The Power of Earned Culture at Nehmeh: Driving Legacy, Innovation, and Long-Term Impact

Awesome. Today we're exploring revolutionary culture building with Simon Niemec, Chairman of the Board at Niemec, a 2025 Global Top 100 Most Loved Workplace that's redefining how industrial companies operate. Here's what's fascinating. While most organizations struggle with top-down culture initiatives, Simon has cracked the code by making culture a two-way conversation where every employee help set goals, shape strategy, and drive execution. They've even created an AI agent named after their founding father to enhance these conversations. Simon will reveal his counterintuitive approach of breaking down walls to build bridges, why involving everyone in strategy creates unstoppable momentum, and how this people-first philosophy delivers measurable business impact in one of the world's most traditional industries.

Care about each other and we care about the customer, and that is the one legacy.

That's the name of the game. And by the way, it's, it's not up here. It's here.

It's in the heart.

Simone, it's great to have you with us today here, Chairman of Neme. We're learning so much. I was talking with Simone just before the show. He's in Qatar, and just recently bombs dropping in Qatar, and it was wonderful to hear how he responded to that with his company and learn more about how he kept calm and emotionally regulated, which is which is part of his culture, to, in this two-way street, this human dialogue he has and believes in, where employees really are a part of the company and their strategy, and the wonderful things he says about Qatar and its leadership as well, and how appreciative he is of where he is and how culture is a part of who he is. So Simone, it's wonderful to see you here today. So much to unpack and talk about, especially with current events happening today in Well, welcome to the show, Simon.

Thank you for having me. It's a privilege to be with you, to be honest, really.

Well, this is great. I do want to jump in, you know, and talk about your culture. And I do think we should give some honor and space to this historic event first, though, and maybe unpack what, you know, what happened just a few days ago, what you saw happening, and, you know, how that impacted you and helped your culture, really. It's just as strong, it's just as business as usual now, and everybody is still moving in the right direction. Tell us more about that experience for you.

Yeah, absolutely, absolutely. Last Monday around 7:30 PM, I mean, like hell broke loose. I was on the phone and then suddenly I heard noises coming, and then I thought I was not in Qatar. Then people start calling me again from a different phone and sending message. I said, I think bombs are— somebody's hitting us. And I said, yeah, it looks like it. And then the first thing I did was to stay calm and then to think of my company. And I called my family, really, because people started calling me as well on the other call. And the people were telling me, sir, what do we do? And the first thing I said to them, really, I think we lived in Qatar and We're so blessed to be here in Qatar, and there's nothing to worry. Qatar has a culture where, honestly, we have it everywhere on the road, is everything is going to be all right. And I remember my executive secretary called me and she said, what do I do now? I mean, I'm, I'm worried. I said, don't do anything, just go home. I think everything will be all right in 30 minutes. I'm not a prophet, but I lived it back in the '90s during the Iraqi and the Kuwaiti War, during the Iran War, and during the blockade. We have so much to do here, and the leadership of this country is amazing. So they know how to do things, remain quiet, and things will get where they're supposed to be. And this is exactly what happened. And the next morning, because I honestly, I slept very late because I wanted to see what was happening so we could do what we should do next morning. And everything was as per my expectation, things went well. And next morning, guess what? Everything was okay. You know, we went, worked easily, and then the, the roads were very clear and everything was like back to normal. So this is the kind of culture we live here in Doha, and this culture is, is, is in us. I have to say something. I was born in Qatar. I wasn't raised in Qatar, but I was born here, and I know how we grew from from basically, you know, in the '60s and '70s and where we are right now, I think we're very close to New York, to other countries, you know. So we know how to do things. So there's nothing to worry. And we have a great leadership. And with leadership comes, honestly, great management. This country is managed so well that we don't have to worry about what's happening. We know, we feel that everything is going to be all right.

