[00:00:00] Naeem Parvez: Hello folks. Welcome to my first business. I’m Naeem Parvez, and this podcast is for entrepreneurs, young or old. We’re looking to improve the way that they look after their business. Each episode is designed to be like a conversation with a mentor that you never had, and you’ll find inspiration, guiding [00:00:15] principles, and possibly some solutions to your current business problems.
[00:00:19] We talk about the lows, like wanting to shut it all down, and we talk about the highs, like starting your second or your third or your fourth successful business, and also everything in between. My guest [00:00:30] today is Sal Kuba, or Sal, as I’d like to call him. Sal is a serial entrepreneur, and even though he’s been in business for a couple of decades, he still has a positive, optimistic energy of a teenager, and I got to learn a lot from Sally.
[00:00:42] In this episode, we talked about his journey [00:00:45] from his first ever client in his first business, which was selling. Websites to Mosques in California in 1997 to today where he owns the largest marketplace for heavy equipment plant and equipment.com. We talked about a ton of things. Uh, his experience with [00:01:00] raising funds, the importance of setting business goals.
[00:01:02] We disagreed slightly on the power of law of attraction. We also talked about how he leverages his network, specifically the EO network, to be unstoppable and get help in facing any challenge or find experts and advice when jumping [00:01:15] into new business opportunities. We also talked about Sal’s love for the Blue Ocean, which is doing things that no one else is doing, or.
[00:01:22] You know, businesses that have no competition. Sal has had his hand in a bunch of businesses, so 3D printing businesses, online [00:01:30] payments company construction, a coffee shop, a trading company. Him and his wife were selling desert truffles at some point. He’s been running a magazine with his brother. I told you he’s a serial entrepreneur, and my biggest takeaway was how intentional Sal is about building his business crew.
[00:01:45] In fact, that’s why he chooses to be in Dubai. And we’ll talk about that going from an introverted man with a one by two meter office to someone who’s financially free. Sal’s journey is super inspirational, and I know you’ll find a lot of gems this conversation. So [00:02:00] without much further ado, here’s S Kuba on the My First Business podcast.
[00:02:04] This episode is brought to you by the Entrepreneur’s Organization. Now, before I tell you what they do, first let me tell you the numbers behind Entrepreneurs Organization or EO for short.
[00:02:15] So they started in 1987. They’ve currently got 17,000 influential business owners as their members spread across 213 chapters in 60 plus countries worldwide.
[00:02:26] They’ve been in the UAE since 1997 and have 119 members here with a median member sales of roughly $4 million. And altogether, the total number of people employed by their members is over 23,000, and they’ve got members from all sorts of industries, [00:02:45] including technology, healthcare, oil and gas, real estate, hospitality, jewelry, communications, logistics, travel.
[00:02:53] I could really go on mind blown yet. Now, here’s what EO is actually all about. Here’s what you get for being a member of eo, or here’s what they do for you. EO in UAE provides an effective platform for networking, education and support for business owners. The entrepreneurial journey can be lonely, and I can attest to that.
[00:03:14] And with an economy that changes on a dime, it can be hard to know what your next move should be. And that’s where EO comes in with their support. One of the key benefits of membership is access to a robust calendar of events, including workshops, [00:03:30] social events, and learning opportunities. So you get a ton of networking opportunities as well as a chance to learn from experts in your own field.
[00:03:38] EO also offers a mentorship program, so they pair you up with experienced business leaders who can offer [00:03:45] guidance and support as you grow your own business. So for me, I’ve personally or vicariously benefited a lot from being in the EO network through their accelerator program of which my partner is a part of.
[00:03:58] And if you are a business [00:04:00] owner, tired of taking on your challenges all alone and are looking for unique networking opportunities along with structured support through accountability groups and mentors, well, you can either start a podcast like I did, or if you don’t want to [00:04:15] do that, I highly encourage you to apply to eo.
[00:04:18] I’ll leave a link for you in the show notes, and if you’re not fully convinced yet, I’ll be bringing on business owners on this podcast that are currently members of eo, including today’s guest, so you can get a sneak [00:04:30] peek of what you’re getting. Salle. Hey, welcome to the show. Thanks, man, to be here.
[00:04:34] Thanks. Thanks for coming on and thanks for being super on time. Yeah, that’s my
[00:04:37] Saleh Kuba: thing, man. Punctuality.
[00:04:40] Naeem Parvez: Yeah. You’re only half an hour early, but you know,
[00:04:43] Saleh Kuba: I was so excited to be [00:04:45] home.
[00:04:47] Naeem Parvez: Oh man. Okay. Uh, I was thinking of like a hundred places to start. We’re mostly gonna talk business stuff. Yeah, right. Um, but let’s take you back to 1997.
[00:04:58] Mm. This is, uh,
[00:05:00] five years after you’re getting bullied. So you’re in Orange, orange Hill, California. You’re designing websites. Yeah. Can you tell me some of those websites? What were you building? Were you building them for yourself? Were you building them? No others.
[00:05:11] Saleh Kuba: So I was in college at the time. Mm-hmm. I started college in [00:05:15] 96.
[00:05:15] Um, I graduated high school at 86, started college 96. Um, and, uh, I was in, uh, the dorms. And I met this guy named Christian Kratz, and, uh, we, we hit it off. He was very similar to [00:05:30] me, but he was also very different to me in terms of his creativity. I’m not a very creative person. Um, I’m more of a talker, doer, you know, salesperson type.
[00:05:39] Uh, and, and Christian starts telling me about the internet. I’m like, what are you talking about, bro? And he starts telling me [00:05:45] about it. And uh, I’m like, so what can we do with this? He’s like, well, we can design websites. He’s like, I design websites. I’m like, why don’t we turn this into a business? And, uh, he’s like, well, why don’t you do worry?
[00:05:56] You know, you’ll get the accounts and I’ll do the designs. I’m like, [00:06:00] I’m in. Let’s do it. Um, I was 17, 18 years old at the time. Uh, and, uh, how did I think about my first client? Uh, I was trying to think, okay, where am I? Who do I know? And the first thing I thought [00:06:15] about was, uh, the mosque that I go to, I’m like, They a website.
[00:06:20] Yeah. You know, like they, the Mosque Eats website. Like it’s a great way to publicize what they’re doing and it ua and they can get pretty more people back into the mosque. Um, so I remember I went [00:06:30] to the, to the Schiff at the, at the mosques and I’m like, Hey, you know, you, you guys need a website, you know, I, I can design the website for you guys.
[00:06:36] My company we call, we called it Fact Cat Web. That was the name of the company. I like that. Um, and he’s like, what are you talking about? I’m like, well, you know, people are on the internet now. They’re gonna look [00:06:45] for you. You gotta be out there. And he’s like, you gotta talk to the mosque board. Because in the California, the mosques are more of an institution.
[00:06:53] Um, they’re a place of refuge or a place where people can go and, and see other people like themselves. [00:07:00] Um, it’s a community center. Community center. Exactly. Not just a place to pray. Mm-hmm. But it’s a place where, you know, you might have a matchmaking party, you know? Mm-hmm. I mean, it’s, it’s really, like you said, like a community center.
[00:07:09] So I met the board, they loved it, and we designed our first website. That was it. [00:07:15]
[00:07:15] Naeem Parvez: Um, just cold hustling. Yeah. It was just, and mom, yeah. It
[00:07:18] Saleh Kuba: was quite exactly. That was your fir first sale ever? That was my first sale. Well, actually, I mean, I started working when I was 16. I mean, my first job was [00:07:30] a, uh, uh, and you talk about punctuality.
[00:07:31] Yeah. And this is where I learned about punctuality actually. Yeah. Uh, my first job was at a theater. I was, uh, so have you worked at a theater before? Never. No. So when you first get a job in theater, um, the movie theater, the, the worst thing they can give you is [00:07:45] to clean the, uh, uh, movie theater at the end of the movie.
[00:07:49] Mm-hmm. That’s like the worst job. Then you move up and then you’re like the popcorn guy that you move up. Then you’re the concession guy. Then you move up. The best one to have is the guy who gets the tickets and like rips ’em up. [00:08:00] That’s like the highest paying one. You’ve made it, you’ve made it. So anyway, my first day on the job there, uh, when I was 16, I think I arrived also half an hour early.
[00:08:09] And it was by accident. Cause my mom was going somewhere. She dropped me off and I, I couldn’t drive at the time. [00:08:15] And, uh, the, the manager of the movie theater comes in like half an hour late. So I was waiting for about half an hour, you know, for, for to start my job. And he’s like, dude, Sal, you know, you’re kind of early.
[00:08:27] I’m like, yeah, well you’re, he’s like, listen bro, [00:08:30] do you want my job? I’m like, no. He’s like, you’re gonna one day have my job if you, if you, you’re so punctual. Like, this is amazing. And I, I didn’t even do anything yet. So I learned that at a very young age that punctuality is so important and now I, [00:08:45] it’s, it’s how I leave my life.
[00:08:46] You tell me nine, I’ll be there at 8 55. I’m always gonna be early. I’m, I’m gonna be there. You gotta, you can count on me. Um, and I think follow through and punctuality go together. Um, [00:09:00] when I was in college and I, I’m kind of going off the rails now, is that okay? That’s fine. Yeah, yeah, yeah. When I was in college, I, I, uh, senior year.
[00:09:09] I was student body president of, of the university, and [00:09:15] I dropped my studies and I focused on that and I ended up failing out that year. Um, and then I couldn’t follow through on anything, [00:09:30] and it was very difficult. You know, and, and, and now following through and being punctual is so important to me. Like you gimme a task, I’m gonna finish it.
[00:09:39] Because I think people go through, in general, all people, [00:09:45] they go through some sort of a crisis. At some point in their life, they will always go through a crisis, whether it’s like a midlife crisis or you know, late age cri. I went through my crisis really engaged, so I’m able now to like go up. From there.
[00:09:59] Does that make sense? [00:10:00]
[00:10:00] Naeem Parvez: It does. I’ve had way too many crisis said, you know, at some point, you mean like throughout life? Like
[00:10:07] Saleh Kuba: Yeah, yeah. You, you’re gonna go. You’re, but
[00:10:08] Naeem Parvez: they are, they are, they are defining moments. Like my, some of my early crisis, like I was a top five student for [00:10:15] up to grade 10, grade 11. I switched schools.
[00:10:19] I failed all my subjects. Wow. I went from top five to Couldn’t pass a single subject. Yeah. Had that crisis, went back into 12th grade, uh, in a different school because [00:10:30] my 10th grade credentials were so good. They let me into 12th grade, so things were fine again, and I learned whatever I had to learn. Same thing happened in university.
[00:10:38] Um, first two years, strong gpa. Third year decided not to give a crap. And just went downhill. [00:10:45] But again, you know, like I, I feel like the only way I learned lesson if life smacks me in the face, pretty, uh, left, right, and center. But I wanna give viewers a bit more context into, into the rest of the conversation, and that can be provided with telling them a bit about [00:11:00] the journey or what you do now.
[00:11:03] What businesses do you kind of own and run now or operate? And, uh, how many of those have happened over the years? Whether you’ve invested or operated, started or shut down, whether big or small, [00:11:15] what’s your, um, what’s your body count on businesses?
[00:11:19] Saleh Kuba: I can I count, I can. No, look, I, I’m a serial entrepreneur.
[00:11:25] Um, I, I have FOMO when it comes to business. [00:11:30] So like you’re talking ad agency and pods, I’m thinking, okay, where, how can I start my own studio? Like, like that’s, I’m not gonna steal the idea, but I’m just, that’s, that’s like, like I, I’m thinking about, I’m thinking about it like, I don’t do it. Don’t, don’t, don’t steal.
[00:11:43] I’m not voicing your head. [00:11:45] Take that voice out. It’s the force. Um, no, no, but that, I, I’m my, I’m always on. Yeah. Like all the time. Like, I’m like, can I do this better? Can I, what can I do? Um, but I will always, you know, let’s say that was the case, I would tell you about it. But anyway, [00:12:00] um, body count or count of businesses currently, um, we’re invest, we invest in businesses as well.
[00:12:06] So I invest in my friends, you know, if they have a business. So one of them is Zuni. I dunno if you’ve heard of
[00:12:11] Naeem Parvez: Zui, the. Payments. Yes.
[00:12:13] Saleh Kuba: Right? Yeah. Yes. So we were [00:12:15] actually, my brother and I were early investors in that company. Um, and you know what? I believe we, we, we act, I was on the board for a while. Um, I got to see that life.
[00:12:24] Um, currently we have a equipment trading business, um, heavy equipment [00:12:30] and trading business. Mm-hmm. Um, so equipment’s kind of, I think one of my passions, um, talking to people’s other passion, but I mean, equipment is like the, what, what gets me up in the
[00:12:40] Naeem Parvez: like, so it’s, it’s men and machines. Men and machines,
[00:12:44] Saleh Kuba: or [00:12:45] people in machines.
[00:12:45] Yeah. So I mean, I, I, I fell in love with machines 20 years ago. Um, it was much the, one of the second or third business that I started, um, my dad had a contracting company in Saudi, so [00:13:00] he called me up one day and he’s like, you know, I need equipment. Um, and I’m like, well, what kind of equipment? He’s like, I need a motivator.
[00:13:06] My dad, I have no idea what a motivator is. I’m not an engineer. You know, I’m, I’m a mathematician, you know, I’m a diplomacy guy. Um, so I went around looking for motor graders [00:13:15] and I remember the first motor grader I saw, you know, I walked around the motor grader and I got to the back and the guy selling the motor grader comes down and he’s like, yeah, I know there’s no ripper there.
