THE ALPHA CODE

Skillionaires Podcast Episode 10

Seif el Hakim

[Seif el Hakim]

This is my Lambo, this is my house, this is my whatever, then I take it to surface level, then he is good, let him coach me. It doesn't work that way. Where is the track record?

Where is the success stories? Where is your credibility? No, I just want to scale.

Well done. They're just words, empty words. We need to always put level one is words, level two is the emotions behind the words that gives you the drive to do it.

Then the third is the actions that I put. Okay, what is the first action that I will do now? Okay, to make me move towards this.

[Angela Thomas]

Becoming the alpha, the mindset and strategy behind scalable success. Today's guest doesn't just talk about success, he embodies it. From branding to business, mindset to fitness, Saif El Hakim has built a global reputation as the alpha, a movement that plans leadership, wealth and personal transformation.

In this episode, we drive into the mindset, shift strategies and scaling system that helps Saif to turn purpose into power and impact into legacy. Let's get into the story behind the alphas and the strategies that scale the mindset of the alpha. So let's dive into the strategy of Saif El Hakim.

[Seif el Hakim]

Pleasure.

[Angela Thomas]

Thank you.

[Seif el Hakim]

Thank you for having me first.

[Angela Thomas]

Thank you. Thank you for being here. Just you are known as the alpha in the market and globally.

And let me ask you something right on the beginning. If you say you are the alpha, and that is your standing, is it more your branding? Or is it your authenticity?

Would you like to explain this?

[Seif el Hakim]

It's a nice, it's a nice question. I think it's more of an identity. The alpha identity, with all the character traits that I believe any person should embody.

So part of the traits that I believe in, which is being authentic, being impactful, being influential, being able to take the tough decisions, responsible for the loved ones. These are all kind of traits, besides the discipline, the courage, assertiveness. These are all character traits of what I call a modern alpha, not the back in the days alpha, which was known as the egocentric, the selfish, the, the, the.

So these are the traits that I believe any human, that's why I'm saying human, regardless, it's a male or female should embody these kinds of traits.

[Angela Thomas]

That's very interesting. I wonder if you present this alpha to the outside and it is your identity, how do you actually resonate with your audience? Is that more people are attracted to you that want to become alpha or that are already alpha, you know, the law of resonance, you attract what you are just sending out.

I wanted to dive into that.

[Seif el Hakim]

Of course, it's like, it's a, it's a mix of both. Some people look up to me in that, in that area that they want to develop in it. And some people already have these kinds of traits and they see the resonance.

So that's why we have mix of both people who want to develop these kinds of traits. And they look at me as a role model. That's one part.

The second part is again, it's the people who are, we are on the same wave. We carry the same identity. We, we, we, so we speak the same language.

[Angela Thomas]

Yes.

[Seif el Hakim]

So mix of both.

[Angela Thomas]

In preparation of this interview, I was listening to some of your videos and to, to your podcast. And I heard all the time that you are talking about, you differentiate yourself because you embody what you're talking about regarding to scaling and comparing to those who cannot have a proven record of scaling something that you claim they are not embodying what they are talking about. So how is actually your scaling strategy for yourself and where do you embody it the most?

[Seif el Hakim]

You know, it's like, if you're talking about this particular point, we live in an era when I would say some people read a couple of articles or books and portray themselves that they are expert in the game. Correct?

[Angela Thomas]

Yes, it is.

[Seif el Hakim]

I don't support this. It's not the idea of reading some articles or books. You need to get your hand dirty, play the game.

And afterwards say that you know how to scale, you know how to do whatever you want, like whatever the business. But these days is like we're flooded, flooded with, I would say, the business coaches, the life coaches, the, the, the, the. But where is the track record?

Like, why should I believe that you are a business coach, that you're able to help me scale my business from X to Y if you didn't scale anything besides your imagination? So what kind of business did you have? What kind of project did you have to manage to make it successful and scale it?

