#334 The Alpha Movement: Seif El Hakim’s Blueprint For Entrepreneurial Grit, Leadership, & Innovation

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Mehmet: Hello and welcome back to a new episode of the CTO show with Mehmet. Like for a long time i'm calling people here in dubai to be on the show I'm looking for everyone who has a special story and today Finally, i'm very pleased to have [00:01:00] with me Seif El Hakim on the show saif. He's an entrepreneur serial entrepreneur investor mentor And he started the alpha movement Seif.

Mehmet: Thank you very much for being with me on the show. It's been, you know, really nice to have you here. The way I like to do it is I keep it to my guests actually to introduce themselves more, tell us a bit more about their background, what, uh, you know, brought them to this moment and also tell us. about, you know, what you currently do.

Seif: Perfect. Uh, thank you very much to have you, uh, have me on your show. It's, it's a pleasure and it's an honor at the same time. Uh, just in a very quick nutshell, um, I passed through different journeys in my life. For the past 15 years plus, I've been into corporate life, uh, in different countries across the world, like from Egypt to South Korea, to Russia, to Turkey, to, uh, UAE.

Seif: And in the corporate life, I was, um, I reached [00:02:00] the level of a CMO in the tech giant Samsung. So that's on a corporate side on the personal side or the entrepreneurship side. I've been an entrepreneur for the past, I would say, five, six years, serial entrepreneur. Um, and now I'm running my portfolio of businesses across different industries, across different countries as well.

Seif: On the third line, the sports line, um, I'm a professional sports person. I've been on the professional team of Kung Fu and I've been in Mr. Olympia 2014. So that's in a nutshell, who is Saif.

Mehmet: Saif again, really, I appreciate that you, uh, you know, came to the show here today. That's a big honor to me also as well.

Mehmet: Now, maybe we were discussing this even before we start recording. So being an entrepreneur is not like a, uh, Road that is always pinky and easy. You know, it takes a lot of [00:03:00] grit. It takes a lot of sweat and blood, as they say, but I'm sure that there's something that, you know, inside your mind said, Okay, this is the path that I need to take.

Mehmet: Like, this is the journey I want to embark on. So can you like what was there like a pivotal moment when you said, Okay, I need to go? Uh,

Seif: you know, to go back to the first statement that you said, it's not a fancy thing. Entrepreneurship. It's a very hard thing, and it's not an easy and it's not fancy.

Seif: Whoever sees entrepreneurship as fancy and relaxing and of, uh, of freedom. That's the 10 percent of, uh, the hell 90 percent that interpreter passed through. So entrepreneurship, it's not an easy game. Um, it's The worst thing about entrepreneurship that people should know, it is the idea that you wake up every single morning, you don't know whether your idea will work or not.

Seif: And that's a crazy [00:04:00] thing requires a specific traits and character traits that you have. Not everyone has these kinds of traits to have to be a risk taker, to have the perseverance, to have the persistent, the consistency. Until your idea becomes successful or it brings you the income in order to live.

Seif: Let's put it in that way. So entrepreneurship is extremely hard. That's one thing. What happened to me is a totally different thing because I was in a corporate. Role before being an entrepreneur and if somebody asked me a question like Seif Would you recommend people to be in a corporate role before becoming an entrepreneur?

Seif: I always say from my school Yes, try the corporate role first the corporate line and then afterwards Go to be to become an entrepreneur. People usually ask me why the thing is If you want to be an entrepreneur, the best thing and the easiest way to make your idea, reality is to model it. So if you want to have a marketing agency, [00:05:00] don't start a marketing agency on your own.

Seif: Work in a marketing agency first. Get the business model, get the structure, get the organization, and then you can move on and do your own. This being said. To be an entrepreneur requires specific traits. One of them is the risk taking ability and the persistence. So if I go to myself, when I was in corporate, I stayed in corporate almost 10 years, 10 plus years, I've been, uh, with Samsung for over 10 plus years in different countries, like South Korea, uh, Russia as well.

Seif: Like I left Samsung when I was CMO of, uh, Samsung CIS. And why did I leave? to become an entrepreneur because I had no other option. I reached the maximum of the pyramid of the corporate. And the only way for me was to go, uh, I would say like a lateral, a lateral movement. Lateral movement means go to another company doing the same thing.

Seif: And that's it for me was enough being in corporate. It was time [00:06:00] for me to. Jump on my entrepreneurship, uh, June. And that's the thing, just that simple. But again, I was always testing myself on an inter being an entrepreneur while I was in corporate, it means I was testing several projects while I was a corporate, I was doing my side businesses.

Seif: It's not conflicting, conflicting with the corporate role, but I was testing having my fitness clubs, having my manufacturing business, I was always testing. Until I understand that I have the skills needed to be an entrepreneur

Mehmet: Um, you know like another example if I want to relate this from tech, you know, because a majority of the founders that I spoke to And you know the ones I read about they took this approach because actually it helped them You know, get the experience because when you are doing the first time by alone and you don't have the knowledge That would be tough.

