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What a combination, but true for our guest Moustafa Hamwi. Moustafa grew up in the Middle East and then worked for companies such as Nokia as a major force in Marketing and PR. In the 2010 timeframe Moustafa decided that his life was not being fulfilled with his career and left his job and purchased a one-way ticket to India where he decided to explore what he really wanted to do with his life. He will tell us his story and how he eventually found his calling as a coach, speaker and author. Moustafa has many words of wisdom he imparts to us during his episode. I think you will find his observations relevant and worth hearing. He also gives us free access to the eBook version of his book The Slingshot. About the Guest: Moustafa is a bestselling author, international speaker, and mindset coach. His background spans diverse disciplines — from executive coaching, hypnotherapy, yoga, and meditation to adventure sports and nature healing. Moustafa’s unique lifestyle as an executive nomad has him traversing the globe, often spending months living out of a campervan, immersing himself in diverse cultures and forging a deep connection with nature. His quest for self-discovery leads him to learning and meditation centres worldwide, exploring the intricacies of mind, body, and soul. His life journey and extensive research have culminated in unparalleled knowledge and insight. He’s globally recognised as a foremost expert and thought leader in reigniting passion within organisations and teams. Ways to connect with Moustafa: Linked in https://www.linkedin.com/in/moustafahamwi/ Instagram https://www.instagram.com/moustafahamwi/ Book landing page to collect bonuses https://moustafa.com/slingshot/ The code to use for claiming the bonuses is “Unstoppable” I will explain more about the bonuses for your listeners when we speak About the Host: Michael Hingson is a New York Times best-selling author, international lecturer, and Chief Vision Officer for accessiBe. Michael, blind since birth, survived the 9/11 attacks with the help of his guide dog Roselle. This story is the subject of his best-selling book, Thunder Dog. Michael gives over 100 presentations around the world each year speaking to influential groups such as Exxon Mobile, AT&T, Federal Express, Scripps College, Rutgers University, Children’s Hospital, and the American Red Cross just to name a few. He is Ambassador for the National Braille Literacy Campaign for the National Federation of the Blind and also serves as Ambassador for the American Humane Association’s 2012 Hero Dog Awards. https://michaelhingson.com https://www.facebook.com/michael.hingson.author.speaker/ https://twitter.com/mhingson https://www.youtube.com/user/mhingson https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelhingson/ accessiBe Links https://accessibe.com/ https://www.youtube.com/c/accessiBe https://www.linkedin.com/company/accessibe/mycompany/ https://www.facebook.com/accessibe/ Thanks for listening! Thanks so much for listening to our podcast! If you enjoyed this episode and think that others could benefit from listening, please share it using the social media buttons on this page. Do you have some feedback or questions about this episode? Leave a comment in the section below! Subscribe to the podcast If you would like to get automatic updates of new podcast episodes, you can subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcasts or Stitcher. You can subscribe in your favorite podcast app. You can also support our podcast through our tip jar https://tips.pinecast.com/jar/unstoppable-mindset . Leave us an Apple Podcasts review Ratings and reviews from our listeners are extremely valuable to us and greatly appreciated. They help our podcast rank higher on Apple Podcasts, which exposes our show to more awesome listeners like you. If you have a minute, please leave an honest review on Apple Podcasts. Transcription Notes: Michael Hingson ** 00:00 Access Cast and accessiBe Initiative presents Unstoppable Mindset. The podcast where inclusion, diversity and the unexpected meet. Hi, I'm Michael Hingson, Chief Vision Officer for accessiBe and the author of the number one New York Times bestselling book, Thunder dog, the story of a blind man, his guide dog and the triumph of trust. Thanks for joining me on my podcast as we explore our own blinding fears of inclusion unacceptance and our resistance to change. We will discover the idea that no matter the situation, or the people we encounter, our own fears, and prejudices often are our strongest barriers to moving forward. The unstoppable mindset podcast is sponsored by accessiBe, that's a c c e s s i capital B e. Visit www.accessibe.com to learn how you can make your website accessible for persons with disabilities. And to help make the internet fully inclusive by the year 2025. Glad you dropped by we're happy to meet you and to have you here with us. Michael Hingson ** 01:21 Well, hello everyone, and welcome to unstoppable mindset from wherever you happen to be. I'm your host, Mike Hingson, and we are glad that you're with us today for another episode of unstoppable mindset today. Our guest is Moustafa Hamwi and Moustafa is, well, he has an interesting thing that he says about himself. He says that he is a unique he has a unique lifestyle. He's an executive Nomad, and he will tell us about that, among other things, but he is a best selling author, a mindset coach, and a number of other kinds of things. So I'm not going to give it all away. It's more fun to let him describe it and and kind of lead our conversation. So Moustafa, welcome to unstoppable mindset. We're really glad you're here. Moustafa Hamwi ** 02:10 Thank you, Michael, for having me. I'm really excited to be on your show. Michael Hingson ** 02:14 Well, thank you. We really appreciate you being here. And because you are an executive Nomad, where are you nomading From today? Moustafa Hamwi ** 02:23 In the moment I'm in Melbourne. So I use Melbourne as a satellite base for kind of Asia and Australia, New Zealand. And then I use Dubai as a satellite base for Europe and kind of the Middle East area. Michael Hingson ** 02:39 So where is home base. If you are at home base ever Moustafa Hamwi ** 02:42 see last