Joelle Mardinian, Celebrity & Entrepreneur
If you want to be an entrepreneur make sure that you are willing to sleep less and skip mealtimes because work is going to take a lot of time. Be willing to invest money and know that that investment might not come back to you for at least 2 to 3 years. You will have to stay on top of your game, get into the smallest things and the biggest things, be a good leader to your team. You can`t ask them to work hard while you are doing nothing. I think a great leader is someone who honestly leads the way, giving energy, motivation and inspiration to the team.
Lynn Al Khatib, Executive Coach & Vice President of Communications, Chalhoub Group
Communication or any other role in luxury retail industry is all about understanding the consumer. You have to know the numbers, the data, understand behaviors and trends. It takes emotional intelligence to build relationship with the brands, to feel their history and legacy because luxury is deeply rooted in family businesses, family stories. This is no longer something you can relay just by learning to write press-releases. You have to love this industry and its storytelling aspect. It`s also fundamental to understand that your role is to help others shine. It`s not about you, it`s about them.
Ambareen Musa, CEO GCC, Revolut
When you are building a startup, at first you have no HR division, accounts department or administration team. You have no choice but to outsource some of these tasks, taking time to fully brief contractors on your specifications. To form a team you need to market yourself and your brand. Top people rarely want to join a company they don't know for less pay, fewer benefits - and less certainty. Share your vision to make potential employees see the positives of a startup: more responsibility, the opportunity to learn new skills and possibly an equity share.
Svetlana Kuznetsova, tennis player, 4 times Grand Slam champion. Fashion designer & Entrepreneur
My advice is for parents of future champions - in sports or any other field. I started to play in Saint-Petersburg where I was constantly told I was hopeless. But after I moved to Spain, I`ve been praised even for smallest achievements. And that made me fall in love with tennis. Praise is critically important. When parents come to me for consultation and declare their kid`s rating from the get go, I say I don`t care about rating of a child under 13. At this age nothing is more important than to preserve his passion for sports or whatever because next comes the tough part. But if a kid is sick and tired of it already, what progress we expect him to make?
