Ahmed Ben Chaibah - Never Give Up! The Power Of Self Belief & A Relentless Work Ethic

Full transcript: Ahmed Ben Chaibah on London Real

0:06 This is London Real. I am Brian Rose. My guest today is Ahmed Ben Chaibah. Ahmed, Ahmed. Okay, imagine gra AA grab AA in your hand.

0:15 Cola, okay, open it. Yeah, Ahmed Ben here, you go. My guest today is Ahmed Ben Chaibah, thank you. AKA Aquaman, the serial entrepreneur, investor and business leader. You are the owner and CEO of Aquafun, the world’s largest water park, located in the heart of Dubai’s most popular beach that can accommodate over a thousand people at a time and spans an incredible 42,000 square meters.

0:43 In 2021 you are named Entrepreneur of the Year and Emirati Business of the Year and become one of the most successful businessmen in the Middle East. You now own water parks in 34 locations around the world, including sells Maldives, Sydney, Egypt and Morocco, and have plans to expand the business further. You believe that the key to your success is knowing you’re the hardest working man in the room, and that through self-belief and discipline it’s possible for everyone to achieve the life of their dreams.

1:09 Ahmed, welcome to London Real in Dubai. Thank you for having me. Finally in Dubai, finally in Dubai, 13 months after I meet youly. And thank you very much for my wardrobe. We had to make sure that you are properly representing where you are.

1:24 Yes. Can we tell people a little bit about the kandora? You know what is going on here? By the way, I feel amazing in this. I look amazing, the light is perfect.

1:32 Best. This is right, col, for you, actually. Okay, and you made sure I was symmet. Oh yeah, I had to make sure he symmetrically done. But, you know, for all the westerners out there, like, what is this all about?

1:42 What is it symbolize? Imagine a three-piece suit. That’s the way doing, okay. When you move this head, head gear becomes a semi casual. Okay, so this is similar to a 3 that they wear every day.

1:52 This whole thing is a for us, okay, the official out garment for us as and KH ands in this SP the world basically. Okay, and like every design is a different part of the region. So this design, where is more of Emirati design, right? So this stitching and this collar and this tassel is Emirati, whereas if you start going into other places like Saudi and Kuwait, it’s a different design, the difference. But you can see, you know, this is different, right?

2:19 Yeah, very interesting. And the men express their style through the tiny details and the perfection of their kandura. That’s one of them. Then either pens, watches, cough things, or the shoes. It’s very straight, okay.

2:31 It’s very, you know, unified, so you can’t show, okay, the colors or like, yeah, I’m doing this color, you doing this color, but what else you can show your status? So one of the ways is you do a pen, a nice watch, the cufflinks, the shoes, the sunglasses. These are the other stuff you can add to it to exercise it to make it even look better, right? Yeah. Now the first question, a lot of people say, is am I allowed to wear this when I’m visiting these countries, or in these countries, and I think a lot of people don’t know any better, so they never ask.

2:59 But I think a lot of Western men are fascinated by this, and they want one, but they think it’s maybe not. Okay, the principle: yes, you can wear it. Nothing is, but it’s just wear it with due respect. That’s it. Just don’t be an idiot wearing it.

3:11 Don’t go around and, like, you know, lifting it up and being drunk and being loud and being disrespectful. That’s it. So wear it with respect, with honor, which is again, it’s something nice. You look nice. You feel nice in it, right?

3:21 So yeah, wear it, but respectfully. Let’s talk about respect because that’s important in this city, in this country, in this region. It is respect. That’s like a big thing. I mean people talk about freedoms, people talk about this lifestyle here, but I feel like it really does come down to respect, respect the laws, respect other people.

3:40 Has that always been an important part of this region? Is it specific to the UAE Because it seems important here. Yeah, it say in g in the culture of that’s always been there, and respect is one of the biggest things that we have, respecting me for who I am, what the tribal thing, the power thing, the nationality, the religions. So many days, but the respect is very important because it allows people to, you know, have some kind of limits and borders, because if you have no respect for somebody else, you’re going to cross lines, and then you’re going to go over their freedoms, and that’s a problem.

4:15 So respect brings tolerance, tolerance brings community and gathering together, right? And part of the way, part of the reason this city is so successful is because of respect. I ask everybody visiting here to respect each other, respect the culture, respect the public and so it’s a very different experience than if I’m walking around London, where, quite frankly, there’s a lot of disrespect going on. That’s the thing: people think they’re just too free to do everything they do.

4:40 It’s a problem. Yeah, be have your own thoughts, but doesn’t mean that you have to make me strange. Yeah, respect what I have, fine, move on, cuz why you want to even change my point of view? You tell me about it, but then we can be civilized about it, right? It’s interesting, because in the West everyone talks about freedom, freedom, freedom, freedom, but when that freedom extends to, like, everybody doing whatever they want, getting other people’s business, disrespecting them, violating some of their own comforts and space.

5:08 Exactly. Then it’s no longer place, like you need kind of rules to that. Yeah. So I met you 13 months ago, and I immediately knew you needed to be on this show. There was something about your presence, something about your energy.

5:20 I’m sure you heard this before. Talk to me, what does your energy come from? You’ve heard this before Because it’s something, the older I get, I can really pick up on people’s energy. So I didn’t know much about you, but I knew right away this guy was somebody. Yeah, and I needed to go deeper on what he’s all about.

5:39 So how does that happen? I think The highest vibration is authentic. Be authentic. It’s not peace or Joy or love if being authentic, because being authentic all the cuz that means you just don’t give F, but anybody’s opinion, it can be always true to who you are. So being aligned as a person, as a I was what I would think or what I would say, I would do is always going to be the same, so cuz most people would think something and say something else and they yet aligned.

6:07 So when you’re aligned and you have this high level of… because your confidence is reputational with yourself I say I’m going to do this, I’m going to do it. So this a stack of just me saying I’m going to do this, crazy things, I actually go out and do them. So that’s because confidence is a skill set and know you get that, and that you only get by the willingness to try, the willing to fail, because most people are afraid to try, for to fail. For me, I failed so many times, hundreds and hundreds of times.

6:32 I became very comfortable with that. So it does not phase me. So okay, fine, fa what happened? I lose money, cool. I fail, okay, I lose this L.

6:40 Okay, for me I look at it as, like, either you learn from it or you grow from it, you know. You never lose. You never lose. This is how you see it. This your perspective on things.

6:51 And so that’s what gives you this, this, I think. So yeah, so you can be authentic but not offend people. Authentic? I mean, to an extent, I’m very open for everybody, respect to everybody, to an extent, and then if I see you across a specific lines, I will check you nicely, calmly. If there is more, I always do more, but it never CES that, like, because people understand energy, they understand the vibration of somebody.

7:15 Okay, this guy is somebody that we do want to do anything. And again, it’s not because I’m cocky. Just come from confidence, and M confidence comes only from me failing and G up. Fail and get up. It’s like, it’s just, we all fail, it’s just how high that boun back, and that’s, that’s basically it.

7:30 The genest thing I did is I never quit. That’s it. You say you failed over 600 times, 17 times, 67 times the first year, your first year, 617 times trying to build Aquafun. Yeah, that’s, yeah. Talk to me about this journey, because most people see an Emirati with a business and they’ll assume maybe it was given to you.

7:51 Maybe I’m wrong. Maybe it was. But I mean, I spoken to a few people that I know here, and they said, no, no, no, this guy is self-made. This guy came from not privilege, and he built this. I saw a picture of you in your place of this little kid.

8:03 Yeah. A little kid, and tell me about that kid, and tell me about how you built what you built? And do people assume that about you all the time? I get it, you know, I get it, this perception and gation about, okay, you’re, you were born with seven spoon, like, I would help you, you got this yeah. I wish it was with me, the case, but it wasn’t, and that’s absolutely fine, because again, I would never change the journey that I had to go through to GRE where I’m reaching right now.

8:28 I used to be in the right race for almost 18 years as an employee, as a project events manager for Sol for very big events. And then I realize, like, I’m always, every year, year half I’m changing my jobs because I demand growth. I’m high performer if see my target is 300 in a year, I would do 300 in the first quarter, so you get, I want more. They said no, you can’t give me more. I leave, next job, and so on, so I was, I want more and more, more, and then I was put redundant in the last job I was in, cuz my next Next Level was a CEO, and they were apparently threat thre by me, not sure why, and I did 73 interviews within a span of four months, and nobody took me because, oh, you’re Emirati, you’re educated, you’re experienced, you’re in Lev as director, we can’t afford you.

9:14 And then I had an accident in a slep desk. I couldn’t walk anymore, and then, okay, now I’m 30 years old. I lost, but I was unplugged. I lost everything. I was when I was when all my young, youngster times, and now, either be sorry about myself, to be a victim or recreate myself and 40 days in bed, all time, I’m in my head all day.