[00:13:26] I’m like, how could you have no ripper? I’m like, you gotta discount the [00:13:30] price. I had no idea what a ripper was. Anyway, he discounted the price by $5,000. I told, you know, the, the purchasing manager, my dad’s come like, listen, it’s this much. Um, he’s like, Hey, it’s great price. Buy it. We ended up buying that machine, I think from that supplier.
[00:13:43] We did a hundred [00:13:45] machines over the next couple of years. Uh, but I just fell in love with machines. So equipment trading is what I do now. And how long have you been doing this now? So we started the business in 2015. Okay. Um, and then while we had that [00:14:00] business, uh, my brother joined as well. Um, so he is in the business with me.
[00:14:05] Uh, we found a niche or a problem where we couldn’t, we didn’t, we, we, there was no platform online [00:14:15] to sell our machines. So the way that it worked in our industry is you’d have a yard and then people would, you know, you’d have foot traffic coming to your yard, and that’s how you sold your machines. And being a guy who like, loves technology and, [00:14:30] and I love, you know, the internet and, and the power of the internet, I’m like, why aren’t we selling this stuff online?
[00:14:35] I mean, you
[00:14:35] Naeem Parvez: were hustling mosques at, in 1997. So it does make sense.
[00:14:40] Saleh Kuba: It does make sense. So I, I, I, you know, my brother’s like, let’s build the [00:14:45] marketplace. I’m like, okay, well we really don’t know anything about. It’s like, let’s just do it. So we started doing the, the mockups, and then I’m a big believer, I don’t know if you are, but I’m a big believer in the power of attraction.
[00:14:56] Mm-hmm. Um,
[00:14:57] Naeem Parvez: I’m 50 50 on it. Really? [00:15:00] Yeah. Why? It depends on the phase of life really. What do you mean? Yeah. Oh, we won’t, there, there are times where, here’s, here’s a quote that I’m gonna butcher because I don’t remember who said it or how they said it, but I remember the essence of it. Mm. Um, [00:15:15] and it really struck me recently, uh, the essence of the message was that instead of, for example, shouting affirmations at the mirror, uh, instead have undeniable proof that you are who you say you are, and by undeniable proof that [00:15:30] comes with actions.
[00:15:31] So do the things you think you are capable of doing and have enough of them so that instead of the affirmations, you can just look back and say like, I am capable because look who did that. So that’s where I’m 50 15, so I’m not zero hundred in the [00:15:45] sense that I completely discount a hundred percent of the time that affirmations don’t work or mindset or having the law of attraction work for you, but, I think finding that balance is what I’m, what I’m with.
[00:15:56] Saleh Kuba: I, I agree with you. I think you do have to have a balance. It’s, it, it, [00:16:00] it’s tough, you know? Yeah. To believe, because the thing about entrepreneurship, and I’m sure you know this, you’re an entrepreneur, is we doubt a lot. We doubt ourselves. We doubt our project, we doubt our, you know, conviction. Especially when, when Cashs is tight, when [00:16:15] we don’t have money to pay for, for salaries, and we got, we had a hustle again that mm-hmm.
[00:16:18] Just to make that extra money just to pay the salaries. So you definitely, you have that doubt creeps in. And I think at my lowest point [00:16:30] when I went to the power of attraction, or when I had this faith, I call it, it, it happened, you know, I remember a story, this is a true story. Um, we, we are raising funds.
[00:16:42] For this marketplace that we built. Now we’re the largest, sorry to get to, [00:16:45] we’re the largest marketplace right now in Mina for construction equipment. We, we have a hundred thousand listings. It’s called planet equipment.com. I gotta do my plug. You
[00:16:54] Naeem Parvez: have to, hundred percent. The logo’s gonna come right here with some confetti.[00:17:00]
[00:17:00] Saleh Kuba: Um, we’re, we’re raising, we’re raising funds and I’ve never done that before where I was the one Yeah. Going and raising funds, and I think we talked to like 50 VCs and I, and I went to my wife and, [00:17:15] and my wife is, is a, is like my rock, you know? She, she’s, she’s my everything and, and she’s the one that, that gives me the force.
[00:17:21] Like she’s my, she’s my secret, you know, weapon. Mm-hmm. Um, and I’m like, babe, you know, I don’t, I don’t think we can, I don’t think I can do this. Like, it’s done, you know? And [00:17:30] she’s like, you know what? Let’s, um, let’s go celebrate this on Friday. I’m like, what are you talking about? She’s like, let’s celebrate that you got funded.
[00:17:39] Oh my God. I don’t think that’s a, like, what are you talking about? She’s like, no, let’s book it. What’s your, what’s the, [00:17:45] like what’s the restaurant that you would book if you got funded? I’m like, Paraic, you know, I don’t have no paraic. No, but it’s, it’s in the, um, made Jamira, it’s like off on the pier. It’s a bit expensive.
[00:17:55] Um, it’s a very nice ho, you know, restaurant. She’s like, okay, I’ll make the booking. So she [00:18:00] called them and she said, Hey, um, you know, we wanna book two people for para. She, she’s like, what? The lady asked, what’s the, she’s like, we’re celebrating a business, uh, venture. And she’s doing it in front of me. I’m like, okay, fine.
[00:18:12] So we booked it [00:18:15] and then the next day we got a call from an investor that wanted to meet. We go do the pitch and at the end of the call, the investor was like, we want a lead on this. I’m like, excuse me? They’re like, we wanna lead on this. I’m like, holy [00:18:30] crap, this is crazy. And the next day we went and celebrated it.
[00:18:34] So that for me is power of attraction. Yeah. Where, what is power of attraction? I mean, it’s, it’s, you have this faith that you’ve already [00:18:45] accomplished your goals. It’s kind of like, and I’ve heard this story, it’s not my story. I’ve heard it, I’ve read in books. Yeah. It’s kinda like when you buy a car, um, right before you buy a car.
[00:18:56] Like I, I, I wanted to buy a Wrangler for example, [00:19:00] right before I bought the Wrangler. I didn’t see it anywhere in the street. Like mentally I didn’t see it anywhere. No. All you see is now when I bought the Wrangler, all I see on the road is Wrangler. The Wrangler was always there, but [00:19:15] I just didn’t see it.
[00:19:16] Mm-hmm. So opportunities, um, connections. When you put in your head that I want to get funded, let’s just say that was my thing. When you’re sitting at Starbucks doing your work, your ear. [00:19:30] Oh, that’s, I’m sorry. I, I am funded. Your ear is in that mindset. So what, there’s maybe people sitting in Starbucks and you might hear somebody saying in this table next door, oh dude, I’m a, you know, I’m a vc.
[00:19:44] I’m looking [00:19:45] for projects. But, but maybe if you didn’t have that in your mindset, you wouldn’t have heard Yeah. That comment. It’s kinda like the Wrangler.
[00:19:52] Naeem Parvez: Oh, you know what, as, as you were saying that there have been so many instances of, in my life that I can now bring up in memory that [00:20:00] have, uh, echoed that experience.
[00:20:02] It works really well for Alina, actually for my, for my wife and business partner. She’s a big believer in like, I’m gonna put this out to the universe and it’s gonna happen. Um, and we try to balance it out. [00:20:15] So I became, recently became, uh, especially after joining eoe, a bit more goal oriented, so having quality goals because, uh, that was missing from my life for some reason.
[00:20:26] I wasn’t a great goal setter. I’d have. The thing is, I’d, I’d always [00:20:30] accomplish my goals, um, but I’d never get around the new cycle of new cycle of goals. So I’ll have periods of life where I’d want something, I’ll get it, but then there’ll be a phase of what, when I’m not chasing anything in particular, I’m just kind of hum drumming along [00:20:45] as life takes me and going with the flow and feeling in the moment and present and all that until I come up with a new goal and then I hit that goal and then I go into the hum drummy kind of thing.
[00:20:55] So what we’re trying to do is like have constant goals that once one is achieved, what’s [00:21:00] the next one? Is, is there a next one? Because that drives, you’re right, it does drive your, your mental attitude in a certain way. It makes for, I’ll give you a smaller example of your funding was we made a goal of let’s say a number of discovery calls we need to have [00:21:15] every.
[00:21:15] Month for us to hit our revenue targets, X number of calls, X percentage, show up X percent, get a proposal out of those X percent, become close clients, and so on and so forth. I can’t believe for the last [00:21:30] six months we operated without that. We used to have it six months ago. Then we had a six month period where neither me or Elena was tracking that because we got busy in the day-to-day firefighting and the management of the business.
[00:21:41] And now that we’ve done that, Sal, I can’t tell you, this [00:21:45] was three weeks ago and the numbers already coming in. We’re not doing anything extra in terms of lead generation. We’re not going out there, we’re not, stuff’s coming to us and this is, this is when Alina sits down to me and like says like, see what I said?
[00:21:58] We put it out to [00:22:00] the universe and it’s coming, but it’s, it’s gotta be a mix of both, right? This, I guess this is why goal setting. In, in the corporate life. They say goal setting is important, but if you remove the language around that and smart goals and this and that, it’s all coming down to that belief
[00:22:14] Saleh Kuba: [00:22:15] in like a hundred percent.
[00:22:16] If you don’t believe in, in, we, we, so we also, one, one big investment we did this year was, uh, syntax. Uh, so not this year, I mean, seven years ago. What’s that? It’s a 3D printing business. Okay. Um, we’re actually the first 3D [00:22:30] printed, uh, 3D printing license in Dubai. Um, it’s, it’s been tough, you know, it’s, it’s an amazing business.
[00:22:37] Um, we print medical implants. We print, um, oil and gas parts. Um, we do metal print, me [00:22:45] metal printing.
[00:22:46] Naeem Parvez: Let me ask you about your, uh, plant and equipment. Yeah. Cause I go there. Go there. When, when was the first time you realized you started in 2015? When was the first time you realized you’re onto something good?
[00:22:57] Was it the moment that you started was there,
[00:22:59] Saleh Kuba: let me give you, was [00:23:00] there a let on planet equipment.com? Cause it goes back to the power of attraction thing. Okay. So we put out there that we want to build this marketplace, and it was exciting. We were building the mockups and this, but there was an ingredient missing [00:23:15] where we were starting from scratch.
[00:23:19] Coincidentally enough, again, it’s power of attraction. I swear to God, this woman walks in selling Adspace. She comes to our office in jab, she’s selling Adspace in a classified magazine. [00:23:30] And I’m like, woman, come here. And she’s like, what? What is this? She’s like, this is a classified for construction equipment.
[00:23:36] And I’m like, are you guys online? She’s like, no. I’m like, how many, uh, years have been in business? She’s like, 15 years. I’m like, okay. Um, how many people if I [00:23:45] wanna do an email shot? She’s like, yeah, we do email shots. I’m like, how many emails you got registered? She’s like 35,000. Like, this is crazy. I mean, can I speak to the owner?
[00:23:53] So she gets me the number of the owner, I get the owner’s number, I call her up and she was an older woman, um, [00:24:00] from the UK and she wanted to exit the business. And I’m like, well, I’ll buy it. And we ended up buying the business and using it to launch planet equipment.com because there was 35,000 in the contacts, this whole thing.
[00:24:12] And that’s one of the ways we became [00:24:15] the largest marketplace cuz we had this database. Um, the question that you asked was when did you realize, when did you realize you had something?
[00:24:22] Naeem Parvez: Yeah. You were onto something good with this.
[00:24:25] Saleh Kuba: I think when we got the Caterpillar dealer [00:24:30] to be a client and they had been a client 10 years ago in, in this company we, we acquired and now they came back 10 years later.
[00:24:38] Um, it was huge. You know that we got the Caterpillar dealer, we got the Caterpillar in uae, then we got the Caterpillar [00:24:45] dealer in Saudi, then we got the Mercedes-Benz dealer, Jafa. You know, Jafa? No. Um, they’re the, they’re the Mercedes-Benz dealer in Saudi Arabia. Um, we got them to be a client. Um, when that started happening and we started getting all these OEMs, I’m like, [00:25:00] z My brother Zaid, who’s the ceo?
[00:25:01] I’m, I’m kind of like the guy who Brothers the ceo. No, no. I mean, we, we,
[00:25:07] Naeem Parvez: yes. You know, it’s funny. So I, Alina is the CEO and I’m the chief. Everything else, officer.
[00:25:14] Saleh Kuba: No, but [00:25:15] I, I think, I mean, I’m gonna ask you about that. Yeah. But do you feel that you and Lena balance each other? Is that why it works?
[00:25:22] Naeem Parvez: It does.
[00:25:23] Yeah. We, we have very different skill sets. Yes. Um, combined with respect for each other. Yes. So those, [00:25:30] those two common ingredients, yes. I think make it work where we can get into group sync once in a while, but lately we’ve been forcing each other to take the other side. But the key ingredient there is respect.
[00:25:43] Do it respectfully and [00:25:45] present your case. But
[00:25:46] Saleh Kuba: yeah. I, I’ve been in business, so I worked in the family business from 20 2005 to 2015. And, uh, my dad was the head of that. So I got to see this scenario where [00:26:00] he was the head and he was empowering other people. But I think the stress, it was tough to be there at the top by yourself.
[00:26:08] In this situation with plan equipment.com, Zayne and I are co-founders. Um, and like you said, we [00:26:15] balance each other out. He’s micro, I’m macro. Um, he’s, you know, into research and finding, I’m more into, you know, talking to people, you know, that’s what I like to do. So it’s such a balance and, and there comes a point [00:26:30] in entrepreneurship and you know, this where I talked about it before, you get that doubt where you’re like, dude, this isn’t gonna work.