I love what you said about His Highness and, and, and that how that impacts you and how wonderful he is to people. Because I do believe, and Most Loved Workplace is about this too, that the vision of the leader and you and the company is when it's aligned, it does well, it does amazingly. And I heard that resonance with His Highness. And when you describe it, you really appreciate him, right? You really truly have gratitude, and people gratitude with you. That's the way we become a synchronous, strong culture. And I just think that's a wonderful way to begin a culture and sustain a culture.

Absolutely, because we have a vision. You know, once you have a vision, this country has a vision. It was for us, I think in 2012, they put it for till 2030. Can you imagine? They were thinking for the next 20 years. In 2030, we're almost there. And I know very well we're going to move to 2050. I wish you were in Qatar in the '60s and '70s, and I wish you can come here and just compare where we were and where we are right now. It's like, you know, the different colors. Amazing. I mean, we should talk about this country more and more because we live in the most beautiful place on earth, really.

I've seen that, the history of culture changing dramatically from the '60s to today. And I know organizations have obviously taken suit as well because we're a reflection, of course, of the culture. How do you see those changes and them happening? And because I, I'm fascinated with what you're saying now. How do you see the changes and how you've emerged as a country as well as, as a company, right?

Yeah, the change— you mean the changes in the country?

Yeah, country first. It's so interesting to hear. Yeah, because it seems like your company is also intertwined with the country in a very deep way.

Yes, we're aligned with the country, because when we have a vision, we follow the vision and we have to align ourselves with the company and with the vision, definitely, of the country. So when we have this alignment between the company and the country, so we know where they're going and we know how, we know how to get there and we know how, and because we know the what and we know the how, so definitely we have the strategy of where they're going and we go. So I remember very well, like in the '90s, And in the 2000s, when we were working on the World Cup, and this country just flipped altogether, you know, we were all going after the construction business, and then the country was booming so much, and we already have to adapt to what was happening. And we adapted very well to where we wanted to be, you know, since you knew where we're going. And this is what every leader should do. You should go after where the country is going and go after the vision and move on. It's like, for example, in our company as well, we have almost 80 to 100 agencies in Qatar that we hold for many years. So we don't do it alone. We do it with the guys. We follow their vision and we try to align our vision with their vision. Then we move on. This is what I think we are successful with them. But if we, if we think East and they think West, we're not going to go anywhere. You know, we have to meet in parallel. You have to meet in parallel.

You've said that too. I've read about what you said before the interview. You said that the way people interact between themselves and the world is what culture is about, right? You know, and now you've made it a two-way conversation, really. And that's what you're describing it now, right now, where employees, they help set goals and shape strategy. And so, you know, that flips traditional models. Right? That's— so tell us more about how that works for you, right? Making that collaboration truly collaborative, because you're talking about a really wonderful utopic culture right now. I want to— people want to learn how you did it.