9:36 So I faced every single Dem. I was R away from when I was younger, and then such as what, so many things, you know, just like doing things. 30 years of, like, me going hard in life. Very hard. You know, people you hurt, people hurt you, things that happened to you, things, and you had no control on and you have control on, and all these things, you know.

9:56 So you had to go and be okay with that. You know, accept them, things, and that’s, that’s thing, one of the biggest things I have is the level of acceptance I have that’s why I don’t have something called depression or anxiety. I understand these two words, like, oh, but under breast, like yeah, it’s luxury. It might sound weird, luxury, like, yeah, for me it’s a luxury to bepress, cuz, like, I’m have time for that, because I need to go forward, I need to go move forward.

10:18 Okay, I’m depressed. I’m the victim. Okay now what? No, nobody would come and save me. I can save myself, and that’s why I did it, cuz again I think acceptance is the biggest key, cuz, what happened to you?

10:29 You to be accountable, what happened, where did you do wrong? what happened to you, and some things you don’t have no control of themas done. You understand that, you accept that and you move on. It doesn’t become now something you carry. It’s just something you climed and anxiety, the same thing is you are control the outcomes and like that, you can’t do that, you know.

10:47 So you always, like, you, it’s like your soul leaves your body, is wondering in this place called future. Doesn’t exist. It’s creating all this crazy Naros, breathe. Come back to your body. Be present.

10:58 Be in the moment right now. Do what you can do, and then move forward from there. So for me, that, that was the whole mindset behind it, and then start the business So the business was like, yeah, like, I was always directed by his kick in my ass, and now I’m in the real world. The actual real world, you know. Every, I was there every single day.

11:16 Almost two objections, almost, sometimes more, sometimes less. I actually opened the UAE map and went to every single beach owner in the whole UAE every one of them. And then everybody said no for multiple reasons, until the last day of the first year. That’s when I did my first deal, and I understood, okay, one of the keys was incentive, and the biggest incentive to people is cash. So we people, they will get out the way to help you.

11:39 So this guy asked me for commission I said, yeah, whatever, let take it for hour. There, the money was, and, oh, that’s what it took. Repeat that three times, four times, worked, and then grew into something else and pivoted, and so on, so on, and failed so many times so you had no training, is not, oh, no, nothing, no mentors at this point in your life. I don’t even read books? Right, right.

11:59 I know you told me. Yeah, yeah, again, I’m again, cuz I’m super dyslexic that’s not how I receive information and knowledge. For me, I’m more of, like, I experience things. I absorb things. I see though, people are better than me, smarter than me.

12:12 I ask the questions and I absorb and listen. They’re very coachable, that way. I don’t have ego or pride when it comes to learning. Ever. Like, I can learn from anybody, everybody.

12:20 I always love and joy of learning. It’s the best thing ever. Like, you live, you learn all this. And so you had this vision of putting these parks on the water. Yeah, and then once you had that you couldn’t get out of your head, and you’re like, I’m going to make this happen, and you pitched all these different beaches.

12:36 Yeah, it’s, it was a very high level of obsession. cuz I knew what to work, like, you know, you wear these glasses, and this lens makes you see a specific thing and you knew it’s got to work, and everybody says no. You had heard, like, some parents at a beach that said there’s nothing for our kids to do while they’re here. which is common. I mean, you take kids to the beach, they play with sand castles for a while, you want to get your chill on, and then there’s nothing to do, right?

12:59 I was like, there was like a bunch of triggers happening all the same time. One of them was like, I was in the beach, I had P to me, like I wish my kid something to do, and then I was in the Y, and everybody’s drinking and smoking. I don’t drink. I don’t smoke. I don’t do none of these things, so it was bored out of my brain.

13:12 Again, because I’m dyslexic, I’m very visual. So I’m sitting down there, I like, I wish there was some kind of a slide from the board top to go down there. And then I research that existed, and then you just start pitching that everywhere, and everybody saying no, no no. So I knew I need to do it myself. Afterwards, I need to get money for it, so I had to get a side project or side product I can sell to make money to do this myself.

13:34 That’s what I did where was your first one? MM Park and ABAB Park. Well, ABAB cornes both at the same time. Okay, biggest mistake ever. Was it a somewhat success at first, or did you?

13:48 Yeah, it was sowhat success that it became a fairly very fast. Okay, explain that. This is one of the mistakes that I keep appre. Never get investors too early in business, cuz first of all, you might lose equity. Number two, you still don’t know what you’re doing you know.

14:06 So this people money, is that your money? So Tuesday is going to be a big big problem, and that’s what happ had a partner with me. Let’s get an investor and we did that after a while, and then he, I was handling more of the operation and the marketing part, which is very at, and he was handing the back end, which is the financial and legal part. and we got into contracts that had about close. We were doing the project, and so, and then they rushed us to do the project right now, so we have to ship everything via air of C that’s a good 20x cost, and then, say, hired our own stuff.

14:46 We had a third party company that’s a big cost. And then after four months of operation, the landlords say stop us. Hey, you said you’re going to make only this much money, but we know you made that much money, so you need to rechange your contract and M the contract again. It’s like, what? And were government, so they closed us.

15:03 And it’s like, so now we have, we can’t make money, we can’t pay money, and so on, so on, so we stopped. And then we tried to get some more money for operational cost. We couldn’t have that, so everything and then all the suppliers came at us again, and then my partner just run away. So for the next three years I’m just paying debts, so I was fighting the first three years to get to go back to zero, and debts in this region are serious business. Yeah, is it the jail or jail, right?

15:29 Jail, whereas in the UK or America there’s no jail for debts. Yeah, no, no, there his jail stakes are high. Yeah, jail, and like, pay up. So like, so that’s why I learned to. That’s where I started getting my first business adviser, my first mentor adviser, to be with me all the time And that helped me understand negotiation, streamlining, packaging things differently, and then start negotiating everything down and then we managed to get out of it in six months.

15:55 Okay, yeah. Did you ever feel like quitting? How did you not quit in that? It’s always an option, but it’s never a choice. so it always lingers there.

16:05 Everybody’s like, oh, leave it, get a job, why are you doing this to yourself? Good, a job is better for you, and do this in the side. It’s like No, but that’s the whole thing, you know. It’s like, people will only give you what they think is security and safety and again, I’m not going on to throw away my how to about this, my safety, away from my freedom. Be safe but not be free.

16:29 It’s not how I’m supposed to live my life. And you enjoyed the freedom of being an entrepreneur? Oh yeah, yeah, because I can’t just go crazy. I can do things. If it goes good, amazing.

16:39 If it goes bad, okay, now we learn next. So yeah, and again, I, the time money is a game It’s actually a game. You get better at it, and we, side, just a game. This is how it plays, and the more you throw it, the more comes back to you. It becomes emotionally detached to it, right?

16:56 Because I’ve been broke many times, I’ve been minus many times, so I know it does not change who I am. The only thing changes my power of purchases. That’s it, but I’m the same human being. So when you make a bunch of money, yeah, you don’t let it go to your head. You don’t go overboard with it.

17:10 You have nice things, but also when you see people spending money for money’s sake, no, it doesn’t necessarily impress you, and maybe sometimes you think some people lose their way there. New money, which, okay, again, everybody have a journey and phase to go through. I don’t judge, but I know where you’re going. I know where you’re going, but again, like, you know, I say again, I didn’t come for money. My family was not L rich.

17:32 They were just normal two individuals, had one job all their life, very kind, very nice, very D people. But I was no, I want more. need more. I will be more. I became more.

17:47 Yeah, but it doesn’t define you. No, no. It’s just something I do. How long, how many years did it take until you could say Aquafun was a success? Also when did The Guinness Book of World Record come as the largest water park world?

18:02 So when the record came, I was going to go backuped so I was going to actually go backr. Um, due my obvious ambitions as always. So I, I put all the money that I had into two newc so I purchased the stuff, and there was some money left to just pay for it, and then one week before launching, both occas said we don’t want to do this anymore. I just purchased it. It’s been four months since we spoke and agreed.

18:30 What the hell? It’s okay. Now, either, and the factory is asking for more money, and I don’t have it. Now I have with assets that have nowhere to go and no place to do with it, and all your assets float on, yeah, yeah. They’re just in the warehouse now.

18:45 Okay, so it comes back to a very important relationship, is my relationship with myself. Because I always ask people, what’s the voice on your head? Are you best friend or are you wor conect? You can’t be both. You can’t, you either, either your best friend or you not.

19:00 There’s no between, and I am my biggest hype man inside like, oh, me and me. High fives all day. But that is an important relip, because there’s no self-doubt or self-hate. so I got the news at midday. I, I didn’t react to it, and that’s again something I’ve learned, that to react emotionally, Tak.

19:18 I react to it. Went to the, went to see my family, went to the gym, H there, and okay. went to bed, and I went to the bed with intention. Okay, I’m going to take this negative situation and to positive time three, and then I think within an hour I got came with the idea of, okay, I have this. I have this.