Why you portray something that's simply it's coming out of emptiness. So that's the thing that I would say irritates me about social media overall. Like whoever, because you know, now knowledge, it's very easy to get.

[Angela Thomas]

It is everywhere.

[Seif el Hakim]

Everywhere you can get the knowledge. But did you really get your hands dirty and play the game? Or you didn't?

So if you didn't, don't just portray. I would appreciate and respect the people that say like, I know this kind of knowledge. And I'm going to implement it.

And I'm going to share with you how I did implement it and the results that I'm getting. But portraying yourself somewhere in a place that you don't belong to. It doesn't make sense.

I would say even it's a little bit of stupidity, like literally a little bit of stupidity that you believe that a businessman will look at you and say, yes, true, you can help me scale to nine figures, eight figures, though you didn't scale anything except your kind of a profile.

[Angela Thomas]

Your profile. That's funny. Yeah.

When our audience listens to this podcast, would you share maybe your idea of how to distinguish those people who are operating of this point of emptiness as you were describing? Because I think a good leader goes the way, knows the way and chose the way. But how do you help people to distinguish that you are one of those leaders who knows the way, shows the way and goes the way comparing to the others that have this emptiness operational point?

[Seif el Hakim]

You know, like, when you want to invest in anything, you do your homework, right? But unfortunately, when it comes to our life and our role models, we don't invest the time. So let me let me give you an example.

If I'm going to buy a property, OK, so I'm going to make my research, right? See the developer, their track record. Did they deliver on time?

Did they go bankrupt before? What about the area? What about the location?

How's the rental yields? So I do all this research before I invest in that property, correct? The same goes with stocks.

I do the same research. I check the fundamental analysis and until I make sure that this is the right one for me to go ahead with, nothing comes up hazard. The point with following a role model or a mentor or a coach or or sometimes you don't do your homework.

You're you're just happy with what you see the moment. Like, OK, that coach, that businessman or whatever, he shows on social media that this is this is my Lambo. This is my house.

This is my whatever. Then I take it to surface level. Then he is good.

Let him coach me. It doesn't work that way. Where is the track record?

Where is the success stories? Where is your credibility? It is very easy this day to be successful like this.

Super easy. But on the outside, on the outside and even let's say I don't want to say on the inside, but by numbers, you can be successful like this by numbers. But are you able to sustain it?

Because success is not that I'm successful today. Am I going to be successful five years down the line?

[Angela Thomas]

Yes.

[Seif el Hakim]

Ten years down the line. Will you be able to sustain it? That's success.

[Angela Thomas]

Where do you differentiate it? Actually, it's not hard to get successful, to become successful, but to stay successful.

[Seif el Hakim]

It's the game.

[Angela Thomas]

It is the difference.

[Seif el Hakim]

It's the game.

[Angela Thomas]

Yeah.

[Seif el Hakim]

So like again, for people like looking like do your homework, whatever you need to be always prepared, do your homework. Like if you see that this person can be a role model in whatever it is, in your business, in your life, in your relationship, in whatever, do the homework behind. Credible track record.

Because there are two ways you can be on social media. Actually, there's a third way, which is useless. But let's talk about the two ways.

Either you created something and you became really successful. So you're sharing your journey, your wisdom out of it. So you did something.

You started a business. It became successful, became listed on Stock Exchange. So you can come and say like, OK, these are the steps that I did.

And this is the lessons that I learned down the line. Here you go. And then there is another way.

I didn't do anything in my life, but I'm going to share every step with my audience. I'm going to open, let's say, a real estate agency. OK, so today I'm going to get my license and I'm going to share it.

And in the license I prepared this, this, this and that. Then I'm going to go rent my office. The office I'm going to rent it in Business Bay because this is the center of Business Hub.

So I'm going to share my journey while I'm creating the journey.

[Angela Thomas]

Yes.

[Seif el Hakim]

OK, so these are the two ways. The third way is what I portray something that I'm not.

[Angela Thomas]

I am a successful businessman and nobody knows the story behind it or next to it. Yeah.

