Gus Takkale’s 5 C’s changed my life, Motivation in Middle East. In today’s world Middle East is talked about in the news all the time and the world branding is at all time high but the issues being reflected are mainly negative. Dubai and UAE seems to be a world apart from other countries in the region. It’s a manmade wonderland that reflects what money, imagination and mix between the east and the west can accomplish. With its tallest buildings, seven start hotels, sky resort in the mall, recreation of the world through palm islands; it seems every project is build just so the world can say “wow, Dubai is the place to be”.
I personally love positive outlook on a Muslim country but how many scholars are being produced in Dubai, how many cutting edge technologies are making headlines from the place famous for the word “Largest, tallest, the biggest” in the world. When it comes to the thought process, motivational speaking, and business gurus everyone is imported to Dubai packing halls to full capacity.
If we move on from the buildings to the mind; I could not find a single person escalating from the world we call Dubai. Recently I attended an invite only meeting where the main speaker Gus Takkale was introduced as one of the executives from SAP who has held other management positions with number of leading edge companies. Gus started with “The 5 C’s of change” and I thought to myself; don’t tell me I’m going to be wasting my time listening to a commercialized night sponsored by SAP gloating how the company can change our life.
To my surprise Gus did not talk about any company and commercialization; there were 100’s of people but Gus focused on me and me alone. He started with how my life started and he ended with what I can really accomplish. More he talked about more energized I became; I was willing and ready to accomplish anything. One of the best parts of the evening was when he talked about giving with the right intent; Mahatma Gandhi was about to take a train when his slipper fell off; train started to move and instead of picking up his slipper, Gandhi threw the other slipper also. A man standing next to Gandhi could not resist; he asked why did you do that? Gandhi replied “the man who finds just one slipper will have no use for it but if he can find both, he can for sure use it” (I guess second hand info, the exact quote about what Gandhi said to the man I don’t remember so forgive me if I misquoted what Gus said).
I can truly say Gus used the right words with lot of wisdom to capture my full attention and he did so in less than 10 minutes. At the end of the night, a good friend who was also present confessed to me how “Gus’s talk was tailored just for her”. How can two different people can listen to the same person and both feel the presentation was just for them? I still don’t know the answer to that question but all night I could not get the excitement out of my head and out of my heart - could not wait for the day to start so I can apply what I learnt.
Gus (Ghassan Takkale) was born in the UAE but grew up in Canada; possessing the best of the both worlds. He is the first bilingual motivational speaker I came across and from where I am standing; he is going to become very famous. He reminds me of the raw version of Tony Robins but has what Anthony Robbins doesn’t; he understand the Arab culture and delivers his wisdom just as good in Arabic as he does in English. Gus is the answer to all those who think Dubai can only produce structures and will soon know Arabs have and can produce great minds and Gus Takkale is going to be one more for the history books.
Tags: Changed, cs, Gus, life, Takkales