Mehmet: So going your path is much easy. I can relate so I always tell people if [00:07:00] you know Of course, he was very young but if steve jobs didn't go and work in in Hp in summer right as an intern So he would not like understand what distribution is, like what manufacturing is. And then this is like, it came to him in future when, you know, he, he built this giant, which is Apple.

Mehmet: So absolutely, uh, Seif. I agree with you. So you mentioned about,

Seif: I'll tell you one thing here, because I see a lot of entrepreneurs going to entrepreneurship with just the idea of, uh, motivation. The concept behind being an entrepreneur is to be motivated to be an entrepreneur. And that's an absolute mistake.

Seif: If you see successful entrepreneurs and unsuccessful entrepreneurs, both were motivated. Both were hungry to succeed. One of them succeeded and one failed, correct? So the idea is not being motivated, right? It's like, okay, I have an idea. I have an interesting idea. It will change. And I'm motivated to go after this idea.

Seif: It's absolutely not [00:08:00] motivation. And just to give an analogy to this, to be successful, there should be a design to be successful. Okay? So it's not the motivation to be successful, which means you've never seen a pilot sitting in a plane, a pilot sitting in a plane, clapping for the plane to fly. Right?

Seif: Right. You never seen a driver sitting in a Kia Picanto clapping for it to drive to 200 kilometers per hour. No, the plane and the car is designed to succeed in its parameters. It's exactly as business. Business has a design to succeed. Not only the motivation. Okay. I want to be an entrepreneur because the freedom, my idea is amazing.

Seif: Nobody did it before. That's an absolute bull. Business has its own parameters to succeed. That's why a lot of people say what model, which is part of it, your project modern, your idea. Which means go to corporate, for example, learn the business idea. Learn [00:09:00] the concept, see the business model how it works.

Seif: And I'm not gonna say copy it, model it, benchmark it. Mm-hmm, , right? Or have a mentor that pass your path that you can learn from, model from him or her, and do the same thing. There is a design for success. There is no only clapping and motivation for success.

Mehmet: 100%. So, say if you repeated, like, a couple of, uh, traits, you, you call them, which also I, I believe Strongly in which is like perseverance and you know consistency now.

Mehmet: Do you think this is something? someone can can learn or is it like something that they You know people are born with like because to your point and i'm trying to relate to to what you just mentioned is that yeah I I just watched also a video the other day if people comes and say hey, I want to do this business for the sake of money only and because you know I can change the world to your point majority of the time they fail because they need [00:10:00] to have you know You Something they believe strongly in.

Mehmet: So do you believe like this is something that they can acquire like a skill or is it something that people are born with?

Seif: Okay. There are born like it's talents. There are born people and everything on the other side is learnable. You can learn to be an entrepreneur. You can learn to be whatever you want.

Seif: If it, if you give it the time, you give it the consistency. You have the persistent to do it. Majority of people. Try something for a couple of times and when they don't see the results, they back off right away. So in this case, you won't be able to learn it. But being an entrepreneur, of course, you can learn it.

Seif: But I want to highlight one thing which is extremely important. Being an entrepreneur or being a corporate guy, both are good. What is good for you is good for you. It's not that the trend that everybody's an entrepreneur and his own boss that you [00:11:00] want to be the same. And this is the best thing. No, there are great corporate people and there are great entrepreneurs.

Seif: There are failed corporate people and there are failed entrepreneurs. Each and every has its own way of developing their own skills. You need just to put the time in it. You need to put the consistency in it, the discipline in it. And that's why when the people tell you you need to have the passion, why it's passion, because the passion can keeps you going.

Seif: As we said, you wake up in the morning, you don't know when. Your, your project, your idea will flip to become profitable, to become positive. So it takes a lot of time. For this to happen,

Mehmet: right? And even Seif, I know some people, they call them sometime intrapreneur. So actually, if you have this, you know, you like the change, but you are not, uh, you know, you don't have that, as they say, the thick skin to go outside of the corporate and do it by yourself.

Mehmet: But I've seen also [00:12:00] people who do it very good within the corporate itself. Like, I mean, they try to change things. They try to push for the best, right?

Seif: Absolutely. And a lot of organizations are pushing for this as well, for intrapreneurs. A lot of organization because they see the value in it. When you develop the people in that kind of skill sets, of course, you will bring creativity.

Seif: We'll bring innovation to the organization itself,

Mehmet: right?

Seif: And at the same time, you're not losing the talent.

Mehmet: Absolutely. Absolutely. Seif. Like when also you were doing the introduction and you know, the audience, majority of the audience and your audience, they know you've been in different industries, right?

Mehmet: So, so like between, uh, consumer electronics and, you know, when in your corporate job and then the, the, the gyms and, you know, the, all these things. So how did you manage, you know, as an entrepreneur being innovative and, you know, also industry's changing very fast. So, [00:13:00] and especially now we are living in a world that every day we have this especially with the AI thing that's happening.

Mehmet: So from, from your perspective with all your experience in the both worlds, I would say what you can tell us on staying ahead in a rapidly changing industries.

Seif: Number one, always keep to be on top of your game. Meaning like, always be updated with the, I'm not going to say news, but new tools, new information within your industry.