[Seif el Hakim]

The thing is, when somebody comes on social media, take one of these two routes. Either way, build something and then afterwards come and speak about it or share the journey on the spot with your audience. Both will make connections.

They fake it until you make it. You will be shot in the head. Not in this era.

[Angela Thomas]

Yeah. A lot of people actually are faking it until they make it. But some of the people in especially in Dubai, I feel sometimes they're forgetting to make it.

[Seif el Hakim]

Exactly.

[Angela Thomas]

They are staying in the faking period and it don't never come out of it. You know, that's insightful what you're outlining and what I'm interested that you build it up your own journey like you shared with the audience where you come from. How did you build it up?

When did you actually felt yourself that you are scaling game? Yeah, we have stories that stick in this podcast and strategies that scale. Where in your own journey did you have the point of knowledge where you think and thought, OK, this is the right way of now I wanted to show it others.

And for this or with it, actually, it's also a transportation tool, showing it to others, building a community, the alphas in order to scale for myself and for my own business. That's what it is, actually. So where did you have this shift and where is it rooted?

[Seif el Hakim]

It's something embedded in me even when I was young. I never played the small game. I always wanted to play the big game.

So from where did it come? It's very hard to tell you, but maybe from my sports background could be. But I never wanted to play something just to play.

I had many careers in my life and every career that I stepped in, my vision was to get to the career. There was never a moment in my life that I said, OK, I'm content with where I am and I will try to grow gradually or I will leave it to fate. No, like once I step in something, where is the end of it?

It's there. I want to be there. OK, so when I wanted, let's say I used to be in corporate, I spent more than 10 years in corporate.

Once I was in corporate, I understood and I knew and I believed I'm going to sit on the top of the pyramid. Why? That's how I'm programmed.

Of course, it's a very different journey than being an entrepreneur and it's a very tough one because I was a foreigner in all the countries that I worked in. I've been living in South Korea, then I've been living in Moscow. As a foreigner to reach top of the pyramid in these organizations is super tough.

But I knew that's what I want and I worked for it. The same in sports. I knew I wanted to be a martial arts athlete until I became a national team.

Then I knew I want to be in physique. Then I became top 10 in Mr. Olympia. It's in everything that I'm doing.

I always strive. I don't want to say the best, but the best I can. So when I sit with myself, I say there is nothing else I could have done differently.

That's my max and I keep pushing for it. The same when running like podcasts, running the my media platforms, everything is the same mindset. There is nothing beyond.

I need to be the best in it because we all deserve to be the best in what we're doing.

[Angela Thomas]

Definitely.

[Seif el Hakim]

Some people just don't push through the limits. Everybody has their limits, but 99.9% of people don't want to push beyond these limits.

[Angela Thomas]

I wanted to get along our talk here a little bit deeper into how you have your audience. But first, let's stay on that point where you build up a strategy. You said you come from the corporate side of a business, having actually your drive used for yourself to always go on top of the game and to be the best that you can in order to come to ahead of everybody.

When you do this for corporates and some when you actually reach the level, is that maybe also the reason why you then stepped out of corporate and build up your own framework of success and be on top of the game? Let's dive a little bit into that because I wanted to know the strategy behind it.

[Seif el Hakim]

But I want to correct you in one thing. I never had a thought that I want to be on top of everyone.

[Angela Thomas]

Okay.

[Seif el Hakim]

It doesn't matter to me.

[Angela Thomas]

Okay.

[Seif el Hakim]

Okay. So the conceptually in my mind, I want to be better than this or get on top of these literally never crossed my mind. I want to be the best in the market for this thing.

So not about individuals around me. It's about me as safe pushing my fuel and the gear to the max. Yes.

To be the best in the market for such for the specific subject, whatever I'm doing. Okay. Because I do believe in one very interesting statement.