19:33 Why I recreate the wheel? I have this location already. You know, let me just, you know, say, asking for for, for, permission, let me ask for forgiveness better. Let me do it, and then if they stop it, if they stop it, at least it’s done, and that’s what I did. So I put to literally was before the Expo.

19:49 Okay, what can we do? Let’s, right? I love Expo 2020 Dubai, and because just like a month before that Saudi Arabia broke the record. I said, okay, I need to break that one too, so okay, I made sure I’m bigger than them, and I put that in and read the record, and then literally a year later they realized I went bigger than board. They stopped me.

20:08 So that’s the thing with the whole, like, you know, what, like, yeah, just do it till they find out. When they find out, oh, I’m sorry, didn’t know, but he did what he did. so that’s what I did. Yeah, and I turned it around. Yes.

20:19 And so within that same month, I got the G record. I got the entrepreneur of the year, in my business of the year, and the CEO of the Year, all in the same month. It just F like it. Then news got happen, cuz nobody could outwork me. and that’s fine, and then you knew.

20:34 Yeah, you had it. Oh yeah, yeah, no, because there was everything I do is is manifested, everything is attracted, everything is done. There’s no room for error, because we put the work already there. The work is his job is done. We just receive the outcome.

20:49 Though, talk about that manifestation. You say that you stay away from any bad energy sources, anybody doing with bad energy. If anybody gets the, the beautiful invite over to your pen house, they’ll see a pyramid shaped structure over your sofa where you bombard yourself with good vibes. I think, I mean, this is important for you, and maybe this is the reason you’ve been so successful. Again, it goes back to the first thing, being aligned.

21:18 That’s a very powerful thing. If you’re not power of with your words, you say anything, not power of your thoughts, you won’t think anything. If not power of you, your presentant, you won’t be anywhere. so I’m never going to be in a place that the energ is off or there’s so much alcohol there’s too much people. I’m never going to grow and evolve in that place, so I just withdraw myself.

21:39 I’m a tree, I can move. your thoughts have a vibration. You know, it vibration, it attracts things. so you know, and again, like, you know, we are all story storytellers. so we tell our s stories, and we believe them.

21:54 So let the story you tell yourself be a story that makes you the hero. So I’m always the hero of my story. So that emotion is always there. You always have been since a kid. Hype man.

22:04 Love it. Yeah, and then your words, every word have a number and energy numbers go come back. So you have to be very cautious and careful about which words you use to you describe things because it comes back to you. So that’s, that’s how I think. That’s it.

22:21 And again, you’re sitting, your mindset and setting, where are you at? These are very important things, because most people are in their perception. I’m in my perspective. There two different layers, two different layers, and that’s very hard to see things only by perspective, and posession perception always comes in ego and pride and how people perceive me, how people sees me, and your environment, all this, say all this, you just come out weaken, it come a victim.

22:45 But you have perspective. You see every AER of a situation. You just always say zoom out. Everything happens to you. Stop, zoom out, where’s the big picture, what’s happening, what we learning, where we can take this situ into positive, because again, every time when I’m crushed or on the corner, that’s God telling me, hey, I’m preparing for something bigger.

23:05 Why is it and every time when things go bad, that’s what I go really hard all the time. Every time I get like a legal case or something happen to me or lose money. Okay, where can we go hard, because that’s when you should put your lines out, because it’s rough seas. Now you get big, biger fish, and that’s God telling you there’s something coming up. If you can just be aware of it and not be so caught up in all the panic and the fear.

23:28 That’s the thing: panic, emotional reaction, and panic is a dangerous thing. It’s a very dangerous thing. You know, for me, like I learned in the hard way. breathe. Really just breathe.

23:40 That is like what, when you breathe, you have oxygen going back to your brain, you oxid your blood, and actually you calm down, tension, your shoulder goes down. your brain can think, can function differently. Okay, sit back, understand the data. what’s the data of this, remove the emotional aspect, what happened, dat, how it happen, and then ask questions from me, say who you have? I have a circle of people that I trust, and they’re much better than me, smarter than me, and more power than me.

24:07 What I think I should do with this, I have now more you know, clarity, and then I pick on that, so it’s importance for me. you developed over years. Exactly. It’s nothing like a book. This is because that works for me, right?

24:21 And now you’ve got it locked in. Yes, okay. Yeah, probably gonna get better too. Oh absolutely. And in 21 when you had all this success in your mind that it already happened in some way because you’ve been putting in the work for many many years, and then the accolades come, and it’s like, okay, yeah, but you knew you were going to be there, or is that just an outside validation for you where you recognize it, but you keep going.

24:43 Um, interesting, cuz, um, cuz I was always an athlete, so I think being power Li, yeah, powerlifter, triathlon, squash and football, rugby, so having that background made me very disciplined. cuz when disciplined is different, cuz you can’t be motivated over there. It’s impossible. You can’t be inspired. You can’t be inspired over a period of time.

25:03 I’m inspired this for over a week or two weeks, but being motivated is very hard. You know, by being disciplined, we get you through it, you know. I’m have a good B, because I always speak about I did a 57 months of n sing a day off. so I’m talking every day, 57 months. I’m doing 8 to 20 hours.

25:21 That’s the average. No days off, no no weekends, no holidays, all that stuff. but that’s that’s just, that’s my way of doing it. because I don’t want, because I remember when I had the office before, I was sit office till 4 in the morning and when I go downstairs, I pr see a car downstairs, I get angry, who would be outwork me? But they ask security, no, no, this car is broken.

25:43 Okay, good, because I don’t understand somebody doing more than me, and then I realize okay, just let’s be smarter with this, let’s be how do you move the needle further with less amount of work. So you did realize, maybe that’s not sustainable. Maybe you don’t have to work 20 hours a day, yes, to do what you need to do. Okay, so now you do it more efficiently. Yeah, much more efficiently, but I still happily clock in 100 hours a week, no problem.

26:10 Okay, happily, right? Like it never scares me. I enjoy it, but you also say you could take three months off if you wanted, four, four or five months, no problem, easily but that’s the difference, because again, here’s a very interesting point of view. Most people are, how to put this, they, the word entrepreneur is everywhere, sexy world, now, cuz, but it’s not you’re aware of that. It’s not.

26:34 It’s like longer hours, norely hard as hell. And I always feel like, you know, you’re not entrepreneur, you’re self-employed, because if you leave your business for the next two weeks, you block, you block again. Can you do business for a month no? Cuz you are the business, so you’re just self-employed. So don’t give me how, no, that’s the question.

26:55 Can you do business for next first month? No, okay, three months, okay, fine. If you could manage to leave the business for the next three months, will the business continue going the same line or it’s going to fall down, or it’s going to goow up? And that’s what comes to me, because now I have learned to delegate. That’s the hardest thing, because, okay, you have the found, send them.

27:13 Yes, you’re the best, you can do this obviously, but then you’re going to be still one man show. And that’s for a long time I was the person behind social media, shooting the videos and the pictures and editing them and sending them back and doing the marketing and doing, I was myself. I had other, I was doing what of that. So okay, I, to get all the jobs other people. So now I have the space and time to do this and do other things.

27:38 So now you are officially an entrepreneur. Much more. Yeah, because you can leave for three months? Oh yeah, yeah, cuz now we have systems in place. That’s all you have to have system in place.

27:47 You know, you know the procedures of every single situation. You have people that you imp parted. Okay, I don’t have to even be involved any day by day business, cuz you do it, and then have other team who’s they job is to get the EV Evolution and the growth and education, so on, so on. So you have all that happening, so that business continues going and growing at the same time, even if I’m not there personally. And then again, it’s by using the phone.

28:10 You have a phone, you don’t have to be physically in at work anymore. Just smart enough. What is Aquafun? How do you explain it to people who have never been there? I went there with my kid a couple weeks ago.

28:20 They’re six and seven, and we had a great time, but like it’s also, it’s, it’s a workout, and by the way, we hit both unicorns. Just saying, unor. Like we went the whole way and my six-year-old, honestly, he be became a little bit of a man that day, because he was panicking. He’s floating around in the water, he’s like, I want to go home. I’m like, we’re going to that second unicorn.

28:39 And wait, we were up there for like two hours, and the rest of the day we were all buzzed, because everybody was really proud of themselves, because you know, it’s fun, but it’s also, you can take it wherever you want. It’s a workout. Yes. That’s exactly the whole principle. So I’m in the business of creating happy memories.

28:57 Okay, so that’s the first layer. So it is, so all the social media is all real people having real F, and we documented that. Nothing’s fake. So in Arabic we said means I play, so I’m working, so I’m not working out, I’m playing. chest I’m playing back, so it’s playful, shouldn’t be a work, should be play.

29:21 Okay, so for me, how do you do an outdoor workout but without knowing as a workout. So if you, if remember, everything in the world is a functional movement. It’s all function mve. The Monkey Bar, the Rope, the climbing, the steps. It’s all function movement.

