In this heartfelt episode, Saeed, the host, opens up about the hidden challenges that come with leadership and success. Despite outward achievements and titles, many leaders face feelings of loneliness, exhaustion, and disconnection. Saeed shares his own experience of becoming a CEO and feeling isolated at the top. The episode dives into the concept of fulfillment beyond traditional metrics of success, emphasizing the importance of aligning inner values with external achievements. Through real stories and practical advice, Saeed guides listeners to redefine success on their own terms by prioritizing authentic connections, meaningful metrics, and small daily joys, ultimately fostering true fulfillment rather than empty achievement.
What Will You Learn?
Timestamps:
Remember, success without fulfillment is empty, but you can rewrite your definition of success starting today. If this episode resonated with you or someone you know feeling the weight of emptiness despite success, share it and join the community.
You can win the game that everyone admires, but bear in mind that you may still lose yourself in that process. Keep that in the in the back of your mind for the time being. Marhaba, and how's it going, everyone? I am Saeed, your Yuwab host, where we keep it real. No empty talks involved whatsoever. If you're here with me, this tells me how important clarity and growth in your life and also work. And that's why I am here with you because I understand your concerns and frustrations, and I've been there too as well. I will guide you through real conversations from my experience. Alright? And for those who are new to the show, I'm so grateful to have you. So thank you. I thank whoever shared this episode with you. And if you find this episode beneficial, please share it with someone who can benefit from it. Alright? So in today's episode, we will basically focus on people and specifically leaders who have it all and who doesn't wanna have it all. They wanna have the career. They wanna have the title status, you know? But sometimes they have that itchy feeling or that feeling that something is missing, and sometimes you really cannot explain it. You know, it's a feeling that starts when you grow up, the career ladder naturally. And I had that feeling especially when you when I became, CEO. I felt very much alone at the top. And if you're wondering what's really wrong with you, even if you're successful and even very successful, you are really not alone. Alright, so let's deep dive into today's episode. So the problem here, let's, let's basically break it down, that success doesn't always feel like success. You know, and I I I know that this statement is a bit too broad, but hear me out. Many leaders, what I see is that they push for achievement believing that achievement is success and it brings happiness and satisfaction. Okay? That's the first thing. Keep that in the back of your mind and I've done that. They go through a lot, honestly, a lot to do that. They go through challenges, they go through ups and downs, and that's what I call the journey and the process. Then they reach at the top. And what happens is that they find out that instead of joy, they are much more exhausted and they are isolated. They're far away from mindful, meaningful connections. Alright? It feels like a strange emptiness. Very much. Despite that you're successful and you've been winning. You are going to notice that everyone is clapping for you, you know, and everyone sees the success that you are achieving, but you have that feeling that, you know, something is not, is not right. Alright? And you're gonna basically, have feelings where you will need to chase achievement and success. It's it's it's it's normal. This is normal what happens. Let me share with you my story. You will understand what I mean. When I became, CEO, I was very excited. Honestly. I mean, naturally everyone would be, right? It's not only me. One year after that I was doing great and I achieved a lot from strategy, from scaling the business, etcetera. But I reach a point where I couldn't find meaning, anymore. And I was very much chasing what my shareholder wanted me, which is mainly results. And again, there's nothing wrong with that. Alright? So it's not like you should ignore shareholder expectation because that's very important. Includes investors, your board of directors, your boss, etcetera. But that really made me blind a little bit from my purpose, my values. Okay. And I was very much trying to figure out what is happening, but I couldn't really understand. Knowing myself, I just said, okay, maybe I should try a new routine in my life. So I went for like a five kilometer, like I did. Okay. I said, let me start running routine where I said, I'm gonna run five kilometer in twenty five minutes. But honestly, that didn't work. And I talk a lot about, you know, enjoying the, enjoying the moment, enjoying the process, enjoying the journey. But again, that happened to me, honestly, because I was too blind with so many things, although I was successful. It's not that, but I couldn't find meanings. So that's basically what happens. Now what's really important here, the truth is that we are very much conditioned in our life to measure success with titles, money and milestones. And this is what everyone, most people at least have in mind. Okay? Again, don't get me wrong. That's absolutely great. Alright? But what we need to look for is fulfillment. Okay? And fulfillment usually comes from the external word by having the clauses, etcetera. But again, it's all about that internal alignment when it comes to fulfillment. It's a bit deeper. Alright? When there is a gap between your inner values and the external values that you have, what's going to