We are equal as humans and as souls, but we're not equal in the marketplace. Whoever puts more effort, more value, more time, more, more, more will lead. So this being said, I come from Egypt and I grew my career in two different countries like South Korea when I used to work for Samsung in South Korea and Russia.

Don't forget the immigrant mindset is a very strong tool. That's why a lot of time I encourage people to leave their own countries and go outside of their comfort zone to activate this immigrant mindset, because your immigrant mindset tells you what you have no other way. Either you're going to be accountable.

You're going to be responsible. You're going to be this, this and that, or you're going to be nobody, or you're going to go back home. Shameful.

That's the immigrant mindset. Your back is against the wall. It is only going forward.

So being in South Korea and being in Moscow crafted safe who sits in front of you now with his mindset, because I totally believe that 80% of your achievements in life comes from the mindset that you have. And the 20% left over is the skill set that you develop to make you reach the goals that you want.

[Angela Thomas]

Exactly. Yeah.

[Seif el Hakim]

So with the corporate, I've reached the top of the pyramid of the top of the pyramid that I wanted. And then I decided to, there is no more space to grow. And since I'm a challenging person, there is nothing was challenging me anymore.

So like reaching and becoming a regional CMO of an organization that turns like $3 billion a year, and you're not growing it, it's finished. I needed to challenge myself for something else. So I decided to jump to my entrepreneurial journey.

[Angela Thomas]

Very good. Very interesting. Also, let me ask you this one question.

In Europe, where I'm coming from, we have when you speak of mindset, and mindset that is very narrow, especially if people are stepping out of the country as such and leaving the nest, especially to Dubai, especially performing in such an environment is always combined, as I feel it with limitation, why you work so much, you have to sometimes even excuse yourself why you wanted to go the extra mile, why you wanted to be eagerly to achieve things to be on top of the game.

That's what I experienced. And that's what actually made me go besides of the whole economically reasons. But what I feel here in Dubai, it is such a beautiful hub for entrepreneurs, because you don't have to excuse yourself of wanting much, wanting more, doing much, and doing more.

And so that is something that I wanted to just share with our audience. Is this something that you also find actually your resonated customers with you that goes with you? Maybe?

Because in this environment of a country, there is not such an excusable performance. Yeah, I mean, I don't have any network that I'm in, where people say you need to slow down, make a break. Because if you really love what you're doing, you just can go endless.

[Seif el Hakim]

It is it's a very interesting city because the power of performance here is very high. So absolutely, you will feel comfortable. And sometimes you feel that you're underperforming.

[Angela Thomas]

Yes, even if you are in another environment would be overperforming.

[Seif el Hakim]

Of course, but you touched a very interesting topic, the topic of getting people's opinion. Okay, back in our countries. Yeah, some people tell you, you're crazy.

You're working like 18 hours a day, nonstop. Are you crazy? I have one comment to such people.

You have your own life. I have my own life. You do what you want with your life.

I do what I want with my life. Why I'm saying this? Because I only give my ears and the opinions to my family.

Okay, these are the people like if my wife comes and tell me like, say, if you're working so hard, then I will sit and say yes, because we're building this and this and that. Correct? If anybody comes and tell me like, say, if you're working so hard, literally, it's none of your business.

Okay? Don't work so hard. Not an issue.

Why I'm saying this, because it's only your family or the close people to you, that you really matter to them. In two generations, three generations, nobody will remember our names. Why should I give a damn or care about what they say about me at this moment, that will make me alter or pivot from what I'm doing.

If they will matter in my life, I would listen. My wife, my family, my mother, my father, my, my, my, these are the people that matters. Otherwise, it's not gonna matter.

Why? Because there's a very interesting example I love to say, if a person died today, how many people will come to that person funeral and literally cry and care? Let's say 10 people.

Let's say also the weather was very bad. There is a thunderstorm rain. Out of this 10, the crying ones, five will come correct.

So why should you care that much about people's opinion, expectations out of you, when you know at the end of the day, only counted people will really care. These counted people are your partner in life, your family. Until here, it is full stop.

