About this user
Through my work experience for the past 9+ years, i got the opportunity to work on global, regional, and local markets and get a deep understanding on consumer and culture insights.
In a world that has been cut up and defined by its differences, separated by its religions and traditions, which values money and technology at an unprecedented level, where incentives are highly self-centered, humans' acknowledgement of interdependence seems to be largely missing. Yes, we Facebook, Tweet, and write blogs, which keep us in constant connection, but what we do with these connections is what makes the difference.
I am a "connector," as Malcolm Gladwell defines in The Tipping Point. Coming from a family of many siblings, I am used to several personalities surrounding me at all times, dealing with them, and compromising. In the same way, I treat the people who I meet as an extension of my family. It is only natural for me. Thus, the connections I make regularly benefit me personally and in business, often simultaneously. And my success is capped by my ability to see the profound benefit of humans' connections across all borders.
I believe excellence in any career stems from the ability to harness your personal neuroses, idiosyncrasies and particularities into a field where they can not only be liberally explored but will also allow you to shine. My central driving force would have to be my relentless curiosity -- about people, about the world, about the secret life of the way everything works.
I am never satisfied with easy answers, with simple explanations: there always has to be something else, something more interesting and complex beneath the surface of things. This is perhaps a defense mechanism: growing up in a country like Lebanon, in a city like Beirut, where the sectarian civil war colored so much of my childhood and taught me early on that much of the circumstances of life are beyond one's control, and that loyalties are both multi-layered and multi-faceted, I also learned that knowledge is power. Exercising one's mind allows one to travel beyond the personal limitations of borders, of place, of culture, of circumstance. And perhaps this gives a measure of feeling some control over a world that is so uncontrollable.
This curiosity then informs my entire life philosophy. I am highly motivated and ambitious, a good listener and highly social, and all of this flows from a genuine interest in all the circumstances of the world. In the same vein, I would characterize myself as an independent thinker, ethical almost to a fault in both personal and business dealings, and a perfectionist in all tasks I undertake.
As generally happens however, my weaknesses are the flipside of my strengths. Being a perfectionist, especially in the Arab world, whose rules are very culturally dictated, can be highly stressful and work against you sometimes. Being overly rigid in one's demands sometimes comes at the expense of diplomacy in social, but particularly business relationships. I'm starting to realize the importance of the art of compromise -- because it is an art -- as life is never rigid or immovable, but ever-changing. I'm learning better how to go with the flow and try sometimes to adjust myself to situations and people rather than expecting them always to adjust to my own standards.
My former boss once wrote down a phrase and told me to meditate on it: "Maturity is the ability to manage uncertainty." I find myself coming back to those words of wisdom again and again, and using them as a rudder to navigate this latter part of my life, which I hope can be characterized by this complex definition of maturity.
hussyfussy
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