Reading Time: 9 minutes According to a Ministry of Health 2018 study, traffic accidents are the fourth leading cause of death in Jordan, indicating the severity of the situation.
After 39 years of safe driving culture in Dubai, the author moved to Jordan in 2019 and found Amman’s driving conditions daunting. He notes the general disregard for traffic rules, leading to an aggressive and often dangerous driving Culture.
Reading Time: 3 minutes ‘The Last Suitcase and the Wisdom of Yusuf’ is the first part of a series about growth and the impact of one’s definition of success on navigating times of great hardship. The series starts with the serendipitous journey of Wise Man Yusuf, from his beginnings on a Nigerian cocoa farm to becoming the Director General of an international institution and how Yusuf’s unique personification of success profoundly impacted and inspired the writer.
Reading Time: 2 minutes The recent passing of David Crosby was a great loss to the music world and it brought back many such memories. CSNY as a Group was so much part of my life journey that losing David Crosby feels like losing someone who has been with me throughout my many years of growing up.
Reading Time: 7 minutes ‘Coming Together in Service’ is a story about two cousins who established the Distinguished Team of Volunteers, a volunteering program operating in Jordan since 2018. They believe each member of a community bears a responsibility towards the other. Explore the impact of their acts of charity, as they seek to make a difference in their communities amid rising economic hardships and youth unemployment.
Reading Time: 11 minutes Dr. Nathaniel Branden, The Six Pillars of Self-Esteem TO MANY CHILDREN, SCHOOL REPRESENTS A “SECOND CHANCE”—an opportunity to acquire a better sense of self and a better vision of life than was offered in their home. A teacher who projects confidence in a child’s competence and goodness can be a powerful antidote to a family in which such confidence is lacking and in which perhaps the opposite perspective is conveyed….A teacher who refuses to accept a child’s negative self-concept and relentlessly holds to a better view of the child’s potential has the power—sometimes—to save a life.
Reading Time: 4 minutes Part 2 of Noah’s story, a man navigating the complex dynamics of the corporate world. This installment explores his hidden aspiration for entrepreneurial success, his fears, struggles, and personal revelations as he wrestles with self-doubt and seeks personal fulfillment while contemplating the price of success, battles with changing family dynamics, and faces unexpected challenges at work. Join him on this life-changing journey of self-discovery and assertion, providing a profound reflection on self-esteem, ambition, and the power of future vision. To Be Continued in Part – 3.
Reading Time: 5 minutes ‘From Employee to Entrepreneur’. In this inaugural chapter, we accompany Noah as he confronts the one-sided affair of his corporate existence, the impacts of his relentless commitment on his personal life, and the self-inflicted confines of his world. Grappling with self-perception, missed opportunities, and a yearning to redefine his identity, Noah’s enlightening shift demands he dispute ingrained societal narratives and courageously set forth on a journey toward entrepreneurship, albeit with personal costs. This narrative offers an examination of personal values, life’s priorities, individual interpretations of success, and the audacity required to alter one’s path, irrespective of age or prevailing circumstances.
Reading Time: 9 minutes People require a lot more support now than they did before the pandemic. In his book that keeps on giving, Managing Oneself, Peter Drucker raises these points that are very pertinent to what we’re going through: “Only when you operate from a combination of your strengths and self-knowledge can you achieve true – and lasting – excellence”. He tells us that in order to live a life of excellence, we must ask ourselves these questions: What are our strengths? How do we perform? What are our values? Where do we belong? What should we contribute?
Reading Time: 5 minutes On the topic of preparing students for the jobs of the future, Mr. Hesham Metwalli, a Public Policy and Education Reform advisor in MENA and Australia, has graciously accepted my invitation to share his views on what this means and looks like for the Middle East Region.
Reading Time: 8 minutes First Who, Then What? – get the right people on the bus, a concept developed in Good to Great by Jim Collins – is crucial if the lessons from the global downturn 2007- 2008 have managed to get engrained into our organizational cultures and processes’ DNAs. The stakes now are higher than ever. Persistent wrong hiring for an SME may lead to annihilation and its valuable economic contribution and job creation potential along with it.
