Ismail Kassem’s father was an entrepreneur in the textile industry and always fed him with the idea of being independent. “He would always tell me that I couldn’t be an employee. That my character wouldn’t allow it.” He started out as an employee in a multinational company and “got promoted like wildfire.” As an employee, he formed what are now long-held work values and acquired a good deal of valuable knowledge. “Up to this day to be very honest, I still have no idea what I want to be. I majored in Political Science and Psychology at AUC. Five years later I finished my MBA concentrating in Marketing. I opened a restaurant at first called ‘Adam’s grill’, that was my first entrepreneurial adventure. Then I opened Amaze, a full-service event, venue management and consulting company and recently I became an author,” Kassem stated. Underneath all these experiences, he would always look at people’s stories in any subject he studied. This included things like consumer behavior, why people do that, buy that, behave this way and so on. It’s the people that matter most, whether it’s a company, a private business or even a novel.
His social media journey was first initiated three years ago, expressing opinions on profound topics. He was still slightly confused about what he was doing then, until people from a lot of Arab countries reached out to him. “This is when it hit me. All I really want do is help people. Consequently, this became my purpose. My future goal now is to create a platform where people can speak about these topics freely with no shame or judgement.” At the end of the day, we all need someone to hear us out. Kassem’s videos that went viral were usually touching and related to personal experiences, things we all go through. This is when people started direct messaging him, because they had a feeling that he would understand what they’re going through with no judgement, whatsoever. Unfortunately, judgement is an issue in our culture. We all keep things in because we’re afraid we’ll be belittled, undermined or looked down on. Therefore, we started hiding the truth about our thoughts and desires which on the long run affect our well-being and mental health.
Kassem doesn’t see himself as a life coach but more of an entrepreneur, author and content creator. That doesn’t neglect the fact that the reason he does what he does is for the people. “It’s a matter of being there for people, making them feel better, motivating and encouraging them. I’m not a healer, I’m just a listener.”
Through all his diverse work, he always wanted to become an author. So, here’s to success and dreams coming true! Check out his latest published book ‘Know your man’, ‘E3rafi raglek w 3alemi aleh.’
Via Egypt Today
