‘My purpose is to share the treasure of knowledge’

An unpleasant event that took place in 2014 inspired me to launch the company, but more important was a powerful imagination. I found my true purpose, to share knowledge and experience with other people around the world.

ASCIRA was created and built on a foundation of sharing the treasure of knowledge and helping people improve their quality of life through a variety of online educational courses, other great services that provide great discounts and benefits and rewards for them. The main key is to share the treasure of knowledge around the world so people can improve their quality of life.

Where do you hope to take ASCIRA over the next five to ten years?

Our business plan is to connect and bring together Beyond a Billion people in our social lifestyle community from more than 100 countries around the world within the next seven to ten years. This will happen through our global marketing team, offering diversified services and products, creative advertising, leadership branding, online presence, and of course press around the world.

As a leader, what factors inform your decision-making process?

When we make a decision for anything regarding business, sales, expansion and so forth, it always has to be looked at in terms of the benefit for the end provider – the customers, business members, suppliers and employees. The decision has to be based on emotional balance and intelligence, not fear of loss or overexcitement. It has to be based on facts – who’s going to benefit? Who is going to play a main role in those decisions? Do we have adequate experience to make that decision, whatever that may be, legal or otherwise?

We also consider the facts of the global economy and different worldwide markets.

Can you name three characteristics you believe every leader needs?

Strong vision, integrity and commitment. They must have the ability to delegate, to be a team player and to bring people together, inspire them, show them the way. Like we say in different countries, a leader must walk the talk, and must talk by experience, not theory.

What values do you seek out in potential new hires?

When we look for new employees, ambition, enthusiasm, punctuality, being a team player and understanding the culture of the company – it’s all very important. We want staff to be dependable, reliable, responsible and to have a plan for a long-term relationship with the company and take ownership of their job.

What impact did the coronavirus have on your business and how did you guide your team through it?

The coronavirus actually helped our business grow even faster because of the mandatory social distancing. Everybody had to work online. Our business started as an online venture, but the coronavirus enforced the concept and people realised the importance of learning to ‘work from home’ having an online business, based on the new reality.

We guided our team always to consider safety first, manage their emotions of fear and uncertainty that Covid can generate, and always talk with them about the upcoming bright future, keeping open communication and building stronger collaboration between all staff.

What lessons in dealing with uncertainty has the past year taught you?

There are so many lessons learned but the most important is to plan better for unexpected negative situations. It also helped us a lot through the uncertainty to strengthen the emotions between the teams around us. Compassion – it was important to understand we are all vulnerable to the uncertainty. As humans, we are social creatures and we all need social interaction and of course personal contact. There is goodness and humanity, even in the darkness.

Of course, we had to be more conservative, financially, on the budget. We have now set aside a new budget for future uncertainties to not only keep the company going but also to help other people.

What are your daily habits?

Number one, every day when I when I wake up and before I go to sleep, I give thanks to the higher power, because there’s another amazing day about to come and an amazing day just ended.

Number two, I try to take a nap every day. That’s not easy to do on busy days, but I try to nap between three and five o’clock in the afternoon for at least 20-30 minutes to reset my mind.

I exercise 10-15 minutes daily, either with a power bar twister or by doing push-ups. I like to take long walks of about 30 minutes. I love to listen to music. I might go to Abu Dhabi or Sharjah just for the purpose of driving and listening to the music, which relaxes my mind.

I evaluate and visualise in my mind the things that took place in previous weeks, reflecting on what I’ve learned.

When people ask me, ‘Hey, John how you doing?’ I say I’m doing amazing – better than ever. Every day brings new possibilities. I don’t easily get upset.

My mind is always positive. I have been like this for decades.

I’m 61 years old, but that’s just a number. I can work endless hours, and I always keep moving forward. I never give up on my goals, regardless of how long it may take to achieve them.