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Showing posts from 2017

Goodbye 2017! You stretched me in every possible way...

What a year!! Challenging, to say the least, both personally and professionally. I certainly was exposed to problems I never have dealt before. Often times, I felt clueless and disoriented. Usually, when we face tough situations, we ask people around us for some guidance. But in my case, my problems were also new to people around me which made it even harder to figure out. Personal research (Thanks Google and YouTube) was my best bet. It often felt tedious and dreary and most of the time not enough. I realized that a change of environment is important. For one’s growth and sanity, you have to be with people higher than you or at least at the same level as you in life. Learning from others is so invaluable and it can be a huge lifesaver. Upgrading your network will make life so much easier on you and also fun. I am usually good at goal-setting and completing tasks. But this year, I felt like I didn’t push myself to create bigger and more challenging goals. I played it safe...

How to stay motivated

Sometimes, life can be really tough. We  feel demotivated, stressed and not feeling to do anything. It’s a natural feeling to feel demotivated especially during difficult times. Sustaining motivation can be tough even under the best circumstances. But, because you may have so many responsibilities, you may not have the option to stay in bed all day watching Netflix, while it passes. You need to keep on showing up and being the best you can be. So, in today’s video, I am giving you three tips on how to stay motivated even during difficult times. CLICK ON THE PHOTO TO WATCH THE VIDEO        Always have a vision board, a goals-list, and a notebook. I find these 3 things extremely helpful when I am unwell and not feeling like doing anything. They actually help me re-center myself and see the bigger picture. A lways go back to your vision board, list of goals and refresh your mind as to why you’re here: your purpose and mission in life. ...

Why working hard isn’t enough to succeed

The feeling of working hard and not getting anywhere can be very frustrating. Now is a good time to stop and reframe your challenges: 1.        You work day in and out and give the most out of yourself. But have you asked yourself why? Why are you doing all this? What is driving you? What motivates you to wake up every morning?  You need to have a clear vision of where you want to be and what you would like to achieve. 2.        Secondly, do you have goals? What are your short-term and long-term goals? Remember goals are most effective when they are measurable. You want a better job. What job position are you looking for? What missions would you like to be given? And what company culture would you like to work in? Be as specific as possible and set dates and deadlines for your goals too!! 3.        Finally, you need to have a strategy. This is the part where you answer the how....

How to Be More Productive

Nowadays with the presence of so many distractions, so many of us struggle with staying focused and productive. In this video, I give tips that work for me and hopefully will help you get the most out of your days and weeks and achieve the most important things you have on your goals list. I find these tips very efficient and I always remind myself of them when I stray. Let me know in the comments section what you usually do to stay focused and productive and your biggest plan for 2018. And stay in touch!

How to Get an MBA (without going back to school)

MBAs can be very expensive, time-consuming and sometimes out of reality. If you're looking for high business education to become an entrepreneur, then there are skills you need to acquire for you to succeed at your self-education. Entrepreneurship is more about the experience than theory. Remember our ancestors. As merchants, they had nothing but experience to learn from. If you want to start a business and educate yourself before you do, then in this video, I tell you what, I find, are the most important skills to focus on. Now, remember, you need to be very determined to learn on your own, dedicate time and make it a commitment for you to fast-track your succeed and avoid the long hours in classrooms. Happy watching and happy learning! QUESTION: Do you think self-education can replace classic and academic education?

December Challenge: It's NOT too Late to Make this Year a Remarkable Year

HO! HO! HO! It's that time of the year... Not to celebrate and exchange gifts (at least not for me). On December 1st, it's hustle time. It's that time I push myself to get back on track and catch up on all pending to-dos, goals, and dreams. In other words, I use December as a month of challenge to complete the objectives I had for that year or at least get significant progress on that. There can be so many distractions in life and the social media and the internet can eat up most of our time (it used to be TV). Now, to achieve goals, I first need to get organized: 1. Review my goals for the past year 2. Check the completed goals 3. Zoom on the remaining ones When I have my remaining goals set clear on paper, I can then evaluate what can quickly be done immediately (if your goal is to get fit, you can already start doing today) and what would take longer to achieve. For the immediate actions, there is no secret to this. I just make time for them on my calendar. ...

Casablanca – History, Business & Fun

This video is different from what I usually post. Here, I take you to my birth city Casablanca.  Casablanca is the largest and busiest city in Morocco combining tradition and modernity. I’ll explore with you some touristic sites such as the Ancient Medina & Haubous and will also show you another side of the city where business and social enterprising is flourishing. Sorry, entrepreneurship is coming up on my travel videos because that's what I enjoy the most.  There are other places to visit in Casablanca but they're not on the video. Obviously, my video is not a tour guide but snapshots of where I have recently been.  I have lived in Casablanca for many years. I have also left it many times. Too loud. Too stressful. Very polluted. With all that said, it's the city where my parents, children and I are from. I choose to see the best in it :) I hope you enjoy this video and if you do please like and share it!

