's not the problem that you are you think you're great it's for problem when you think that you are better than others.

To be honest, I wanted to ask you a question because I think it's uh you you you've been doing all the all the all the asking. How do you feel? Because I know as as a as a Ukrainian man living in Ukraine during this very tough time, you are not allowed to travel for example and you are doing this podcast for a while and you must have some targets in life. Did the traveling thing really made you feel limited?

It's a good question. You know, if I was a big-time traveler before the war, maybe it would have hit me more. But but you know what? I actually haven't traveled that much in my life. The the story that I tell to people that I never been to any English-sp speakaking country and I learned the language watching NBA basketball is kind of crazy. Wow. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I was just I was just really fanatic about basketball. I'm playing basketball. I really love how comment commentators speak. So, and uh but that's a big big dream of mine to become a global citizen, maybe be a digital nomad who lives in different countries. And it just so happened that in the first half of my life, well, I'm not sure half or not. I'm 35. I I I'm yet to see so many things that our planet has to offer, different cultures, you know. Um although I I've been to China once when I when I was starting a business there. I we tried to start an online English school for kids in China but it didn't work. So I have a lot of failures in business myself. But right now uh I don't I tried not to think about the madness that's going on in my country. Um there is a lot of stuff that we cannot do as men. And uh to be completely frank, you can if you don't have certain documents on your hands, you can be just taken away by the police and sent to the military facilities and they will decide your destiny. But I'm someone who uh works hard to decide my destiny on my own. Uh just just to be completely frank with you and honest um money decides a lot of problem in our life, right? So I'm trying to to make enough financial um independence for me, create a financial independence for me uh to let my country understand that I'm a valuable a valuable asset, not fighting people with a with a machine gun. You know what I'm saying? So and luckily my government realizes that you know if you bring if you pay taxes if you grow your business to certain levels uh there there will be a place for you economically there will be a point of you doing this thing and bringing the value economically so yeah there is a limitation but I think most the limitations are in our head I'm trying my best to um meet with so many people like you uh and other amazing as this podcast has enabled me to create connections all around the world. So I I'll tell you that when the war is over, when I'm able to travel, I have so many people all across the globe who I can visit. So I'm just I'm just thinking about, you know, on the positive light and thinking how many great opportunities uh I have and what beautiful life I had in the second part of my lifetime.

You know, I am so looking forward to see you uh in Dubai when uh both jurisdictions, my war zone and your war zone are better and they can let us travel and have uh an easier life and more safer life. And uh I welcome you in Dubai. And I think you are um what you said is extremely correct. Limitations are here. We just need to live life to the fullest. And to be very honest, if it is not safe and if it is going to end tomorrow, I'm going to enjoy it until the last minute.

Yeah, well said, Ahmed. Thank you so much for being on my show and u looking forward to meeting you in person.

Thank you so much. It was really really a lot of fun and uh pleasure to be speaking with you. You're a great host and I uh I I I like the podcast. So I'm very excited about it in general.