LE009: Do What You Love with Hamid Safaei

Hello, I'm Takis Athanassiou. I'd like to welcome you at the new episode of Leadership Execution Podcast, a podcast for leaders who'd like to make a difference. My goal is to inspire you to take the initiative to change what no longer works and to provide you with the necessary strategies and approaches and tools to achieve that. Without delay, let's start with today's topic.

Hello everybody, Takis Athanassiou here. Welcome to the Leadership Execution Podcast. It is a podcast for leaders everywhere in the world. If this is your first time listening to this show, then I'd like to thank you for being here and I hope to have you on the show again. Now, let's start today's episode and without delay I'd like to introduce you to Hamid Safai. Who is Mr. Safai? Hamid Safai is the best-selling author of First Class Leadership and consultant A certified coach helping leaders and entrepreneurs to multiply their results. Hamid has a long course of professional activities in the areas of consulting and coaching. He has led successful business transformation for a number of Fortune Global 500 companies. He has developed, you know, Emotion Academy, a unique institute where he supplies first-class coaching tools and techniques combined with best practices. He regularly publishes learning on I'm also an Academy Com and a First Class Leadership Co-op on subjects such as leadership, realizing goals and dreams, target settings, and bringing potential to fruition. But I have said enough about Hamid. It's better to let Hamid tell us about what he is doing, how, and why. Hello Hamid and welcome on the Leadership Execution Podcast. I'd like to thank you for being here.

Hello Takis, thank you so much for having me. It's my great pleasure to be here.

Thank you, Hamid. How are you today?

I am very well, thank you. How are you?

Thank you, very nice. It is summer, so it's always a good time for talking and discussing about it.

Absolutely, absolutely.

I have so much to ask you, but knowing your busy schedule, I try to limit my questions to some basic ones. My first one, Hamid, I think it is important for my readers to know who Hamid is and how did you start your venture? I mean, can you tell us something about your background?

Absolutely, Takis. My parents were illiterate, so that's where I started, and the pitch I got from my parents, if you want to be better than we are, if you want to do better than we do, so my parents, you have to study hard and keep studying hard. That's the pitch I got and I made it to PhD, but I didn't finish my PhD program. But it all started with me reading a lot of books and what I didn't get from school, I tried to compensate by reading books on my own and there was a series, a fabulous series, Tell Me Why, and they connected me with setting a clear and compelling vision for my future. They connected me with leaders, so I developed my passion with leadership and my affinity with leaders and senior managers. And so I kept doing that and I kept developing myself, having worked for a large number of big multinationals from global Fortune 500 companies. I learned a lot from them and The more I learned, the more I was encouraged to write a book myself about leadership, so I learned how it can be done, but also how not to do it, and that's why I started my own business and I penned 2 books, First Class Leadership and Your Journey to Fulfillment, and now we're talking about those books.

Yes, of course. I'm also a book aficionado, and I always say that whatever my university didn't give me, I take it from the books around.

Absolutely.

And I have been fortunate enough, and that's why I understand, because I come from a similar background, and I had to do what I have to do today. So, I can relate to what you say, that the leadership is first for you and to do things about what your goals are rather than study what others have said.

Absolutely.

And that makes me perhaps categorize you to the action type of leadership rather than an academic one, because Because we talk a lot about leadership, but the main fact is what leadership is today.

Absolutely, absolutely. Well, you know, as you said rightfully, Takis, it's all about taking action. So you can read a lot of books, you can go to a lot of lectures, but it all comes down to what you do with what you have learned. If you don't do anything, so if you don't take action, nothing is going to change.

One of the things that really seized my world when I was very, very young, it is something that was said by Aldous Huxley, which says that experience is not what happens to you, it is what you do with what happens to you.

Absolutely.

Most people think that leadership is to follow someone. Very few people think that they should own their experience and make something out of it for other people to do it.

Absolutely, absolutely.

So for me, my second question is, what is regular swim lane to your life and how you shift it to a business kind of type leadership?