It's Okay to Change Your Mind

Changing minds is often seeing as a negative thing. If you’ve made promises to yourself in the past and find it difficult to keep them up, don’t beat yourself up. Embrace the change and do NOT stress out. Your old self hasn’t died. It just evolved. Sticking to decisions you’ve made when you were 5 years-old doesn’t make much sense especially if they become a hindrance to your development and growth. It’s OK to change your mind... In this video, I explain why it's okay to change your mind and how it can actually be a beneficial thing. As George Bernard Shaw said, 'Progress is impossible without change, and those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything.' QUESTION: What is one promise you made yourself that you're finding hard to keep?  Please comment below and share the video if you liked it!

My values: A Blessing and a Curse

My values are both a blessing and a curse. A blessing because they are the foundation of who I am, the decisions I make and the actions I undertake. A curse because they limit me somehow. Being an entrepreneur gives you choice to lead your business as you wish. It also gives you the possibility to explore new fields, let your dreams grow and enable your ambitions to become reality. However, often, business development and integrity clash.  This clash is even more important in some countries where bribes and corruption are the common procedure. In other words, the size of your business demonstrates how much you have corrupted. Clearly, everything is possible when you are an entrepreneur. When facing an obstacle, you know that sometimes the easy solution is a big fat envelope (or briefcase) full of cash to solve the issue. Same goes with clients. You want to keep them and feel that they are happy to give you business only when you make the gesture. Your hands are tied. You know ...

What excuses do you have (again)?

This past year has been one of the most difficult years I have ever had. It was a year full of challenges, obstacles, difficulties, uncertainties, and struggles. It was a year where I was stretched, had my limits tested and a lot of times, I wanted to drop everything to keep my sanity... Each time I was feeling low and on the verge of quitting, I had a thought for those less privileged. I guess I was my own mentor/coach. But with time, I sincerely realized that my problems or at least what I perceived as problems were the results of a life full of things taken for granted and depreciated. In other words, my 'problems' could in fact be a joy, delight, treasure, to someone else. In fact, there is a saying that goes: One man's trash is another man's treasure When I complained about having too-much work and felt a lot of stress and despair, I stopped and realized that I was lucky to have this great abundance as it's a recognition of my hard work. I was commission...

Faire de sa passion un business lucratif // SUCCESS STORIES

Passer du salariat à l'entreprenariat n'est pas chose aisée. Beaucoup de personnes y songent mais peu arrivent à franchir le pas. Dans cette vidéo, je partage avec vous les témoignages de trois jeunes entrepreneurs, partis de rien. Ils ont tous les trois un parcours passionant et beaucoup de choses en commun. Etre entrepreneur ne s'apprend pas sur les bancs de l'école mais c'est d'abord, un besoin brûlant de créer, d'apporter du changement ou amélioration dans la vie des consommateurs (et de la vôtre) et bien sûr une envie d'indépendance et de liberté dans la gestion de son temps et ses actions. Maria Amrani a lancé Papillon Vert d'abord depuis chez elle parce qu'elle avait une passion pour les fleurs et plantes. Said Chbihi, aux apparences d'un personnage très timide a pour passion, quant à lui, de faire rencontrer les gens et leur permettre d'échanger et d'interagir. D'où ses business de coffee shops. Laila Berchane, in...

Why You Should Fall Down to Reach Your Goals

Most of my recent business lessons are inspired by my own children. They teach me so much about life, way of being and thinking. I find so much simplicity in how they act and behave. They don't complicate life. They actually make it simple and find good solutions to what we call 'problems'. In today's video, I talk to you about the importance of falling down to grow and be the person you want. Living a life with no risks is not worth living. Staying in your comfort zone can be good for some. But if you have big dreams, it's not the place for you to be at. I know for sure, my 11 months-old doesn't want to be carried all his life. He wants to start walking and be independent. Every day, he accepts the fall down and failures to learn to stand on his own and start walking. This kid was you and me too. Somehow along the day, we changed... These videos and blog posts are almost a dairy of mine. I remind myself of some of the basic lessons of life and I li...