Seif: But Mehmet, I'll go one step backwards. You can be a master of all things. Which means like a lot of people think that, okay, being an entrepreneur, you could be a parallel entrepreneur from the beginning. Parallel entrepreneur means you can run a lot of projects at the same time. No, in the beginning, if somebody starting his career as an entrepreneur, focus on one thing first.

Seif: And then from this one thing, expand, uh, expand is expand afterwards. So it's not being having multi things from the beginning. You start first with one [00:14:00] and then you expand. That's exactly happened with me. Besides corporate life, I'm, I'm, I'm in love with electronics. So like, that's why I was always with mobile devices, Samsung and so on and so forth.

Seif: Afterwards, my next move was, uh, was with real estate. Okay, and developing the real estate real estate real estate. I found a complimentary thing on it Which is tourism and then complimentary thing gyms and then complimentary things F& B restaurants So I was always linking my main or core business with other Projects different industry, but it complements it this being said in each and every business unit You get the best in order to help you You in this kind of industry.

Seif: So again, when people tell you, uh, you need to surround yourself with the best team, of course, you need to surround yourself with the best team. If you're trying to run a conglomerate, a multi industry businesses, the best [00:15:00] example of it is Richard Branson. He runs over 400 brands. Is he running the 400 brands?

Seif: Of course not. He has the capability to recruit the best talents for each business to run on its own.

Mehmet: Absolutely. Of course, because, uh, if you decide to do everything by yourself, and this is, I think one of the mistakes majority of the people they do, They think they can figure it out all and then they feel that they get, they are getting burned out, right?

Mehmet: And then they, they, they quit. They just quit. Now, another thing, Saif, is, uh, and you talk a little bit about it, but maybe people can benefit from, from, from your experience. Now, and this is related a little bit to the mindset. So, and I was one of the people also who, who lived it now, especially when we decide to go become an entrepreneur and again, figuring out [00:16:00] your thing and knowing what is waiting for you, but still at some moments that they have to struggle with You know, fear and self doubt say, okay, can I do it?

Mehmet: Will I succeed? So what do you think, you know, the best thing people can do if really, really, they have the real entrepreneurial spirit, what they should, what they should do to overcome this holding back feeling and get on the You know, this failure and, uh, you know, this imposter syndrome, I would say that, Oh, people will laugh and be, people will think I'm a failure.

Mehmet: What's the best way to overcome this?

Seif: Okay. There are two things we'll talk about. Fear, fear in general, and we'll talk about opinions of people. Okay. I will tell you a very good research that was done on fear. Okay. And people will understand what does it mean? Fear in general. So fear in general, it's an illusion.

Seif: It's not something real, uh, [00:17:00] real. Okay. Okay. It's an illusion that your brain is imagining something for you. Okay. In the future. So fear is not real. It's an illusion different than risk. So they did the research for the people who jump with parachutes from the plane. Okay. So they put the heart monitor on their, um, on their heart.

Seif: When they were on the ground and they were checking the heart heart monitor. Okay. So when the plane was ascending to the height where the people will jump, the heart monitor was very high. Okay. The heartbeat was very high. Once they jumped. And they did the action, the heart rate went down. So what is the, what is the lesson out of this research is that in order to fight fear, you need to take an action because fear again, is not something real, it's an illusion in order to grow.

Seif: You need to fight your fear or in other language. We say, befriend your fear. So once there is a fear, it doesn't stop me. It makes [00:18:00] me go towards it because I want to grow. So that is for fear. It's an illusion. And if you F E A R, feel, uh, false evidence appearing real, then it's not real. It's something that allows you to grow.

Seif: That's for fear for the opinion of people. When I'm trying to do something that I want to grow, uh, I have a very nice analogy to it. Let's say somebody died. Okay. And there is a funeral for that person. Let's say how many people will come to this funeral? 10 people. And these 10 people that will really cry, who will really cry for that person, cry, you understand, which means care out of this 10, five.

Seif: And let's say the weather was bad. There is a thunderstorm. There is rain. There is, there is out of this five who will come three. So why should you care about the opinions of people that hold you from your [00:19:00] dreams while you know, the end result is what? Three, two people who really care when you disappear.

Seif: So opinions of people should not be the thing that stops you. And I always love to say what, listen to the opinions of people. Take what makes you better and the other mute. You know the TV when you're opening a movie and you don't want to watch it. You just press mute. You just see mouth, uh, just moving.

Seif: You don't listen to them. So that's for fear and opinion of people.

Mehmet: Like, uh, amazing examples. I would say Seif, like, you know, even the, the idea of, you know, facing the field, like going towards it, like it's something very big and this brings. Us to discuss also About the concept of growth mindset like I know in recent years people talk about growth mindset growth mindset But actually this is one part of the growth mindset is like to say it's not like okay [00:20:00] This is something dangerous But doesn't mean that I cannot overcome it, right?