[00:26:38] You know, and, and, and there there are moments where I’m down and I’m like, ze, I, I just don’t feel it right now. I got. I don’t know, [00:26:45] are, are we doing this right? And, and he’s like, Sarda, come on dude. Get up. Get He pumps me up and there are days where he’s down. Yeah. And I pump him up. And I think when we’re, that’s the, the beauty of being, having co-founders Yeah.
[00:26:58] Where you’re kind of equal in this, [00:27:00] in this pro, in this journey.
[00:27:01] Naeem Parvez: It’s amazing because it’s true. You’re gonna have those shitty days. You’re gonna have days where you don’t wanna wake up and go to your own business. There’s days where at least I’ve had where I’m like, I don’t want to do this anymore. And even though it’s temporary, it’s very dangerous if [00:27:15] both of us are feeling, there have been days where both of us have felt it.
[00:27:18] And what usually ends up happening is we take the day off, we go to a cafe, and we start brainstorming our next business. It’s kind of like we’re both cheating on our business. We, we ignore the current baby that’s crying. We’ll be like, if we [00:27:30] were to have a new baby, this is what we’d call it, and we do like a jam session for a few hours only to realize No, no.
[00:27:36] Okay. It’s, and now out of our system, let’s go back, let’s go back. We, let’s go back to building this like it’s fine. And. We, we try not, [00:27:45] the the longest lull we’ve gotten into together has been like a week, which is a very d that week felt like a month because when both of you are, don’t see the light at the end of the tunnel when both of you are from the [00:28:00] macro and the micro perspective.
[00:28:01] Just not in love with your business anymore. Not with the industry, not with the customers, not with the solution itself, not with the problem that you’re solving, not with the revenue opportunity, not with anything. And, um, we [00:28:15] had to go through a reframing cycle. Why are we doing this? And our, and our why has become more obvious and clear.
[00:28:21] Now we’re back in uppity and jumpy about the whole thing again. You’re excited. Um, like one of the why’s is this is not the only business we’ll do, we will do others, [00:28:30] but let’s do this one right first and let it finance anything, uh, that comes afterwards. And also, let’s not give up to early. So, I, I like the trust and praise that you give me when you say, like, you know, when you’re saying, you know what it’s like in business, I actually [00:28:45] don’t maybe as much as you or other people because I’ve only done this for three years.
[00:28:49] So I’m still learning. I’m a bit clueless. I, I try to improve every day and I, I know I’m growing year over year, but there are certain things that are so obvious to other people [00:29:00] that, for Alina and I, we wake up, we’re like, why didn’t we know this? Why didn’t you know this was gonna happen? Um, like one of the things we talked about setting goals, right?
[00:29:09] That should have been like a common thing. Like always have like a rolling set of goals so that, you know, you don’t have [00:29:15] those lull peers in between where. You’re kind of wasting away the hours because each of our hour is so highly leveraged, right? As a business owner versus an employee. Nothing against employees.
[00:29:26] I love people that are in corporate careers and they serve their purpose and [00:29:30] society needs them. They’ll probably add more value than I do in some places, but our time as business owners, that five minute, that 15 minute, that 30 minute period of, even if it’s just thinking, it’s so highly leveraged that if I’m not planning [00:29:45] how to use them properly, I’m wasting them.
[00:29:47] And that’s something I’m still kind of figuring out. You were telling me that you’re always like two comments. Say what? Two comments on
[00:29:54] Saleh Kuba: what you just said. Yeah, yeah, go ahead. Um, I, I was similar in my, my journey in the beginning. [00:30:00] Mm-hmm. Where one thing for me, for example, was, um, negotiation. Um, and I was lucky enough to have a [00:30:15] guru who was my dad.
[00:30:16] Who I worked for. Um, and he was, you know, he had all this experience and I told my dad, I’m like, you know, I, I’m not good at negotiation. And he’s like, listen, it’s something [00:30:30] that you could learn. You know, you’re, you’re, it’s not, you’re always gonna learn how You just look, watch people doing it and start practicing.
[00:30:38] And other ones decision making. When you’re an entrepreneur, you gotta make a lot of decisions. But one of the first things you [00:30:45] learn as an is very hard to make decision. Even simple decisions like firing somebody, it’s a very hard decision to make. And decision making is also something you can practice.
[00:30:56] So that was the fir The first comment is, you’re right, there’s a lot of things you don’t know. In [00:31:00] the beginning I was like that, but over time you do learn that skillset and you can learn it, and you get better at it. Whatever it’s gonna be number two on the setting. Goals comment. I think setting goals is important.
[00:31:13] I’m not saying it’s not. [00:31:15] Um, and, and you alluded to, then we got into like this flow and, and you know, it was great. But I think the second part of that is once you’ve set your goals, what are the measuring [00:31:30] tools or measuring KPIs? People, I call ’em KPIs, but parameters mm-hmm. That you’re gonna monitor daily that can help achieve those goals.
[00:31:42] For example, when we were in construction, [00:31:45] for us it was asphalt production and, uh, concrete production and aggregate production. So every morning the first thing I would look at is this report that was, showed me all the sites and [00:32:00] each site, how much asphalt they produced. And I could in five seconds, see where the problem is.
[00:32:06] Call up that site and say, Hey, what happened with the asphalt? Why is your site not working? Oh, well the generator went out. Why is the generator? Well, we didn’t have enough diesel. Why [00:32:15] don’t you have enough diesel? Well, the diesel guy never came. Okay, thanks. Hey, who’s in charge of diesel? I am. Okay. Why isn’t the diesel?
[00:32:20] Oh, well we didn’t pay the vendor, dude. Fine, but I’m losing money every day cuz this asphalt isn’t being produced so fricking here’s pay the vendor and [00:32:30] go get the asphalts, go get the diesel, get, let’s get going. So for us today, for example, in in plant equipment.com, we look at for, uh, inquiries, you know, how many inquiries are we getting daily?
[00:32:41] That’s a KPI we measure. Mm-hmm. How many clicks are we? So [00:32:45] we measure everything and we, it’s very easy for us in a daily report to see everything that’s happening and then see where the errors are and then try to fix them.
[00:32:54] Naeem Parvez: Yeah. And I, and I think the, the seeker sauce in there is the leading versus lagging indicators too, right?
[00:32:59] So [00:33:00] I’ve been in sales my entire life, uh, starting from like 40 call calls a day in my first job. And my manager used to tell me, she’s like, I’m not tracking your sales numbers. I’m tracking your activity. How many dials did you make a day? Cuz everything leads from that. If you [00:33:15] ain’t making 40 dials a day, none of the other stuff is gonna make sense.
[00:33:18] So a hundred percent make those dials. And it’s, I relate that to when I play football right now, not soccer. Uh, when I play football right now, it’s, it’s not how many goals I [00:33:30] scored, it’s how many shots did I take? Yes. Because that is an indicators like, okay, I took less shots. Why did I take less shots?
[00:33:36] Yes. Did I have low energy? Were the defenders blocking me all the time? Were I, was I on the wrong side of the pitch? Yes. And then you start diagnosing based on that. So it’s always [00:33:45] about the activity that leads to the goal, but not the, like if you were to track, if I had revenue goals, When I look at revenue numbers every day, it would make no sense.
[00:33:54] Like, how do you de decide on action based on like, oh, revenue is not where it’s supposed to be. [00:34:00] Great. What do I do with that information? But when you look at, okay, how many campaigns did we launch for ourselves? Okay. And, uh, how much time are we spending on this new collateral, et cetera. There’s all these like leading indicators that will give you that end goal.[00:34:15]
[00:34:15] And those are, those are the things, and you’re, you’re talking about this daily, right? And I need to get into that daily cadence back
[00:34:21] Saleh Kuba: again, but it’s gotta be something for me. It’s gotta be something I can look at in five seconds. Yeah. Like, if it takes me an hour to do Yeah. I’m not gonna do [00:34:30] it. Of course.
[00:34:30] Like, it’s gotta be something I can just look at on the page and like, I got it. I see what the problem is. Let’s, let’s do it. Yeah. Um, uh, you’re talking about love averages. You know, my first job outta college was, uh, door to door sales. Uh, it’s [00:34:45] kinda like cool calling. Yeah, pretty same. And, uh, I actually learned so much from that job.
[00:34:49] It was, it was one of the worst jobs I ever had, but I learned so much from that job. Um, and, and my man, my line manager, they used to call him whatever. Um, he would say, Sal, you [00:35:00] gotta do a hundred doors. You gotta knock on, we were selling coupons. You gotta, you gotta knock on a hundred doors a day. That’s all I care about.
[00:35:07] I’m like, so he’d give me like, the sheet and I would put the address, the street address of every house I knocked. He like, just get to a hundred doors [00:35:15] and you’ll get 10 sales. And then by, by the time I got to like 90, I didn’t have any sales. And then by 91 it was like, okay, I’ll buy a coupon. By 92 I got a coupon.
[00:35:25] I would go back to the office, I got 10 sales, and then we’d ring this bell. Ah, it’s ridiculous how that [00:35:30] happened. It’s unbelievable. It’s love averages, dude. And I, I tell my team, you know, in implant equipment.com every day, I’m like, guys, Get your calls in, don’t, the next one could care. Be it, I don’t care.
[00:35:38] I don’t care about your sales numbers. All I care about is your calls numbers. Yeah. Get me, like you said, the shots. If I can [00:35:45] get 10 shots on goal, one’s gonna hit lo of averages. Yeah. But if I only get three shots on goal, that law goes down. Yeah. So it’s the same thing with sales. Like guys do the, do your a hundred calls a day.
[00:35:55] Yeah. You’re gonna get those sales. Yeah.
[00:35:57] Naeem Parvez: I do remember one of my big whales that I scored was [00:36:00] on a, on my like 32nd call at 4:23 PM Yeah, it’s, it’s when the energy is the lowest. Yeah. It’s when you’ve been beaten up all day. Yeah. By nose and nose and stress and [00:36:15] worry. And then you just have that call and you pretend on the phone, no one hears this.
[00:36:19] Right. Because you’re, this is Hollywood baby. You gotta, you gotta put on your best show, right? Yeah. You’re like, I’m calling you about this. Yeah. And you’re gonna love this. Yeah. Let’s talk. Let’s have a meeting. And it went so well [00:36:30] and that just made me. Uh, a bit more active. Again, I’ll, I’ll bring the, a bit more active later on in the day in when other people are having a slump.
[00:36:39] I was going crazy at it, and this has also happened to me in football. So when I play the last 15 [00:36:45] minutes, I, I reserve most of my energy for that really, because I know the other guys are gonna be tired, smart, and I’m, I’m building and I’m watch, and I’m, and I’m purposely tying them out throughout the game.
[00:36:55] So the last 15 minute, when I turn it on, you’re gonna have to catch me and you’re gonna have to like, work on [00:37:00] catching. I love that. I love that. So that’s, and that’s, that’s, uh, that’s what I like about competition, um, and how it drives you. But, uh, I do wanna switch topics though, right? Uh, I have, I do take a lot of left turns.
[00:37:14] Pardon me, [00:37:15] but sometimes things don’t think up. Uh, I want to talk about something that I’ve been thinking about financial freedom. And I’ve been thinking about financial freedom for, for a while in different kind of terms. My understanding of it has changed over the [00:37:30] years. Um, I’ve changed my mind about it a few times of what it means to me and how close I am to it.
[00:37:36] And only recently I’ve been starting to talk to people about it, which is weird cuz I used to talk to myself in my head about this a lot. So it’s [00:37:45] very refreshing now to talk to people and no matter who I talk to, the answer is always different on what financial freedom means. Uh, it means different things to different people.
[00:37:56] Do you think about financial freedom? If do, would you define it [00:38:00] differently? What, what are your thoughts about it? How close do you think you are to it?
[00:38:06] Saleh Kuba: I, I think I’m financial free, financially free. Um, you know, I don’t, I don’t think about [00:38:15] going broke. Um, I, I care more about the solution. Um, and that’s one of the lessons I learned from my father as well.
[00:38:26] I think there, there was a time in my life, [00:38:30] um, around the time in college where I, where I had failed, um, and I started a coffee shop. That’s one thing I started in Man of Mystery. Yeah. [00:38:45] Um, and it was, it was with a friend. A friend had come to me and say, Hey, you know, let, let’s start a coffee shop. And so I ended up giving him the money, um, money that I had made from other ventures.
[00:38:56] And he started the CO and then every couple of months he, any more money, any more money. [00:39:00] And I started giving the guy more money. We had no agreement. It was just a gentleman’s agreement. Um, and then basically they make a long story short, the, the coffee shop was gone and the guy, you know, had taken the money and he was a close friend and it was very [00:39:15] complicated, very awkward.
[00:39:16] Um, but. I had basically leveraged other things to get the money, and that that leverage had caused, you know, a rupture in financially. And so [00:39:30] I ran away and I thought that, you know, I can solve my problems in, in other ways, you know, that, that were destructive to me. Um, and my father sensed this. I don’t know how, I think fathers and [00:39:45] mothers have six senses.
[00:39:46] Mm-hmm. And he called me in, he’s like, Hey, come, come, let’s talk. And he’s like, what’s going on with you? I said, well, no, nothing. I’m fine. No, no. What’s going on with you? And I told him, you know the story. And he’s like, he kind [00:40:00] of paused and he’s like, why don’t you come to me? I’m like, well, you know, I don’t, I can do this on my own.