Don't ask for validation. It doesn't matter. You're going to be forgotten.

[Angela Thomas]

Yeah, it's not about validation. But I think all the time it is. Because if you surround yourself with people that limitates you, even if it's your family, although family is something very important, but even if it's your family, I always tell my children, for example, that they have to always ask those people if they would, as you bring this subject into the game, when somebody hypothetically spoken, when somebody dies, yeah, I always tell my children, if those persons you would ask them if they would die for you, yes or no, then they would always say no. So why ask yourself, why should you live then for them, their life that they want you to live.

And they, they say it is, it is livable or lovable to be like, yeah, be what you want it to be. It doesn't matter what even your parents say, if you think you want to reach a level and double the pyramids in your words spoken, then it's something that you should go for. And nothing is too crazy in this world.

I think you can be everything what you want, if you just believe in yourself. And this is something beautiful that I saw in preparation of this interview that you also bring forward to your audience. Tell me a little bit about how you actually teach and train the audience that you have your clients, how to scale what is the most shifting point that you also used for yourself in terms of strategies as well?

What is the best strategy that you use to scale as this podcast is about scaling, you know, I would like to dive a little bit into it and just pick your brain.

[Seif el Hakim]

A lot of people talk about scaling is like, I just want to get bigger, right? I just want to get bigger, conquer more markets, conquer more clients. That's scaling in a nutshell.

But to scale properly, you need to have the fundamentals and you need to have your roots set properly. I'll give you a very nice example, because I come from different backgrounds, correct? I used to work for a corporation called Samsung.

Samsung in that days, back in the days, was not that strong as now. And they wanted to enter Russia. Russia is a big territory, over 130, 140 million population.

And it was conquered by two companies, Nokia and Apple at that time. The smartness of the strategy of Samsung to scale is something that we need to learn from. They wanted, of course, Samsung wanted to be the number one market share, of course.

What they did is, okay, let me win a particular territory, get my strength in this territory, put my foundation properly in this territory, and then I scale. What do I mean by that? In any country, there is a capital and there are villages and small cities and, and, and.

Samsung said, okay, I'm strong outside, but I'm weak here. So let me go build my strength in the small cities, put my foundation, put my organization, my system, my structure, and, and, and, and then I will grow and scale from that. And now Samsung is number one.

Why I'm saying this story? A lot of people want to scale fast, but the problem with scaling so fast, it exposes your weaknesses.

[Angela Thomas]

You scale the weak parts with it.

[Seif el Hakim]

Exactly. And when you scale the big parts with it, you collapse. So if you're not ready for scaling, don't do that.

Means what? Conquer a particular niche, set your foundation in it very strong, make it so, make it yours. And from there, start to scale.

It depends, you want to scale what territories, you want to scale countries, cultures, variables involved in it. How do you scale with that? But don't ever scale when you're not ready.

Stay where you are, put your foundations, your pillars, much stronger in the ground. Then, okay, I'm going to add additional 1 million client base by going to this market. No, no, hold on.

Because literally you will open the lid on your weaknesses, on your systems, on your processes, before you even say like your scale, you will collapse. You will be much worse than where you were in the beginning.

[Angela Thomas]

So it means your strategy is actually to build like a volcano on a small environment, on a small scale, and perfectionize it there. And then you can go outward. And that is something from that point on your scale.

A lot of people, your interesting point, they say, you wanted to, I just wanted to go bigger. And I think always then they don't understand sometimes also scaling, not in the depth, because scaling for me, and for the audience is always to detach actually the factor time from your labor. And a lot of people are making the mistake, they're scaling only over the factor labor.

So they employ a lot of people scaling with that point costs. What strategies do you have in this times of AI? Do you manage to detach labor from factor time invest and scale with that?

[Seif el Hakim]

AI for us is to double on more. So it's not like I will detach and slow down. No, we use AI.

So if we're doing x, we're going to do 2x, even as like I'm talking about the human perspective. So you're going to be doing what you're doing. But with AI, we're going to do 2x.