Mehmet: So How important you know it is to to really have this? Uh growth mindset developed You For a, I would say healthy entrepreneurial journey. When I say healthy entrepreneurial journey, I don't mean like, like everything again will be pinkish and nice, but at least to prepare you to prepare ourselves. So we need to develop this growth mindset mindset.

Mehmet: So other than this, what, like some practices or belief that you think are crucial for developing this resiliency and, you know, this, this, this, this Always being ready to face the fear mindset.

Seif: So like, if we're talking about the growth mindset, Mehmet, the most important thing to be willing to learn and always keeping yourself up to date with information.

Seif: information and knowledge. Second thing is be willing to fail [00:21:00] because failure is part of the process. So if you think that failure is the end, you can't have a growth mindset. So be willing to fail. And if I'm going to talk about failure, I want also to give an example about success and failure so people can really relate to it.

Seif: You see this pen, this is, we call it the pendulum of success. On one side, there is joy, happiness, and the maximum is success. And the other part, there is like obstacles, pain, failure. This is a pendulum. In order to succeed to the, to the maximum, You need to fail to the maximum. So it's like a pendulum. You more push it to the failure, the more it will propel you to succeed.

Seif: And that's why we say that failure is part of success. So feel fast, feel big, but make sure that you learn from it. That is. The failure part, the most important thing, be also willing to have child mindset. [00:22:00] What, what do I mean by a child mindset? When we were children, when we were kids, you were doing everything right.

Seif: There is no, I will not say there was no limitations. Your mind was in extremely growth mindset. You were trying things, you're failing example. You, you wanted to walk, you stand up as a kid, you walk, you fall. You don't look at people, tell you, Oh shit, you're there. They're smiling at you. You stand up again and walk until you make it happen.

Seif: But then there's a moment of time. Then your family jumps in and start installing for you fear. Don't do this. Don't do that. This is wrong. This is right. And you start your mind to close about certain beliefs. So in order to have a growth mindset, you need to have a child mind, be willing to experiment, be willing to learn, be willing to try new things, be willing to pivot.

Seif: A lot of [00:23:00] people are so stubborn to the level that they don't want to even to pivot. Like I'm going with an idea, going, going, going, and you hit the wall. Then you stand up again. Okay. Hit the wall. Then you, you understand? No, when you hit the wall, sit down. reflect, see what went wrong. So when you stand up back again, you can pivot and go ahead.

Mehmet: Absolutely. And, you know, I will give example from myself. If you allow me Seif, like, uh, yeah. And this is for the audience. And why I asked him this question, because, you know, if I say it, Maybe it's not enough, but you, you hear it from, from multiple people. And this is how it happened exactly to me. Because when I hear the same concept from one guy, I had doubts what he's talking about cannot be true.

Mehmet: You know, and there's the ego factor also Seif, you know, like, Oh, I know it better than anyone who's this guy, you know, but what magically happens if you put yourself and this is what happened to me at least. In in [00:24:00] these conversations multiple times and then you come to the point you said hey, hold on one second There's another word out there.

Mehmet: I need to remove this Program. I can't remember exactly who said this but I was this video is available everywhere where I say like when you when we are Children, so you have your memory is empty and then you have you know, we start to put these bad programs And then you know you need to remove these And put again to reprogram yourself.

Mehmet: And this is exactly what I did, you know? Uh, and because I was thinking, uh, there's no other way of doing things. What I learned when I was in school and I was kid, this is the word. And then exactly. So I started to change this and to your point, also. And this is related to ego. And I like to highlight this for first time founders, mainly for new, new people to business.

Mehmet: I mean, um, you need to, to save this point. You need to accept [00:25:00] failure and actually pivot from it. By the way, say if I removed the word failure from my dictionary, I call it learning, right? So I don't see it as a failure in a sense that it's bad. You know, I see it as a positive thing.

Seif: There is a difference between, I feel.

Seif: And I got defeated. The word defeat is out of a dictionary. If I fail this time, the war is not done. Or the battle is not finished. The battle is finished, either I win or I get defeated and defeated is out of the dictionary.

Mehmet: Exactly, exactly. Now, Saif, one thing also, which you did perfectly, I would say, and I'm big, I would say advocate of that, which is the personal branding.

Mehmet: You work, you work in marketing, right? So you are the CMO at Samsung. So you know it better than anyone else. Why do you believe personal branding? In this age of business and entrepreneurship is very very important [00:26:00]

Seif: generations changed Okay, like generations of people changed like when you're talking about the gen z the gen alphas.

Seif: These are the people relate more to Uh humans or people rather than brands. Okay, like logos and websites and so on and so forth So that's one part like generations and buying behavior of people completely changed than before the boomers and the gen x and gen y So moving forward people relate more to people so not companies The second part of it to answer this question, I always love to say there is only one thing or only one legal, and again, stressing on it, legal monopoly business model available on earth.

Seif: Only one legal monopoly, which is personal branding. Anybody, any entity, any government, anything, they can take your assets, whatever you want, your companies and, and, and, but the only thing they can take from you is your personal brand. [00:27:00]

Mehmet: Your voice, you mean?

Seif: Your voice, your values that you give, these are all your personal brand attributes.