So absolutely, you can't live— first of all, you can't live without strategy. You can't wake up in the morning and don't know where you're going. So the strategy is basically how you want to get there, uh, is what you want and how do you want to get it. So it's the mean of how you're going to get there. If you have no strategy, definitely we don't know where we're going. And in our company for the last 2.5 years, I can have to be honest with you, I never say the word I, I said the word we. I always use the word we because we work together. But definitely this company has to have a leader. The leadership we have is part of the board of directors that we have. It's a wonderful board based on one vision and one mission. And one direction. And we know very well, uh, you can manage everything, but there's something that you cannot manage is people. People are the most difficult thing to manage because we talk about humans, we talk about the emotions, we talk about things that we cannot foresee. So when you want to manage a product, you can manage, but when you're going to manage a person, it's difficult. So the most difficult How can I say? The most difficult thing to manage is people. When you manage people is when you really are somewhere where someone else is not. So how do you do that? You live with them, you be with them, you use empathy, you go with them where they go, you listen to them. They have something to say, you listen. We are a company that listens. We're a company that we don't hire people just to say yes, yes, yes. If you have yes person and yes, yes, yes, then we ask him or we ask her to go. I like to be— I use the word I now because they come to me. So I like to be challenged. When someone wants to challenge me, I'm all ready. If he or she expects me to say, hey, great, or you're doing great job, I'm not going to do that because I'm a person— because you mentioned about culture, right? The culture is the most important, I think, factor in every company or every country. I believe in the world they have 4 cultures, there are, there is no 5. You have the creative one, you have the one that you control, and you have the collaborative, and you have the compete one. So we decided in NEME to adapt 2 cultures together. I think, I think we could do that. Is to the collaboration and the compete, because we are in trading business, we are not in hospitals or we're not in hospitality. So we are after numbers and we collaborate together how we get this number. When we all look after the numbers, so they all know that, hey, listen guys, we help each other, we're collaborative, but at the end of the day, we have to make the numbers. This is where when you come to Qatar and you come to NEME, you feel that The moment you step in Nemi, where a company has been established for 70 years, 7-0, I know a few companies in Qatar has been here for 70 years. And guess what? We work extremely hard to live another 70 years with, I hope, with the same culture, but definitely with different generation because I'm going to be in different place. So we are a family business thinking that we are a corporation, but we act as a corporation, but we are a family of ethics, and we are a family that we know where we're going, and we move as if we are a corporation. So if you— the moment you move in NEME, you know you're, you're living in— it's funny, you, you feel that there's something different in this company. If you go to different, uh, uh, how do you say that, if you go to different locations, you feel you're in NEME, you know, because my last name basically is my company name. That's also dangerous because if anything happens to my last name, it could probably affect NEME. It's a very difficult decision that we took with the board like 15, 20 years ago. So I have to mention this. It's nice, but it's dangerous. You know what I mean? So you really have to have both eyes open and then make it slowly, but make sure where you're going.

It's interesting, you know, to have a name that represents brand values and culture, right? Yes. Yeah, it is. And to have family so close and to your heart as well. Right. And that's where the love comes in, I would think. And I like I like how you, you describe your people. You say wonderful, courageous, professional, beautiful, friendly men and women. And that's just a— what a great way to describe it, describe that, and to, you know, the way that perhaps even you see as, as family, right? That sounds like family when you describe, right? It sounds like family.

You know, I— it's like contradicting myself with family. Sometimes you are tolerant because if your kid does something, you're tolerant. But in Neme, if we think we're family, we're definitely a family. But I don't like to tolerate too much because part of tolerance becomes— it's very dangerous here. Part of tolerance becomes, as I always say, I always say this to my guys, repetition is a decision. If you do things twice, it becomes a decision, a decision that you want to do. So when you keep tolerate, it becomes a culture. Now, going back to culture, when you, when culture becomes so difficult and the people know that we tolerate, then it becomes a habit. And this is wrong. Definitely it's a family. Sorry, you want to say something?

No, I always say that culture is only as strong as what you tolerate.

Exactly, I love that. I love that because like Peter Tucker said, you know, culture eats strategy for breakfast. Of course, that's amazing. He's absolutely right. And if we keep tolerating— the guys are so smart, and definitely we're a family, but guess what? We are after numbers as well. We don't— we are not working as a charity. We work towards a number that we have to reach and get by making profit. This is how the company is structured.

And also, you— you— we earn culture through profit. We don't, right? It's— it's— people think, oh, we're just going to give you a great culture and you could just do whatever you want and have this as a sandbox for yourself. Uh-uh. That's not what culture is about. Culture is about earning and performing inside of a wonderful place. You, you get what you give. So people have always said, they've said to me, oh, I want just my company to do for me. No, ask not what your company can do for you, ask what you can do for your company. Then you will be handsomely rewarded.

You know, that's what JFK said. You know, he took it from Gibran Khalil Gibran. It's from, it's a Lebanese philosopher. So he took it from him.

The Prophet.