[00:40:04] He’s like, no, no, no dude. We’re here for you. You have people that are here for you. That was the first thing. Second thing he said, listen, I’m as greedy as the next guy. It’s, my dad says [00:40:15] I’m as greedy as the next guy. But I try so hard to not think about the profit of any deal that we’re making in business.
[00:40:27] I try not to think of that. I try, I block that [00:40:30] out as much as I can. I only think about delivering the best product to my customer. That’s the one thing I think about. And he’s like, Sal Saada, you do that and the money will come. And that’s been my philosophy ever [00:40:45] since that moment. And I still, like, I I, we, there was a lot of credit card debt.
[00:40:50] That’s how I paid for a lot of this stuff. Um, but I remember we made a sheet and I still have the sheet, and we wrote down all the credit card debt and then I folded it up and I put it in my wallet. And it’s still [00:41:00] like in one of my wallets, I, it always keep, I always go back to it whenever I need to. Um, so I, I make that a point, you know, not to think of the money.
[00:41:10] Once I start thinking about the money. Then I’m, I become, [00:41:15] I sound off where my goal is money. Um, people, people pick up on that. Yeah. And they don’t wanna deal with people that are just looking to make a quick buck. 15 years ago, um, I’ve [00:41:30] been married 20 years, 15 years ago when I was with my wife, I think we were driving somewhere and I looked to her and I said, and, and it wasn’t a great time financially as well.
[00:41:41] I said to her, you know what, I’m, I’m happy like right now, [00:41:45] like, if, if I died right now, I die happy. And, and she always tells me this. She’s like, you know, I, I have this thing against people who have a lot of money [00:42:00] cuz I think that I’m scared that if I have a lot of money then. I’m not gonna enjoy it and things are gonna go bad.
[00:42:10] So I try not to think about it, you know? But it starts to come on its own. [00:42:15] Um, and, and you start to realize that happiness and money aren’t necessarily linked. Money gives you comfort, but it doesn’t give you happiness. Um, when I think about the happiness, [00:42:30] happiest moments in my day or in my life, it’s moments when I’m playing like Monopoly with my kids.
[00:42:37] You know, it’s moments when like, I love offroading. When I’m offroading, you know? And I’m doing that. That’s, that’s great moment. This moment [00:42:45] right now, talking to you and chilling and, and talking about my life and your life, I’m happy right now. That has nothing to do with money. Um, so I don’t really. Think about financial freedom, honestly.
[00:42:58] Naeem Parvez: Really? Yeah. [00:43:00] It’s, it, it’s interesting to, to get that opinion because I am all of those people and more, um, and I’ll explain, so I had a similar story back in university. Um, I, I came back home for the summer term and I [00:43:15] left cell on there. My friend said, leave your cell phone here, leave the plan on, like, you’re not gonna be here.
[00:43:20] I’ll just use it for my calls and stuff here and I’ll just pay the bill for you. I go back three months later, the bill is unpaid. Oof. That gentleman left to go back to his [00:43:30] country, never came back. Oof. I looked at the bill and he’d be dialing international numbers no way. On the daily of, so I was down.
[00:43:39] So this is a 19 year old kid who’s down $900. [00:43:45] That’s a lot of money for a 19 year old, and I don’t come from like a very well off family. Right? Yeah. So when I felt that crunch the first time in my life is when I hid from my parents and went and got part-time jobs because I was raised in a way like, you [00:44:00] don’t need to work.
[00:44:01] We’re sending you to study. Just study. If you need money, call me. I’ll send you money. We’ll find a way. We’ll get you the money, whatever you need. So I worked for two years on a part-time job, a couple of part-time jobs. Uh, Popeye’s Chicken. Do you remember? Popeye’s Chicken? Of [00:44:15] course. Yeah. I love Popeye’s.
[00:44:16] I was back, uh, in the back putting a batter on those, uh, on those little chicks and throwing them in the fryer. Yeah. Um, and that changed me a bit when I first understood that like, yes, I know [00:44:30] having money may not make you happy, is, is what I heard. But I know for a fact that having debt is very stressful.
[00:44:38] Having no ways to get back what you lost is pretty stressful. So then I started orienting my life to like, okay. [00:44:45] Avoid the downfalls, which is most of, uh, which is, I’m, now I’m thinking a bad way to do it, um, is to avoid being in that situation ever again. So guard up, always counting, always checking, keeping Excel sheet and [00:45:00] everything.
[00:45:00] And has evolved over, over the years. Lately I started thinking financial freedom to me would be, and I’m the same as you. I could die an day and be happy, man. Cuz I tell this to Elena. We, we got married eight years ago and I told her this. Then she’s like, we [00:45:15] just got married, you can’t die. I’m like, but if I do, I would not regret, I would not go up to the heavens and be like, no, no, I need more time.
[00:45:23] I had a good life for the moment I was there and with the experiences and the circumstances I did find. But, [00:45:30] um, recently about financial freedom, I started thinking as long as I have. Five to 10 years worth of money that I can live in Dubai, for example, in the cost of living in Dubai, uh, I feel like I’m financially free.[00:45:45]
[00:45:45] Uh, whereas other people, uh, friends in the circle will be like, when I have enough for my next generation, which is their three kids, then I’ll be, you know, financially free. And I’m like, how far away are you from that? He’s like, oh, four years. So he’s, he’s gonna be 40 in [00:46:00] four years. So he’s like my 40. He’s like, like, okay, buy 40.
[00:46:03] You wanna have enough money for like two generations, buy 40. I just wanna have like five or 10 years worth of thing. And then there’s another guy that I talked to completely off the charts and I was telling him about this runway, like, I need [00:46:15] the five, 10 year runway. That’s my financial freedom. He’s like, no, I want an infinity runway, because I’ll have that five to 10 year, but then they’ll all be invested in something that’s growing by eight to 10% a year.
[00:46:25] And I, uh, essentially created an infinity loop. I’m like, so it’s never really [00:46:30] enough. Right. Like
[00:46:31] Saleh Kuba: it’s, I think if you’re thinking about, you look at these people who have billions and billions and billions and billions of dollars, they’re not stopping. They’re still going. They want more, they want more, they want more.
[00:46:42] Um, it’s, it’s a very interesting question. I [00:46:45] never, I don’t think about it that much, honestly. Um, being, being financially free, uh, for some reason, I mean, I, when I first started Orange Hill, which is our trading company, um, comes [00:47:00] from, it comes from a restaurant in Orange County. It’s called Orange Hill, my wife named it.
[00:47:03] Mm-hmm. But my first office in, in Orange. So when I, when I left Saudi, um, and, and my dad’s business, my dad had basically exited that business. So it was his business. Um, and he went back to [00:47:15] California. So I had a decision to make when I left Saudi was, do I come out to Dubai or do I go to California and start from scratch?
[00:47:24] There? And this is where the network thing I told you about. When I, when I, when, [00:47:30] if I was to go to California, I’d have no network. So I looked at Dubai and I had some friends here. I knew some people here. And then when I joined eo, you know, it was like, okay, now I have a network. I have, I have a place I can go to, to, to, to start.[00:47:45]
[00:47:45] Our first office in, in GI was a one meter by one by two meter office. Um, it was just me in the office at the time and no windows. It was like a closet basically. Uh, but, [00:48:00] and I’m sure you felt it as well, all entrepreneurs feel it, but that first moment you sit down at the table, whether it’s a one meter by two meter, you feel like a king.
[00:48:10] You feel like a fricking king. Yeah. You feel so good. I was like, This is, [00:48:15] this is amazing. You know, I, I love this, you know, I don’t know what’s about to happen, but this is a, this is me. This is me. Um, and now at now we have an, an office in Business Bay. We have an office in Gem Ali. Um, you [00:48:30] know, we, we have 20, 23rd, 25 employees here in Dubai.
[00:48:33] We have five in Ukraine, we have in India, we have in Beirut. How did I, it’s grown. Um, so, but to look back at that moment where I did, [00:48:45] again, you talk about finance, but for me that was the freedom, you know, where I am, the master of my destiny. For me, that was freedom. I don’t really think about financial free, even though we had nothing at the time.
[00:48:57] The moment I got the first sale that we sold, the first [00:49:00] machine, I can remember it clearly. I, my in-laws were in town. We went for coffee and then I had a guy in the yard and he called me. He’s like, Hey, you just sold, we just sold the first machine. I. And I just started bawling. I’m like, I can’t believe this happened.
[00:49:13] We sold the first [00:49:15] machine, you know, it took months cuz we had bought some machines and, and we came in the market in 2015 where there’s a recession. I remember in 2015, remember, if you remember, but the market was down, so we bought a lot of cheap machines and then we sold the first machine. And, and [00:49:30] I was like, this, this worked, we did it.
[00:49:32] You know, we, for us in the equipment industry, a machine is worth, could be worth $200,000. So it’s, it’s a pretty big sale and you make, you know, 20 to 30% on the sale. So for us it was like a big thing. [00:49:45] So, and then I started to look for triggers that gave me that freedom. So for me, selling the machine was always like, it’s great big thing.
[00:49:55] Um, you know, sitting in my office and journaling was like a [00:50:00] thing that gave me a happiness. Um, so that for me was the, the things that gave me freedom. I don’t, when I think about freedom, I mean, when you’re saying financial freedom, I think you’re, you’re saying like where you feel like [00:50:15]
[00:50:15] Naeem Parvez: you, it’s about, it’s about optionality, right?
[00:50:17] It’s how much optionality do you have in your day-to-day or week-to-week life? Like for example, about five years ago, I took my first sabbatical, not because of health [00:50:30] reasons, not because of anything. I wanted to quit my job without having another job. Like I was still an employee. How long were you off for?
[00:50:38] Three months. Wow. How was that? Beautiful. Really beautiful. I, and I planned, I’ve never, I’ve never [00:50:45] done that and I planned to do it for six months. Yeah. And I’m coming up to like in a, I think in a year or year and a half, I’m gonna do a longer one. I’m gonna do like a six month or maybe a year sabbatical.
[00:50:56] And that’s what freedom is to me, right. Having that optionality, because [00:51:00] I know for a deep down fact, again, as you said, I don’t think I will go broke unless there’s some big calamity that happens and you know, The universe always has its way to like bring people down to ground. But with the amount of skillsets [00:51:15] that I’ve picked up with the amount, like I won’t have to chase money anymore at this stage of life.
[00:51:20] At least those insecurities are gone. Those are, that was a twenties thing for me. And you know, we don’t come from money. Like my, I’ve been also, I’ve had [00:51:30] dependent since I was, since I got my first job for the last 12 years. Been supporting the family as well. Mom and dad. Um, their health wasn’t too well and dad had to retire and stuff like that, so I took, took over the reins for that too.
[00:51:43] That kind of created a [00:51:45] bit more insecurity. But everything happens for a reason. If. If that didn’t happen, I wouldn’t have pulled up my socks as much as I have and made something or try to make something in my life. I wouldn’t say I’ve made it, but try to make something in my life where I can take care of them and [00:52:00] myself and my future self for the driving force.
[00:52:02] Yeah. It’s a force. Yeah. And then, you know, not be nervous, like people are nervous, like, oh, I don’t think I wanna start a family. I’m not financially there yet. I don’t think it takes money to raise a family. Uh, I think the money [00:52:15] comes and I think you can do a good job without much too. Um, so I having that security now or that optionality that I can pick whatever life path I want to choose, I wanna go on, start a podcast.
[00:52:29] That’s the [00:52:30] optionality you asked me 10 years ago. I wouldn’t have had that because a bank balance was low. B, mental balance was low. The optimism of knowing that I wouldn’t have to chase money, it’ll come to me if I just decide to do something.
[00:52:44] Saleh Kuba: Yeah. The money [00:52:45] always comes. Yeah. If, if you solve a problem, the money will always come.
[00:52:48] I think I, I love the sabbatical idea. I, I’ve, it’s You’re like the third person who’s Yeah. Like from in my circle. That’s your sign. Yeah. I don’t know. I don’t know. Get out. I’m [00:53:00] Mike Sabbatical. I’m done. Peace check, please. Um, no. Uh, so I, I don’t, I think for me, so we have this business, we have the plan equipment business.
[00:53:14] We, I think [00:53:15] I mentioned to you, we have, we had a truffle business Yeah. Um, that we got into, um, which I do nothing about. Um, how’d that work out for you? Uh, look, I, serial entrepreneurs sometimes fuck up. Okay. I mean, listen, [00:53:30] I think, um, I, I, it was definitely a blue ocean. Definitely. I mean, nobody had canned truffles.
[00:53:43] Especially desert. I do you know what desert [00:53:45] truffles are?
[00:53:45] Naeem Parvez: I’ve, I Googled it when you emailed me. I would’ve never known about it unless you’d
[00:53:52] Saleh Kuba: mentioned it. It’s, it’s huge in the, uh, middle East. Okay. So we love to, especially in Iraq, Syria, the Levant, um, [00:54:00] even parts of the GCC are doing it as well. But you basically
[00:54:02] Naeem Parvez: take these, wait, does marijuana know what, uh, desert truffles
[00:54:05] Saleh Kuba: are?
[00:54:05] Um, I don’t think it’s popular in Egypt yet. Oh God. So anyway, you, they’re a little harder than regular truffles. Um, you can still taste a little bit of the soil in them [00:54:15] because they’re, they’re deep in the, in the soil. You gotta dig to get ’em out, and you mix them with rice and, and parsley and meat. And it’s, it’s, it’s a beautiful dish.