Seif: So this is the second thing. The third thing is When you have a strong personal brand, it becomes an opposite way of doing, I would say doing business means when you have a strong personal brand opportunities come to you rather than you go after opportunities.

Mehmet: Love this.

Seif: So these are the main three things why people should really build their personal brand in order to expand either within their career.

Seif: Within their corporate career or as an entrepreneur as well. Tesla as a company is a company that is built for almost 10 years, right? Versus Ford motors, which was built in the early 1900s. So the gap is unbelievable. The market capitalization of each company is equal. [00:28:00] Equal. Do you understand? Like equal.

Seif: And that's the power of what? The personal brand of Elon Musk. Elon Musk. Whether we like him, whether we don't like him, whether we, he has some strange, doesn't matter. He's a hero for some people. He's authentic. He is, he is, he is. And that's the power of a personal brand of Elon Musk. People are no longer love a logo, no longer love a website, no longer fall in love with an ad copy.

Seif: They fall in love with people.

Mehmet: Actually, I think Seth, it was always the case, but at some stage, you know, when the age of, uh, you know, I would say internet came in. Yeah, but this is my theory is actually people always buy from people always do business with people. They they can trust and build relationships.

Mehmet: For long term relationship with them now to this point, and this is my theory and this is why people who knows me and I [00:29:00] don't hide it. I don't, it's not like I hate, but I don't like people who comes to me and say, we're going to do like an outreach campaign out. I say, okay, you can't do outreach campaign, but if you are lucky, especially in the region where we live in Seif, Seif you know, this very well.

Mehmet: Also, if I sent today, let's say a hundred thousand emails. Like right to people I don't know Probably I would receive how many how many replies I would receive if I try to cold call I don't know 10 000 people why because people they would ask. I don't know. I never saw you. Who are you, right? So this is why I start also this this journey myself in in in personal branding Not because I want to show off but I want people to know who I am, right?

Seif: Exactly,

Mehmet: and this is and this is something you mentioned about Of course, Elon Musk, we can agree with him or disagree with him, but he did a fantastic job in exposing his character and he do it in a very authentic way. And this is my question saved. Now, we see a lot [00:30:00] of influencers and I don't know, different names on social media.

Mehmet: And at some stage we feel that You know, these guys are not really being authentic. So how, of course, at the same time, people, they, they want also their voice to be heard. So sometimes they need to do something which is not like in, I'll say alignment with maybe their values, right? Which is not good. So from your experience, what is the best approach to keep, you know, the authenticity and at the same time, try to, to reach the public as much as possible, especially when we are, you know, on the social media and we are in the age where, you know, everyone can pick his phone or her phone and, and, you know, stream live to, to, uh, thousands and hundreds of thousands of people.

Seif: Of course, number one, you need to be yourself. Okay. Being authentic. And in order to excel in anything you want as a human. It has to be aligned with your values. So like if people tell me I need to do [00:31:00] something against my values, I'm not from this type of school. You have to align to your values in order to have a long run.

Seif: So being the idea of fake it until you make it, uh, it doesn't work anymore because it's going to be exposed and you're building for the long run. Whoever is successful is not successful because of luck. I can be successful one time, two times, but in order to be successful, you have to be consistently over a long period of time, successful.

Seif: And in order to succeed with being, having a strong personal brand, you have to be authentic. And the one thing I want to add in it being authentic, because people take it in the wrong way, which means, uh, every time I should go out looking presentable when I go on video or live or, or, or being authentic means when I wake up from the bed, I just.

Seif: Uh, uh, open the camera and speak. No, being authentic is something and being presentable and respecting the people that you're speaking to is something else [00:32:00] that's an absolute different thing. So if I want to speak to my audience in my story, my messaging, I have to be representing myself and my message in the best way possible.

Seif: It's not about faking or I'm just waking up and I'm doing whatever it is. No respected. It's like in sales. Let's put it in a simple way. The first impression lost. You cannot go and make a sales deal when your nails are wrong, not shaved. Who said that you're not shaved and looking like crap? That's being authentic.

Seif: No, that's not being authentic. That's being crap. A

Mehmet: hundred percent. Of course. So, so it's a good, uh, I would say, um, point about being presentable and being authentic. So for me, like, of course. I need to look also nice in front of the people. Right. So

Seif: you're a role model for some people. Right. Up to you.

Seif: There are kids [00:33:00] or young age looking at you. You're looking, they're looking up to you. Your role is to be the best role model for such people. You cannot say like, I'm just waking up unshaved, undressed. Well, on, on, on, on. Because I'm authentic. No, that's being crap. Again, we need to differentiate being crap and just being authentic.

Mehmet: But back to the point of authenticity, Saif, like for me, it's about being able to share your vulnerabilities also as well. Like, for example, let's say if I did something wrong to have the courage to say, guys, Today I tried to do this and I didn't succeed. Right? Or maybe if I have, um, some weakness towards something to share it with people.

Mehmet: True. Like this is my point of view on authenticity. At the same time, it's about to, not to exaggerate the things too much in a way that people say, okay, this guy is faking it as to your point, like [00:34:00] he's making it to till he's faking it, till he make it or she make it. Mm-Hmm, . So it's important to have this balance and.