Why? Because that's the game, you want to be part of our organization, you need to be top of this. So when we're using AI, I'm going to double down.

It's not going to mean like, oh, no, no, no, you're going to have some rest, because AI will take over. No, we're going to do the same AI on top. So we're doubling down.

The idea of AI is at the end of the day is your productivity tool, not your replacement tool. If you act from it as your replacement tool, then we're not going to be needing to hear like a couple of clones will be sitting saying with our tone, our knowledge, and it's no AI is a productivity tool for you. So any organization like mine deploys it is to increase the productivity to double down to be more available to my audience, double down my content, my presence, but not to reduce the load on me on my team.

We're not in the game of reducing the load. There are people in the game of reducing the load. We're not, I'm not that type of culture.

[Angela Thomas]

I find also there's two different types of person who have the motivation, why they use AI. And a lot of people, they use AI to double down or slim down actually their processes, which is good, but then they wanted to have free time or the so-called work-life balance to go and play golf. And I, for myself, I'm just looking in, okay, what else we can do and how much more we can do by having and using this tool to gain more time, basically.

That's what it is.

[Seif el Hakim]

You know, there is a conceptual, the concept of work-life balance doesn't exist. Okay. In reality, even if you're seeing the people who are playing golf, go backwards 10 years, there was no, nothing called work-life balance.

They're portraying now there is a work-life balance, but that's the result of not having a work-life balance 10 years back.

[Angela Thomas]

Yes.

[Seif el Hakim]

Okay. Now you have a work-life balance. You have your golf time and so on and so forth because literally you're burned out.

You're done. So now you're saying work-life balance. I work two hours a day.

I'm fine. But go backwards 10 years. There was nothing.

The concept of you want to do a proper business, a proper impact and, and, and you can't have work-life balance. You can only have work-life balance if you work in corporate. So you go work from nine to five, make your duties and then have your work-life balance.

You decided to be on your own becoming an entrepreneur. Forget the term work-life balance. You can replace it by work-life integration.

You can do whatever you want, but doesn't exist balance. It doesn't. To build something properly, it takes a lot of effort, time, sacrifices that not a lot of people understand it.

They take the glamor out of it from the social media, but to do something that is really impactful and successful, work-life balance doesn't exist.

[Angela Thomas]

I think if you really like what you do, that's often the motivation of becoming an entrepreneur. Then you also have all the time a work-life balance because work is not a job, not a job. It's like your balance.

And that's what actually fulfills you. And I think all the entrepreneurs, somehow those are, who are really operating from an entrepreneurial point of view and heart from, from this point, then they don't have this work-life balance issue. I think it is truly, it is really something that only exists in an employment ship and in this environment.

[Seif el Hakim]

And you know, like the idea is like, okay, we say like, I like what I'm doing. It's a wrong statement as well. Because in whatever we're doing, there is a big portion of it.

It is mundane. It is boring. You like the result of it.

You like the outcome of it. You like the impact that you're doing. But in order to reach this point, you're passing through a processes that is absolutely boring.

[Angela Thomas]

Sometimes.

[Seif el Hakim]

No, I'll tell you why. I'll tell you why. You want to be the best puncher in the world.

[Angela Thomas]

Okay.

[Seif el Hakim]

You want, you love punching, correct? Practice the punch half a million times. You can't be happy punching per day, half a million punch.

You can't, you can't. It's so boring. Okay.

I punched it 10,000 times. I punched it 20,000 times. I punched it 30,000 times, but I can't be the king and the master unless I punch it per day, half a million times.

And that's boring. But the best thing about an entrepreneur is what? They fall in love with boredom.

But look how I punched it this time. I make it, I fantasize it. So you fall in love with boredom and then being boredom and consistent and disciplined in repeating the same thing thousands of times makes you what?

A master in it. You have a mastery of it. And becoming a master in it will deliver the impact that you want.

And that makes you happy.