Yeah, funny, Takis. What I have learned to multiply your results, and by the way, this is what I teach and what I help entrepreneurs and leaders, how to multiply their results, you need to own your own business and you only can win the games of which you set the rules and you only can set the rules when you own the business. I mean, you can set the rules of the business if you own that business. And when you can set the rules, you can change them, you can often win the game. So having worked for a large number of multinationals, I learned my vision would not come true working in, you know, working as an employee or as a leader or whatever in the corporate world, being employed by by a corporate organization. So in 2011, I decided to start my own consulting company and I kept growing and I kept developing myself. I did 2 coaching certificate programs and I developed myself as a mentor to executives and senior leaders and budding entrepreneurs. So Answering your question, I learned, Takis, there are a few things that make or break your career or your future or, you know, make or break your day actually. How I start, what is my regular day, I start with positive affirmations, I start with I am grateful. Why I do that? Because it closes the door to negativity. When I say I'm grateful, I'm thankful. I get a peaceful, positive energy to start a brand new day. I write a few things down. I love my wife, I love my son, and I love my life, and it's going to be a great day, and I'm going to receive awesome news. I'm going to achieve great things today. So those are the things I start my ritual with. So positive energy. Then I set the goal of the day, so this is what I am going to achieve today, so I mean focus, that's what makes or breaks business owners, focus, and it's a hell of a job, Takis, as you know, to remain focused, to remain doing things that matter most, things that get you closer to your goals. So that's actually my ritual, so starting positively my day, setting the goals for the day, and the goals I set for the day, Takis, are all connected with my main goal, so that's actually me breaking down my main goal to mini goals and breaking mini goals to translating mini goals to actions to achieve them. That's what I do day in, day out.

So you're in favor of the personal development habits and rituals in everyday life?

Absolutely.

Because I also keep up my small rituals in order to maintain my track in my vision and what I want to do with my life. I mean, lately I became a father and I have to reconcile a lot of the things that I was considering as given because the priorities have changed.

Absolutely, you have a twin, Takis. I know, awesome, awesome.

So you say, Hamid, that you're an organized person, and how do you achieve your personal and professional goals besides your habits and rituals? I mean, do you follow a system or something formal?

The system is actually, as you said, Takis, It's a set of habits, what I call actually attitudes. You have read in my book, The Common Attitudes of First Class Leaders. So I follow those attitudes. I have owned, I have made them my own, those attitudes, and it's all about attitudes, Takis. You know, your life, our life is for 90% how we react. So 10% is what happens to us and around us, but for 90% is how we react to them.

Yes.

If you're a negative person, you're gonna have a miserable life. If you're a positive person, you look at problems as opportunities. So what are those rituals? What are those, what they call attitudes? One is positive. you know, being positive, positivity. Just tell me one name, one big name who has achieved a lot, who has written history but hasn't been a positive person. Either it's Mahatma Gandhi or Bill Gates or Warren Buffett or Oprah Winfrey or Jack Ma. They're all positive-minded people.

Mm-hmm.

And being proactive. So instead of sitting and waiting to, you know, for someone knocking on your door, I go out, I speak, I take initiative, I make proposals, so that I set the rule what I want to see happening in my life, so that's being proactive, so creating your own future instead of waiting for others to offer you, which impacts your future. And being grateful, that's actually what I start my day with, I am grateful. So sharing the cherries, giving back to society, and sharing what you have achieved with people who have helped you achieve that. Being a risk taker, you know, the biggest losers, Takis, are those who have never taken any risks.

I know that, yes.

Yeah, you know, the risk, you know, achievement has a price. You have to pay the price to achieve it. And success has a price actually. Success is actually, the algorithm to success is very easy.

Uh-huh.

