Omar Al Busaidy

Omar Al Busaidy knows a thing or two about starting businesses within the region.

The author of celebrated business tome Just Read It, he is now better-known for influencing and mentoring a new generation of budding start-up business owners.

He tells Esquire just what led him down the path of entrepreneurship, and why it’s so important to inspire others to make their ideas a reality:

How did you become interested in entrepreneurship?
When I was a student, I wanted to be like Mark Zuckerberg. I wanted to start a business that would do really well, so when I graduated I started up an advertising agency. Unfortunately, that didn’t work. Next, I set up a business selling women’s clothes, and that didn’t work either.

So word started going around that there was an Emirati guy starting up loads of businesses, and eventually I was asked to speak at a university event. I was one of four entrepreneurs — and I was the only one who wasn’t successful — but I shared my experiences, and what I had learned. Apparently, everyone was amused by my determination, and from that talk, I was hired for more and more. I ended up teaching an Emirati Entrepreneurship class.

So why write the book?
I taught a weekly class, and it began to bother me that none of the students were taking notes. So I asked them one day, “How do you remember everything that I tell you?” They said that they loved listening to me talk, but didn’t like taking notes. Then they suggested I just write a book, so I did. just that. The book is full of the practical daily advice: be good to people, learn to communicate well and the importance of not burning bridges.