Nurturing Leaders: For the long haul

Alywin Liusie

Being a member of the EO has opened doors for me to a vast network of interesting, like-minded people, each with their own entrepreneurial experiences and skills. This gateway of meeting other entrepreneurs has contributed to sharing valuable insights and in-depth advice, which I turn to when looking at new opportunities and facing new challenges in today’s ever-changing world.

The ability to adapt and pivot to growing economic changes and become stronger and smarter is very much part of being an EO member. We help one another in striving to keep an open and positive mindset whilst taking on new challenges and seeking new opportunities to expand existing entrepreneurial portfolios.

With this mindset, last year during Covid, I took over an Indonesian restaurant in JLT Cluster D called Betawi. Managing a new business during a difficult economic period was extra challenging. But I am pleased to say that the business is running well and we are looking at expanding very soon in the near future.

As an entrepreneur, I am always looking for new viable opportunities, so I also co-founded a new start-up in facility management last year called Repair Pro. I am proud of the tremendous progress we have achieved as a team in a short period. We even won an award for best maintenance company in less than one year! Among our valued clients in Dubai, we have become well known for good ethics and the best prices vs quality.

My main business, A Liusie General Trading (ALGT), is one of the top toy distributors in the region. We owe our success to the team’s dedication and commitment to realizing our goals. I’m pleased to mention I achieved all of this while being in the EO. EO brings together successful and motivated people and energizes them to become better entrepreneurs. I learned that having a clear vision, finding good talent, and working with commitment and patience are the keys to success.

I am proud to call myself a member of EO UAE.

Aman Merchant

I have been an EO member since April 2000 and have thoroughly enjoyed the learning and personal interactions over the years. Even though I have joined several other leadership peer networks over the years, the EO experience continues to be a pivotal part of my personal and professional growth. The entrepreneur archetype often finds himself in settings that no one else ‘gets’ or ‘understands’ — whether they are family or team members. But being in EO is like belonging to a tribe that ‘gets you’ without any judgement, thereby helping me navigate professional and emotional rollercoasters with a more balanced perspective.

And most importantly, I know from experience that if I ever get stuck anywhere, I can always count on my forum to be there for me. So whether it’s the no-holds-barred insights about my blind spots from forum buddies, the unstuck and hustling nature of the local and global community of members for agile feedback on different aspects of running my businesses — especially in their early stages, the exceptional learning experiences with a diverse body of resources offering tools that I use in my different ventures, or the camaraderie built with other entrepreneurs over the years, EO has helped me grow on multiple fronts, and allowed me to retain my sanity in often untenable situations.

Rasha Nashaat

I have been an EO member in many iterations since 2001. Over the years, this peer-to-peer network exclusively for entrepreneurs has measurably fine-tuned my acumen for entrepreneurship. From meeting monthly with my seven Forum members (whom I view as my private Board of Directors) to gaining inspiration thanks to the business insights and vicissitudes from others in this 200-strong community, I have cultivated focus, commitment and imagination.

These fundamental aptitudes are not taught in grad school. So in the early days, as a management graduate and mother of three, I progressed by following my gut and a gap in the market to found Landmark Properties. After selling the company, I moved to various new concepts that I felt filled a need in the community at different periods.

Since then, I have taken advantage of the EO’s many extraordinary learning events to strengthen human connections and gain greater knowledge about the variety of topics that EO embraces as its core intelligence-sharing activities and gatherings.

Learning to understand the timing of creating a new business was critical. This insatiable curiosity eventually fuelled my desire to get involved in an initiative that reflects my true passion — Integrative Health, Longevity and building communities of Wellbeing Seekers keen to connect and thrive within this sphere.

Learning is a big part of why entrepreneurs choose EO, and I continue to do so today. Pursuing new ideas and perspectives has resulted in the birth of www.explorewellnessworld.com. We offer members personalized, evidence-based lifestyle interventions to achieve optimal health-span throughout our life-span. The integrated components of this programme guided by experts from different disciplines are giving me a fresh lease on life from a health perspective. It is also helping to transform the lives of those who transform the world.