Dubai's debt is not a big problem….unless we want it to be

The past couple of months have witnessed optimism in Dubai’s businesses; People realized that there is no use of being over protective and that corporate spending is the only way to build back confidence.

Just until… Dubai has asked to delay payment on billions of dollars of debt issued by conglomerate Dubai World and its main property subsidiary Nakheel.

As this might come at a shock, analysts around the region were not that surprised by the news, as for the past year real estate in Dubai was disastrous and the restructuring of Nakheel did not make the most of sense.

The funny part is how the international media disagrees on what could be the possible results of that standstill. The “TIMESONLINE” entitles its article “Dubai debt fears threaten credit crunch 2 — and RBS is exposed” and talks about how serious this second version of the crisis could be for the whole world. While CNN.com entitles its article “Dubai debt woes 'a drama, but no crisis” and says the debt revelations from Dubai this week will not lead the global economy back into recession, but have seriously damaged the Emirate's standing as a leading financial hub.

The pessimism in the British media stems from the amount of money that British banks have been exposed to in the troubled Dubai World case , notably RBS, Barclays and HSBC.

The solution:

Abu Dhabi has promised to look at the Dubai World setback, and to offer a case by case solution, in efforts to assist its little brother Dubai in solving its problems. People tend to forget that Abu Dhabi and Dubai are both part of the same country, and if the reputation of Dubai is ruined, Abu Dhabi will also be affected.

Now is the time for the UAE private companies to step in and help the general Dubai atmosphere gaining confidence. A lot of opportunities still exist in the country, access to liquidity is still available and as “Banque Saudi Fransi - Credit Agricole Group” puts it “quality deterioration simply is not an issue in Saudi Arabia, Abu Dhabi and Qatar”

What companies in the private and public sectors should do is to continue on hiring, spending and investing, without shying off, and the Emirates will be back on track as if nothing happened.

Camil El Khoury

The Author is the Chief Vision Officer of ideas group www.ideasgrp.com

ideas Group is a global learning and human capital development firm specialized in leadership and team development. We help our clients become high performance organizations and foster a sustainable growth.
We strive to continue on partnering with our clients, finding solutions for their sustainable performance through services that include management consulting, generic courses for immediate impact, tailor-made workshops and transformational experiential learning experiences. Ideas group provide consultancy services and learning & development training to a number of Clients in the UK, UAE (Abu Dhabi, Dubai), Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain, Syria, Egypt, Iran, Morocco and Lebanon.

How can you win the $75 Million Lottery

I woke up this morning on unusual news: “The winning ticket holders of the UK's largest-ever lottery prize are a married couple from Newport, in south Wales, and a syndicate from Liverpool. The two tickets will take a £45,570,835.50 share approx $75Million.

And when the couple was asked about what will they do with the money: they have both answered, “That’s a lot of money, we don’t know”

And the entrepreneur in me started thinking: “what If I won that lottery, what would I do with it?” and since I know how to always get rid of that responsibility called money, I have quickly divided it into several functions the first being injecting cash in my company to hire more people and create new experiential learning programs, and the second was to take some time off, focusing on writing my next book about business strategy….and with all those waves of thoughts I woke up from my daydream and realized that I didn’t win the lottery, however I was covered with hope and motivation, a motivation to make things happen.

And then I started researching lotteries and their past winners, only to discover that all what lottery companies do is sell hope, a hope so dim that can be outperformed by our minds. Coming to think about it your chance of winning that lottery is one in 50 million that is 0.00000002 %

And right at that moment, a thought came to my mind, “How can I start doing those things with the means that I have” i.e. without the $75 Million, and a million ideas came to my head of which I have captured on a mindmap, and decided to start acting upon those.

My question for you is: “What would you do if you won the $75 Million Lottery?” ………………………………………………………………………………………. Once you come up with that list, start acting on what you can do now with your current means, and what would you need to influence to be able to achieve that full list and bang… here is your big lottery win.