happen? You're going to be achieving, but what, but not what you want. It's going to be someone's else and it could feel a bit empty when you look at it. Now, keep in mind that when we look at internal values, your internal values and your external values, specifically your shareholders, etcetera, there should be a gap that it cannot match. Alright? But you don't want that gap to be so large leading into isolating yourself from everyone and then leading into burnout. When that happens, it's probably time that you reset. Okay? And figure out what you should do. Let me share with you, a story about someone I coached. This was a lady that I coached where she, when we explored what her problem is, she was very much telling me about her values, what she should do, etcetera. And she was very successful where she is, but the gap between her inner and external, let's say value, basically her inner values and the company value was so large to the point that she was reaching a point where she was very much frustrated in her life. Now I shared with her a couple of tips, which I'm going to share with you later, where she made some adjustment and she basically got better, but she couldn't actually. She ended up leaving, where she is. It was painful in the beginning. I spoke to her a few months ago, few months after the after the coaching session, and she actually turned out to be very successful and not really an executive role, but she found what exactly she wanted. It was much more closer to her heart, and that was the definition of success for her. Right? So the key insight here is that you can win the game that everyone admires, but bear in mind that you may still lose yourself in that process. Keep that in the back of your mind for the time being. So what should you do to redefine process as per your terms? Now, tip number one, and that's what I tell everyone. For the time being, take a pose and ask yourself, whose purpose or dream are you basically trying to, achieve? Alright? What I see is that many leaders chase the version of the success that they have inherited, or they've been handed over by someone else. It could be their parents. They told them, okay, probably you have to be an engineer, or it could be the society that is dictating to them what to do, or it could be something else, which is absolutely fine for pause and ask that question. Okay? Now when you go to a corporate company, you are going to be also surprised by the fact that the aspiration, the values are completely different than what you have in mind. So what's really important is now you ask, okay, and you keep it like that. Then bring a piece of paper and the oil step paper and a pen and write down your values for the time being because you're just clarifying what are your values, what are your purpose. Okay? Now having understand what goes within the external factors that are impacting you and the internal things that are really impacting you as well, you would have an understanding of what is really happening. Okay? Let me share with you an example where, of what I mean. Let's say that you have an important value within yourself, which is family. You really, you like, you really value the family aspect when it comes to yourself. Now you are at a, at a corporate world where you can't have time to basically be with your family. You're just going to have that disturbing moments where you would feel like, what am I doing here? That's not success. Although you're very successful at work, but you feel that there is something itching you or irritating you, and that's your internal value and that is the family. And that's what I mean by that. Now the result from the self awareness is that you reach a point where you would understand what's happening with you and what's really driving that feeling. Okay? The second tip that I would leave you with is that incorporate some meaningful metrics. Some people have KPIs which are very much driven by monetary value. Okay? Now, if there is a big gap between the company and yours, then there is a problem. But naturally, there is there shouldn't be a big gap between the your values, those metrics, and the company metrics. Your metrics and the company metrics. Then what you should do is that incorporate as much as you can to bring that fulfillment in yourself. Let me give you an example. Let's say that you've done something, you've achieved something and that something has been very successful. Something that I like is measure how satisfied are you. Sometimes people just achieve and achieve and achieve, and they're not satisfied. So maybe have a matrix where you say, okay, I'm going to measure my satisfaction level after achieving that. The second thing is try to measure your energy level. If you're really exhausted after achieving something, although it was successful, alright, means that there's something wrong and that thing is draining you or something is draining you. Alright. So once you have that metrics, you will understand. Also, when you basically now achieve something on the expense of losing relationships, being family or coworkers, that's really not good. So these are all metrics that you should keep in mind. Maybe after a successful project, I would say, oh, how many times did I basically go and see my family? How many times did I basically call that person? And then what I like is try to achieve try to link what you achieve and succeed in by creating an impactful positive positive feeling in someone else. It could be a community. Let's say that you're doing a project which is going to impact the community you work in. The meaning that you're going to get back and the thanks and the praises that you're going to get from people. These are all meaningful stuff that leads into