00:00Today I just wanted to talk to you a little bit of my journey, how I came to Dubai and how today Dubai has actually
00:09I've been part of Dubai and Dubai has helped me with my success from what I was in 1991 to today into 2020.
00:20So 1991 I was starting off with a very measly salary of 2000 dirhams.
00:25As a telecom electronics engineer I was starting off with a very very small salary of 2000.
00:32Worked with the telecom company for one and a half years.
00:36Joined another company which started video conferencing for this company in the region.
00:41Was involved with starting having the first video conferencing implementation.
00:45The largest video conferencing implementation for the large oil and gas company in Abu Dhabi.
00:50The biggest of its kind and in fact for the OGD project in Hapshan.
00:54Then later ended up actually working for a large local group to set up their new entity.
01:04Only to realize in three months or four months that they restructured the whole group and they fired me.
01:10So reaching a 2000 to a 10,000 dirham salary which was good and decent way back in 1999-2000.
01:19I ended up jobless almost back on the street with a wife and a young daughter hardly one year two years.
01:29And we had to bootstrap ourselves, go back to a very small one-bedroom apartment in Sharjah.
01:36And that's when I took my determination and said you know enough of working for someone.
01:41Let me try working for myself and I bought a new company called FEC.
01:46And today this company is FEC is a company which is across multiple geographies.
01:54Having more than 150-200 professionals working across the region.
01:59So we've set up in Dubai, we set up in Saudi, we set up in Egypt, we set up in Morocco.
02:04We set up in Kenya and also Nigeria.
02:07So the company has had a great a good journey start with hardly three people.
02:14That was myself, my wife and a technical colleague in 2000.
02:19Small three people almost started from an initially was from my apartment in Sharjah.
02:26And I would say blessed to have the support both from the government and also both support from all my family and my colleagues.
02:36In building this company and this journey across.
02:39I think turning points I would say is 2002.
02:43We were so bootstrapped that I hardly had money to you know pay salaries or even make sure that we could actually afford two ends together.
02:52And there was this I will always say if you're committed, you're honest and you're transparent and hardworking.
02:59The Almighty is always there to help you.
03:01And this was Almighty giving me an order from a large order from Abu Dhabi.
03:06And that kept us going in the company and the company kept on flourishing.
03:11And thanks to that one good order which came in 2002 which has almost helped us from closing down as a company.
03:182005 was our venture into Saudi where we were pretty much good established.
03:23We have a good company working there now.
03:25And then later we moved into setting up our office in Morocco.
03:29We set up an office later in Egypt in 2010.
03:33Then we followed in Kenya.
03:34And the journey has been quite good.
03:37I always say two factors, three factors which are there.
03:42I think the Almighty's blessings and good wishes and always my blessings for my father and mother who are there with me.
03:48Second is my family, my wife and my two daughters who have been fully supportive of whatever I do.
03:55And committed behind me.
03:57And last my colleagues from FEC who have been with us not as team colleagues but as family.
04:05And who are committed with their hard work and commitment to actually make a business successful.
04:11So this has been my on-going journey from 2002 to today.
04:16The company is 200 million plus.
04:18And what we've seen is that if you're positive, committed and you have some good friends and hard working colleagues along with you.
04:27And loyal colleagues with you.
04:29You'll always be successful and you'll always have the Almighty's blessings.
04:33This journey helped me to actually rethink myself.
04:37And said what can I contribute back to the society.
04:39So I joined an organization called TAI.
04:42And I was part of a TAI which fosters entrepreneurship.
04:46It's a global chapter with 63 chapters around the world.
04:49I was part of the TAI divide chapter.
04:52I was even the president for three years.
04:54And today I'm on the board of TAI.
04:58Always looking at helping up entrepreneurs, fresh start-ups.
05:02And helping them to take their entrepreneurial journey.
05:04And mentoring them, helping them with their business ideas and taking them forward.
05:08So this, because of TAI, I ended up actually being with a start-up called Mission.
05:12Which actually do a very very interesting product.
05:15Which actually helps any child to bring their own device to the school.
05:21So we help parents and school to manage the child's device.
05:25Rather than their screen time is managed much more successfully using Mission.
05:30And today I'm helping this company to evolve and build to a big company.
05:36So that's been my journey.
05:39I've been very happy.
05:41Thanks for you to come down.
05:43And yeah, a great 2020.
05:45And we're all looking forward.
05:47Great support from the Dubai government.
05:49Great support from Dubai Internet City.
05:51And rock and roll for the Expo 2020.
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