Mehmet: You know, I've seen people like yourself, Saif, because I was following also your videos. You've been very professional, but at the same time, you know, when you're talking to, because I'm going to ask you about the podcast. So, so you're on your podcast also as well. And what I have noticed, Saif, is that you make your guests also very comfortable.

Mehmet: What's, what's your secret sauce here?

Seif: Um, very interesting question, but the main thing I let the person in front of me speak what they want. I don't try to drive the conversation in a way that I see it correct. I like the person in front of me feel comfortable in saying what's in their heart. Um, that's the main thing.

Seif: And of course, a well prepared interview or a conversation, because you cannot carry with a person to build a rapport with a person when you [00:35:00] don't know anything about that person, which I've been on different podcasts where the person in front of me has no idea. Didn't do any preparation. The conversation becomes very dry, very short, not deep.

Seif: There is no roots, the master of anything you have to have the proper preparation, not the extreme one, but there is a particular level of information you need to have as a host in order to carry with me a particular level of conversation. And that's what I do on my podcast.

Mehmet: And I asked you about the podcast because it's becoming also like, do you agree with me as one way to build, establish the, the personal brand as well?

Seif: It's, you know, it's having a podcast is an absolutely has different, you know, like when you have one stone hit couple of rabbits, personal brand, of course, networking. opportunities, giving people the content that you want. Like when I'm doing the podcast, I'm giving my audience the type of content that I believe it will make them better, will inspire them, will empower them.[00:36:00]

Seif: So it's killing different rabbits with just one stone.

Mehmet: Absolutely. This is what I aim also, honestly, to, to do the same Seif on, on, on the show as well. Hopefully I hope that, uh, I'm succeeding to me. I always tell people like if today I managed to, uh, Touch one person in this world and he get inspired or she get inspired or they do something positive because of what they learned from the guests that, uh, thankfully they joined me on this mission.

Mehmet: I'm very happy actually. Now, I

Seif: want to, I want to circle back to one thing because I think it's going to be interesting for the entrepreneurs watching us. We talked about, uh, Elon Musk as a good personal brand has a good personal brand, but he's also a smart entrepreneur because Being a smart entrepreneur means you don't focus so much on the product.

Seif: Okay. And I will say again, you don't focus so much on the product.[00:37:00]

Seif: Don't focus so much on the supply side. You focus so much on the demand side. Again, I will repeat it in another way. A lot of people, when you speak to it, to them, they tell you, I'm thinking about my project. I'm thinking about my project. I'm thinking, I'm thinking, I'm cooking, I'm cooking, I'm cooking, thinking, thinking, thinking ideas and projects are not tested in your brains.

Seif: Ideas and projects are tested in the market. Of course. And the best way, the best way to make it as an entrepreneur is to signal and push demand up, not the product. An example of Elon Musk, why I said this, when he announced his cyber truck, he collected orders for the cyber truck when the cyber truck didn't exist.

Seif: Yes. Correct. Which means he focused so much on the demand side To check the demand, to signal for the [00:38:00] demand before he provided the supply in our life. Now in our world, majority of people reverse the whole thing. I focus so much on the supply. And then when I finished with the supply, I have the product.

Seif: I suck. There is no demand.

Mehmet: 100 percent true. This is why we tell people go out of the building and see what they want.

Seif: Exactly. So that's one of the main skills of being a supplier. An entrepreneur is to be able to signal demand before you push your supply.

Mehmet: Thank you for bringing This Seif and it's good to hear it from you also as, as, uh, a veteran entrepreneur as well.

Mehmet: Just a couple of weeks back, I shared, you know, um, something just to inspire, you know, entrepreneurs about the same thing that you need to go and test. And to do the test, you need to find out what the people want. And actually you don't need to pay because some people come to me and say, Hey, we have this idea.

Mehmet: [00:39:00] It's like super cool. We want to build it. And the first question I asked them, okay, who won this? Do you think it's cool or, or there are people who won this? And I just give them example from, you know, like Cybertruck and the Apex Elon Musk is good. I tell them, you know, Dropbox, the application where you can share files with each others.

Mehmet: The guy literally, he recorded a video for a product that didn't exist. And then he put, he put it as a landing page and they sign up. And once he, he saw like a lot of people like signing up for this, then he, then he created Dropbox and they tell them, see, like, keep it simple. Like there's the, this keep it stupid, simple thing.

Mehmet: Exactly. I tell them, I beg them because sometimes, especially in the tech space, they come and say, Hey, you know, we have this quotation for a hundred thousand dollars. So just build a prototype. I said, you're crazy. You don't need to pay this. First, go validate your idea. You need to see if it's good.

Mehmet: Another thing about Elon Musk, and thank you for reminding me, Saif, he's the example of perseverance, actually. I'm not sure if [00:40:00] many of the audience there, they have seen, you know, the, the interview when the guy's asking him, you know, what do you, what you will do if this, uh, with space as space X, actually the rocket company, he said, never, he said, even if I have to sell everything, even if I have to start from zero.