fulfillment. Ultimately, what you're going to achieve from that is you're gonna see progress where it truly counts, not just a resume because a resume is a piece of paper, but, again, fulfillment is much more deeper. The third tip that I feel is important, and I think it's much more important than what I mentioned is that prioritize connection over position. What happens is that the titles that we have today, CEO, CCO, CEO, these are all temporary and they are going to be there until you are there in that position thing. And trust me, the people that deal with you today, they are very much playing along because of your title. So if you don't create that good connection when you lose that title, they're just going to change face. What you should do is spend time building some authentic connections and bones inside your work and outside your work because it's really important. It brings that fulfillment. Why? Because you don't want to be, you don't want to feel isolated. You know, you want to have that really rich sense of purpose that you're there and people are there and there is a connection. Trust me. Human beings are very much hungry for relationships and connections. Now what I see is a lot of people, unfortunately, without even noticing, they reach that human touch, honestly, and they become very much robotic into achieving and achieving and achieving. And I've seen this a lot. I one time coached, a CEO and that guy came to me and his, his question was like, 'Saeed, people are running away from me. Really, they're running away from me.' And I'm like, 'Okay, let's explore. Let's explore. Let's explore what's happening. What's happening in your life? Then we we dig deep, we dig deep, and then what happened is that this guy was absolutely pushing and pushing and pushing without even any empathy when it comes to dealing with people. So the people were, like, coming there and talking business, not anymore talking, hey. How are you doing? What's happening? How's life? Da da da da da. Again, I'm not saying that we should go to work and spend time wasting each other's time, but it's important to have that connection. It's not only work and being robotic. It's also, having a meaningful connection with other person. So after coaching that person, he started, you know, telling people, how are you doing? And honestly, he told me the first time he said that to the people that he worked with, they were very much surprised. What happened to this guy? What changed? But again, it became much more better for him ultimately, and people started coming to him. It took time, but again, that time paid off for him. The fourth tip is that try to have some micro joys within your day as much as possible. Right? And these are not really difficult because when you have a successful project, you go through a lot. Try to have some meaningful and small joys. It could be a laugh with a friend. It could be picking up the phone and speaking to your loved one and say, listen, I've done this. It's been amazing, etcetera, dah, dah, dah, dah, dah, dah. It could be something also that you would step away from that and do because this brings energy within yourself. You know, this joyful meetings are great because you're gonna start, you're gonna reset again and come become much more alive, when it comes to work. Alright? Now let me tell you something. This is a this is a guy that, used to work for me because, when I used to work in, in my in my my previous company, I went to visit them, part of my duty to go and visit people. And I saw that they had a beautiful ritual. Alright? And that ritual was they had a board where they were celebrating small, let's say let's say they have a a task, and they break that down into small things, and then they celebrate every time they achieve. And sometimes they bring cakes when it's someone's birthday. And I'm like, what kind of nonsense is this? I'll see. When I saw it the first time, like, what the hell are you guys doing? Then I went back and I saw that this is actually the most productive team within the whole business. And I went back and I noticed much more deeper that the people there were very proud to be part of the team. And I linked it to the leader who was leading them, not a CEO, not a C suite, not even an executive. Someone who was really praised by everyone, and he created this small, joyful, wins for the much for for for the bigger, for the greater good, I would say. And these are stories that I would never forget in my life when it comes to fulfillment. Now, just to recap, the fulfillment formula, as I mentioned to you in today's episode, has four main aspects. The first one is question which values or dreams you're chasing. That's the first one. The second one is try not to have some monetary metrics around it. Try to have some meaningful metrics when it comes to that. And the third one is build real connections. Don't be robotic when you, when you deal with people to achieve tasks and results on a daily basis. And the fourth one and the last one is try to have some micro joys on a daily basis. Alright, before we close, I want to leave you with this. You are isn't just a podcast. It's a space intentionally created for you to grow and realign with what matters most. Success without fulfillment is just a fancy form of failure. Again, the good news here is that you can rewrite that definition and you can start today. If this episode sparks to you or you know someone who is successful, but carrying that weight of emptiness, share it with them. Because in Yuwab, we're building a community. It's a reminder that we should take care of each other and where real success feels like freedom, not being alone at the top. And until next time, take care of yourself and those who you care about.