Who Your Real Friends Are

The past weeks/months have been extremely busy for me. I barely had any time to do anything else other than the big project I was working on. During all this time, I was feeling guilty not posting videos or new blog posts. So today was finally the day. I filmed a video on the go (as you'll see). No preparation, no make-up, no set-up. I filmed in a park while my kid was playing (that's why you'd see me looking up throughout the video/ mom life). The video is short but carries a message I wanted to share with you. Here I am talking about my personal experience with people and who, I feel, my real friends are. As an adult, it can be difficult to find people you can really connect with and be yourself. However, there are some people, who I sometimes meet or get to see again, who give me that feeling of being connected to them and make me feel good about being myself and their friend. Find out who these people are and share your experience/thoughts with me.  Also, let me ...

Make Every Day Count

As June and the month of Ramadan are soon coming to an end, I am starting to feel that we are also approaching the end of 2017. Six months have already gone by and so much in my to-do list seem still unchecked. Strangely I am not stressed about it and am in fact more relaxed. Maybe life experience and age help us be more confident about ourselves and definitely calmer. Or maybe big ambitions and goals are beginning to fade away. I hear people all the time complain about how little time they have to play with their kids, visit family or cook dinner. They, surprisingly, find the time to browse Instagram and message all day on Whatsapp. I ask myself why are people lying to themselves. Why do they keep telling themselves they have no time when in fact they do? There is a famous saying that says 'You have as many hours as Beyonce (or Obama etc)'. True Beyonce and company have teams and people they can delegate to. But you don't have to be a celebrity to live a better life...

Let us AMAZE you with...

Dear friends I am happy and excited to announce to you the launch of Amaze-boutique.com. Amaze is a project I personally have been working on for months and it’s finally coming to life today. AMAZE is a boutique designer and manufacturer of hip and trendy lifestyle products for young entrepreneurs, innovators and movers & shakers. When my team and I first started our businesses, we looked for inspiring accessories to remind us to stay focused on the road ahead. But everything out there was just so lame!  So, we came up with AMAZE – a cool, new brand of amazing gear that motivates you and gets you where you want to be. We cover a lot of ground,— T-shirts, mugs, tote bags, phone cases… .Amaze is a brand that captures the adventurous combative spirit and helps to funnel the positive energy we need to get things done and live a fulfilling life. And today, Amaze is ready to go out to the world and you’re one of the first people to hear about it. I’d appreciate ...

How to Become a Journalist in the Mainstream Media

Signing articles in international mainstream media can be such a rewarding thing. But this doesn't come without a lot of work and most certainly, offering an added value. In this episode, meet Aida Alami, an international reporter who contributes to the New York Times, Newsweek, Al Jazeera and Bloomberg. Her love for journalism started out in Marrakesh where she was born and took her to Colombia University where she studied journalism and made her dream come true. In this interview, Aida gives so many valuable pieces of advice that apply to aspiring journalists and reporters as well as future young movers & shakers. The main lessons I picked out from this interview are: 1. Know what you want and go for it: Aida knew from the beginning she wanted to do journalism and had a clear vision of the kind of life she wanted to pursue. 2. Practice makes perfect: English is Aida's third language and this did not prevent her from writing for big American mainstream me...

Turn Your Passion Into a Profitable Business

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Doing what you love is NOT selfish

So many of us feel frustrated. We do things we don't like and believe that it's being the harsh reality of life. We lie to ourselves saying that 'things have changed', 'it's impossible' and living in the past with our best-friend phrases 'I wish I could', 'If only' etc. We are so consumed by what others think yet we do care very little about what we think. It seems like other people's opinions have so much power on us and that our lives depend on whether the world approves of our thoughts and decisions. While trying to please others, we loose our soul, spirit and sometimes heart. We decide to put our happiness in their hands and pray for their consent. Life's truly too short to be wasted and I am a fervent believer that there's a way to every problem and situation. If your heart tells you that you should be doing something and it occupies your mind, then this should not be overlooked. As long as it's noble and not hurt...

Getting angry and yelling in public. Time to learn to let go...

Last Saturday, I was with my boy at the orthoptist.  It was an appointment neither I or my son wanted to go to. Getting up and getting ready on a Saturday morning to be at the practitioner's office at 8.30am is a bit of a challenge. But we did. While we were waiting in the waiting room, some of the strangest things happened in front of our eyes. A young mom was reading out activities to play to her son. They brought a magazine to occupy him while waiting. She read and explained each exercise. They were the only ones talking in the waiting room. I guess the rest of us were still asleep. At some point, a man asked her to keep it down as he said it was too loud. After a few exchanged words, she continued reading as she wishes. She considered that she didn't disturb anyone and continued as she wanted, The man didn't hesitate to ask her again to keep it down. All of the sudden, it seemed like a monster came out of the woman. She started screaming and yelling. Everybody wa...

