We Will Move the Earth

MELA 5, DAY SIX: 11 MARCH 2014

Victor Antonio (Sales Consultant, Author, and Professional Speaker) amps up the room with a barnstorming presentation on winning through influence persuasion. He quotes Archimedes: "Give me a place to stand, and I will move the earth."

Anyone can learn to do it, Victor contends, as long as one has a long enough lever. Victor's goal, therefore, is to increase our pole of influence. 

A warm-up finger exercise illustrates the difficulty of performing even simple motions and skills, if they are novel and unaccustomed.

To move the earth (given the mass of the planet) physics calculates that the length of Archimedes' lever will need to exceed the distance from here to the Andromeda Galaxy. To grasp and maneuver such a pole of influence, our hand coordination will clearly have to get a lot better than this!

The usual laws of physics don't apply to Majd.

Victor's gone nova.

Elham watches the fireworks.

Najla herself is a star.

Now Victor's gone ninja.

Definitely not something you see every day.

Focus on these faces and remember them: for this is the rising generation of Middle Eastern leaders...

... who have the power and passion, with their long poles of influence, to move the earth.

Jim addresses business strategy, and analytic techniques derived from it that leaders can use to understand, influence and improve their organization's position in its operating environment.

Kuma, turban, ghurba, muzzar. A headgear pageant.

John shifts the discussion from organizational strategy models to ways that we can develop and share our own personal strategies. The Y-Strategy Model is a practical framework to ensure that existing resources and behaviors are sufficient and in alignment to result in the desired outcome.

Samira and Arwa
Resources: Intelligence, wit, vision, caring.
Behavior: All in.
Outcome: They will move the earth.


This evening's small group discussions:

Dan Ciprari (Serial Entrepreneur): "Becoming an Entrepreneur: Starting and Growing a Business." 

Danish Farhan (Founder & CEO, Xische Building Your Brand): "Your Image in the Marketplace." 

A welcome sight, as rare as a snowball in Doha: Samer and Yazan relaxing!?

Mazin Al Khatib (Managing Director, Fundraising and Investor Relations, Warburg Pincus, UK): "Building a Personal Network." 

Saad Amanullah Khan (CEO, Gillette Pakistan): "How to Drive Organizational Excellence."