[00:54:24] Um, and my wife and I were looking [00:54:30] at it and we’re like, you know, let’s, let’s do this. So we would started looking for suppliers. We found a supplier in Africa, and, uh, they would, can it for us. And we got, we got a license in, in jumping. I had, I added food trading to my license. Um, and we [00:54:45] brought, you know, the first batch of truffles.
[00:54:48] Just one ton. Yeah, I know. We got more
[00:54:53] and we’re like, this is gonna sell for sure. You know, and we started slinging it, you know, around town. [00:55:00] I, my wife actually mostly did it. I mean, I was helping, we even took like, um, a table at, uh, uh, ripe Market. Mm-hmm. You know, ripe market. Yeah. We got a table and we’re sitting there with the kid. The kids loved it, by the way.
[00:55:12] They would like look so forward to like, go to ripe market and sell [00:55:15] like our truffles and, uh, child labor. Yeah, child labor, you gotta gotta, you gotta, you gotta find ways. Um, and we would go through ripe market and the whole day we’d sell like one or two cans. And then [00:55:30] this woman would come by from like Syria or Lebanon.
[00:55:32] Iraq, and she would look at the can, she would know exactly what it was. And she’s like, gimme 10, 10 cans. Like, okay. And then maybe one more would come. So we in, in, like we, our goal was to sell 20 cans at [00:55:45] the Thrive Market. Um, we would sell 20 cans to like two people, you know, and I’m like, babe, I think we gotta put this in.
[00:55:53] Like, we gotta figure out why these people shop, and that’s what we gotta put this stuff. Um, so then we found like these little niche supermarkets, [00:56:00] um, that would cater to these people and we would put the, they would request like 50 cans a week, you know. Um, and we would, we would sell it. It was great. But again, like we were in this really tight [00:56:15] niche market.
[00:56:15] Um, so we did that two years ago. We did the year, the year before, and this year we’re looking at doing it again. So the thing about truffles is it only grows from, you know, February to, uh, April. Mm-hmm. So it’s like a two [00:56:30] month window. So then you can it, and then you, the price this year was like triple last year.
[00:56:35] Because there, there wasn’t a lot of, you know, the harvest wasn’t very good. So, and then I’m looking and, and I go to one of our suppliers, uh, vendor, [00:56:45] uh, distributors, and I’m like, you know, we’re thinking we’re not sure if we’re gonna get it this year, blah, blah. He’s like, good, you didn’t, I’m like, what’s going on?
[00:56:52] And he shows me the, the, the amount of companies that have come into this segment now are like 10 [00:57:00] different ones. They’re using the same cans we were using, and they’re like half our price. I’m like, thank God I didn’t buy, you know, so it just taught me that sometimes it’s great to have a blue ocean mm-hmm.
[00:57:12] Where you’re the only player. Like it feels amazing. Like you [00:57:15] really set, you know, things your, your way. But a, it’s a bit too niche. I think what we were doing. Like it didn’t apply to the masses. So it’s very hard to gain a lot of traction. Um, secondly, [00:57:30] you have to have some sort of defensibility. You know, in our product, in the truffles, we didn’t have any defensibility.
[00:57:36] You know, anybody could come in and then start selling the truffles. Like we didn’t have exclusivity. You can get the truffles from any country and then the GCC or Africa. So [00:57:45] once you found the supplier, it was, it was really, so we needed defensibility. Um, we shut down that project. Um, we still have like 10 cans left.
[00:57:53] I’ll send you a can sometime. Um, but it, it’s, it was a tough [00:58:00] one. Um, but, you know, whatev whatever, sometimes it doesn’t work out, you know? It’s okay. Yeah. I mean, I, I call you invested in the license, you invested in a warehouse, you invest in all this stuff, and then you’re like, this isn’t gonna work.
[00:58:11] Naeem Parvez: Yeah. I call those neighborhood businesses.
[00:58:12] It’s like your market size is just your neighborhood. [00:58:15]
[00:58:15] Saleh Kuba: Yeah. But I mean, if, if it worked, you know, we could have, it could have been huge, you know. Yeah. But, but you know, it did, did it didn’t work out. It didn’t work out. No,
[00:58:23] Naeem Parvez: I, I totally agree with you. Like this, this whole blue ocean thing. It, it sort of pisses me off cuz I, I [00:58:30] knew about these concepts.
[00:58:31] So even reading like Peter Thiel’s zero to one. Yeah, it’s a good book and stuff like that. I’ll, I’ll mention a point from that book in a second, but what we do, for example, our ad agency is a dime in a, like, [00:58:45] it’s undifferentiated cuz there’s such a sea of agencies, especially in this market because this market has its own.
[00:58:54] Then it’s got all these Indian companies kind of coming into the, the space and now the whole world is open. So [00:59:00] everyone in Europe is selling into Dubai. Everyone in North America is selling into Dubai, their services and it’s becoming, uh, it’s, it’s, it’s always been a red ocean. I’m not saying it’s becoming a red ocean.
[00:59:11] So we’ve been trying to find our voice. Um, that’s [00:59:15] part of the reason we got into our lull. The last, the last time. That one I told you about, when we got into a lull for a week where we didn’t know the right thing we’re doing, majority of the reason was it’s such a red ocean. That I sound fake when I try to differentiate using words or a pitch deck or [00:59:30] the technology that we use, and we haven’t been able to find our edge apart from the fact that we just work harder than the next guy.
[00:59:39] Um, and that’s cute to say, but it’s hard to show, right? And they have to trust you on that. So it doesn’t help your [00:59:45] sales as much. What helps your sales is more how we present ourselves and, you know, our ability to convey messages. But this is why I kind of, uh, pivoted to this podcast. So there’s only one of me if I’m building, let’s say, a media [01:00:00] business around this guy.
[01:00:03] There is only one me. There is only one me that talks like me, has my experiences, and if there is a, there’s opportunity that’s come out of it, it’s high. The mote is already there. Because those [01:00:15] opportunities only apply to me and how I creatively come up with every episode or every piece of, uh, microcontent or every piece of written content or anything that kind of supports the ecosystem on that front, which is why I think this is, [01:00:30] this is a fun place to be, especially in the media.
[01:00:32] I love it. I think media side of things. I love it. Um, the other point you mentioned was having a big enough market that is still being solved for, but eventually I think, you know, media consumption, like whether it’s [01:00:45] YouTube or podcast Spotify, it’s picking up over here. It’s not where it needs to be, but
[01:00:50] Saleh Kuba: I, I think in my experience, when it comes to what you do, mm-hmm.
[01:00:56] So. We’re a little off Patrick, but it’s okay. [01:01:00] Like I have a lot of experience in what you do. Um, you told me you are a radio DJ now. Yeah. No, no, no. I’m talking about the edge part. No, no. I wish I was a, I have a good radio voice, don’t I? Um, no. So smooth, so good. It’s nine [01:01:15] o’clock. Um, so, uh, in, in the ad words ad spend space, um, I think you’re right, it is a red ocean, but [01:01:30] when I look at the construction world, for example, um, when I look at the B2B space, there’s still a lot of blue ocean for you.
[01:01:39] Um, so there isn’t a lot of people in the construction world that do what you do. [01:01:45] I know, because I looked for them and I did, I, I, I tried to push ad agencies. Um, there was one wa you know, Wavemaker, no. Um, they’re a big ad agency, they’re huge. Um, and we work, we try to work with [01:02:00] them. I’m like, they’re good.
[01:02:01] They’re big. They gotta be good. You know, that was my idea. Um, they knew nothing about construction. They knew nothing about equipment. So it was like, basically I was building the ads, you know, I was, I was writing the content and then I’d give it to ’em and they would manage it. [01:02:15] And they, they didn’t know how to manage it and they didn’t know.
[01:02:17] So I think that it’s very easy to do the B2C fashion food, blah, blah, blah. That, that part’s, everybody’s doing that. Mm-hmm. But I think there are, there is a [01:02:30] blue ocean within that ocean, um, that you can, that’s what you, that’s why I think you need to look for, um, construction, for example. I can tell you right now, there isn’t enough people in construction like we had.
[01:02:41] Naeem Parvez: We’re actually invited to, um, a client of ours. He sells [01:02:45] hot tubs and paddle courts, and he has ties to construction businesses. He invited us to come to Saudi last month in February. He’s like, you guys should just come. He’s like, it’s an open space. There’s gonna be tons of exhibitors. None of them know a [01:03:00] thing about marketing.
[01:03:01] Whatever you give them, they will take it. So we
[01:03:03] Saleh Kuba: have a magazine. Mm-hmm. Did I tell you that? No. Yeah. So plan equipment, like a Michelin store magazine? No, no, no. Plan plan equipment.com. Yeah. Um, is, is a marketplace. Mm-hmm. But for us, so you [01:03:15] did the podcast. What we did is we kept our magazine. Mm. So we converted our, remember I told you we required this classified magazine.
[01:03:22] Mm-hmm. We converted it. It was AID’S idea. It’s brilliant. But he converted it to a editorial magazine. Mm-hmm. [01:03:30] So now we’re, we’re one of the strongest construction magazines. You know, in the region. So that’s amazing because it, we’re able to create content that we then push to the marketplace. Mm-hmm. Um, and that’s one way we got to close the [01:03:45] OEMs.
[01:03:45] But to go back to what you do, there was this woman that came to us, um, from, I don’t know if you know her, Luna. Um, so she has, she does social media stuff, uh, and she’s like, listen, I, I have this new thing and you know, I wanna do [01:04:00] construction and you know, I wanna learn what you guys are doing. And we signed her up in five minutes.
[01:04:03] Like it was such, it, we, we, we went with her and she’s doing a great job. Like she, she’s bringing those ideas from. The b2c, the, the [01:04:15] fashion food, blah, blah blah that everybody’s used to. She’s bringing it to our industry and it’s pretty cool. Like it’s, it’s doing cool things. Yeah. And people are picking like, well this is kind of like people, our customers are telling, this is kind of cool.
[01:04:26] So I think you can find blue oceans within the [01:04:30] red ocean. Yeah,
[01:04:31] Naeem Parvez: absolutely. We, we got, uh, working with this logistics company very far away from what we do. Right. We’re B2C and it’s like you’re doing logistics and we just tried to have fun with it and it worked. Cuz [01:04:45] now, now that you’re saying it, it’s now coming clear back to my mind about.
[01:04:48] The principles, the underlying principles of gathering attention and asking for a sale are all the same throughout business, whether B2B or b2c. Hundred percent. Um, it’s also ex, help [01:05:00] me, help me understand this. The mindsets of these industries or the people running these industries, whether they’re first generation or second generation, these are typically family businesses
[01:05:10] Saleh Kuba: too.
[01:05:10] Not necessarily, but yeah, let’s just say they are for the argument’s sake. Yeah. In,
[01:05:13] Naeem Parvez: in general, [01:05:15] if there are a hundred of these companies out there, are they open? How many of them are open-minded enough to explore digital as a way to promote their business and adopt to the new trends? And, um, so, you know, are they [01:05:30] still looking for the classified guy to get them listing?
[01:05:33] Are they still looking for mail orders to be delivered door to door? Um, that’s a good question. Out of a hundred, how many are there and how many do I have to bring? So
[01:05:42] Saleh Kuba: there classified [01:05:45] for, we, we still do. So our marketplace is the classified model. Um, one thing we’re introducing now is we’re introducing auctions, p and e auctions.
[01:05:55] So we’re adding a transactional component to plan equipment.com. [01:06:00] So we have the classified now, and we’re getting inquiries. We’re adding this transactional component and one of the resistance points that our investors said, Hey, you know, in the GCC and in the Middle East and Mina, you know, people aren’t, you know, [01:06:15] they, they’re not gonna change.
[01:06:17] You know, they, they, they’re set in their ways is it’s gonna be a hard sell to get them to come and transact for a 50,000 or $200,000 machine online. Like, how are you gonna pull that off? [01:06:30] And our argument to them was, and, and it’s is, is many fooled, but one thing is a lot of these family businesses are now bringing in the second and third generations that are more our age.
[01:06:43] And these people love [01:06:45] technology. Okay, so they understand the power of technology, so it’s a little bit of an easier sell. That’s one. Two, the, the, the way the Meina region works is [01:07:00] once something gains traction, the masses pick it up. It, it, it, it’s, it’s unbelievable. For example, YouTube, so I don’t know if you know this, but Saudi Arabia’s, the number one views on YouTube is Saudi [01:07:15] Arabia in the world, not per capita.
[01:07:17] I’m, I’m talking China has what, how, or us has 300 million people. Saudi has 30 million people. It has more views than the us. So that tells you how strong there is a technology penetration. It, it [01:07:30] can be adopted. Um, it, it is a higher, harder sell. But I think once you cross that hurdle and you deliver a product that’s amazing.
[01:07:41] The way that it works in Saudi or UAE or whatever, [01:07:45] is people start telling other people, you start getting this, this effect that grows. That that’s what our markets, there’s something about Mina, it’s a village. It’s a village. Even though we have the same population as the us, I mean if you look at [01:08:00] all of Mina, it’s probably around the same population as the us.
[01:08:03] But even with that, I feel so much smaller. So once this like thing starts to go viral and everybody, people start telling other people, it just grows. So I [01:08:15] remember when I was at that, uh, at that company, um, door to door coupon company. So there’s another tidbit that I learned from that, and it’s so true.
[01:08:24] And the guy told me, he’s like, Sal always put it on a smile. Always put on your bus suit. You know? [01:08:30] I’m like, why? He’s like, listen to me. When you see a bad movie, you tell 10 people. When you see a good move, you tell one person. So don’t be the 10 people. Be the one person. So you always gotta, [01:08:45] why he tells one person one, it starts growing.
