Kamil Najjar is a trailblazing business leader with a massively successful career spanning beauty, media and education. His career culminated with him starting Kids First Group in 2011 and is today the leading early education platform across the GCC.

Kamil shares the importance of innovation as a means to sustain a competitive edge. He does show by sharing interesting examples of why innovation isn’t just a buzzword, and how it can be implemented in low cost yet effective ways. We discuss the importance of attitude in team members and how it takes precedence over other qualifications, and so much more.

I heard Kamil say:

• The basics of business are the same regardless of the industry
• Attitude over aptitude defines your altitude
• Face the brutal facts in life and business
• Break down the customer journey starting with the “zero moment of truth”

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Amir Farha has started two venture capital firms, Beco as a co-founder and COTU Ventures as CEO and Founder. He’s one of the most passionate and empathetic leaders in the VC space when it comes to dealing with people and entrepreneurs. His firm, COTU, literally stands for “Champion of the Underdogs” and Amir truly lives that value.

We discuss Amir’s journey founding his latest VC firm and the journey to finding what matters to him most personally and professionally. Amir discusses how he used tough times as an inflection point to become more curious about himself, and building a framework of values that he uses today in assessing critical decisions. We also talk about courage, building confidence, having conviction and fear.

I heard Amir say:

• Have the energy to be passionate wherever you have conviction
• Look at your life through the lens of your values
• Detach your identify from “what you do”
• Have the courage to do the hard things

#podcast #ceotalks #pod #entrepreneurlife #entrepreneurship #middleeastentrepreneurs #mena #startupstories #menaentrepreneurs #menastartups #menastories #businesspodcast #businesspodcasts #CEOwisdom #founderwisdom #founderpodcasts #founderstories

This episode was recorded live at the Sharjah Entrepreneurship Festival (SEF). Our first live show!

Abdulmajeed is a serial entrepreneur in the true sense of the word. He is co-founder of Nana (the largest grocery delivery platform in KSA) and currently co-founder and CEO of Tamara ( a leading Buy Now Pay Later startup in MENA). Abdulmajeed walks us through his journey to entrepreneurship and how his first startup failed before leading him to co-found Nana. He also discusses his lessons from fighting cancer at a young age.

Abdulmajeed is a deep thinker and is well versed across various disciplines (engineering, economics, psychology). He shares his insights about discipline, the different types of pain we all face and the factors that make an entrepreneur successful. Abdulmajeed reads alot (books, investor shareholder reports and more), and this leads to a great conversation on the stage at SEF about how he runs his personal and professional life.

I heard Abdulmajeed say:

• Work hard, work smart and get lucky (timing is everything)
• Believe you are lucky - you will attract and manifest it
• Don’t have a plan B because you will default to it
• An entrepreneur must have a high threshold for pain
• Be disciplined across all the areas of your life - it's a superpower!

#podcast #ceotalks #pod #entrepreneurlife #entrepreneurship #middleeastentrepreneurs #mena #startupstories #menaentrepreneurs #menastartups #menastories #businesspodcast #businesspodcasts #CEOwisdom #founderwisdom #founderpodcasts #founderstories