The author Camil El Khoury is the Chief Vision Officer of ideas group an experiential learning consultancy that facilitates and sustains organizational performance. Ideas group serves its clients from its 2 offices Dubai – United Arab Emirates and Beirut –Lebanon and conducts workshops with organizations from the Middle East and Africa. www.ideasgrp.com

I want to quit my job but...

A lot of people come to me saying: “I want to quit my job and start doing what I love, but we live in the real world and that world is not perfect, besides my family depends on me and who would hire me in a time of financial downturn” and the list of excuses is seasonal; it could include political situations, bankrupting industries, age, gender and whatever comes to your mind.
My usual response is a question: “Besides thinking of quitting your job, what are the steps that you are taking in order to be closer to what you love?” and the answer is often a disappointing look on my questioner’s face.
When you want to implement a change in your life, it doesn’t come suddenly and luck has nothing to do with it; it is about being prepared to move into the next step; Preparation meeting opportunity… that is luck, opportunity without preparation is called missing out and not bad luck.
Being proactive is about choosing what you want to achieve instead of letting the society, your family, or your boss choose on your behalf, it is about taking control of your life and start acting on it. The below 4 steps will help you keep on track in your self-discovery journey.

1- Discover your values:
Before deciding on what you want to do, you have to understand who you are, what do you believe in, and what are the important things for you. Once you come up with your values, put them to the test and make sure that they are not only there because they sound good but because those are your genuine values.

2- Differentiate between a hobby and a career:
When you find your driving force and decide on what you want to be doing, make sure that you differentiate hobbies from careers. Anything that you love and doesn’t make you any money is a hobby and any other thing that you love and provides enough money to cover up your needs is a career.


3- Take it one step at a time:
If you want to jump in the new venture without preparation, there is a big chance that you will be quitting at the beginning. Think about your long term goals, divide the goals into yearly chunks and then schedule them weekly. Doing that, will ensure a smooth transition from your current state to your desired state.

4- Be persistent
The common observed behavior between Sir Richard Branson, Nicolas Hayek, Steve Jobs, Bill Gates and Oprah is that they didn’t quit at the first difficult challenge, and as a matter of fact the ride was not easy for them. With the recurring persistence, they have managed to keep on track and achieved what they were meant to be achieving.

So next time you think of a change, look for what you can do and what you can influence and not what concerns you.

Camil Khoury is the Chief Vision Officer of ideas group and author of “Do what you Love, Love what you do”

Camil's interview on Dubai Eye

Talking about the release of the new book "Do what you love, love what you do", Camil explains the importance of taking charge of your own life and start getting to where you want to get in life.

To listen just click on the title above

For Michael Schumacher, High Performance becomes a habit

In an article in the guardian Allen Henry quotes the world’s championship leader Jenson Button “Michael Schumacher is brave to be back to formula one”. This statement holds true from different angles. First, coming back as a seven times world champion, is not easy at all; you are a legend and you are expected to race as one, especially in Formula one where you are as good as your last race. Second, with all the new regulations, testing is not allowed, so Michael will only get in the F1 car, the same weekend of his first post-retirement race.

However Michael has been acting very normal towards the fact of his return and said in a blog posting on his website that he is looking to be very competitive.

How does a person like Michael Schumacher come back after 3 years in retirement and competes with the world’s top drivers?

Back in 1997, when Michael was competing against Jacques Villeneuve to the title, he couldn’t handle the pressure very well, as he drove into Jacques car in an attempt to drive him out of his way. This incident did not only hurt his image but also made him realize that in order to get sustainable results, one has to handle the pressure and make the best of it. Indeed in the years that followed that incident Michael was training hard to handle the pressure, and in several situations he has proven to the world that he acquired and mastered that new skill.

Now that the pressure is back again, and that the stakes are high, we tried to follow Michael steps and see how is he dealing with his return, and not to our surprise we found out that he is following what we call the performance CREDO. Communications, Relaxation, Exercise, Diet and Organization.

He first started to Communicate and consult the situation with the team engineers to see how to optimize the use of the car on the circuit.

He is also using relaxation techniques to stay focused and remove all the tense.