[01:08:48] Um, and that’s what we tried to do with planet equipment.com. Well, it’s, it’s
[01:08:51] Naeem Parvez: true like this. Let, let’s look at this construction industry and this like one last point on this before we move on to my next. More favorite or more favorite or [01:09:00] favorite. Favorite. Most favorite, favorite or topic, but the fact that I have this resistance and so do other people in approaching this, let’s say typically old school industry is also a reason to do it because that’s what creates the blue ocean cuz nobody [01:09:15] wants to do the bloody hard thing.
[01:09:17] The hard thing is changing the mindset of an older thinking industry and usually. You’re right, like we’re doing the B2C thing, partially because it’s easier to understand and easier to [01:09:30] do, and the market always rewards you in direct proportion with the problem that you’re solving. You’re so solving small problems.
[01:09:38] You get small money, solve big problems, get big money. It’s not always true. Some YouTubers make more than doctors [01:09:45] do, but in general, the rule is that you know, if you can, if you know how to mop the floor, you are a janitor and that’s the problem you solve, and that’s the highest order problem you solve.
[01:09:55] That’s what you get paid if you solve the bigger problem, which is how do you bring [01:10:00] this, I wouldn’t say arcane, but arcane industry. Into the digital mindset. How do you tr help the second generation transition their, their family’s businesses into a more open online world? And that could be like a ton of [01:10:15] education, it could be tons of webinars, in-person events.
[01:10:18] So you, you’re spending probably a year just educating the market, having a few deals here and there while your momentum is building up. And because you were there so early by a year or two years, you’re [01:10:30] the, you’re the guru, you’re the guy who’s been there for, you’re the dinosaur by just being there for a year when no one was talking and you’re the only one talking.
[01:10:38] So something to think
[01:10:39] Saleh Kuba: about. No, I mean, how big industry numbers, I dunno if you know how big the construction [01:10:45] industry
[01:10:45] Naeem Parvez: is. I have zero idea. I’ve never thought about it. The
[01:10:47] Saleh Kuba: equipment industry alone, I’m not talking about contracts, I’m talking about just equipment sales. Yeah. Is around 35 billion in meina.
[01:10:55] 35 billion. Usually the number in. [01:11:00] The world is the construction project’s value mm-hmm. Is 10 times the equipment value. So that would give us a value of 350 billion in construction projects in Meina. [01:11:15] 350 billion. That’s a freaking lot of money, bro. That’s half a half a trillion. I mean, you see what’s happening with Niam and with the square thing that they’re doing now in Saudi, um, what they’re doing, moba, moba, moba.
[01:11:28] Yeah. Um, so they’re, they’re, [01:11:30] they’re starting to, okay, we need to start promoting, you know, what we’re doing. But construction is one of the biggest industries in Mina, yet it’s so underserved by [01:11:45] ad agencies and advertising and da, da da da. Mm-hmm. Like, it’s, it’s underserved. And I think that people are starting to pick up on it now that, Hey, we, I would challenge you to go to the big five this year.
[01:11:57] It’s happening. When is that? I think it’s the end of the year. [01:12:00] Um, so we sponsor that event something sooner. I know, I know, I know. I’ll, I’ll find out. I’ll, I’ll send you a list of, uh, you can actually see it on our website. All the exhibitions that are plug, plug, plug. Um, yeah. But anyway, you can go to our website looking for [01:12:15] exhibitions, go attend an exhibition.
[01:12:16] Mm-hmm. And you’ll be, you’ll be floored. I was just in Las Vegas, um, last week. That’s why I had to go away. Um, but I ah, you canceled a remember. I know. It’s my fault. It was my fault. I had to go on a sudden trip to Las Vegas. [01:12:30] So we, we are, we’re the media partner of this exhibition. Yeah. That’s happening in Las Vegas and Naim.
[01:12:37] I mean, it was unbelievable the size of this. It was crazy, right. Um, but when I looked at the tech [01:12:45] startup world, there was on, like, I met like four or five people in that space. But this industry’s so big, and that’s why I think we’re happy where we’re at, because we’re in this really big industry. We’re kind of a blue ocean.
[01:12:57] We’re the largest marketplace. We’re actually the only marketplace [01:13:00] right now online. Um, so that’s what I talk about, blue Ocean. Mm-hmm. It’s, it’s a very nice place to be.
[01:13:05] Naeem Parvez: I like it. Yeah. It’s just, you know what it is. Yeah. The, the blue ocean is easier to swim in, but it’s harder to get to that part of the [01:13:15] ocean.
[01:13:15] Yeah. Which is, which is kind of the dichotomy, right? Like, I wanna do something easy. Cool. Do the blue ocean. Yeah. I, but I wanna get, it’s so hard. It’s hard to get there, but once you’re there, it’s easier to swim. And that’s the thing [01:13:30] about the red ocean, it’s so easy to get to it. Yeah. But it’s impossible to swim in it.
[01:13:33] Yeah. A hundred percent. So strange. Yeah. Um, construction. We are gonna go for some exhibitions. Alina listening. Bring in, bring in your best suit.
[01:13:44] Saleh Kuba: Uh, yeah, [01:13:45] you gotta wear boots in a buckle boot
[01:13:49] Naeem Parvez: cowboy.
[01:13:50] Saleh Kuba: You gotta call
[01:13:56] Naeem Parvez: and you gotta have a southern twang
[01:13:59] Saleh Kuba: dude here. [01:14:00] Iraq.
[01:14:01] Naeem Parvez: Iraq. Uh, but you have to come with us cuz we’ll be left alone. Uh, don’t worry. I’m in speaking. I love exhibitions. Speaking of coming with us. So, network. Yeah. You’ve, uh, You’ve mentioned this to me in passing, um, [01:14:15] in our email chat and our chat before we start recording to Yeah.
[01:14:18] The power of the network, especially when it comes to EO for you. Right? You were talking about moving to Dubai and making that decision primarily, or most primarily based on who do you know? [01:14:30] Um, there’s something to be said about having a network and there’s completely different game of how you utilize it.
[01:14:38] What have you learned for yourself over the years, whether it’s through eo with EO before [01:14:45] eo, um, about leveraging your network properly? And I, when I say this from the context of someone who’s grown up a bit introverted, um, never had a, a lot of friends had quality friends, but not a lot of [01:15:00] friends and always shy to ask for help.
[01:15:03] Um, and also, Was unwilling to give help too. So I was a bit selfish. Um, but amazing things started happening to me [01:15:15] when people just started helping me out from the goodness of their heart. That changed my mind on that whole thing, like, um, whether it’s getting jobs or, you know, getting through financial, uh, problems or something else, [01:15:30] it’s always, uh, it’s always something that I’m learning because it didn’t come naturally to me.
[01:15:34] It doesn’t come from my family either. So my mom and my dad, like my mom would hate the fact that I have too many friends. She would actually call out on it. She’d like, Why do you need [01:15:45] friends? Why do you have to always go out? Why can’t you stay home like a good boy and like focus on your studies? Like why this now?
[01:15:51] Why that? Now why are you on the phone? Why are you texting? So she’s not been, I’ve not been raised as like, Hey man, the world is your community. [01:16:00] This, the whole village is like the, the whole world is your village and these are all our neighbors and let’s go and like mix and mingle as much as we can. It’s been so I’ve been fighting that resistance.
[01:16:10] Oh. But I’m getting better. I’m getting better in my own right. Um, how would [01:16:15] you, like, I’m a six out of 10 for someone like me. Are there any advice for other entrepreneurs too that are. Not sure how to leverage a network properly, forget building one, cuz that’s a different topic. Building a network is a different thing, but how do you leverage [01:16:30]
[01:16:30] Saleh Kuba: your network properly?
[01:16:31] That’s a good question. Um, first of all, I feel like there’s a mirror here. Not, I mean, I, I, I was an introvert. Mm-hmm. Um, and people get shocked I think, even when you tell people Yeah, I believe it because I
[01:16:42] Naeem Parvez: was there. Yeah. You should see me after this interview. [01:16:45] I’m, I’m napping. I’m napping. Yeah. I’m crashing in the car.
[01:16:48] Saleh Kuba: Um, my change came, uh, I was, I went to boarding school, um, when I was, uh, 13 and uh, I [01:17:00] would, the first week I was excited. The second week I would basically look at the books and do no homework. And then I was like, you what? My grades went from like, a’s to like F’s that when I went to boarding school. Um, and then my advisor told me, and I didn’t tell anybody [01:17:15] about my problems.
[01:17:15] I didn’t ask for help. I didn’t tell my parents. Then my advisor said, you know, why don’t you go to a football game? You know, or else you’re gonna get outta school. Like you gotta change it up. So I remember I went to this football game and I’m, I’m sitting at the football game and there was this [01:17:30] kid, I think his name was Yusif or something in, in the first row.
[01:17:35] And he kept cheering whenever we scored a touchdown and everybody would cheer with him. And I kept looking at Yusuf and I’m like, man, like [01:17:45] why is this guy doing it so easily? Like, how come I can’t stand up? And I had no friends at the time, you know, it was my first couple of weeks in school and I think like third quarter we scored a touchdown.
[01:17:55] Everybody gets up, Yusuf gets up and like cha crowds and they all sit down and I [01:18:00] don’t know what got into me. I just stood up and everybody had sat down. And I’m like with the W? The W, the W E B P with a G that was the, we’re the web gals. Mm-hmm. With G. With a G, the G A U L S. And everybody [01:18:15] did the cheer with me and I sat back down and that was it.
[01:18:20] Went back to my, my dorm, you know, Monday comes around and we had mailboxes in the, in, in, in the student center. [01:18:30] So I, I go every Monday I go, I never got anything cause my parents lived in, so I would never get any mail. You know, you just get coupons, just get coupons. So I, I opened the mailbox and there’s a letter inside.
[01:18:43] Holy crap. There’s a letter [01:18:45] and I, and it, and it was like internal address, like, so somebody had sent it internally in the school. So then I opened up the letter and it’s from the dean of students and I guess the dean was sitting, his name was Mr. Lawson. He was sitting behind [01:19:00] me, um, in, in, during the game.
[01:19:02] And he had saw, he, he witnessed this transition and he’s like, Sal, you know, I saw you stand up. You know, we appreciate as a school, you know, you should do more of that. You know, it, it suits you. [01:19:15] And from that point on, I know from that point on, dude, I changed my, I didn’t cha I mean this kind of alter ego started to form where I was the loudest guy where I was, you know, I’m known in EO circles now as the guy who always [01:19:30] like, leads the cheers.
[01:19:31] And even though it’s not me, but I’m able to turn that on when I want to. Now it, you know, that’s what drove me to become the student body president. It drove me to open business. It was like such a turning point in my life. Um, so that’s on the introvert comment, [01:19:45] but onto the network. No,
[01:19:46] Naeem Parvez: no. This, this, this mirror thing you talked about is, is real.
[01:19:49] I am the loudest guy. Yeah. Me do parties. Me too. Because I, I, I don’t know if I’m overcompensating something for like big quiet for so long, be so quiet for so long before and after [01:20:00] the thing that even, even Alina is like, you know, she’s quite surprised. She’s like, okay, you know when you’re nervous you’re really loud.
[01:20:06] I’m like, but it works cause they like me. Exactly. They like me when I’m louder and more arrogant.
[01:20:12] Saleh Kuba: And, but what happens is, and I’m [01:20:15] sure you go through this too, but people then start to have this expectation. Yeah. Where, where Naim comes in the room or comes in the room, yes. He’s gonna be the loud guy and he’s gonna be the, and then when you come in and you’re quiet.
[01:20:25] Naeem Parvez: Yeah. It’s, it’s awkward.
[01:20:27] Saleh Kuba: It’s weird. It’s weird for them and you Yeah. You, [01:20:30] so that’s what I, I told you before, there’s something called frame of reference. So in a party situation, there’s people who are dancing in the middle who are like, ah, that’s usually you and me. Mm-hmm. Like who, like break dancing. And I, I Do you break dance?
[01:20:43] No, I, I try, [01:20:45] I love break dance. I love dancing. Wasn’t very good at it. I’m so good at it. Um, anyway, and then there’s the people who are usually like in the raptors, looking down at the people dancing. Those are two different frames of reference. [01:21:00] So try to intentionally sometimes be the guy in the raptors that’s just observing and you see things in a totally different light.
[01:21:09] Um, when you’re in the middle there also. Be, be noticing the people around you and how they’re reacting to [01:21:15] you. So that’s different frames of reference, basically. Mm-hmm. Um, that’s introvert, extrovert. Um, but anyway, on the point of network, that was the main point you came up. Um, I think having a strong [01:21:30] network is one of the most important things for business.
[01:21:33] Um, and it was, it was such an important factor in my decision to come to Dubai and start my business was network. [01:21:45] Um, you said this a few times, you said, you know, we, we, we go to our work and we have to put out fires. Um, we go to our work and sometimes, you know, we have to start and add a new product or [01:22:00] we want to go and venture into construction.
[01:22:03] You know, and start pitching people. Apparently that’s what I’m doing now, I guess. Send me the contract, bro. I’ll sign you up today. I need somebody to manage my AdWords. Now I get to play this [01:22:15] podcast. You’ve been duped. I’ve been duped. Oh damn. Note to self, don’t do this again. Um, anyway, um, so when, when you have a strong network, [01:22:30] you’re able to, when the situation comes out where you have this fire, if I’m able to go through my Rolodex and say, you know, Vic, I know Vic has solved this problem in the past.