Yeah, the Prophet. So you're right, you can't buy culture from the supermarket. You can't buy a culture and you can't do it. You have to earn the culture. You have to work hard for the culture. I've been working so hard with my team for the last 2 and a half years, and with the help of my team, we're getting somewhere. But to change the culture, you need 5 years. When you want to buy a phone, you can go and buy a phone today, but you can't go buy a culture from the supermarket, say, okay, I want to buy this culture. Oh, okay, you go home and you're happy. No, it's not going to happen. We have to work every day with that culture because it doesn't work with me alone. It works from top to bottom. Everybody is there, you know, with the help of the team. We try to enforce it, and some people are reluctant. And guess what? Some people are filtrating out. It's funny, they leave. And then we say, why they're leaving? Because they cannot adapt. Some people cannot adapt. And as you try, you start to filtrate. And when you start to filter, then you know who the guys are with you, who are not with you. This is, uh, this is how I see it.

I, first of all, that, that's exactly aligned. And people sometimes misunderstand what most love workplaces are really all about. It's exactly what you're describing. It's not just top-down, it's not just bottom-up, top— it's, it's not just top-down, it's bottom-up love, right?

Because everybody together, everyone together, everything. And like I said, there are 4 cultures. There's, there's one that's called fear. And which is, which I call it control. I don't manage by controlling people. When you go to North Korea, this is how it's done. Each company should be managed in a different way. I mean, I have nothing against North Korea, but they do whatever they want. But in NEME, when you want to work with NEME, the first thing you have to do is strategy and definitely culture. If you cannot fit, then you're not a NEME, then you go. And we see it, you know, we see for the last 2 and a half years, we've seen people coming in, people coming out. And guess what? The people has been here for 40 years. I have people who has been here for 40 years before I joined my company. And these guys have seen it all. It's funny. It's like they know more than I do. I have 2 or 3 people in my company that have been here more than I've been. And I respect these guys too much. You know, I can't say anything to them. And they know very well who I'm talking to or about.

And they have that institutional knowledge, that feel, right? That could be— it's so helpful for everybody. And they're part of your family. In your name. The appreciation, gratitude must be huge.

Absolutely. I respect these guys, uh, like family. Actually, I respect everyone, but these 2, 3 guys I have in the company, amazing. They're family. And sometimes, like, he— one person was, uh, throwing a joke on me this morning. I said, Simon, remember your father when he was working with you again? Because we work late, and then he would switch off the lights on us, say, Simon, You remember that? I said, I remember that. How did you remember that? I said, you know, because you work so hard, you have to go home. If your father was here, he would switch off the lights, which is true, right?

They were all going home. Yeah. And you know what's interesting about that? Like, I always— and we were talking about culture before— there's a lot of different types of wealth, kinds of wealth, right? And the way I always look at it is that wealth comes first with psychic wealth, the feeling we have, right? How do we feel? Who's taking away this? You know, who are you taking away my psychic wealth? Are you taking away my desire to want to do, to stick with my vision, to be in my values? Because if I don't have that cool, that way of thinking and being and doing, and it's taking away from those emotions and I don't have those people like those two you're describing around me in my inner circle, it's going to be hard to get that profit, to do those earnings. It's going to be even harder. And you may not even want to at that point. So to ensure that others weed themselves out, really, as you said, and keep that core nucleus creates just a wonderful mixture that can propel a company rocket ship to the moon and hit the stars.

Absolutely. You know, money comes and goes. Money is a mean probably to live happy or to live— whether you drive any type of car, it's gonna take you A to B. But probably it's the feeling. I always say some to my guys is whatever I say, you would not remember anything in 14 days. Only thing you remember is the feeling. The only thing you remember is that Simon, 14 days ago, he made us better or worse, or he said something that probably made it good to me. And the only thing that matters to me is that I make my people feel well, because at the end of the day, the only thing they remember is how I made them feel. Because money is important, but honestly, it comes and goes. But people, people, when they come and they stay, This is a good factor, but if they come and go very quickly, there's something wrong with your culture, you know.

Also, there's something wrong with the recruitment too, right? Because we've got to find the right people. Go ahead.

Yeah, you fire to hire, but in Qatar usually it takes us long time to hire guys because they go through panel. And when they go through panel, for example, we have an outgoing person right now, and then It's taken us a long time to find the right person. I don't do it alone. You know, we do it together. We have a panel of 5 people and then we have a set of questions and then move to another panel, another panel. It takes us 8 to 9 months to hire somebody, especially when he's good, when he's on top position. When someone you want to bring in sales, because sales is about numbers, probably it takes lesser time. When you want to hire a good person, it takes sometimes a year.