You define the prize, you define what you want, and then you define the price that you have to pay to achieve that success, to be successful in whatever you want, and then you pay the price. If you don't pay the price, part of which is taking risk, it's not going to happen. So problem solving, I have learned to be, to focus on solutions instead of problems, turning problems to solutions. And, you know, I admire Richard Branson, Bill Gates, and Elon Musk, you know, those caliber of leaders who embrace problems. The bigger they are, the more, you know, the more motivated they are to solve those problems. Balance, Balance is what I every day focus on to have in my life, and balance, Takis, for me is not dividing your time between your, you know, between your private and business things, and balance for me is doing what matters most.

Hmm.

What gets you closer To your goals, what helps you achieve your goals, either professionally or personally. So balance for me in private life is spending as much quality time as I can with my wife and my son, and balance in business is doing things that help me achieve my main goal. That's actually balance, my simple— definition of balance, and I schedule everything, schedule everything in my calendar so that I know I am going to do XYZ during that day or that week or that hour. So it helps, it makes my life a lot easier when I schedule things, and that's actually what I do every day.

And that's That brings me to the next question, my dear Hermit. Why do you have written the book First Class Leadership? I mean, you are a happy and content person with yourself. You try to help others, and the first thing that strikes me most is that it is more of a manual rather than a book, an academic extract about certain things.

Absolutely, and a great question. Thanks for asking that, Takis. You know, I mentor leaders and entrepreneurs, and when I started my journey, I said, I help you be the best version of yourself, and I got the question very often, what is the best version of you? Then I said, creating a better world with and by better leaders, and being more specific, I'm a big ambassador of peace in the world, and then I told myself I need to get connected with those who decide whether it's going to be peace or war in the world, and then I thought, okay, I need to help them, so it's much easier for us to help if you help others first, So I need to solve issues they deal with every day. So that's why I wrote 2 books, Your Journey to Fulfillment and First Class Leadership. As you say, First Class Leadership is labeled as by many leaders, entrepreneurs, top CEOs, professors, they call it a leadership manual, some call it leadership Bible. So all you need to do to be a better leader is follow the principles, the attitudes, and become a master in what I call premium leadership qualities. So why did I plan First Class Leadership? To create a better world by and with better leaders. I learned a lot from great leaders how you can do it. but I also learned how not to do it. So I put what I learned, my experiences, what I also learned from leaders I worked for, but the leaders whom I helped to make it to the next level. I learned a lot from those people, those leaders, and I put it in one book, First Class Leadership.

If I can be so bold, I would say that First Class Leadership It's not just for leadership. It's about making people, not only making the world better, but making people better. Because I strongly believe that the things going from principles to goals rather than goals to the principles, which is our main trend of the year. Because I like it most that you emphasize too much on principles and approaches. And your first class leadership, and that makes me very thrilled because it is something that I preached for many years now.

Awesome, awesome. Absolutely, you hit, you hit the core, uh, Takis. Thanks for that. Um, principles are the core values we believe in. We behave, we decide, um, as we based on what we believe, we become what we believe, would you agree?

Yes.

And as I have said in the book, great leaders learn to lead themselves before leading anything or anyone else, and for that you need to develop yourself, you need to crystallize, to become a master in principles, believing, but also doing, executing the principles that make a great leader. Those are integrity, those are humility, responsibility, authenticity, and reality check. Those are the principles. And you only, as I say often, no business would ever grow without the driving force behind that business or company first grow. So if you don't have a big vision, your company is not going to be a big company. So it starts with the leader, and that's why I have emphasized on the leader, on the qualities, principles, and attitudes great leaders master to develop the person first, and then we can talk about developing the company.

I totally agree, and if I would have written your book before publishing and became such a huge bestseller, I would suggest that beside qualities, principles, attitude, I would add autonomy. Autonomy for me is something very important for the leader because it comprises the capacity, the energy, and the initiative, as well as intention, the character to do something for the other people and not for yourself.

Sure.

I mean, it's a type of personality to take the initiative by yourself despite of all the odds around. I mean, you can't be a leader without Without having the authority, as you well are aware of. And it is important for the people that they learn that they don't need any permission to take the initiative to do something about the world around them, or the problems they are facing around.