Mehmet: I will not give up until he, and he said, even if I lose all the support and he was upset, like, uh, what the famous, uh, you know, astronauts from NASA, they didn't endorse him and said, okay, I was sad, but I want to do this. And actually the guy succeeded and now he's, you know, having the big contracts. You know, how many rockets

Seif: were exploded on the way to, Oh, This.

Seif: That's the, that's persistence.

Mehmet: Yeah. This is the persistence and perseverance and the guy, you know, maybe people, if you go again, you can agree with what he do or what he doesn't do or whatever, but he have this mindset of he never give up. And he did it many times. He was sleeping on, in, in, in, [00:41:00] in a studio with, in, sorry, in the office when he was building also the previous, the PayPal, you know, at the PayPal times.

Mehmet: So like, this is the grit that we talk about. This is, you know, the, the hustle. He has the grid.

Seif: He's highly intelligent. You know, when we talked about this cyber truck again, yeah, do you know the power, the power, when you signal demand, like go back to the cyber truck, I will create a cyber truck. There is no product.

Seif: There is no assembly line. There is nothing. And I make the signaling. I will say, I will open pre order. Okay. And then with his personal brand, he signals. So he gets, Thousands of orders, right? Then he takes this thousands of orders and go to investors. Says, I have an idea and I have lined up thousands of people want to buy.

Seif: Will you invest? Can you imagine? Can you imagine? Of course he gets the [00:42:00] investments. He has the personal brand. He has an idea. Um, he has already orders placed on it. Of course, you're getting the investments,

Mehmet: the traction.

Seif: That's an entrepreneurship. That's entrepreneurship.

Mehmet: It's good. You mentioned this Seif because again, um, especially in our region, this startup entrepreneurship, it's starting to pick up and people, they think, ah, I have idea.

Mehmet: I will go to investors and investors will give me money. And I tell them, no guys, it doesn't happen like this first. They need to see who you are. Before the product, they need to see if you have created any traction, like, have you validated your idea? And then they will look at the product and the market size and all, you know, these other things.

Mehmet: So it's, it's very, very important. Um, save the, you know, the, the, the final topic for, for today, which is actually very interesting. So you created the alpha movement. Now why it's called alpha. Right. First of all, now I know personally, but this is for [00:43:00] the audience and, you know, tell us more about, you know, its significance in, in the world of entrepreneurship and personal development.

Seif: Okay. Yeah. Okay. Let me start by saying like, what is an alpha because people will think it's either, uh, it's a male oriented thing. It's not a female, no, it's a male and oriented, uh, male and female oriented concept. So it's not, when we say alpha, it's not only about males, it's about both genders, but Back in the days when, when we were talking about alphas, we were talking about the people who are, um, uh, they have controlling behavior.

Seif: They have, um, uh, egocentricity. They're selfish and, and, and, correct. Yes. And these are the leaders, uh, of the animal back. This is the first letter of the Greek alphabet. But when modern days happen, the alpha traits already. evolved as well. So how I define an alpha, it's either a male or a female. I say the alpha, I [00:44:00] have several traits, but if I summarize it, I say an alpha lack, again, lacks something that everybody around has.

Seif: Again, he lacks or she lacks something that everybody around has. Then you will tell me, what is this thing? I say, this is the stop button. Our stop button is broken. We don't stop. We're obsessed about our goals. We're obsessed about our objectives. So beside this high level header, I would say the traits of the modern alpha is what?

Seif: A person who is a leader, a person who takes tough decisions, a person who's fiercely determined, a person who's responsible. For the loved ones and, uh, the people around him, the person who's impactful, skillful, these are all traits of a modern alpha rather than the old concept of an alpha. You will come and [00:45:00] tell me, okay, you becoming an alpha being selfish, uh, selfish, because you're reaching the objective.

Seif: If you, if you look at it from this perspective, take it as selfish, take it as whatever, but it's not driven by selfishness. It's driven by being, having an objective. When you put all these traits together, that creates an unstoppable person, either for yourself, for your loved ones. And for the career or the objectives that you're heading after either, either you're in corporate or you as an entrepreneur.

Mehmet: Saif, actually, this is very good point. You mentioned like how you look at it and just related to what we were discussing a few minutes ago. This is the mistake. If we always think that, you know, if I want to be like, Unstoppable. I mean, super successful. If I want to see it as selfish, I think this is where the problem actually, and this is again, to the, to the beliefs, because think about it.

Mehmet: And I mean, [00:46:00] this is why, you know, when I read a little bit, uh, you know, about it, say if I watched a couple of videos that you did, of course, you know, if you asked me maybe three years back, I would say what you just said, what this guy has told me about, I mean, it's too much selfish and too much like now, of course, I think about a different way.

Mehmet: I say, okay. If I am doing good, actually, if I'm doing excellent, first of all, I can make everyone around me. I mean, my close circle, excellent, right? My family, my kids, you know, my team, your people, your community. Exactly. And then you take it on. You start to expand the circle from your very close circle to the mid circle to the world.