What I've always found about that too is that that year is very well worth it because we're teaching people in the process of recruiting exactly what's needed and necessary in the culture to live and thrive there, right? And so important. And also to test the resolve, you know, are they really in, in this for the right reasons? Are they really aligned with our values, aligned with our vision, or are they just trying to get just another job?

You can feel it, you know, you feel it. I'm 57 years old. I think with the elevator pitch, it takes me 10 to 20 seconds. I'm not a prophet, as I said. Sometimes it takes me 10 to 20 seconds, like yourself, to know someone whether he's real or fake, and whether she is real or fake as well. So I think at our age, nothing fakes you anymore. Sometimes probably you say it's okay, but because you want to keep going. You know, life is like that. But I think at our age, it's difficult for other people to fake us, you know, because they're only fooling themselves. You know what I mean? You can't fool me. You can't fool someone else. You're fooling yourself, really.

I say, you know, fool me once, but the second time, right, it's on me. It's really, it's incredible how people can do that. I've had people in interviews, we've seen this in recruitment interviews, they're reading from a screen. To say literally what their answers are. So where is the you in this? Where are you?

Right. This is why, honestly, sorry to say that I hate online meetings, but since you are very far from here, I like the intimacy. I like you to challenge me. I like people to tell me, you know, in the old days when you would call your girlfriend, you see, call, get a call, and then you're all like you know, don't know what to do. You start sweating and everything. Now you call anybody, send a message, and you don't feel anything. It's so sad.

It's become generative, you know, right? Yeah, it is sad. It really is sad. And I know how important the humanity part is. You know, we've worked in, uh, in the Middle East many times, in Riyadh and, and in Dubai, and, uh, uh, you know, many different areas. And we know how how important face-to-face is in relationship building.

It's very important. It's very important because you can feel, you can feel what you cannot feel online. And this is why I'm against online meetings. If it happens that we have to, you know, like ourselves now, we are in two different continents, but okay, it's okay. But when it goes to hiring somebody, no, we'll fly him in, we'll see him or see her. And if he or she is okay, then okay, let's go.

It's not so bad to fly first class in Emirates. Is that your airline of choice? And Emirates, a beautiful airline, isn't it?

You know, we are— we have Qatar Airlines.

Qatar Airlines.

Yeah, it's like—

no worries. Airlines, of course.

Yeah, yeah, it's okay. We have— we were just awarded the one of the best airlines on Earth for the 9th time. Can you imagine? When you fly Qatar Airways, you feel like you are on a mansion. Whether you fly economy or anything, it's amazing.

You know what, I've only flown Emirates. I would love to fly Qatar Airlines. It sounds like— is it extraordinary first-class experience? It sounds—

oh my God, oh my God, it's beyond belief.

I've— and I've heard about it. I've never seen— because we always took that Wow, would I love to try that. I'm a huge fan of first-class air travel.

If you can afford it, why not?

It's amazing. You—

it's like you want to fly from the US to 14 hours, you're going to tell the pilot, please keep going, you know, please.

I felt that way too. And the suites— do you have suites in the country?

Yes, we have it.

We have it.

It's like you want to tell the pilot, please keep going, don't land now. And this is the culture of Qatar Airways. Did you know, like, 2 days ago I was reading the CEO of Qatar Airways when, you know, I had friends who were flying in and unfortunately for them, they were stuck in the air and they had to reroute to Cairo. And then from Cairo they said you have to go to Jeddah. And the next morning they received a big apology. Can you imagine the CEO apologizing to everybody, say we are really sorry and anything we could do to help you? Man, where does this happen? When we say we're sorry, I say it many times,. And some people who don't say sorry, I think there's something wrong up there. I know some people say, I don't say sorry because I'm always right. You know, there's always one person who says that is my wife, definitely, and probably yours.

