And the new generation sometimes is too focused to find the application that will make him very rich. There is a diminishing type of applications with time, you know, but it's not going to get bigger, it's going to get smaller.
Are you that kind of person that's binary? That you either love someone or you hate someone or you love a project or you don't?
Yes. I don't settle for anything in between. It's either everything or nothing.
Are you the same in business?
Very black or white, like either you do a project or not, and either you work with someone or not?
Yes, I mean unfortunately my character is a bit emotional. So, if I don't like the person in front of me, even if I'm going to do a billion dollar of profits, I won't work with them. I consider that God has been gracious to me. So, why the hell should I work with someone I don't like? I mean, it's a luxury of being rich. You can choose who you work with, yeah. It's also because the one quality or the one issue in life that is diminishing is time. It's your life. Because you know you have a timeline where you will die. Okay, thank God we don't know when we are going to die, but it's not like you're going to live forever. So, why waste your time on something that has negative energy? When I do business, I always put the fact that you have to do it very fast in order to be successful. If it drags, if it takes too long, because if it's a good transaction, it's a good business, time is against you. Anything can happen. A war can in the country you're working can erupt. The partner you have dies. Anything can go wrong. So, when you run on something where you're sure of something that's very big, very successful, don't drag it, you know, just go and do it very fast because then you are avoiding the what you don't know. Yes.
Do you think though that sometimes when people do things fast, they might not do them well.
No, they tend to make, let's say, if you do things fast, you might make mistakes because you didn't take the necessary amount to, but my philosophy is always, okay, I do 100 things and maybe two or three are wrong because I was not patient. I'm not a patient person also. So, okay, then the ratio is 97% or 96% better than being very thorough and then only do two things in your life.
That's not true. The idea of the power of taking a human and their name or their personality and associating it with their brand. So, I wanted to ask you about this. What do you think of this strategy?
In my specific case is first of all, I did not confine myself in business.
So, I'm not just looked at as a business figure. I'm looked as a party animal at night and all that. Any clubs or any bars in Cairo, they surely will find me there if I'm not at home, you know. I classify myself also as a political figure of someone that cares about his country or the Arab world in general. So, I've been out there to people and I'm very approachable to people.
So, and then of course, I'm successful in my business. So, it's a combination. It's different than in America. Well, it's not different anymore because Elon Musk is now a politician too. So, you can, but I mean, people consider me a people's man because I walk in the street. I get stopped by anyone and I answer and I take a picture with anybody who wants, and anybody who asks me for anything, if he looks even like if he's very poor or he's sitting on the floor or just stands up and asks me for something and I can do it, I will do it. So, I'm approachable.
I don't have any bodyguards. I don't have, I sit next to my driver. So, being approachable in my case, I think I created a brand that is a human brand. It's a human holistic brand. So, of course, that helped me in my business. Then, my success in business gives people the feeling, 'Okay, this guy is not going to deliver short. He's not going to make something that is not great. That is not the best.' And I'm very, I have to use the Arabic word, my internal, in my mind, I'm still a little boy, you know. So, I will not settle for second. The best example, I was the second in the Polytechnic in Zurich, and I graduated from the ETH. It's the equivalent of MIT in Europe. But because I was the second, I never told anybody. Because I was not the first. So, I always want to be either the first or I don't want to be. So, in whatever I do, if I'm a DJ or I put in music, my music has to be the best. If I'm, I think I dress, I will dress up to look as one of the best dressed men, you know. So, I'm a bit egocentric in that.
You know, I love how at peace you are with yourself. I think it's refreshing, and I think you touched on a few things. One, when you bring the human brand, as long as you're displaying humanity, which means you said, 'I like to be childlike. I like music. I like to party. I'm a businessman. I'm good at it.' And I think this is what the world sometimes finds hard to accept because if they see you as an engineer, you should just be doing engineering things. If they see you as a chef, you should just be cooking. And if you start to play football and you're a chef, they're like, 'Why are you playing football? You're supposed to be cooking.' So, I think that's the beauty of being human that you're multi-faceted and you can...
do 16 things. I'll give you an example. So, I was in a concert lately in Egypt and for 2 hours I was cheering in the concert and then the video went viral. So, stupid me, I'm asking, 'Why did it go viral?' And then I remember, 'Yes, you're nearing 70 years old. You're not supposed to be cheering up like that.' So, I forget some, I don't realize my age to, you know, I still sometimes jump from the bed in the morning and I'm like, 'You're not 30 anymore, you know.'
But, you know, that's the beautiful thing. You used the word 'you're not supposed to.' The question is then what are we supposed to do?
No, I mean in general what people are supposed to do.
I'm not supposed to do. I have a t-shirt that says, 'I do what I want.'
Exactly. One of the most sad things that we see, I always talk about how babies are extremely curious. You know, they'll put sand in their mouth and they'll realize I don't like it. They'll open drawers. They're so curious for life as children. And then while you grow up, the society tells you, 'Don't do this. This is haram. This is that.' And suddenly, you're a very confined kind of personality that's not curious anymore. I think the ones that become great fight for that childlike curiosity to stay and I see it in you.
Yes, but one day I should grow up or not.
Listen to this. I think if you do, I don't think you will be as great as you are. I don't think so. I think that's what makes it beautiful. And I think that's why everybody's smiling and happy and connecting because we all want to be childlike. We all want to be curious and fun. So, I think you're showing that very nicely. Um okay, now that we associated your name to your brands, what are the positives? What are the negatives?