Absolutely, it's a great point. Thanks for mentioning it, Takis.

This is the essence that your book, First Class Leadership, gave me, that the capability of doing it and the blueprint in doing so. So for me, it is something more than a leadership manual. It is a personal development manual along with a leadership manual.

Absolutely, absolutely. Yeah, absolutely. This is actually the review I receive from many people. It's more than leadership. It's a manual on life. I have received this review from respected CEOs, from professors, and from many avid readers, and they say it's actually much more than leadership alone. So yeah, thanks for the compliment, Takis. You know, the book carries my soul, and I believe these are the things that help people grow.

I think so as well. When you put, you invest your soul in something, I think it is standalone and it glows in kind.

Absolutely, absolutely.

And because you said that you just follow things and people that track you to the higher goals and objectives, I'd like to ask you if there are any books that you would recommend to people that they would like to take the initiative to follow your path?

Well, read First Class Leadership, I would say. But you mean another book? You know, I have— 2 books have inspired me really greatly, and one is The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle. So you know the guy, I guess. I respect this guy so much, and I love his book, The Power of Now. The other one is The Psychology of Persuasion, Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion by Robert Cialdini. It's an awesome book. And yeah, you know, I have— we haven't talked about it, your journey to fulfillment.

Mm-hmm.

It's if you want to make a goal from your fuzzy dreams, this is the book. This is simple, this is to the point, and this book takes your hand from your dreams to action. So this is also a great book for, you know, a small book, and the value, it's not in the information. You have received probably that information from Ziglar, from Jim Rohn, for example, but the value of Your Journey to Fulfillment is in the questions that I have asked, and those are the questions that take time to absorb, to understand, but to put you in action. So the value of the book, Your Journey to Fulfillment, is in the questions I have asked in the book. So it's actually also a kind of— it's a self-help book and it If you answer the questions, you will be far, far ahead of competitors and you will be much further than your dreams only.

Absolutely.

Of course, but it is also, because it is based on questions, it is also a book for coaches and consultants as well.

Absolutely, absolutely.

Because being a coach, it is rather to make the good questions, the right questions. I would say, rather than make puzzles.

Absolutely, absolutely. You hit the— you know, that's actually what the coach is supposed to do, raising the right question.

Yes, and this is the thing that we try— for me, my line of work, I used to have more questions rather than answers. I try to Yes. To provide solutions based on what the other conception of reality was about the business and small business, because in Greece we have, as always I suppose, there is always a peculiarity in how we do things. And this is what brings me to my last question for now, and I hope we will continue this discussion later on in a different podcast. If you were to have advice for a new entrepreneur, I mean for a person that wants to own his life and to own a business to make their life better, what would that be, Hamid?

What I always tell entrepreneurs or budding entrepreneurs, those who chase money, I say do what you love. Become a master in what you love, and then you will have both happiness and money. So find your passion, develop a vision around your passion, and get better and better. Become a master in what you love. That's my, you know, if I give you one piece of advice, That's what I would say.

Thank you.

Find your passion.

Thank you. That is an excellent question and an excellent interview.

Thank you.

I always try to summarize something in very few words because it is what remains to most of the people. In any way, I would like to thank you very much for this wonderful interview and this discussion. I hope we have the opportunity to further on, later on. And I have to conclude this interview for now.

Thank you so much, Takis. It was lovely to be with you, and looking forward to hearing from you and to talking with you again and again. Thank you so much. Have a great day.

It was deeply honored.

Thank you, Manfred. Thank you so much. Thank you.

Have an excellent day. Thank you.

You too.

Okay, bye-bye.

Bye-bye.

Thank you all for listening today. I'd love to see you at the next episode of Leadership Initiative Podcast. If you have a question or a comment, please send me a message at my site, takisathanassiou.com. Until next time, take the initiative to become the person you want to be. Start now and make a difference. Thank you all for listening.