29:37 Even walking on the floating thing that’s moving, that’s core. Yeah, that’s core. So it’s all function movement, and again, I use psychology of colors, so the colors we use are very happy colors, so you don’t not feel that you are working out, and then you, under the sun, you have vitamin D. You are always, guys, come with your friends, new family, because it creates new emotion, new memories. So it’s all these layers combined together to create that, that one.

29:59 That’s basically how it worked. Yeah, wow, okay. I didn’t realize there was that much behind it, but now it makes sense. And there’s like, okay, hey, this is, this is, this is. So all this is like passive things that is, are, are there, but it’s not in your face, right?

30:12 It’s interesting, cuz my young older boy, Kaden, he was seven. He went ahead he went up like a big water slide, himself slid off that thing. He was like swimming ahead, and it’s kind of like little bits of open water, and I’m like, wow, and then the younger one saw that, he’s coming with me, and then some things are hard, like it takes some strength. So strength, and again, it’s a very interesting way for me to know people. Okay, cuz like, you know, their mind power, will power, from that, cuz you, sure, a lot of people will quit too fast.

30:38 Oh, I can’t do this. So okay. I always say, do thing, just go. What’s the worst case scenario? You fall in the water, you already wet anyways.

30:45 Yeah, that’s it. So always put it that way. What’s the scenario? You got fall in water, you have a life jacket, you already wet. Go try it.

30:53 It’s true. That’s what I was thinking. I was like, you fall in the water, it’s actually kind of nice. You float, you get back up. So like, the consequences are low, which kind of got me to keep going, and then I was like, okay, this is a physical challenge.

31:03 Let’s see. But see, what I’m doing is something new, it’s been done before, but what I did is I created a brand behind it and I made it very big. So just made a whole package of that. So we make sure you know, for example, our Google reviews, we have 4.9 stars with 4,00 4,100 plus reviews. That only comes in because you have the right qu control.

31:26 That’s in Dubai. Yeah, in Dubai. Wow, that’s unheard of. Yeah, that’s crazy, you know, but that’s only because you have the right team, left picked up, and they do a very good job with it. And again, was a very simple thing.

31:37 Again, I always use everything as we I don’t deal with things as we are objects. We’re all human. what would other human want to feel here? So for example, this is a very simple hack that I use reviews and tips. So instead of getting my staff to go after customer to give them a tip, okay, do a good job with the customer, and when you finish, let the customer give a review and mention your name in the review.

32:03 End of the month, every review you get, I get you this much money for it. So now the stop is doing extra ordinary, drop the customer is getting an amazing service. I’m getting amazing quality reviews, and my staff is getting tips directly from me. Everybody wins. So very simple, heck yeah.

32:23 Everyone is kind of an odor in that, right? Exactly, right? Yeah, which is pretty yeah, yeah. And this how you, you maximize the refus. Like, how, how did it I didn’t buy it.

32:33 I just got the people do it for it properly. And you’ve got these water parks that float just, just above the beach, basically. Both. I have beach. I have on the beach and I have on the both on the water.

32:44 Okay, beach and water. Okay, so the one we’re talking about, JBR is like on the water. I see it from my hotel room every night. Always check it out, see what you’re spelling out, and you can spell things out in it all the time. For Expo 2020, you did that, and that’s why you kind of announced your presence.

32:56 You had the 1 billion follower Summit we went to last week, SP out there, and then you’re constantly changing that. People float out to it, they do their thing, and you have something similar in 34 countries around the world. Yes, locations. Yeah, how do you do that when everything’s remote, by a phone? Okay, for again, there is always slippage the slippage will be there, but how do you limit the slippage?

33:20 That’s it. SLI will going to be always there, but how do you limit that? Say having it 40% 5%. You know how, because again, people will be people. Humans will to be a human.

33:32 So I think the first layers always find people who’s trustworthy. That’s the hardest thing, cuz that trust, that’s somebody that you BN away. You, this is the character, cuz he’s that, because you can teach them everything. Yeah, I’m not doing rocket science, simple, distance. Okay, he is the procedure father.

33:49 You’re trustworthy, do this, this, this, this, if you have any problems, deal with them yourself. If you stuck, tell me the problem and tell me what you think about how you fix it, so I want you will start working on that, and then I give him the output, so that’s that’s what we did. Okay, and it works. You give them ownership so they can try to solve that, and actually that’s what I do a lot of times. I would give like the managers a percentage of that location, you know, it’s even one, 2%, 5%, 10%, but guess what, you’re going to get a good 90, 80% back quality, because they know the more they get they give, they show me, the more they get also right?

34:24 This win again, humans, psychologic will. Will you ever take this business model to Europe or America? Never. Why? Two main reasons, too many.

34:37 What two main reasons? Two, tax, it’s number one. Okay, tax is a big issue for me. I don’t like taxes. I don’t understand taxes, like what, like, when I hear people in the western world pay 40, 50, 60% tax, I was like wow, you, it’s like you basically, you work five, six months, seven months of the year for free basically.

34:56 That’s what you tell me for what? For no safety, average education, below average healthcare it’s like why you even doing that? It’s like no, we don’t pay tax in the UAE or most of this region. Okay, no, but we get the most safest places in the world. We got amazing healthcare and educating is superb.

35:18 Yes, we pay for it, but if you make the math, you actually, it’s less, it’s cheaper here than there, right? Through the ma, and Dubai was almost founded on this principle. Like, even go back 100 years, it was like, we’re going to be a a center of trade, and we’re not going to tax you, which was, was kind of unheard of for port back in the day, as far as the research I’ve done. And so it’s kind of in the blood, in the DNA of everyone here in the region. Yeah, is that, no, we want people to come here and trade and we’re not going to tax you.

35:45 And that’s the way you get the most. Is that because, because when you got that, you got a bigger coming over here. This, what he’s gonna do, he’s gonna first spend, you know, 20 $30 million on a match, and then that commission goes to a broker, and the broker is going to go buy a car and buy other stuff, and that bu is going to go buy, go shopping to the malls and eat expensive stores, going to buy other cars. You got to buy jewelry and going to go back and invite his family and friends over, so that money is being spent in the country, so he’s having a cycle, is move there, so it, it, it moves GDP up.

36:16 So instead of like, no, you cannot, you haven’t come over now. We have a lack of luxury apartments of V because they all sold. There’s no like, there is m is 60 1002 200 $300 million being sold like this. It’s like, who’s paying for that? But that’s the whole thing, money is coming in, and that’s how you become smart about it.

36:38 So you look at the West and you’re like, what are they doing here? Yeah, yeah, doesn’t make sense. I, I even stopped driving to the West now. Yeah, tell me about that. You don’t go to America anymore?

36:45 I invited you to London. You said I’m not going. No. Why, why would you? I cannot wear this watch there.

36:52 I cannot dress up this way. I cannot be fully free and aware, cuz you know, it’s like, you know, it’s unsafe. There’s all this, like, weird, nonbelief that it’s been normalized. Like, you normalize a lot of wrong things. It’s like just for the sake of, like, freedom, and for me it’s like, no, that’s not how we build as humans, as real Allied humans, you know.

37:17 And again, I, you know, again, especially in the summer I don’t go to Europe at all. I go south. cuz everybody’s everybody’s going there. It’s hot, it’s expensive for no reason, it’s unsafe, and it’s like, it’s like, why would I sit down and queue to go for dinner? Not a peasant.

37:31 Respect. Sit down and go queue for an hour to have lunch. Why? Why it’s not even that good. Talking about, like, South of France, or whatever.

37:40 Yeah, yeah. MOS South France, London, all these places. It’s like, I call them herd travelers. Just, oh, we’re all there, let’s all go there. We all there.

37:49 I don’t do that. Well, let’s talk about the West, because the West has this air of superiority. They allow their democracies and their fairness and their freedoms. And yet when we go there, we see streets that are dangerous. Look at Los Angeles, look at New York, look at London.

38:05 Yeah, you see places that are broken. Health care system broken, NHS, transportation system. I mean, I ran to be mayor of London in 21. Everything’s broken, and with democracy every four years you get a new mayor, but you need somebody with a 20-year plan, 30-year plan to fix anything with that city. If you do that as mayor, the next guy will get credit.

38:26 So nobody does it. Yeah, and you’re looking at these systems and they don’t even know they don’t even know they’re broken. That’s the thing, and they look over here to the Middle East or this area and they say, oh yeah, you know, don’t you wish you could be us? Yeah, and yet a lot of, and yet it if something doesn’t add up here. Yeah, and they look at this area and they say, oh, you don’t have freedoms, oh, you can’t do this, you can’t do that.

38:51 They illusion. it’s an ution. Okay, so let’s go back to, I mean, a good example that you like. Covid days. Covid, when you guys were trying to scramble for tissues, towels, you know, and we had offers on them when your supermarkets were had empty shs, and we had just overstock.