During the following 2 weeks, Michael will be following an intensive physical training course and a fitness and diet program to make sure he is in shape for the new challenge.

He decided to divide his time between meeting with the experts, trying to drive around laps (not in a F1 car as per regulations), and with his organization he feels he has more than enough time to be ready for the Valencia race.

So let’s observe together how this legend will be back on the peak of performance and handle the pressure that is magnified by his fans.

For additional information on how to help you and your organization establish high performance as a habit visit us on www.ideasgrp.com or drop is a line on info@ideasgrp.com

Stress, Anxiety, Pressure.... no thanks I know how to deal with it

Coping with anxiety

A big event coming, bills to pay, deadlines to meet, hiring a new employee, doing the job of others and things at home aren’t that calm either……, all of this leaves you with a lot of anxiety and pressure.

We do behave differently under pressure, however it has been observed that we can turn anxiety to our side and use the extra push that we receive from pressure to transform it into energy. First of all it is important to acknowledge the pressure and the stress we are facing, and that will be an easy step to do, because we all show signs of stress on two different levels: Physical and Behavioral.

Physical signs:

· General fatigue

· Sleeplessness

· Headaches

· Back or shoulder ache

· Upset stomach

Behavioral signs:

· Irritability

· Loss of concentration

· Depression

· Change in appetite ( eating more or less than usual)

· Drinking or smoking more

· Feelings of panic

Before you get too worried, there are effective ways of controlling all those stress symptoms. I use two very effects methods and those are Simple body relaxation and Visualization.

Simple body relaxation:

This method will help you relax your muscles, which in their turn will send signals to your brain.

This sequence is easy to remember and all you need is 10 minutes and a quiet room on your own.

Toes: Tense the muscles on your toes, and then relax;

Feet: Tense the muscles on your feet, and then relax;

Lower legs: Tense the muscles on your lower legs, and then relax;

Thighs: Tense the muscles on your thighs and then relax;

Stomach and lower back: Tense the muscle and then relax;

Continue the same technique on your:

Chest

Shoulders

Upper arms

Lower arms and hands

Neck

Head

If you follow that sequence, you will feel a warm wave of relaxation spreading up your body, it will help you feel comfortable and less anxious

If you only have time to follow a shorter sequence, just focus on your shoulders neck and head.

Visualization:

While the first technique works on your muscles, this one works on our motherboard our programming engine: our Mind.

Visualization is used by almost every winning sports achiever in the world, it’s also very common among successful entrepreneurs, and has the effect on focusing on the important task at hand. The idea is to put yourself in a daydream state and picture success. Scientifics have found through experiments, that repeatedly picturing something, clearly and vividly, acts on the unconscious mind. In fact the mind begins to believe the dream and starts to mobilize resources to make it a reality. In the same time because your mind is so focused on the successful income, you won’t have time to worry.

In order to use visualization you need to do the following:

· Make yourself comfortable: by using the relaxation technique, listening to music or going for a walk.

· Make sure that you are totally relaxed

· Think about a time when you were successful at something, a time when you achieved and were happy, imagine doing the same thing again and the feeling that comes with it.

· Now visualize yourself in the situation: whatever is the task you want to accomplish, try to record a mental movie of it in your mind with all the details.

Whenever I have a keynote with a big audience coming, I start using the treadmill, because running relaxes my body. After making sure that I have no tensed muscles I try to remember my last successful speech, and with the experience I simulate my next keynote and start visualizing all the details; what will I be wearing, how the conference room looks like, who are the people and what will they be wearing…. Strangely enough, because I imagine myself being on stage with a very fit body, I tend to lose weight every time I deliver a keynote or a speech without even changing my dietary habits, this is how powerful visualization is.

For more info on how we can help you increase your personal and professional performance drop us a line on info@ideasgrp.com

Ideas Group is a global learning and human capital development firm specialized in leadership and team development. We help our clients become high performance organizations and foster a sustainable growth.
We strive to continue on partnering with our clients, finding solutions for their sustainable performance through services that include management consulting, generic courses for immediate impact, tailor-made workshops and transformational experiential learning experience