3 Leadership Lessons Learned in Dubai
Photo @ Dubai Desert Safari on November 9, 2022
✈️ Whoa, I am a bit jet-lagged today. Hello, 3am. Last night, I returned home after 24 hours of travel from Dubai and Abu Dhabi located on the Persian Gulf in the United Arab Emirates.
Flying around the globe in one day is something I never take for granted. Even as a former flight attendant with millions of sky miles under my suitcase wheels, the miracle of aviation blows my mind.
How crazy is it that we flew home over the Arctic Circle?
Dubai was a promise I made to a close friend, Chad, before he passed away from cancer at age 50 in 2021. The summer before he died, our families were sitting around my kitchen table as he struggled to eat due to the painful effects of terminal esophageal cancer.
🪣 The topic of our BUCKET LISTS came up.
Chad lit up first, “I want to go to Dubai!” Caroline, his 20-year-old daughter, chimed in, “Me too, I want to go.” It’s been on my list for years, so we excitedly planned our Dubai adventure at that dinner table. Katrese, Chad’s wife, the practical one in our group looked at us like we were crazy, ”You all go ahead, I’ll stay home with the dogs.” 😜
😢 We didn’t know that Chad’s health was about to take a fatal turn, and he would only live another two months. When he passed away, I promised Caroline that we would go in her dad’s memory.
🎒 This trip created a lifetime of memories, funny stories, and lessons. Caroline packed photos of Chad in her backpack, so his presence was felt daily.
🇦🇪 Dubai and Abu Dhabi inspired us in unexpected ways.
What this country built in recent years is nothing short of miraculous. As an engineer, Chad would have been in awe of the Miracle Gardens (world’s most flowers), Burj Khalifa (world’s tallest building), Ski Dubai (famed indoor ski hill in the desert), and the Palm Jumeirah Beach man-made islands (nothing else like it – please google!).
⛵️ ⛷ 🏙 In a single day, we cruised on a speedboat in the morning, skied in the afternoon, and ate dinner downtown with supremely epic views of Burj Khalifa and a modern skyline that could rival NYC.
🎁 As souvenirs, I brought home 3 culture leadership lessons:
1. ➽ Everything is possible. Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan was a strategic visionary, philanthropist, and the first president of the United Arab Emirates from 1971-2004. His legacy is he inspired people to envision a new reality and create something out of nothing. When the Sheikh was denied by architects and engineers that a palm-shaped man-made island was impossible to build, they were told to never give up, figure it out, and they sure did.
2. ➽ Share the wealth. When oil was discovered in the late 1960’s, it created unprecedented wealth for the country. The rulers did not hoard for themselves. Rather, they invested the money to inspire growth, economic opportunities, and prosperity for citizens.
3. ➽ Take care of your people, and they will take care of you. Today, native Emiratis receive free villas, healthcare, and education in exchange for making the economy successful against all odds. The result? When sharing the wealth, there is no homeless and poverty crisis. By-products are that people are generally happy, educated, healthy, and crime is almost non-existent. Can you imagine?
I was surprised how safe I felt there and wish we could spread that feeling of safety and security across the world to all societies.
Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest building, Dubai