Mehmet: And actually this is why, you know, I think everyone should look to be, you know, an alpha. And again, thank you for mentioning because, you know, it's not about being male oriented or female oriented. Anyone can, in my opinion. And, um, [00:47:00] But this is, you know, how we can apply this, for example, in, in, in leadership styles, you know, for business mainly, and for entrepreneurs.

Mehmet: If I want to, to, to really have the impact of making other people around me, also alphas, what's, what's the way to do that?

Seif: We will revert back to the main concept of leadership. And it's the only one. The leader is, In a simple way, you lead by example. So if you want people to, uh, people in your teams, like kids, how kids grow up, they mirror their family members.

Seif: Correct. So in order to, to embody the alpha traits, you lead by example. So your team will follow you to this. So that's the main thing. And when we talk about the leadership traits and characteristics is the leadership sets the pace. The leadership takes the responsibility. The leadership has the vision.[00:48:00]

Seif: It all narrows down by leading by example. I cannot talk to my team member and tell him be creative and I'm not creative. Be a hardworking and I'm chilling all night. Uh, come to office early and I come to office at five o'clock.

Seif: So being an alpha from a leadership standpoint, Simple way lead by example, and everything will follow. You see a lot of corporate corporations, like in Silicon Valley or different. Even when the leadership is super formal, they go to the, uh, the office formal suits. Majority of the stuff are like this.

Seif: Even not by dress code of the company. But if the leadership is casual, hippie, Zappos, for example, the whole organization is like that. Leadership is leading [00:49:00] by example. Leadership is setting the pace. Leadership is taking the responsibility. Leadership is having the vision for the people. You can't be an alpha when you don't have the vision for the people.

Seif: People will not follow you if there is no vision. Where are we heading? Where are we heading to?

Mehmet: Absolutely. You know, like there's always this, uh, you know, they share it on different social media showing difference between a manager and a leader. And I think, you know, like leadership, it's not about having the title.

Mehmet: A big believer that leadership is not a title. It's it's a role model that Anyone, if have, they have the traits of the alpha that you just mentioned, Saif, they will become a leader. Now, I'm big believer that you don't need the title to become a leader. Do you agree with me on this?

Seif: Of course, you can, you can be leader.

Seif: Again, you can be leader of your small team. You can be leader of the department. Just take the initiative, right? You need to take the initiative. It's, it's something that you [00:50:00] develop in yourself and it's something that you're not born with it. The leadership skills, the leadership traits, it's something that you develop in yourself on an ongoing basis.

Mehmet: Absolutely, absolutely Seif. Like, uh, we've covered a lot today. Now this is something I ask always at the end of each episode. If you want to leave us today and the audience, of course, who are about to become entrepreneurs or, you know, they have, you know, Really ideas and they want to explore it and become founders.

Mehmet: And, you know, like our region became very active in this actually here, here in the MENA region. So final words of wisdom from you Saif and where people can get in touch with you, like anything that you, uh, there are any books, is there like any courses, uh, if you can tell us about that. I'll just, So

Seif: I just launched my book that's gonna, it's available [00:51:00] on, uh, on Amazon.

Seif: So people can find it on Amazon. It's called Unleash the Alpha. But if I'm going to say like a couple of things for aspiring entrepreneurs, which is, uh, the most important thing is number one, always have a design for success, model people, model organization. Number two is be willing to pivot. Always be willing to pivot.

Seif: Uh, nobody started with something and it ended up with the same thing. Exactly. Be willing to pivot, learn from your failures, manage your cash flow very well, assemble a great team around you. These are the five, the five main things I always tell aspiring entrepreneurs to do, and people want to reach me out.

Seif: I'm always available on all social media. My main channel is actually on Instagram, Saif Al Hakim, uh, on Instagram.

Mehmet: Perfect. Great, Saif. Thank you very much. And really, I appreciate, you know, you being with me here today. for having me. Uh, you added a [00:52:00] lot of insights and a lot of knowledge, I would say, and I'm sure the audience will benefit out of it.

Mehmet: It's been a pleasure,

Seif: and let me take a photo. Sure. A big smile map. Perfect man.

Mehmet: Thank you very much Seif for being with me here today. And again, uh, for the audience, you will find all the links and the link to the book and the social media handles of Seif in the show notes. So don't worry about searching yourself.

Mehmet: I will do the job for you. And this how usually I end my episode. So this is for the audience. If you just discovered this podcast by luck. Thank you very much for passing by. If you enjoyed it, thank you. Please do subscribe. We are available on all podcasting platforms and on YouTube as well. And if you are one of the loyal followers who keep coming, who keep sending me their messages, feedbacks, and suggestions.

Mehmet: Thank you very much. I read them all. Keep them coming. And if you are also interested to be on the show, the mission is to bring more people who can enlighten others. And if you yourself [00:53:00] have an idea and you think you're not able to get, you know, the traction of it, you need to let your voice be heard somewhere.

Mehmet: Please reach out to me. I would love to have you on the show. And as usual, thank you very much for tuning in. We'll be again very soon. Thank you. Bye bye.