So there's only one sorry coming from us right here.

That's it. But in business, when you say you're sorry, and if I'm late, I say, I'm sorry, I'm late. Thank you for waiting. But if I'm sorry, I'm sorry. Because they have the feeling, the culture that I'm trying to build. I'm going somewhere with that. I'm not going there just for the sake of going. I'm going because I'm gonna take you there and put you in this bus. We're gonna get there together, and it's up to you. As I keep saying, you can be on board, you can be off board, but I'm going there, my friend, and you're gonna come with us.

It shows maturity, right? It really does. I mean, trying to have sure—

I hope so. Yeah, I hope so.

I hope so. And a feeling of luxury, luxury, you know, we, we have the luxury, we feel blessed, we feel grateful, and we will give that to you as well and want that for you.

I hope so. I hope, uh, I hope my team appreciates what we're doing, uh, because sometimes when you do it so quick and so fast, they get shocked. And when they got shocked, it takes some time to understand and they adapt. But we have, we have a good team, have a people service, we have wonderful team that look after the guys and they know exactly what you're doing. But unfortunately, sometimes when you keep sitting with them, you become like a babysitter. We don't want to do that because they're all grown-ups, they all know what to do, they know, they all know exactly what to do. But unfortunately, you know what, they like to be followed up. I hate that, I hate that thing. When you keep following someone, like I said, now it becomes a habit. I'm trying to break this habit.

So accountability comes from within, right?

That's right. It's a culture I'm trying to unbuild, destroy, basically destroy. Now say, listen, you want to be the person you are? Go ahead and do it. Show me what you could do.

And you always said that, you said break down walls and use them to build bridges instead, right? You break it right down.

That's right.

You know, and these barriers get in the way. You know, you're making connection points.

Yeah, but you're managing people, you know. As I said at the beginning, managing people is the most difficult thing to do. You know, we have 19 nationalities in Qatar in my company.

19.

19. And each one, let's say, has a subdivision of wherever they come from. So how do you want to do that? Well, you can Do it with one thing, with one culture. This is it. You have to follow the company culture. You know, many, many years ago, I didn't believe that I wasn't leading this company. I didn't believe that a company really should have a culture, because to me, a culture was when I go to the States, okay, we eat tacos. When I go to the Philippines, I go, I eat, you know, something else and then go to Mexico, blah, blah. I thought this was culture, but, you know, I like people to develop themselves. You always have to develop your skills. You always have to develop the way you think, because at the end of the day, we can take everything from you except your brain. So keep upscaling yourself, keep developing yourself. The culture came only the last couple half years, 2 and a half to 3 years, and people didn't know that what I was— what we were doing. So I was, okay, no, we're trying to build something. When you build something, some— you have people who believe, people don't believe. Like I said earlier, people who don't believe, they leave, and people who believe, they stay with you. This is where you know who are the guys who are really belonging to your company.

I like what you said about nationalities, 19 nationalities, and it comes into— oh, that's extraordinary. And what you said in the beginning was so on, which is that there's commonalities with differences in humans. Emotional empathy, right, and communication, the way that we regulate ourselves. This, that's what gets us through conflict. That's what brings us through strategy and gets us to profit, because together we can do that. And there's some universal emotions we can work with, right? Yes.

And you have to listen. Sometimes people talk and don't listen. I mean, in this show, we both have to talk. But when we are in the business, sometimes— I'm just kidding, I'm just kidding— but sometimes, sometimes, you know, someone, when he keeps talking and talking and talking and he interrupts you and talking, sometimes you have to listen. I remember one of my teachers said, Simon, the reason why you have two ears is because you have to speak less. And then I would never forget that. And he was a great teacher.

You know, often we don't take in what's being said and immediately jump to what we thought we needed to say next, right? Rather than fully hearing and appreciating. And that's where you're going down there.

Yeah, that's sad because you know, basically you're not listening, you're hearing. I think there's difference between listen and hear. He's hearing you, you make noise, but he's not listening to you because he doesn't know what the hell you're saying. Probably because he doesn't know what you're saying, you know what I mean? Yeah, and he just wants to move on.

