By Myriam Al Dhaheri
ABU DHABI – Last Tuesday, 24 September 2013, Mubadala’s Youth Platform Weyana, Arabic for “with us”, hosted its third annual Youth Forum, aiming to empower young Emiratis towards successful careers. The event welcomed Emirati students between the ages of 17 and 24, and more than 300 students have attended the inspirational event held at St. Regis Saadiyat Island Resort in Abu Dhabi.
This year’s theme fell under “Our Future, Your Ambition” that provided students with an opportunity to hear from young exemplary Emiratis in various fields, from entrepreneurship to aviation.
“It has given me an opportunity to meet people who are pioneers in the field of my studies and future career on the long term,” said Eman Al Mughairy, 21, senior in international affairs.
The event included a screening of the documentary “Abu Dhabi Across Generations,” inspirational speeches and interactive panels, all hoping to have left a mark onto the young ambitious Emiratis who have attended and joined in by watching it live on the Internet.
The event kicked off with a question, “who here knows where they will be working after graduating?” said the MC Abdullah Al Nuaimi. Only a small minority of the attendees raised their hands, and so the event aimed to increase that number to the maximum.
Khaldoon Al Mubarak, CEO and Managing Director of Mubadala, delivered the opening speech recounting the development of Emirati role models from within the Mubadala group of companies, and hoping for many more to come in the near future.
“Today is your day,” he said. “We want to hear you out and see what future will benefit you and your country,” he added.
Dr. Abdalla Al Amiri, Zayed University’s new provost, also took part in the event. In the second panel, he shared his thoughts and opinions towards rethinking our future roadmap, highlighting a thirst for knowledge, expert advice and networking for a successful career development.
Among those who have attended were our fellow Zayed University students, whom many have been inspired.
“It somehow directed me to the right place without changing my career plan because I already have one in mind. But, it gave me this shot of inspiration and passion to continue what I am doing. Everyone needs one of those every now and then or annually,” said Fatima Al Hammadi, 21, senior in Finance.
“This event has changed my idea of pursuing my dreams. It has taught me how to work hard to achieve what I love, not what I have to do. Based on that, I would be able to follow a certain career path that suits me the most,” said Jassim Al Nowais, 19, a third-year student in Finance.
Most, if not all, speakers at the forum concluded their speeches with a piece of advice.
“Most of those who spoke advised us there is no need to become a manager or have a high position right after graduating. They actually said that we should start from zero. Firstly, we have to develop skills and find out what career we want, and from there we will develop further. We will mark our print in it. If we do not work hard and do not prove to others that we are worth a position, we will not elevate and we will not appreciate our positions. It is very easy to have wasta but there will be no pleasure in doing so. You will not feel the happiness and the value of earning that position. You will feel unworthy of that position. Plus, with hard work, those who surround you will recognize your efforts,” said Tahra Al Hammadi, 21, majoring in visual communications.
When asked whom they were mostly inspired amongst the young successful Emirati speakers, each felt related to one somehow.
“Badr Al-Olama faced so many obstacles but he kept going and overcame every bump during his journey until he finally reached his dream. What amazed me is that it took him about 30 years to reach his dream and during the years he never gave up!” said Miss Al Hammadi. Mr. Al-Olama is currently a senior vice president for Mubadala Aerospace and chief executive at Strata Manufacturing.
“Badr Al-Olama has inspired me the most because regardless of his job title and his career path, he worked hard to reach his status of the youngest CEO in the region,” said Miss Al Mughairy.
“From all the speakers, I was mostly inspired by Saud Al Nowais. Saud is a very good example of a young man who has pursued his dreams to achieve what he likes and he succeeded at that. It is difficult for a 24-year-old graduate to be able to approach a big minister like H.E. Shaikha Lubna Al Qassimi and propose a new idea that was not there in the first place. With his determination, he succeeded at persuading her and there he is, the commercial counselor of the United Arab Emirates Embassy in the United States,” said Al Nowais.
“All of them inspired me. Each story of every speaker amazed me. From Shaikha Al Ali who enjoyed cooking then developed that hobby by creating a website filled with her own recipes. Abdulaziz Bin Ali loved photography so he wrote a book about it. Salma AlBaloushi loved flying pursued that path into become the one of the best pilots, even though that field at that time was filled with men. What I admired the most from them is that whenever they had struggles, they faced them. Salma really inspired me the most by pursuing her career in aviation. The country is now proud of her, and she is proud of herself. Abdulaziz also inspired me a whole lot because he is in the media field and I always wondered what my future would be like since I am in media too. His hobby was photography and he made a career out of it,” said Miss Al Hammadi.
We have witnessed extraordinary leaders in that forum with various qualities that were admired and looked upon. However, each one of us defines our leaders differently.
“A leader is the one who inspires or directs others to do the best of best,” Miss Al Hammadi said.
“A leader is a person who doesn’t necessarily have to have leadership skills as much as he or she has the ability to make a change. The change might not be dramatic but having said that this change started from scratch,” said Al Nowais.
“A person who is powerful, who can inspire, and lead people to success with soft power is a leader,” said Miss Al Mughairy.
“I think a leader is many things. It is when a group of people comes together with a plan and someone takes the lead. All of them have skills, but the leader can combine all those skills to achieve the group’s goal. I think that a leader and his or her members must also have creativity to avoid what is ordinary and boring. So leader, members, creativity, and a plan, that is leadership,” said Miss Al Hammadi.
For more information about the Youth Forum, visit http://www.weyana.ae/en/agenda.
About the Author
Myriam Al Dhaheri. Tourism and cultural communications student at Zayed University (Abu Dhabi), Columnist for Zajel, President of Club Français, and a Capricorn.
This story was originally published on Oct. 8, 2013. It was re-uploaded on Dec. 6, 2020. The photo that accompanied this story was lost due to the loss of the domain name.