[Angela Thomas]

I like that point of view. Thank you. Thank you for that.

So if I wanted to ask you what I ask all of my clients, if you scale, sometimes you have the right strategy, you have the right mentor. And in your audience, in your podcast, you speak about energy. So I always witnessed that sometimes the people that are committing, wanting to scale, want to grow, that their containers, as I'm calling it, their energetic containers are not fully open.

And the same level what pops out of their mouth. How you think is, first of all, do you witness this as well? And do you have something that is not going in line with whenever you coach or mentor somebody that they say, I want this, but their mindset, their energetic behavior is not the one which could receive all of this growth.

So how do you help them? And what is your strategy behind that?

[Seif el Hakim]

You know, a lot of people want things by, but very few that acts in this direction. Okay. Of course, energy is needed.

But at the end of the day, if you want something and you don't act towards it, so your words mean nothing to me. So, okay, I want to scale. So what steps you did for scale?

No, I just want to scale. Well done. They're just words, empty words.

We need to always put level one is words. Level two is the emotions behind the words that gives you the drive to do it. Then the third is the actions that I put.

Okay. What is the first action that I will do now? Okay.

To make me move towards this. And let's put it very simple. You have to be, of course, energetic.

You have the energy, you have the mindset, the motive to do that. But a lot of people come and say, like, let's say I want to scale. And let's say, for example, I want to scale to Saudi Arabia.

We're based in UAE and I want to scale to Saudi Arabia. Well done. Then what?

I want to go to Saudi. Okay. What is the first thing that you're going to do?

Even the smallest one. I'm going to chat with you. How is the market in Saudi Arabia?

That's an action. An action linked right away to a thing that you said about, for example, scaling. Let's say, for example, I am an international brand that has a strange name and it's across the world happened a lot of this, excuse my language fuck ups.

So I have a strange name and I want to expand to Saudi Arabia. Let me check my brand name fits culturally over there or not. Because there are a lot of brands, they can't go international because it does mean something different.

Exactly, exactly. This is a very small step that any person can do beyond besides my business plan, my financial plan, my forecast, my capacity check, my logistics, my mom. These are heavy things.

Correct. There are small things that if you do, at least between yourself, you will understand that you really say what you what you said. Yes, I want to scale.

And then what? I want to scale. He wants to scale.

Right. Six studies. And then, oh, maybe there is the seventh.

OK, let me check on the visitor rented places or not. Just put a small action to it to give you the momentum. We lack momentum.

Once you start the momentum, even the small one, the domino will all fall. But just take the first step and make it small not to make it hard on you. And of course, like because you were reverting back to the energy thing.

If you are assertive person by character, assertive person by character, you are going to be energetic. What do I mean by assertive? I'm going to put myself in front of the problem or in front of the goal that I said I want to be.

I want to scale to Saudi Arabia. OK, how how long is the flight from Dubai to Saudi Arabia? I'm going to put myself in front.

How much is a license to open a business in Saudi Arabia? I'm going to put assert myself in the situation. And being assertive is a form of energy.

[Angela Thomas]

Very good. Yeah. Yeah.

Very good. Because we live in a time where we lack of execution. I think a lot of people, they are saying a lot of things, planning a lot of things, staking in the planning of being perfect and never start and execute.

That's something that is like cancer on our economy and on our society, I think.

[Seif el Hakim]

You know, I would love, you know, from the action standpoint, I would love every single person like listening to this podcast, even not like I would not say like sit at the end of the day and write a piece of paper within yourself, just within yourself, just before you sleep. Say, did I did I do something today to move my business front or not? Or just like I was just thinking, did you really do three steps, three moves that will literally move your business forward?

One step forward, not ten. One step forward.

[Angela Thomas]

Yeah.

[Seif el Hakim]

If you before you sleep every single day, you ask yourself this question. So if you fucked up one time, the next day you will not. You will make sure that as soon as you wake up in the morning, you will click three things.