39:14 Okay, when we had, you know, low mortality rate, and you didn’t. When we could build a 3,000 field hospital in 48 hours, with every single thing, and it, with doctors and machinery and nurses, that even been used again. See, see again, how is this working for us? Because again, yes, I understand. Again, in this part of the region we have a monarchy, and this monarchy works, and it only works because the monarchy knows, understand, that it needs to put their money into the country itself.

39:48 So they invest in logistics and infrastructure and people, as the people, because here they understand that the asset is the people, not only the roads. It’s good to have all these things, but so we have every year something called the Government Summit, and we have the leadership programs, so every year they graduate almost 200,400 people who are made to be leaders. So they learn everything from public speaking to managing people, to reading people, all the stuff that’s unheard of, and the sequence from having a thought into a law that improves people’s lives is very fast here.

40:23 So the rulers here are very in touch with everything. Like, the mayor of, they can’t drive a London alone this car, they can’t walk in the mall. Our does. So again, that’s the difference. Feedback is very important here.

40:37 When you land in an Emirati plane, within seconds they’re asking, how was the meal, how was the flight, how was the entertainment? Every government organization, you judge them that, because we have a competition on your rating. So they always announce the top five and the lowest fives, and lowest fives will have almost, I think, I think a month, two months to prove their grading, or they all get fired. So it’s, it’s real. It’s very competitive, right?

41:04 It’s all about the customer experience. Yeah, yeah. I always say this place is run like a business, not a country. Some people say it is a business. It is a business, right?

41:10 You’re an entrepreneur. You is a business. Yeah, yeah. We in the sun, it’s a business. You know, and that’s how it works.

41:17 I think you said once that most monarchies don’t work. Yeah, but this one does. Yes, why? Again, cuz they understood, cuz when they were young they traveled the world and they saw how Singapore is doing it, how London is doing, how, say they took IDs from everywhere and they did here. Like downtown is done by Singaporeans.

41:34 They got the best brains and people in Singapore did it for them. So again, like, okay, we have them, and if you want to do this, let’s do it. So they bring the best in the world, and let’s do it together, and again, it’s constant improvement. The SL working, which, like, I think last week they’ve changed four heads of four big government entities cuz they were not doing very well. They was complaints about them.

41:55 Move the actual chairmans. That’s big, big, that’s huge. Yeah, most people have government jobs for life. Yeah, but that’s, you’re not doing your job, brother, next, cuz you are here to serve. So constant improvement.

42:09 Yes, and where does this big dreams come from? I mean, again, tallest building in the world, the Palm. It’s like the most man-made, creative, you know, beachfront in the world, you know, and one after another, where does that come from? It comes with the mentality of why not and why be would be the first, now, not later. those things cuz, because again, the biggest inspiration, he is our president, Sham Rash.

42:35 So he is the one who always talks this way. So if our president and leader is doing it this way, then we should follow that way. That’s why, and he shows by example. So again, when I did, against for was purly because I, Emirati, I need to be the number one in the world. I may be number two or three or four or five.

42:53 I have to be number one, and if somebody tried to test it, I bigger simple as that. Seeps down to the culture. Yeah, it, yeah, cuz again it comes from that part, and the other part cuz I am, I was an athlete. I have 69 gold medals. I do not understand number two doesn’t make sense.

43:11 Like nobody remembers you were second in the championship. You remember who was bronze in the Olympics? You only remember who was the gold medalist, cuz that’s where you get anoun for gold medal, number one, first biggest. So yeah, and now you have a leader with a 20, 30, 40, 50-year vision who will be in power and then he belongs to a family that will continue that vision forward, all of them this way. Yeah, so they’re talking about 2070 plans, and again, look what they’ve built.

43:38 I mean, this country was born, I think, the same year as me in 71. There you go, and there you go. I mean, you probably seen the massive changes grow out. Absolutely. What is Dubai like now versus 10 years ago, with versus 15 years ago?

43:52 Oh, I mean, still, I mean, I think the dramatic change happened in the 2000s 200, 2000, 2006, 7, 8. That’s when you saw huge growth. It was ridiculous. There’s a whole community that was popped up from nowhere, and Dubai was like a, like a rolling door. So much people in, out, and out everywhere.

44:15 Was making money. It was crazy. It, it’s like just like they come with the craziest ideas, and they do them. Crazy ideas, and we do them. Let’s open Internet City, Media City, Marham City, every, all this kind of things like what, and we doing them.

44:31 So it’s like okay, which field you want, take and become that guy. So it’s very, very interesting. Yeah, yeah. The thing is that it’s a very interesting mindset of how people come in, because a lot of people come in here, other people who’ve been here for seven, eight years, haven’t met a local, because they’re lazy. They just do their own things they used to do back at home.

44:53 They finish work, they go to pub, go to club. They, those, lces, like, do you actually want to understand and learn? And other people comes in and IMM get immersed in the culture and start to learn Arabic and want to convert to Islam and do all these things. So it debats who you are in the sense, because also a lot of another side of Dubai is that people come here either to make money, or to be given money, or they run away something back home for a new beginning, and the gives a pass P to new beginning.

45:21 But the issue is like that, it because there’s no tax here and there’s so much opportunity. You can get money faster, and sometimes trash be class. people come this, oh, and now I have, I’m better than you. Like, calm down. baby, calm down.

45:40 You know, it’s funny for me, it’s hilarious for me, because like I know people becomes arrogant because of some money, which again, fine. Yeah, this country is currently 5 or 10% population. Emirati 90%, 9%, 9%, so 91% are foreigners. Yes. Do you ever look around at all of us and say, could you guys just go?

46:05 You know, do you ever look and say, yeah, you ever look and say, you know, by the way, this is our country, remember that you’re guests in this country, or have you set up a code to where people get it, get the fact, and are respectful of it, or does it go both ways? I wanted to ask a local this. Yes, see, it makes up everything. So this would never be about you guys, so this would could never be this good without having these amazing brains with ethics and those amazing individuals.

46:33 That’s good to have, cuz, but the reason is like, okay, how do we learn from that, how we grow together? That’s all. Sometimes you have the other feels, you know. Let’s respect what you are, because lot people come in, they don’t even know a single law, and all, but you know, like, for example, you know, have the camera, take a video, person. it’s illegal here.

46:51 It’s my right to do this. No, not in this country. but, but you understand the law. There, the law have difference in each and every country. If you understand, is your mistake?

47:03 We very tolerant, very acceptant to people. So accepted. but again, it, some people just don’t want to be accepted. Some people just want to be different, and just want to have that. No, I want to just talk, and that’s it.

47:20 And for those people, good luck. They don’t last long. No, cuz again, you know, start talking nonsense, they find out about you. They grab you. They give you the first warning sometimes.

47:31 If you set yourself down good, if you don’t, then you get deported. Problem solved. Again, the place is done. Come and good, have a good life. It’s built for you to have the most amazing lifestyle in the world.

47:42 You’re safe. You have the best restaurants in the world. You have the best, you know, everything in the world. Why would you want to jeopardize that for the illusion of you speaking your political point of view about sub Bullit? That again, your point of view will not even change the outcome.

47:57 You know, just hot air. What are you doing? What’s the out? What’s the ROI on that? Zero negative.

48:04 That’s make sense to me. Yeah, it’s a really interesting perspective. Yeah, because people will come here or they’ll look here, they’ll see me here and say, well, Brian, you don’t have freedom of speech, and I’ll be like, oh, well, do I have it in the west? You know, I, you blocked so many times, you go on life, and this happened to you. What speech of that?

48:21 Again, certain things, as this again, what is the public learning from it? Yeah, certain things are a bit sensitive. I get it, but overall, there’s a very flid lines. respect them, you’re good. Don’t talk about religion and some other sensitive things, you good to go, and there’s so many topics out of the world that you can discuss and enlighten people with, besides just being loud for no reason.

48:42 Talked to Dr Maran about this, and he said like, the whole concept of, you know, the, the rules here in the police presence, it’s, it’s engineered to be just this soft power. He’s like, have you ever seen a police officer? I said no. He’s like, have you ever seen any type of hard power exerted? No.

48:57 He said, but when you need one, they’ll be there, and you don’t see people breaking the law, because when they do, we let them know. And so you’re in this, this, this kind of a warm bubble of safety and order. And it becomes quite addictive, and it’s quite, it’s quite subtle, you know. See what the very important word there? Soft power.

49:15 We are right in top 10 in the world. Soft power, for example, for example, when like a big influencer comes in Dubai and do a big sh drive on YouTube for 48 hours to to make $10 million. This what’s happening. He is being placed physically behind a backdrop of Burj Khalifa. He’s in Dubai, so now indirectly relate that goodness is happening because of Dubai.

49:39 So so power. We are very good in s power. It’s science. It’s a very powerful science. When I did my water park and have changed the word to said watermelon, cuz I wanted to to start up for, for, for, for a case that that I care about.