[01:22:44] Let me [01:22:45] call Vic, let me get his experience. I think sometimes people, when they think of network or eo, uh, or an organization like eo, they think they’re gonna join to get more business. [01:23:00] They’re, they, they think of network as a way to get more business. I don’t think of network that way.
[01:23:06] Naeem Parvez: This is why I don’t go to
[01:23:07] Saleh Kuba: BNIs.
[01:23:08] Yeah. Yeah. I don’t, I don’t, I don’t, I don’t. So that’s one of the things we have in EO is we have a strict no solicitation rule. Yeah.
[01:23:14] Naeem Parvez: Yeah. [01:23:15] That’s why we join you. You, you’d be sold
[01:23:17] Saleh Kuba: to. Yeah. Yeah. Because you don’t wanna be sold to Yeah. You know, obviously if, if you’re, if you have a business, like come to you and say, Hey, I am, I need you for my, you know, I need to hire you.
[01:23:24] You’re not gonna say, no, that’s, that’s not solicitation. That’s me coming to you. Um, but I [01:23:30] think having a strong network is where you can learn from these people. Cuz there are moments in your business career where you’re going to fake it until you make it. Mm-hmm. Where, I [01:23:45] mean, there, there’s a story of a guy who does, uh, um, media.
[01:23:51] So he’s, he’s a party planner. So he, he, he’s, he’s, he’s doing party planning and he loves his job, and then he gets a contract with Walmart. [01:24:00] So he’s doing the media for the party for Walmart. And then the photographer who’s supposed to film the, the, the, the party didn’t show up. So the, the, the, the manager of Walmart said, Hey, you know, what are we gonna do?
[01:24:14] [01:24:15] Like this is gonna start soon. He’s like, wait, I do photography. The guy never did photography in his life. He’s like, I do photography. He’s like, you do? He’s like, yeah, yeah, I’ll get my team out here in five minutes, you know, in 40 minutes. So the guy leaves the, the, the party goes around like town looking for photographers, and he [01:24:30] finds like two or three, and he brings them down to the show and they do the photography for the show, and then photography and film become the biggest part of his business.
[01:24:38] Is this real? It’s a real true story. This is a true story. Wow. Yeah. Yeah. So there’s a lot of [01:24:45] times where you gotta fake it and then you, you’ll make it. But that’s fine. Stage one. But the next part of that is, You really gotta learn it now. So I lean on my, I leverage and lean on my network to learn things that I don’t know [01:25:00] about, you know, whether it’s, you know, about photography, I’ll go find it.
[01:25:05] And the advantage of AEO is we have the best of the best from so many different industries. So another example, this is true story. Um, we have a, we [01:25:15] have a warehouse business in, in Iraq. Um, and, uh, I was looking at ways, you know, and different opportunities we can do there. And so I asked a friend and he said, Hey, you know, why don’t you get into injection molding?[01:25:30]
[01:25:30] I’m like, okay, I have no idea what, how. Okay. And then I went to the e and i and I looked at, you know, different lines and, and machines that we can get. And I’m looking at, I’m researching and I’m, I’m thinking, I’m convinced that, okay, we did the business plan. This, this, [01:25:45] this is gonna be amazing. We’re gonna, this is gonna be amazing.
[01:25:48] And then I went, I’m like, let me ask my EO network. So I found somebody in EO that had an injection molding business, called him up. We met, I’m like, listen, this is my business. Like [01:26:00] don’t do this. I’m like, what are you talking about? He’s like, don’t do this. I’m like, why? He’s like, you’re gonna get crushed.
[01:26:05] You’re gonna spend all this money. And the problem with what you’re looking at is it has these problems, X, Y, Z. And he showed me the problems I had and I wasn’t, I didn’t see him [01:26:15] and he saved me a shit ton of money. You know? So, so we never, we never did that business. Mm-hmm. But that’s the where you can lean.
[01:26:22] Yeah. Now, the thing about network is you have to give [01:26:30] to get, so you cannot expect to always ask for help. You have to also be willing to
[01:26:38] Naeem Parvez: give help. What if you don’t have enough to give Le and say this selfishly, right? Like, I feel like. In a business kind of [01:26:45] setting. Like if I’m going and looking for people that have 5, 10, 15, 20 more years of experience than I do in business.
[01:26:51] And I’ll tell you a, a recent example. Yesterday I was on a call with a wonderful lady, Paula, Paula Thomas. She runs a podcast call, uh, let’s Talk [01:27:00] Loyalty. And it was just a, I’ll pick your brain kind of conversation, right? 45 minutes. And at the end of it I was, you know, repeatedly saying like, tell me how I can help you cuz I don’t know how, I really don’t know.
[01:27:13] And that’s literally a thing [01:27:15] if someone’s already there or maybe I feel like they feel so well put together, they’ve thought about the whole thing, their business, whether it’s their a media or something else. How do I, how do I find what to give [01:27:30] back in, in that sense? You know, like you meet someone who started a business a year ago and, uh, You know, you are more likely to help ’em if they’ve helped you, but they don’t know how to help you cuz they don’t know as much as you already.
[01:27:44] Saleh Kuba: No. Look, I [01:27:45] think that there’s always gonna be a scenario where you have more expertise in your field than somebody else. There’s always gonna be that scenario. Like when it comes to, we’ll, we’ll use AdWords as an example. You’re an expert [01:28:00] in AdWords. Like, you know how it works, you know, you know, you know how to set up the tags, you know, there you should know how to do it.
[01:28:07] So there’s, there’s gonna be a scenario where somebody’s gonna ask about AdWords. Now you can either go into [01:28:15] it, I’m gonna try to get a sale, or you can go into it like, I’m gonna give this person everything. And if they decide they wanna work with me, that’s fine. If they don’t, that’s also okay. Um, There, there’s [01:28:30] been a lot of situations where, and I, and I tell my wife, cause my wife just started her business as well, so, and I, and I, I, so I, I don’t know, I dunno, I’m coaching her, but I’m, you know, I’m, you know, we’re, we’re working on things together.
[01:28:40] Yeah, you’re rubbing off. Yeah, rubbing off. [01:28:45] Um, and I’m so proud of her, by the way. I mean, she’s like, she just, what is she doing? Um, she’s doing, uh, home staging. Do you know what that means? Yeah.
[01:28:52] Naeem Parvez: So before her property is sold or rented or just dressing
[01:28:55] Saleh Kuba: it up? Yeah. So she just jumped into it
[01:28:59] Naeem Parvez: and she an [01:29:00] interior
[01:29:00] Saleh Kuba: designer.
[01:29:00] No trade. I mean, she’s, she’s, she’s great at what she, you know, she loves designing homes, but it’s just our home. That’s awesome. It’s our home. Um, and then she got her first project, um, it was like this, this big villa in, in Arabian ranches. Nice. Um, [01:29:15] and, and she, it’s called m h y Homes, but, um, it’s m h y is Maryam Haida Ya.
[01:29:20] Which are our kids homes. Mm-hmm. Um, but anyway, and, and, and she just, Jumped
[01:29:26] Naeem Parvez: into it. We’re trying to tie it back to like, how do network someone like [01:29:30] I help someone who’s helping me. Like how do you create that reciprocal even though you’re not equals. Yes, that would
[01:29:37] Saleh Kuba: make sense. I always tell her that somebody will call her or call me for [01:29:45] advice or for a favor.
[01:29:48] You get that all the time in your network. People will come ask you for a favor and she’ll be like, why are you, you know, why are you helping this person? I’m like, well, you [01:30:00] know, first of all, I like helping people. Like I, I’m an open book, you know, I, I’ll always, I, I’m not afraid of anybody. I’ll tell you whatever I got.
[01:30:07] You know, I, I, I’m confident that way. I think we have that similarity. Um, and in the back of my head, [01:30:15] I also do believe that there is a payback at some point where I’m gonna need you for something. So why don’t I have that street cred where I can just, you know, I put it in and that’s part of the network where that’s something you gotta give to take.
[01:30:28] So there’s, there’s gonna be a moment where [01:30:30] somebody’s gonna say, Hey, can you connect me to so and so? Is that possible? Yeah. That’s part of the network is connections, because you have a network of people, so you might know somebody that I want to talk to. So can you connect now, [01:30:45] now you owe me a favor or I owe you a favor.
[01:30:47] Does that make sense?
[01:30:48] Naeem Parvez: It does. It’s, it’s how my mom explains it.
[01:30:53] Um, like we have this, um, I don’t know if you do it in your culture, but, well, our moms, both [01:31:00] mine and Lenas and other moms that we know in our culture, keep a track of gifts.
[01:31:04] Saleh Kuba: Oh, my, my, my, my wife does that too. Over
[01:31:06] Naeem Parvez: decades. Yeah. Yeah. So like my, just keep like paid back. I think my mother-in-law remembers Yeah.
[01:31:11] Everything. I love that. Right? Like she, from the wedding day, she’s like, Hey, why are you going to [01:31:15] this person’s wedding? They didn’t, didn’t give that big of a gift. Like, whoa. Yeah. So make sure you don’t take something too big. I, yeah. You’re keeping track. Yeah. We’ve never kept a list where we should start keeping a list of all, all these favors, but yeah.
[01:31:27] No, I, I, that, that does make sense because it’s [01:31:30] not transactional. Right. Like this health is not, it’s not time bound. Right. It’s just because you gave doesn’t mean you get at that immediate second. And just because you got doesn’t mean you need to give it back almost immediately. It’ll come through the [01:31:45] universe in a, in the way that it comes organically through either request for a connection or it could be, Hey, my son is starting out his podcast.
[01:31:53] Can you give him half an hour worth of tips? A hundred percent. Be like, sure. Okay. A hundred percent. I’ll bank that for something else. [01:32:00] It’s like trading cards, right? Yeah. Picture
[01:32:01] Saleh Kuba: you. The problem is you gotta be careful not to do the favor. Yeah. Or do the advice or do and expect something and expect some, don’t you?
[01:32:11] You gotta go into it. It’s gotta be unconditional. Yeah. [01:32:15] Um, that’s how it worked for me. Like anybody asks me for anything, anytime I will try to help. Yeah. You know, and I know that I can lean on my network in times where I need help. Yeah. And it, it happens all the time. Yeah. Where I will lean [01:32:30] into my network and say, listen, I don’t know how to do this.
[01:32:32] Can somebody please help me figure it out? Yeah. Um, you know, I think we had a situation, um, a few years back where we were looking to change our crm and we were using this legacy system. It was the [01:32:45] company that we had acquired. They had this old legacy system, and it’s something simple. And I’m like, guys, I, I asked my network, I’m like, Hey, I need somebody to tell me about e p.
[01:32:54] And lo and behold, there was a guy who like does ERPs and he is like, let me explain to you about ERPs. Mm-hmm. And CRMs, and he showed me all the [01:33:00] CRMs, and then we chose one that worked. It was fine. So if you have the network, it just makes that life easier, you know? I think another example is when this ownership thing happened, When in the uae where now they’re allowing for, you know, foreigners to own.
[01:33:13] Indeed. In the, in the mainland, [01:33:15] you know, 100% of companies. You know, we set up a, a, a call through EO and where everybody kind of sat around and we, we brainstormed in like, what is the impact of this? And we got a, one of the members in our, in our chapter is a lawyer. We brought in him in to talk to us about it.[01:33:30]
[01:33:30] That’s the power of our community is that we’re able to react quickly to changes in the environment and then try as a whole group, you know, you know, have this kind of response that we can all kind of work through together, you know, corporate tax. Now, you know, [01:33:45] these are simple things, but we want to be ahead of the curve.
[01:33:47] Mm-hmm. As a group. We wanna use our collective energy to really get ahead of everybody else.
[01:33:52] Naeem Parvez: Yeah, no, I think, I think that’s the, the, the, the most basic advice yet the most hard to follow [01:34:00] in business. Like if you’re, if you’re of the mindset that you’re gonna go into business alone and, and this is your own game and your, your self-sufficient, I think just, I, I don’t wanna say this, but quit cuz like I had that feeling when I [01:34:15] first started with a Elena to him, like, we’re onto ourselves as an island, we can make magic happen.
[01:34:21] And life proved us wrong and the market proved us wrong and we are nothing. We are nothing without having [01:34:30] a network. Like, we’re pretty lucky and privileged again. So Alina grew up here in Dubai and she went to a pretty good school, which means the kids ended up doing pretty well for themselves and you know, a lot of them have family businesses and stuff like that.
[01:34:42] So we got a lot, we got to lean on that. [01:34:45] A lot for our first round of clients in terms of referrals and it’s kind of been nonstop from there. And for me it has come through like even playing football, right? Like those guys that I meet three times a week [01:35:00] and we share laughs we swear at each other and these guys light out, you know?
[01:35:04] Exactly. And then we go for dinner after a game. You start wanting to help each other. Mm-hmm. You just want to, you know, you’re not even asking for anything in back. You’re just like, how can I help [01:35:15] you? And we all bring up, like, as good men do, we bring up our feelings about, about things that are going out.
[01:35:21] Please invite me to this group.
[01:35:23] Saleh Kuba: You should. You should. You, you should come out each. I’m a good goalie.
[01:35:28] Naeem Parvez: Um, if you are, you [01:35:30] should come, you should come play with us. Uh, but yeah. Uh, this whole being on an island, we were sold this around Covid, um, on Twitter especially. So it’s following these bunch of guys and they’re like building these like one man businesses that are [01:35:45] making digital products and they’re charging tons of money and they’re making, you know, as a solar printer making a million dollars a year, which is, you know, with a profit margin of 95% because it’s, they’re on the internet, on a computer building products.