So when you reflect with yourself at night, yeah, I did three things that will move my my business forward.

[Angela Thomas]

Very good point. Very good point. I wanted to ask business for a lot of entrepreneurs is, of course, reflecting out in your private life and, for example, choosing a partner while you be entrepreneur is the most important thing that you can have, I suppose.

And I would like to know, as an entrepreneur, what kind of essential importance you give at this moment and how do you take your partner along your way of growth? Because a lot of people, they start together and they are into the game together. But when somebody is going their way, the entrepreneur is striving, especially often I see this with males and you are the head of the alphas and of this movement.

How do you advise actually to take along the partner of those entrepreneurs?

[Seif el Hakim]

Selecting the partner is one of the I'm not going to say one. It is the most important part in your entrepreneur journey because there are, as I said, the life work life balance for an entrepreneur. It is advisable to integrate your partner within what you're doing.

So both of partners are working on the same thing. Yes, it can be hard. But other than that, it will not work because being an entrepreneur being is always on means always working.

So you need to integrate with the partner in the journey. OK, this being said, this is the example that I'm doing with myself. I work with my wife on what we're doing.

Why? Because this is the only way. If it's going to be a separate way, the relationship will not exist.

We have the same mindset. We have the same goals. We're striving towards the same goals and striving for a family objective.

OK, so for newbies, like if I say like for newbies, you need to select very carefully because there are people good or like I would say they're known for people who wants to be part of the journey and there are people who want to be part of the result. OK, they're good being part of the journey, they enjoy it, they want it, that support. It's a mutual thing.

And there are partners who are oriented for the result. Being an entrepreneur, you have a potential. Being an entrepreneur, you could reach something.

But selecting the partner with you, the partner that needs or enjoys the journey with you, or you select a partner that is just looking for the result. Because I'm not saying this is wrong, this is good, this is bad. These are humans, each and every one.

It's like a mix and match. If you're starting off in a startup, you're putting a lot of effort, a lot of time and you have a partner that looks for the result. Just ignore this relationship for now.

It's not going to work. So you need to be smart enough to read that. You need to select a partner that enjoys the journey with you, believes in what you're doing.

That person has a role, you have a role, you drive it together. And then when you scale, you scale properly. So you need to make the right choice and you need to be aware of that.

[Angela Thomas]

Yeah, it's such an important fact, because I think you never can win a two front side war, as I'm saying it, you know, to have your journey as an entrepreneur in your work life and then come home and there is somebody who has not taken a step of your journey all day, don't even understand what you've been managing or achieving or even failing throughout the day. That's why it is so important. I even read this for having, when you have children already, to take your children along to the business side or to training courses that you have.

So they have the same level that you have if you wanted to learn something new, for example. So this is something very important and I'm very glad that you have the same opinion. And I especially like the fact where you say journey orientated and result orientated, really, really insightful.

Thank you, Zef, for this interview. Would you like to let us maybe know our audience where we could find you and how it would be to work with you, for example?

[Seif el Hakim]

The easiest way is on Instagram, Seyf El Hakim, or like my email address, it's just going to be like info at seyfelhakim.com. That's the easiest path.

[Angela Thomas]

We'll put everything in the show notes of this podcast, no problem. So yeah, thank you very much.

[Seif el Hakim]

Thank you. Thank you for having me. It's a great conversation.

I'm positive that a lot of people watching it will really see the value in it.

[Angela Thomas]

Shukran for this.

[Seif el Hakim]

Thank you. It's a pleasure. Shukran.

[Angela Thomas]

Thank you. That was Seyf El Hakim, a true example of what it means to lead with clarity, scale with purpose, and live by design, not by default. If today's episode sparks a shift in how you think about success, share it because stories that stick are meaning to inspire others and strategies that scale meant to be spread.

Thank you. This is your host Angela, Angela Thomas, and I'm looking forward you are sharing this episode because just imagine how grateful this person is that you're sharing this episode with and this whole show. Thank you for listening.

See you next time.