49:55 You know, I don’t believe that people should be killed, murdered the way it was. So I couldn’t say anything, so I, I spoke to my people in the media office cuz good friends of mine. Hey, I want to do this, because I, I do, I do, because again, I’m part, because I, I have a location that is very sensitive. It’s one, the PC in the country, and it’s be seen so okay, I want to say ceasefire. No, Ahmed.

50:20 Stop the war. No, no, pal. No, what, man, that’s smart. What did you say, watermelon? Yeah, cu the colors of the watermelon is same colors of the flag.

50:31 Okay, and then that, cuz, supposedly, for a while, before using the word bastan or the other words, the algorithm would block it and shut by give be used. So people start using the flag, the emoji, because you can’t block an emoji. So the emoji of the watermelon looks like the flag of in so I was okay, let me put that in, and then so it will get people curious what’s watermelon, and then when they look at it, oh, it’s for this, and this, and this, cuz most people in the world, in the West, have no idea what was happening.

51:00 They only had one narrative, one part of the story, which was happening to the other ones, you know. So that was interesting. So soft power is very powerful, and like you said, like you know, how do you portray the police? Like you have superc cars, and so on, so on, the most expensive loers, uh, Street in the world, here Bugattis and Bentley and stuff. Why?

51:20 But like I said, we have a lot of cids and the couple place, so we, we know this is well. They come and grab you quietly in the car, gone. I was told that they could have anybody within custody in an hour. Oh yeah, yeah, even less sometimes. Yeah, right.

51:38 Yeah, that’s that. I’ve seen it many times. I was with someone yesterday, and she said she lost a bracelet in the mall, and she went to the police and said, I lost the bracelet, and they said no problem, we’re going to get this back, and they checked her face ID. Where the HD cameras were so good they could zoom in on her arm. They found the, the store that it fell off arm.

51:57 It had been pushed underneath by a cleaner under the counter, and they found it, like, within an hour. Yeah, and that’s the thing. See, we have so much cameras. We covered like Abu Dhabi and Dubai. We cover with cameras, but they’re not like the same cameras that we have in UK.

52:10 Cuz in UK on the street have big massive cameras. Big Brother. Yeah, yeah, we have them here everywhere, but they’re more subtle in a way, and it keeps you check all the time, and I think this is the thing why people are always afraid to do wrong, because everybody here, 91% of people here are expats, so they have a visa, everybody. If they do wrong, they get visa cancelled and deported and bed, so they don’t want their wellbeing to be ruined. And again, if you lose a job, you have a, a grace period of almost, I think, two months until you can fix your status, or you have to leave a country, otherwise got stop paying fines.

52:42 So again, it only keeps people who are basically proactive and productive in the country. That’s why we don’t have any homeless people in the streets or bigas on the street. We don’t have none of these things here, because we have, if you, you have no money come with help you. It’s always was a lot of amazing good people who give you free food and money and support you and stuff. It’s all, yeah.

53:02 It’s a fascinating way to live where all that’s happening. Yeah you know, tell, explain this to me. In the West, it feels like it’s getting to be a place that is more chaotic. I mean, now it’s becoming lawless in some cities, where literally in the open day people are walking at Apple Stores and just grabbing things, and yeah, anarchy, homelessness. You know, a total blend of anything that might look like tradition values, where it’s just all out the window.

53:28 Your children are being taught just strange things as kids. And yet, the, the contrast to that is is the Emirates, where it’s a place that respects conservative values. It, it demands the letter of the law. It does not bring all of these new gender fluid ideas here. Yeah, and yet at the same time, where the West seems to be going this way.

53:50 I mean, look at the immigration. You know, like a million people moved in this country last year, or maybe it was more. So people are, you know, they always tell you, you know, can your show put butts and seats? Well, they put butts and seats here all the time. All the time.

54:02 Yeah, and not just any butts. I mean, some of the most successful people in the world come here from countries all over the world. And so for me, it’s this weird, you know. It’s like, on one side, you’ve got the West falling off the end into this weird type of anarchic chaos, lawlessness, amoral society, and yet you have this other place over here, the polar opposite. Yeah, that’s equally attracting some of the best talent in the world.

54:24 Like, what is this telling us? This is telling us that people, they want a place where there’s conservative values. They want a place that’s safe. They’re actually attracted to that. So three things: family, culture, religion.

54:39 The whole what they call this micro families of just a single mom, single dad thing doesn’t exist in this part of the world, or if it does, it’s very, very, very small. It’s not norm. It’s not norm here, so family keeps you checked, cuz they keep checked. Hey, I’m a kid of my brother or my sister or my father or my uncle. So family keeps you always aligned.

55:03 Don’t do wrong. This is right morally. Religion of course keeps you aligned in the ni principles. Take care of your neighbor, give, good, be good, being good, fast, pray. Good charity, you know, be good to the animals, and so, and so, have religion keeps you always, is a good moral compass, and the culture keeps you gathered together.

55:24 So these three, I think, is very, very powerful thing. Okay, because you have a lot of like new families moving here, like I said, because there’s no this whole gender fluid nonsense that has been pushed on the West. I don’t want, make that nonsense and it’s a very hard thing, like, you know, like, like, I personally trying to figure out how to even do what they call it, homeschooling, cuz again, like, you know, like, it’s, there’s somebody, a stranger, sit down my, my child for 78 hours every single day, teaching them things that I might agree, agree on, you know.

56:00 That day I was having a conversation with my daughter, who’s four, and like, I’m argue with her about the color pink, because in prob, in Arabic, could be wordi or zah. She’s been taught zah. I don’t about also. You can say what? No, exactly.

56:14 It’s like she’s only four. Like, I personally never put my daughter on into University. Never. Maybe High School, by the age of 9 to 11, we open a business together. Got, sit down, open business together.

56:27 Me and you, you’re the own, your partner, and my partner, my Fe, you. How is money done, negotiation, emotion, and dages, marketing, sales, budgeting, all these things. By the time she is 17, 18, she’s going to be a millionaire. She will know how life works. She wouldn’t be indued towards the analysis that you learn, because what do you learn from University?

56:48 Nothing, like. And I’m again, I’m very big against traditional education, because it is three wrong things. Number one, that every problem have one solution, and in reality there m problem. Number two, work with others. It’s called cheating.

57:02 No, it’s called collaboration. I would never be here without these guys doing what they’re doing. And number three, if you do wrong, it’s bad, lose marks, but if success is a door, the key is called failing. So people are programmed, or I’m afraid to try, try things because I’m afraid to fail, and I be stressed and anxiety, because it’s like an exam. It’s like, but yeah, that’s how life is.

57:25 You got to fail. It’s out, know, get for the first time. He would never, or the second time, or third time, or 100 time. He need 67. Exactly.

57:32 Colonel Sanders, the guy from KFC, how many times? A thousand times, yeah, when he was 73, so yeah, it’s never late. It’s never late. Schools teach us to be poor. That’s one of my guest, Kiyosaki, author, Rich Dad Poor Dad, and I mean, think about it, they were created by us Brits and Victorian times, because these little kids were running around, you needed to do something with them and make them workers.

57:54 Exactly, was a way for B to put the parents into work, labor, to get them tax, and it’s basically, it’s something about a glorified baby’s machine. Yeah, that makes more workers. Exactly, and that way you’re not creative. No, you compete. There’s a great book written by Peter Thiel that says competitions for losers.

58:11 So why compete when you can be the first ever, the best at what you do, in something new? Like you yeah, so yeah, I think you’re saying the right things. Talk about this nuclear family. They say the reason there’s crime in America is because there’s no father figures. Yes, you know, and it’s true.

58:25 To this, say, says it takes a village to raise a kid. Yeah, it does. Does it does? You know, nothing against single moms, single dad, nothing against that. Yeah, you can do a good job, but still, like, every time I meet a woman that never works.

58:40 Her always number one. I ask now, how is your relationship with your father? When I know how it is, I immediately know it’s going to be, oh my God, the issues. Woman or not, cuz immediately, cuz the first and most important leip a kid will have is the one they have with the mom and the dad. That’s the most important one, and that would set them up towards everything else in life.

59:00 So if it was a horrible father or wasn’t there, so on, so on, he should never understand how to respect or how to behave around a man who’s good to her. And then you start doing the wrong things for yourself, and same thing with the, a boy. We never have father, never know how to respect and have boundaries, and so on, so on, so on. So it’s a big cycle, big problem with the West is that the state tries to become the father, and so these social services in this welfare state.

59:24 I mean, whether it was intentional or not, it’s now been engineered to where they basically replace the father, and they keep writing you a check, and so they, they’ve perpetuated this, this rampant amount of crime, usually coming from the males and sometimes the females, because no nuclear family. Yes, so the opposite is happening. Yes, let’s talk about being a man, because that seems to be being lost in America. Here, obviously it’s conservative values.

