In this Business Blast Podcast episode, host Tyler Wagner interviews Amar Yousif, a former Iraqi immigrant who now serves as a CISO in the infotech healthcare sector. Amar shares a harrowing story from his mandatory military service in Iraq, where he hid in a swamp for six hours to avoid conscription into the elite Republican Guard—a low‑point that taught him that difficult moments are temporary and can build grit. He then explains why information security is not just a corporate concern but a matter of personal safety in today’s technology‑driven world. Amar offers practical career advice for young professionals, emphasizing technical proficiency, professional courage, and the willingness to take on challenging tasks as ways to stand out. He reflects on personal growth, urging his younger self to cultivate friendships and experiences early in life. For happiness, he advocates a multi‑dimensional life—balancing career, family, fitness, and relationships—to hedge against inevitable low points. His favorite book is Eckhart Tolle’s The Power of Now, which taught him mindfulness and presence, and his favorite quote, “This too shall pass,” serves as an emotional regulator. The episode concludes with Amar’s Twitter handle @SecurityAmar for listeners to connect with him.
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Welcome to the Business Blast Podcast. I'm your host, Tyler Wagner. This episode is brought to you by Authors Unite. Authors Unite provides you with all the resources you need to become a successful author. You can learn more about Authors Unite and join the free community at authorsunite.com. Now let's jump into the episode.
Alright everyone, welcome back to another episode of the Business Blast Podcast. I'm your host Tyler Wagner, and today I have Amar Yusuf. He is an infotech healthcare CISO, an immigrant, and aspiring writer. He believes in the see one, do one, and then teach one concept in life. Therefore, despite being busy as all get out, he he is here to teach one. So welcome to the show, man.
Thank you. Good morning.
Good morning. We'll dive into the first one, Ammar. The first question I have for you is, what is the best story from your life that has an underlying valuable message?
All right. Well, I'm an immigrant, a naturalized U.S. citizen. I was actually born and raised in Iraq. After graduating engineering school in the mid-'90s, I had to join mandatory military service for 3 months. My goal at the time was to avoid being drafted by the Republican Guard, which is the elite force during my mandatory service, because that would further complicate things and I have to serve for longer and so on and so forth. And the Republican guards knew that most people would try to do that, so their recruitment strategy involved descending unannounced early in the morning on our camp, surrounding the entire thing, and arresting anyone who tries to escape. So that was a very terrifying experience for me. For me to avoid being captured, so to speak, or recruited into that force, I had to lie down in a nearby swamp for 6 hours. It was a low point in my life. And if you had told me at the time that fast forward 25 years, I would be living in Houston and working in information security, be a middle-class American, I would have told you that you are crazy. So the lesson that I learned from that experience is that when you have a low point in your life, that is not your life, that is just your life situation. And things will change, sometimes to the better and sometimes to the, to the worse. And if you are in a low point, things will definitely change to the better. So I try to compare difficult times in my life to to that low point, and that became a touchstone for me. I'm always reminded that it is not as bad as it seems because I've seen worse. That allowed me to have a little bit more grit to go through life.
Thank you for sharing that with us, man. The next one I have for you is, what is the most valuable piece of information we should know that's within your expertise or industry?
Okay, so I do information technology, information security, and I've danced with technology all my life and have witnessed the really rapid evolution of technology, information technology specifically, or technology in general, but my involvement was in the information technology aspect of it. Information technology is really changing culture. It's changing how we do business, it's changing how we do medicine, it's changing how we establish friendships and even intimate relationships and dating online and things of that sort. And the information security aspect of information technology is really not It's not limited to large businesses or corporations who have intellectual property that they're trying to protect. It's personal safety. Given the large role of technology in our lives, being a little bit more aware about information security hygiene and how to protect yourself online is not really a business thing or a Department of Defense thing. It's a personal thing day in and day out that affects all of us in all aspects of our life. I think that fact is a little bit lost on a lot of people.
And what's your best piece of overall business advice? So not necessarily industry-specific.
Well, I would say this, starting out as a young professional, I've always struggled with, well, how do I make myself stand out? There are hundreds of us in this corporation or in this business who are trying to make an impression. So how do I make myself stand out? And having hindsight and being on the other side of it where I look for young people and see if I could identify those who could stand out, I would say standing out is not as hard as I once imagined. You know, be technically proficient, and so you are able to master that part of the business or the job. Have some professional courage. Without being impolite, of course, but be able, be able to speak truth to power and work long hours and ask for challenging tasks and get them done. And if you do these things, it doesn't matter how inexperienced or how young you are, you will stand out.
And if you could give your younger self one piece of advice, what would that be?
I was very driven and still am to a certain degree. I would ask my younger self to have more friends and partake in more experiences and adventures in life. There are certain things, making lasting friendships is one of them, and that are uniquely deeper if you do them when you are younger. And it becomes a little bit more difficult, or perhaps not more difficult, but certainly different if you do them when you are older.
And in your opinion, what is the key to happiness?
I would say having a multi-dimensional life. What do I mean by that? Have different aspects to your life. So it's your, not just your career, your career, your family life, your physical fitness, you know, whether you like swimming or jogging or working out. So that's another dimension. And obviously your friendships and relationships. And I say that's the key to happiness because Life has ups and downs, and at any point in time, you are going to have a low point in one of these dimensions. So the more dimensions you have, the more likelihood that you're not going to have a low point happening at the same time in all of them. So if your career is going bad, well, guess what? If your family dimension is going well, your physical fitness dimension is going well, friendships is going well, you could lean on that to carry yourself and so on. So the more dimensions you have, the more hedging your bet you are, and you are going to be able to find that happiness.
And what is the best book that you've read and what was the number one thing you learned from that?
It's very hard to narrow it down to one book, but I would I will go ahead and do that. The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle. It is about mindfulness and living in the moment. Yeah, that's one of the best books that allowed me to center myself and not dwell upon the past or worry about the future and try to live in the moment a little bit more.
And what is your favorite quote and why?
I would say, "This too shall pass." It's a quote that also helps center me, given the ever-changing nature of human affairs. If I am too happy, "this too shall pass" will remind me that this is not a permanent state. So it helps regulate my emotion. If I am too sad to the degree of depression, "this too shall pass" is also a reminder that this is not a constant state and things will change. So it's a, it's a quote that helps regulate me.
I love it, man. Thank you so much for coming on. The last question I have for you before we let you go is, where is the best place for people to find and/or connect with you online?
Thank you very much. I'm on Twitter as @SecurityAmar. That's A-M-A-R, @SecurityAmar.
Perfect, man. Thank you again for joining us. We really appreciate it.
Thank you very much. I appreciate the opportunity.
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