Meet children of Shatila refugee camp

I am so pleased, beyond happy to FINALLY publish this video. This is one of the projects that I have had for months on my to-do list but never got around to doing it. It was mostly because of the footage which I had to retrieve from a damaged CD. I tried many times transferring the content to my computer and had it jammed several times. After much frustration, last week, I took the CD to a photo laboratory. They managed the whole process smoothly, thing I should have done sooner. Today, I finally finished the editing of the video. I have to say that this brought back so many memories. My visit to the Shatila camp was so moving. My facial expressions can show that in the video. Before that, I have heard about the camp in the news. But being there is a total different story. At the time the video was filmed, I was living in London. My reality had nothing to do with these Palestinian kids' reality. While I was dreaming of running a successful business. They were dreaming of havi...

Visiting Marrakesh & Ourika

This is my first trip with a child and an infant at the same time. Although it was pretty hectic managing the baby, I surprisingly were able to film while having my hands and brain busy. I am trying to commit not to multitask anymore as I find it counterproductive but this time, I really couldn't help it. In fact, it's been a long time since I published a video and this was an opportunity for me to catch up. The video is short but colorful. I hope you'll enjoy it. Please share your thoughts and feel free to comment. Let's stay in touch!

You need to do this every day...

Last November, a friend of mine came to visit and brought me a cute mug and a notebook. The mug I knew exactly what it was for. However, the notebook was subject to brainstorming. Most of my notes are taken on a computer or on my smartphone. What would I do with a few hundred pages and a pink-colored hard cover? The answer didn't come easy. This year, I decided I am creating my own planner. I pulled out colored pens and jotted down the outline of my calendar and there you go. A few bucks saved but mostly, a very unique and personalized way of organizing my to-do list, thoughts, projects, ideas etc. On the first days of writing down my to-do list for the week, I wrote things I was grateful for on that day. At first, this exercise seemed difficult. Nothing major was happening and I didn't consider that day to be exceptionally good. After a few days, the exercise started to get smoother. I realized that being grateful for the day is firstly being aware of each moment and es...

Services en ligne que j’ai essayés au Maroc

J’adore pouvoir commander en ligne dans le confort de chez moi et recevoir ma commande à domicile ou au bureau. Ici, je partage avec vous quelques expériences de TPE/PME marocaines qui proposent des services en ligne plutôt satisfaisants. Hmall Ici j’avais commandé un iPhone. J’avais peur de me faire livrer un faux. J’avais payé en ligne et ai recu ma commande au bureau. Le site propose également d’autres produits électroménagers, maison, vêtements, accessoires etc. Avantage : Prix intéressants et gain de temps. http://www.hmall.ma/ Mall en ligne Je ne suis pas une adepte du fouinage dans les boutiques. Je préfère regarder en ligne et prendre le temps de lire les reviews etc. Mallenligne me convient parce qu’il y a un grand choix de produits comparables à ceux des magasins de para les moins chers de la ville. Je passe ma commande en ligne (faut créer un compte) et la livraison se fait le lendemain. Avantage : Livraison gratuite et paiement à la livraison. http://mallenligne.ma...

I'd love your feedback!!

Dear You In November 2015, I decided to start publishing videos for YouTube in the areas of business, entrepreneurship and career. It wasn't for the fame or the money but I had an urge to share whatever small I had learnt through books and mostly life experiences. I had stopped teaching at university for a few years and felt the need to continue sharing through videos and my blog. Today after a year of short video making and around +20 videos in English, Arabic and French, I am coming to you to ask you for your opinion. I'd be grateful if you could take 5-10min of your time and let me know what you think of the content and format. If you happen to like the videos, I'd love if you could subscribe to my channel and share the videos. Your feedback is very meaningful to me and I appreciate in advance your time and interest. Look forward to reading you. Thanks and have a wonderful end of year. Safaa https://www.youtube.com/safaanhairy

Í don't have time

It's Monday morning. Everyone seems to be rushing in all directions. Traffic jam is bad. Pedestrians are walking fast. People are chasing cabs and buses. Where's everyone going? Work, school, yoga classes... Everyone has got some place to go to. It's Friday night. Everyone is leaving work with a smile on their faces. Finally, we will find the time to do some groceries, laundry, visit family, go to the hammam, shop and maybe work on that dear project. It's Sunday night, a feeling of frustration and stress overwhelms our bodies. What's happening? Thinking about how the week and the weekend flew by without giving us the chance to do what we wanted to do. Then our brains try to defend us by making up a catch phrase that we'll use every time we feel hopeless. 'I don't have time'. We then use it when we feel lazy to go to the gym. We use it when we feel bad about how far ago we visited family. We also say it when we order food rather than make a hom...