[01:35:58] And we’re like the [01:36:00] romanticism of that. Felt really good. Not relying on anyone. No team even no managing, no investment. It just seemed like the utopia of business. Right? And Alina and I both got dragged into that mindset for [01:36:15] like a good nine months where we, we tried to launch an academy. So out of our agency was born in all the academy where like, um, a lot of our clients, uh, couldn’t pay the retainer around covid times because businesses were [01:36:30] suffering, doors were shut.
[01:36:31] Like, listen, if you guys don’t want to pay us, do the work, let us teach you so you can do it yourself. Cuz right now what you have more of is time and less of office money. So use the time that you have to learn. We made like this very intense course over 12 [01:36:45] weeks. I love that. Teach inside out about running your own ads, whatever type of service business you’re in.
[01:36:50] There were templates and formulas and screenshots, and these recordings are saved. You have a community, you can ask questions within a Facebook group [01:37:00] and that whole thing as well. And we thought, you know, this would be our autopilot thing. Like that guy we saw on Twitter, it wasn’t, it, it needed work. Like all business needs work.
[01:37:10] Like it’s not gonna Yeah, I think it’s not gonna run on One thing
[01:37:13] Saleh Kuba: that I, when we started planet [01:37:15] equipment.com mm-hmm. Um, there was a guy who I had met the, the, the CEO of, um, you got a gift.com. I dunno if you, do you know you got a gift? No. It’s the gifting. Uh, you can like, do like gift cards. Anyway. It’s, it’s not a big gifter.[01:37:30]
[01:37:30] You’re not a big gifter. Remind me, I No,
[01:37:33] Naeem Parvez: no. I, I’m a good receiver. You can always send it’s,
[01:37:36] Saleh Kuba: look, look, I always forget to take gifts, so it’s kind of cool when you’re driving to somebody’s house, you can just kind of open the app and then send them a gift card of like all the Emirates, so they get it like [01:37:45] digitally.
[01:37:45] You got a gift? You got a gift.com. Okay. Um, I don’t know why I’m unplugging it, by the way. Okay. Make sure you ask Guy. Sam Makia. So, Sam, Sam, when I start planning.com, I’m telling him about it. Um, you know, when Zaden and I started it, I’m telling him about it [01:38:00] and he’s like, listen, laughter, uh, tech business is not a slot machine.
[01:38:06] You know, you’re, you’re not sorry. It’s like a slot machine. You don’t like pull the lever and the money’s just gonna come out. Like, it’s, it’s not gonna be that easy. [01:38:15] Yeah. It’s gonna take time and ti it’s gonna take years until that money like comes to fruition. Mm-hmm. So I think sometimes in entrepreneurship we do have this utopian, you know, thing where like, dude, I’m gonna, I’m gonna nail it the first year and let’s go, like, be set and we’re done.
[01:38:28] Yeah. Yeah. It takes work, man. [01:38:30] Yeah. Um, but one thing that you alluded to, um, do I like to circle back to, can I
[01:38:34] Naeem Parvez: that, can I do that? Yeah, yeah. Call me out, aren’t you? This is, this is, uh, the soft put down. Yeah. Do it.
[01:38:41] Saleh Kuba: Boom. Um, is, uh, being lonely. [01:38:45] Um, like do you get lonely or do you feel alone? Do you and Lena feel alone together, separately, like when you’re there in the business and you’ve had to make all these decisions and you stressed [01:39:00] out and all this is going on, you know, do you feel alone
[01:39:04] Naeem Parvez: depending on the day?
[01:39:05] Yes or no? I mean, I think the answer is a bit more nuanced than that. A, we have each other, but that’s not always good because we can get [01:39:15] into group think as well. Uh, B I’m not a hundred percent focused on Alina all the time when there are times when she’s not a hundred percent. So we’ll be talking, but as couple business owners have this problem, sometimes we wanna have a discussion over lunch.
[01:39:29] When [01:39:30] the other person’s a bit like bogged down mentally, whether it’s a business partner that you’re meeting and you set a time to meet them and they don’t live in your house and you go to meet them, you get a hundred percent attention. Sometimes we have to like ask for each other attention. So that’s one thing about being [01:39:45] lonely, but within the business, because of our jobs and we’ve split them up, it does feel lonely.
[01:39:51] It does feel lonely. It feels lonely more than it should. Um, EO A makes it feel less lonely for Alina, I’m [01:40:00] not a part of it, so I still have the loneliness. Um, you know what, I’ll give you the easy answer for me. At least I’ll answer For me, yes. Yes, yes, it does feel lonely and that
[01:40:10] Saleh Kuba: my friend is a huge part [01:40:15] of entrepreneurship and starting a business, you, you feel alone sometimes.
[01:40:22] A lot of the times. Um, a lot of the times. And, and I, I think I alluded to it a few times today, and, and when you’re in those [01:40:30] moments of loneliness, you do start self-doubt creeps in. Mm-hmm. You know, and you get to this low point, you’re like, and like you talked about luling around and all this stuff. Um, and [01:40:45] that’s one of the things that EO figured out is, and you, you just said at eo a, you know, she doesn’t feel it as much.
[01:40:51] You don’t feel it as much. But that’s one of the things that EO figured out is as entrepreneurs, we do, um, go through [01:41:00] these moments in our day where it’s stressful. Where like, I feel like the, the walls are closing in and, and I’m choking. And I, and we go, we all, all entrepreneurs go through that. And what EO allows you to do is [01:41:15] to share those experiences.
[01:41:16] And when you share, you start to see that the seven other eight people that are in the room have the same feeling. So if we all have the same feeling, what’s your natural inclination? You don’t feel lonely anymore. Yeah. [01:41:30] Actually feel, you feel calmer. Calmer, feel good. So now that you know that I feel lonely, you feel better, I’m okay.
[01:41:36] Somebody’s kind of like me. That’s kind of cool. Um, but network, and I, and I, and I also will say family, [01:41:45] my wife, um, my kids, my brother, my sister, my friends, my network of eos, my network, the, all that for me is network. All of them now are part of what I’m doing. So I want to, and I think when we’re younger, [01:42:00] And you’re taught, you said it like, I just started my business and people go, I think when we’re younger, we’re very inclined to protect what we have.
[01:42:08] And we don’t want to share, we don’t want to seem weak. We don’t want to, like, we do those things where we kind of shed, you know, [01:42:15] the world outside and we, you know, we, we just do our own thing. Yeah. Um, for me now, like I, I will share everything with everybody. Um, I want them to know, we know when I’m struggling, um, you know, when I’m going through a that [01:42:30] lull, I’ll go straight to my own, like, dude, I’m crashing, babe.
[01:42:32] Like, I’m, and she’ll be there for me. Yeah. You know, um, that’s part of network. So leveraging network, so many different angles.
[01:42:39] Naeem Parvez: Yeah. It’s not, not the, the biggest thing I’ve learned, it’s not transactional. Yes. [01:42:45] And, and what I’ve also learned is that, and by the way, we do have to wrap up in 10 minutes, so Okay.
[01:42:51] There’s so much I have left to talk to you about. You’re just so interesting. You’ll have to come back. I’ll see. You’ll, you’ll have to come back. We’ve, we haven’t even [01:43:00] talked about, I wanted to ask you what your job description is. That would’ve been a, that would’ve been a changes every day. I know. Um, I wanted to talk about tough decisions.
[01:43:12] Yes. I want to talk about [01:43:15] team and re retaining a good, talented team.
[01:43:17] Saleh Kuba: Yeah. That’s actually off my list as well. I
[01:43:19] Naeem Parvez: want to talk about who you look up to most and why. Yeah. Um, I want to talk to you about risk taking for a bit. Yes. There’s a lot of risk. Ah, I wanted to see how you improve yourself in [01:43:30] a way that you’re useful to your own business.
[01:43:32] But I’ll ask, some of that will be for round two. I do have a rapid fire round. Okay. We can, uh, we can call it a close, um, after rapid fire with, with a few words or comments. Sure. Last [01:43:45] comments from you, but you ready for this rapid fire? Do it. Do it. I start with the hardest question. I know. I’m scared.
[01:43:51] Saleh Kuba: Should be
[01:43:52] Naeem Parvez: yawning. Ready for this? Okay. Ice cream or gelato? Oof.
[01:43:57] Saleh Kuba: Oh, told ya. [01:44:00] Oh my God. That’s a tough one. Um, listen, my favorite ice cream is chocolate chip. Um, but gelato also makes a chocolate chip, but it’s called something else. I have a gun to your
[01:44:10] Naeem Parvez: head. You gotta pick one.
[01:44:11] Saleh Kuba: Yeah, I’ll pick gelato. All right.[01:44:15]
[01:44:15] Naeem Parvez: Number two, exciting flexibility that leads to volatile results or boring consistency. That leads to Sure. Results. First one. Yeah. Yeah. Do it. Number three. Surprise me [01:44:30] on this one. Spa day or shopping.
[01:44:33] Saleh Kuba: Yeah. 10 times outta 10.
[01:44:37] Naeem Parvez: So, uh, okay. If you weren’t living in Dubai Mm. Or la Mm, where would you be living?
[01:44:43] That’s a good
[01:44:43] Saleh Kuba: question. That’s a [01:44:45] very good question actually. Um, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, dinging. I mean, those are my two spots, man. Like tho those are my spots.
[01:44:57] I, I love the struggle. Yeah, like that. That’s [01:45:00] a, that’s a tough one, man. Like, no. You thought about that one, the moon? Uh, no.
[01:45:06] Naeem Parvez: Yeah. Uh, I’m going, I’m
[01:45:07] Saleh Kuba: going all the way. Yeah, I’m going all the way. Um, I’d probably say like, Bali was the first thing that came to my head. Yeah. Um, [01:45:15] Toronto was another one. Um, but let’s say Toronto’s in the Los Angeles, cuz she has family there.
[01:45:20] So that’s probably in the Los Angeles bucket. So you, I think you’re trying to go for someplace that doesn’t have family. Doesn’t have a No, no, no, no. Um, not necessarily. I would probably go with Bali. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. I’ve never [01:45:30] been there, but I just feel
[01:45:31] Naeem Parvez: like that’s something I should go. I went for the first time last year.
[01:45:33] I wouldn’t live there. You wouldn’t, it’s over hype if you’re anything like me, which I’m figuring. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You might not
[01:45:39] Saleh Kuba: love. Really? Yeah. I love Portugal. Um, we’re thinking about Portugal. Oof. [01:45:45] I I went there when I was at, that’s totally different story. We
[01:45:47] Naeem Parvez: can get into it when I Yeah, that’s, that’s a different story because it, it relates to this whole network conversation, which we can talk about afterwards too.
[01:45:53] Yeah. Uh, favorite sci-fi book of all time? You can only pick one.
[01:45:59] Saleh Kuba: I would [01:46:00] say the foundation. I like to the
[01:46:02] Naeem Parvez: whole series. Just, or
[01:46:03] Saleh Kuba: the first, the first book. The first one. First. The first book was just like, killed it for
[01:46:05] Naeem Parvez: me. I’m gonna try it again. I, I tried it
[01:46:07] Saleh Kuba: a few years ago. Try, try finishing it, try finishing it.
[01:46:09] Red Rising’s up there. Red Rising’s up there. I actually really enjoyed Red Rising cuz I [01:46:15] re-identified with him. It was good.
[01:46:17] Okay.
[01:46:18] Naeem Parvez: Uh, the one book you think every business owner should read? Never finished by
[01:46:22] Saleh Kuba: David Goggins. Never
[01:46:23] Naeem Parvez: finished. Okay.
[01:46:25] Saleh Kuba: It’s, it’s kind of a business book, but do you know about David Goggins?
[01:46:29] Naeem Parvez: Is, is he a [01:46:30] health? Yeah, he’s a
[01:46:30] Saleh Kuba: guy. He guy? Yeah. Yeah. He, he’s a Marine and then he, like, he runs
[01:46:33] Naeem Parvez: triathlons and
[01:46:34] Saleh Kuba: stuff like that. Okay. He, he’s just like, he’s savage man. I mean, the guy is just, And, and that’s something I always want to be as a savage. Um, ah, you know, like, I [01:46:45] just like this, you know, so, and he, he encapsulates that for me.
[01:46:51] Um, when I read it, I just, I feel like I wanna apply it to everything in my business and my life. Like, just be a savage. Yeah. Um, so I identified
[01:46:59] Naeem Parvez: with that though, I need, I [01:47:00] need some of that in my life. Yeah. Um, okay. What, uh, what business do you secretly want to be doing, which you’re not doing yet? Good
[01:47:08] Saleh Kuba: question.
[01:47:09] Um, I have an answer. Uh, it would be teaching. Huh?
[01:47:14] Naeem Parvez: [01:47:15] Why teaching? What, why, why are you
[01:47:16] Saleh Kuba: surprised? I love teaching technology, huh? To, um, people who are not technologically inclined. Uh, it’s like everyday technology. Yeah. Look, I, I look at like, you know, when I go back to [01:47:30] California, for example, I, I’ll hang out with my dad a lot and, you know, he’ll be like, Hey, can you come sh you know, teach me how to use, you know, Google Docs.
[01:47:37] Mm-hmm. And so we’ll spend like an hour working on Google Docs and just to see him go through that and be like, oh, this is so easy. [01:47:45] I love this. And then I’m like, wow, this, you know, I, I like, I like teaching, you know, I like to see the faces, you know, people’s faces when they learn something new. And I love technology.
[01:47:55] Um, and it, technology is, comes naturally to me. And I, I studied computer science when, you [01:48:00] k