59:48 I think or know that you might be friends with Andrew Tate. He Z, what has he shown the world as far as, when I see Andrew, I see the result of Andrew Tate is because young men are craving someone to tell them how to be a man. The West, okay. In the West, yeah, Andrew Tate is nothing here. There is an Andrew Tate in every, almost other Arabic guy I know.

1:00:14 Okay, nothing new. Whatever he said was nothing new about it. We all know it, hear it, believe it, live it every single day. The real Muslim Arabic guys, we all do it in this part of the world. We have Pakistani friends, Afghani friends, you know, Indian friends, so friends, egyp.

1:00:28 We all have the same exact mindset to it, so nothing was new about it. It’s the other difference where he did, he was just louder. He just was louder, and he comes from the West. Exact. He was a white guy talking about this and that was what he became, and he was very smart.

1:00:45 The system, the affiliation stuff, and so, so that was the smartest thing he did. That’s why he became, became, but nothing new. We said about nothing. He said that we didn’t yeah. That’s that’s basic.

1:00:56 That’s very basic, because again, when we are raised, we are raised to have a specific level of respect and honor to ourselves, our family. Like I always say, I’m a G, no, no, not G. I’m a G. I mean I’m a gentleman or a gangster. I’m a gentle.

1:01:08 Everybody else nice, but there’s lines. If you cross them, is going to be blood. Full stop. And not to be any, any other normal Muslim Arabic guy, which do the same thing. You don’t cross line of my family.

1:01:21 You don’t come talk to my mom in a certain way, or my sister, or my family. It’s going to be blood. Full stop. Jail, no problem happily. But again, that is cuz we have that level of respect and honor.

1:01:34 That’s very important for us, and why has he become so big? Because the West secretly craves type of men they don’t have. It creates wom have been feminized. Men became men are not men anymore. you know, they, they don’t walk out anymore, and they doing all the wrong things, that’s number one.

1:01:52 And then women, cuz the feminis M became so masculine, and then, okay, you fine, do it, go ahead. good luck, right? Yeah. So women want the power, and when they have the power they realize they actually they don’t want to be around men without power. Yeah, it’s like, what are you doing?

1:02:07 It’s like, again, like you know, like it’s a whole different topic with this whole feminist movement. Like, you know, it’s the worst thing happen to women, then that your job or career is more important than having a family. Good luck when you’re 40, 80 years old alone with couple of Gucci bags and a small dog and alone, bed with nothing to to call for. You know, my grandma, when she died, there was a moment that we were in a big house, and there was around 84 people in the house, and they all kill from her.

1:02:36 She was married. She had nine kids. The nine kids had nine husbands, wives, and each one had four to seven kids. That’s richness. That’s a, that is power.

1:02:49 You know, that’s you with a couple lons and Gucci bags. Good luck with that. You know, how does this story end? Like, f fast forward 50 years, if the West continues, and I don’t see how it’s going to reverse it. And the UAE continues, you know, and I don’t know how you guys are going to quit, you know, going up and up and up.

1:03:07 I mean, what happens? Does, does this part of the world dominate? Does it attract everybody? So now you have the birth rate is under 1.0. Now, so basically you are dimin This is in all Western countries and China too now.

1:03:22 Yeah, yeah. Korea, south, South Korea is diminishing Within 20 years they will disappear. They disappear. They got be no more, just AI. Yeah, yeah.

1:03:31 South Korea is the worst so far, you know, but that’s the thing, and you have all the Muslim Arabic culture moving into Europe, and they doing 2.13 Z birth rate. So within the next 10, 20 years, Europe is going to be B Muslim. all of it, like, a lot, and then that’s the whole thing. So it’s, it’s happening, like or not. Well, this mindset of Dubai in the UAE definit we’re going to double.

1:04:02 They want to double the population within the next five years, 10 years, something. Is this place, yeah? Okay, double by IM immigration, whatever it is. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Again, there criteria.

1:04:15 Yeah, you coming over, but again, they only, they only importing or allowing the, the quality you know, this, because now it’s need a specific lifestyle or a threshold to be here. So keeps that in. Do you think this mindset of the UAE will ever be exported to the world? Not the same way. No.

1:04:40 So with the word impossible? No, impossible. Why? Too much systems, too much bureaucracy too much paperwork, too much, what people in charge, too much of that. There’s too much control, too much legacy.

1:04:53 Yeah, too much, too much legacy is good word. Yeah, like, here we do everything by app. Every can do by app here. Yeah, like nothing, they want 100% of the government to operate there. That’s big, that’s big, that’s big, that’s big.

1:05:09 What? If there’s, if there’s someone from the West watching this right now, they’ve never been here, how would you explain what Dubai really like, because they’ve heard the perceptions, they think it’s kind of Vegas in the Middle East, and it’s all the bling and not much else. Like, how do you explain that to people? Assumption was, if you stupid, get take it and come over, and then when you come over, what’s going to happen to you in the first two to four days you will look at ways how you’re going to relocate, because that’s what happens, because you understand, oh, what am I doing back in my house, what I’m doing back in my country, what you, what are you getting there that you, what are you getting there that is worth, way you’re doing why making as much money you can make it somewh else.

1:05:54 You know, there’s always some kind of financial vehicle that we can create for you to move yourself. Now okay, what are you doing, what are what is so amazing back where you are, right? Okay, the only thing here, maybe in the summer time, is too hot, but guess what, you are central for hours from here. You can go to at least amazing 50 countries. So there’s no problem with that if you making money.

1:06:19 So again, like, I know, I remember when I was in the states, and every time I go to the states I always have big altercations, arguments, because the level of ignorance that they have there, because again, most people, 80% of people don’t have in passport. They have own town, not even a state, because America is lot of countries in one, and most of educa they have no network knowledge is zero. They have zero network knowledge or knowledge in sense. and they haven’t left, again, they haven’t left where they are.

1:06:54 And I was there, and it’s like, you know, remember one time I was in Houston, Texas, and I had this big argument with this redneck guy. This back7, no, 2008 where is Dubai? It’s like, what? It’s in U. Where is u?

1:07:07 It’s like in next toia. Oh, don’t you guys live, live in tents and travel with camels? I lose. I lost my so what. So I had to educate them loudly and then I was scored out, but it was funny, but that’s our thing.

1:07:20 That’s the illusion they have even though we have more Bugis in the whole country. but yeah, that’s the whole thing that they don’t understand, like, it’s just different. It’s something what you see in TV. and yet more and more Americans are moving here now. They trying to, but the issue as American, you get taxed everywhere in the world, so you got to give away passport and doing the pass.

1:07:42 You have to wait two years. You have to pay Advanced Tax, which is like what? But there is ways around it, of course. It’s called way it, yeah, cuz that’s the law. The law is made in a way there much and you want the talent here.

1:07:56 Yes, think this country wants the talent. I met so many people that said they came here for 2 weeks and then they never left. You, you came for last thing and now you say for a month and a half. Now, yeah, that I’m really thinking hard about how I don’t have to go back, cuz I know I mean, look, I live in Shoreditch in London. It’s kind of one of the edgier areas.

1:08:16 And there was, I came to work two days before I came here. Yes, and there were police cars everywhere, and police tape up everywhere, and I finally went over. I was like, what happened here? And they’re like, you know, somebody was stabbed you know, the night before, and they were there for two days, and you know, then there’s a homeless person here, and then there’s these all these things that I’m like, why am I here? Yeah, why, why am I end doing this?

1:08:38 Yeah. You, why, here’s an interesting one. Be where you are celebrated, not tolerated. You are not a tree, you can move. I think that’s a very apite.

1:08:50 We, cuz again, you are celebrated here. You know, you can do much more here. You know, there you’re just tell, oh, this guy, no. There’s a bance of things. Again, you get more bank for your buck here.

1:09:06 I believe I always joke that everyone seems to be working for the Ministry of Tourism here. Yeah, because everybody wants, tells you to stay. Yeah, and you know, I always say, like, Elon Musk doesn’t advertise Teslas. He says just make the best car, and people will buy them, and that’s what this is. This is the best product, and so your customers talk it all the time.

1:09:26 I’m sure you do the same. Exactly. Yeah, but again, because again you’ve experienced it. Yeah, you’ve experienced it. You, you already live and pro, you experienc.

1:09:32 Next two days, we going to have the this new place you see and again and again, one more thing, important thing, access to highend high cber individuals is much easier here. So access to ministers, top entrepreneurs, CEOs, it’s easier here. You don’t have to go through the cycle of I’m going to email you and send you a letter, and so on, so on, and wait. Here, hey, do you speci, you just meit you up, done, univ this. Yeah, so that’s, that’s very powerful.

1:10:00 Like, remember that they were together for the event. Yeah, the amount of people we saw. Yes, that is something you do not get anywhere else in the world. Yeah, it’s true. Yeah, I met Dr Maran at the GX.