Well, Simone, tell me, you've said so many great things here today. You've said it all here, and I want to see, and I want to know, are there, you know, there are other things you'd like to share with your, the folks at NEMA or anywhere around the globe? Who you want to join you? Who, what you want to say to your folks here today? Any, any message you want to share with them perhaps that you have, what you haven't said here today?

Oh, you know, I'm doing my doctorate degree now and I can speak for 4 hours, so you have to stop me.

Take, take, your floor is yours.

No, thank you, thank you. Of course, I can say something from the heart, uh, and I say it to everybody, and I say it always: surround yourself with the smart people. Don't surround yourself with, uh, people just for people. If you want to be smarter, surround yourself with smart people. If you want to be dumber— excuse my English— but you know, you can sit with dumb people. But if you want to be a different person, trust me, when you sit with the smart people, it's funny, your performance gets higher. You want to excel, you want to do something different. But when you sit with losers, you become a loser. So you can afford that when you're 20 or maybe 30, but I think at my age, you know, honestly, I can see things within 10 seconds. I'm not a prophet. Maybe I'm right, maybe I'm wrong. It's intuition, basically. I don't judge people, I observe people. Yeah, exactly. Don't judge, just observe. And sometimes take it easy on yourself, you know. If you're wrong, you're wrong. If you're wrong, keep going. But, but my last two words is just, uh, life is too short, and surround yourself with good people and be with happy people, people who has good vibes. Don't sit with people with bad vibes, doesn't take you anywhere. There are many narcissists on Earth, and these narcissists, they want to put you down because they cannot do what you're doing. So stay away, take it easy, and silence is the best cure. I think I spoke, I mean, a little bit of too much, but probably it's a good conclusion if you want me to keep going.

They're beautiful golden words and, uh, straight, uh, beautiful book. We had mentioned Kel Gibran. I think it is Prophet.

Absolutely, absolutely, absolutely.

It's been extraordinary to be with you here today, Simone. What an amazing journey you've been on and you continue to be on, and the people you're attracting and developing and upskilling and the culture that you've built is just extraordinary. You have to be, have to be crazy not to work for Simone because it's a wonderful, strong, connected culture that's truly a global most loved workplace. And we appreciate you being with us as a global most loved workplace in our culture.

It's a pleasure. It was a great pleasure that I, I can't believe it that we are where we are with you right now. It was a total shock. I mean, you've, you've done what you did, and then with BPI, you guys did amazing. And I hope next year we'll do— I'm sure many people are calling me, how did you do that? So many people would do what we did because, you know, sometimes people follow people, say, next year I'm going to be with you. I said, well, if you could do it, do it. Why not? Keep doing it.

And it takes discipline. You did it. You did the work, right? And that's what most of work's about. It's the real culture. It's how you developed it, you sustained it, your philosophy, your values, it's real. And it embodies everything that we have in the Love Workplace Index and what we do. Yeah, I'm looking forward to seeing it more years to come and us growing and developing together throughout the years.

I have to mention something. Many times we have people who come to us say, if you pay a little money here, a little money there, we give you something. So listen, get out, get out of that, get out the door. We're not here to pay you, we're here to earn it. We want to earn this degree, we want to earn the certificate, because the moment you step in Neme, honestly, you will see that— funny, I mean, it's like I've been there to a different location. We don't buy degrees, we don't buy certificates, we earn ours. We are recognized, we recognize our people, we recognize their effort. Every day I don't sleep if my people are not happy. And my happiness is when I share my knowledge with my guys and I make them better people, because we need to create value, not destroy value. This is probably the conclusion to what I have to say to all the, to the companies I'm managing.

Absolutely, you have earned it, and we will continue to earn together. It's wonderful to have you, Simone, and thank you, represent your company. And it's, uh, I, I have looked forward to many more more years to come in working with you. Thank you so much for—

Thank you, thank you, take care of yourself. Bye-bye.