1:10:10 I was in two days later, and then a few months ago he gave me a golden visa, and he’s like, you’re done, Brian. He got that done in days. Yeah, exactly. Andana is a very high kind man. Yeah, yeah, amazing human being, but you see how he sto government individual, like, down to earth.

1:10:25 Yeah, you know, we were backstage in that event. So much big, you know, cre con creators, and so and so on, ching with them, just normal, but that’s the whole thing. You did not get that access when you’re outside. No chance. Yeah, yeah, no chance at all, no chance.

1:10:38 Yeah, and there’s a lot of culture here. I think that’s a lot of people don’t understand. I mean, there’s so many people here, there’s so many different types of people that have been here for so long from lots of different countries. There’s tons of pockets. What’s next for you?

1:10:49 What, what’s Ahmed doing in 10 years? You know, because I do more. I do mainly, literally, I think is maximum three plans. That’s the maximum. Do like I have the macro plan.

1:11:01 I know what I’m going to get but like, it’s like more of like, you know, like I have like now, like 12 month plan. It’s very, very intense and very aggressive, because again I like, so, so my, my goals are always in a way, how do I go 700, 1,000% growth in a year. Crazy, but even if I do 200% growth that is unable, but I’ve been doing that for the last bunch of years, every year 600%. So this year I’m trying to see how can I go, no, not 10x, 20x I might do 10, but still it’s a big target, and trying to get that target, I might not get the big target, but I’m going to get somewhat closer to half of it, but even half is crazy.

1:11:46 So this year, I’m going to get five more G records. I will scale the business at least four times bigger, size-wise, employees-wise and then take all the money into real estate, heavily, heavy, heavy, heavy real estate. Does, because you know that’s going to go, oh yeah, yeah, yeah, it’s beautiful. Okay, it’s, it’s the best way to make money. You’ve done real estate in the past?

1:12:09 When you started making money, you looked into real estate? I did yeah. I, I did crypto, and I did, I did invest a lot of projects. I did a lot of crypto. I made some good money there, very good money there, and then I left, cuz, okay, I know that that’s, that was CED done.

1:12:23 I know I had access to that individual. I had access to the, the right people, right information, the right time. I made the money. I left. I wasn’t greedy.

1:12:30 I like, okay, enough, cuz greed is the most dangerous thing. I took the money, invested couple projects, some disappeared, failed, scams, and some went very, very well, and real estate. Real estate is the long-term goal always. It’s good, it’s very good, and it still is. Oh yeah, always would always be.

1:12:50 When I hear about the plans for the future, I’m just thinking, man. Yeah, yeah, with all the developments and all these things, simple math, simp, again, any Ed can do it, just get some money in the beginning, right? it’s, it’s really that hard? Simple thing. Okay, let’s do some simple numbers.

1:13:07 You buy off-plan apartment. Let’s see, you pay a million for it. Okay. you need to pay up to 40% of it, so that’s $400 that’s when you can go and say that 40% would be around year and a half, two years. Okay, two years, in two years you pay that much money, money, in that two years you can sell the same apartment for 1.6, 1.8, so now you made almost a good, how much, 80%?

1:13:34 No, 18%. Exactly. You take that money, you get another three, four of plans now, be doing more or you can continue having this up, and then you go H, the homes that rent money goes covers your expense for, or the mortgage for all, and just grow from then, becomes you do more of that. Enough, you make a lot of money, pass money, untaxable money. You know, be smart, that’s it.

1:14:01 It’s not the heart. There, people want to rent and few people want to buy. be the one center. It’s a, it’s a choice basically. What else?

1:14:10 Next few, going have any more kids? Finding the woman is the hardest part. finding the wife, finding the mother is the hardest part. Now, not actually, that is the most possible part. Now, yes, very hard.

1:14:25 So maybe I’m not against the idea. I’m, I’m not against the idea and looking into the future, safety is a huge important part of this region, of the, of the UAE. When this place is safe, it’s going to the moon. How much is that a concern in the future, because as Maran says, you live in a tough neighborhood. I know that’s a huge priority here, obviously, on a micro level for the locals, but even just regionally, is that a risk because that’s something be concerned about, or is is the UAE very vigilant about that as well?

1:14:53 Again, leaders. So now my, our password is number one password in the world. We have access to more countries in the world than anybody else. Okay, so I can go to almost 190 countries now with no visa. That means our, what they call it, foreign affairs are on check.

1:15:15 So when you have a very powerful political diplomatic, you know, people in, in the country that makes things work very well. Like, they, they lobby, and they lobby a lot of things to fix issues between other countries. so that, that means you have that power. So I think we’re good. Okay, yeah, I think you might be right.

1:15:35 Yeah, I think you might be right, Ahmed. It’s been great getting to know you, and I’m glad I know some locals here. Yeah, and I’m not someone that doesn’t know, definitely, like local as well, and I just want to say to anybody who has never been here or spent a long amount of time here, this place is very special. You know, I spent the last 13 years having conversations on my show with people that think forward, that think about the bigger picture, that think about their energy levels, that try to contribute, try to do something for all of humanity, and have big goals, and make themselves accountable, and take extreme ownership.

1:16:10 These are just some of the things I’ve learned. Yeah, and this place, I always say, it’s very London Real, like it seems to embody, yeah, all the values that we have, you know, tried to promote over the past 13 years, and I never thought it could be in a country, but like the UAE is like 10 times ahead of any other country when it comes to that mindset. Yeah, and I always tell people, when you come here and people can say, oh, it’s not free, and oh, some of the workers aren’t treated with this.

1:16:36 I’m like, everybody that I meet wants to be here. Like, this is the place where they can get a better life. Sure, they might want to go home and spend time with their family, but this is the place they choose to be from the taxi driver to the girl that makes, serves ice cream at the mall, to, you know, the real estate developer, everybody is gay from that. Yeah, again, you, the whole thing with labors and stuff, you can’t get it, but if you see how, where he live, this is like a massive upgrade, cuz what, and the money is going back to his family, so ultimately the whole community heads are getting better.

1:17:08 Again, that’s what thing you can. There’s no disclaimer or amount of kindness you can show somebody who decide to hate you, will hate you then what you got to do, or he’s walk in water, he think he’s too, too good to be wet. See, I mean, Jesus can walk in water. Oh, he’s too good to be wet. so again, nothing you can do.

1:17:27 Who decides to hate you, who want to F following you, he will find following you that’s it, and that’s, and that’s fine, but if you’re GNA listen to every single dog who bars on me, on the re, that’s the job. You’re a dog, you bar. I’m gonna be the gangster. I’m gonna be the going, keep walking right? Yeah, so you hear that, but the people that come here, they’re the ones that stay.

1:17:47 They have the different experience. exactly. It depends again, you attract. Yeah, true. Yeah, you, you can come over here, you can be Club bar, you can be every day in clubs and do all this nonsense.

1:17:58 Oh, Dubai is h no. You just choose your own people. You can come over, you want meet other individuals here and there. You can grow, you can do business, you can have employee, you can get married, all these things. What do you want?

1:18:08 Yeah, so true. Some people said, oh, Dubai is really fake and superficial, and I’m like, I haven’t felt that at all. I’ve met the coolest, most genuine people here ever. So I guess I’m attracting that or finding that. Exactly.

1:18:21 It’s your energy. Yeah, that’s all about what you want. Your, your vibe attract the tribe. Amen to that, man. Well, I just want to say thank you for having me in the country and for dressing me properly.

1:18:32 We had to, and, I’m just having way too much fun here. It’s you know, so much fun. It shouldn’t be legal is what I say, and every day I seem to have a new experience. I’m welcomed in by a local or by a foreigner and I don’t know. It’s just really strange.

1:18:45 I’m waiting for the, the party to end, but it doesn’t end so far, and you know, I take it very seriously that Dr Maran got me that golden visa, and quite frankly, how me I feel like I, I owe this place something, and I want to, I want to contribute, you know. I really want to contribute to this place, except it gives you a, of like, you know, what now you have, you are now an indirect ambassador. Now yeah, because okay, I’ve been awarded some big prestiges something awesome, like, why, why I’m getting this love?

1:19:14 Because again, where you celebrated, not tolerated? yeah, yeah, exactly. I was celebrated. Exactly. Someone said you can come here.

1:19:23 Yeah, and now I feel, yeah, I need to reciprocate. I feel like I, I came to this incredible party. Yeah, and now I want to first of all make the party bigger and better. Yeah, yeah, it would be, it would be, it would be. Yeah, well, here’s to the next 10, 20, 30 years.

1:19:35 Thank you for everything you’re doing. Thanks for the energy. How can people learn more about Aquafun, and how can they go there and do more there? I challenge everybody to go there and take their kids and tell me if you hit both unicorns. Let’s see what happens.

1:19:47 Yeah, yeah, hear this there we go. All right, man, thank you so much, man.