year, I decided to give up everything I own, downsize my life into two bags, one bag that has my formal stuff, one bag that has my casual stuff, and I pretty much gave up everything else that I own, took a camper van and started driving around Australia. So since then, I'm pretty much an executive, no matter just that home is where the heart is. So that's why I have two bases I use just as a central area to move from there. But yeah, depends on the day. What Michael Hingson ** 03:10 made you do that? What made you decide to down so down size and not only take up that kind of lifestyle, but live in in the way that you do Moustafa Hamwi ** 03:22 beautiful question. I mean that that has a lot of layers to it. I'd say my journey start of pursuing my own passion in life started at about 2008 when I was in events and nightlife, having an externally very successful life, but feeling empty on the inside. I started reading, researching, yoga, meditation, all of these things. 2012 bought a one way ticket to India. 2013 came back to Dubai, started delivering inspirational talks, and people would say, You changed my life. And this is really when I knew that that's my passion and purpose. However, also I realized from that trip that me, including, yeah, and a lot of other people. We burden ourselves with a lot of belongings. The mind is a hoarder, and we like to hoard stuff. We like to have stuff, but these things were weighing me down and not enabling me to move as much as I wanted to, and to travel and to explore, and especially that the speaking brought me a lot of joy from seeing different parts of the world and different people and different cultures. So I started, I put a mission for myself since about 2000 and probably 14. I said, every year I'm going to give away half of everything I owned unconditionally. The only condition is half has to go. I love it. I it belongs. It has memories. There's always half that doesn't have that criteria. So every year, half and funny enough, it took me about 10 years to get rid of almost everything I have last year due to a lot of reasons, including a lot of stress, a lot of things, I've been procrastinating that dream. Yeah, and obviously, pandemic did not allow a lot of movement, but last year, I literally woke up on them like, you know what time to do it? What's left is not too much anyway now and let me downsize and live light, so that enables me to be anywhere I want in the world. Where Michael Hingson ** 05:15 did you house yourself during the pandemic? Moustafa Hamwi ** 05:20 Whoa. Well, pandemic was an interesting period. Very challenging. Yeah, very well. It was very challenging for everybody. For me, however, I found a big challenge brought a lot of opportunities. Which one of them is what we're talking about today is actually my my latest book is slingshot, Michael Hingson ** 05:40 right? So where did you? Did you move around a lot during the pandemic? Or were you in one place just because it became a little bit of a challenge and an issue to travel? Moustafa Hamwi ** 05:51 Well, I came out of a divorce looking for a fresh start. Came to Australia, Melbourne, particularly, looking for just the reset. And I arrived here at about 20 Marsh 2020, which is just two days before Melbourne lockdown, and it became the longest lockdown on the planet. So yeah, was an interesting period. There wasn't a lot of movement outside four walls. Michael Hingson ** 06:20 So with the lockdown, I'm just curious about hearing how it went in other parts of the world. Do you think the lockdown worked and really helped keep the pandemic from spreading worse than it could have? Moustafa Hamwi ** 06:34 That's a very complicated conversation. Yeah, Michael Hingson ** 06:36 I know it's, you know, and I don't know the answer. I'm just sort of curious. But Moustafa Hamwi ** 06:40 my my personal opinion is No, I totally disagree. I think if anything, it did more damage to people than it then it helped, because the mental health, that pressure that it brought on people, including me, this is one of the experiences I had, is the fact that I thought, if I am a speaker and a coach and an author, and I work on mindset, and I do all of this stuff, and I found it very challenging to handle the pressure that this lockdown brought on me, especially extended period of of lockdown just made life a lot more difficult than it needed to be. So yes, it might have, if you really think at micro level, helped a little bit on reducing spread of a virus, which I think still very difficult because it's an airborne virus. But on the other hand, in the grand scheme of things, it's like trying to shoot a small bird with a bazooka. Yes, you might get the bird, but you've caused so much collateral damage that I don't think it was worth it Michael Hingson ** 07:37 well, and that's it. Yeah, go ahead. Sorry. Moustafa Hamwi ** 07:39 And that included, actually, that my father caught covid in Dubai, and he was hospitalized, and I did not get the chance to see him before he passed away, simply because of the lockdown. So really, how they put a price tag on that? Well, my dad caught covid Anyway, even during lockdown, but the extended lockdown meant I couldn't see my father. And the question is, well, what did that benefit me and I eventually, somehow, I ended up catching covid With all the lockdowns and getting sick and all of that. So were Michael Hingson ** 08:06 there mask mandates or requirements in Melbourne? And yeah, Moustafa Hamwi ** 08:10 Melbourne, Australia, was one of the most locked down cities in the world. That's that's a topic of discussion by itself. It's quite a it wasn't a pleasant place, and developed a very bad rep of the politicians that were running this place at that time. What about Michael Hingson ** 08:23 the whole idea, though, of wearing masks? Did you think that that helped slow down or prevent some of the disease spread and or, or at least catching the disease? Blocking down is one thing, but I'm thinking of just wholly, i the whole idea of wearing a mask, Moustafa Hamwi ** 08:43 again, very debatable. And I can't speak medically, I can tell you, on the level of mental health, pressure that it put on people, you pretty much sure so that made made breathing more difficult for a lot of people, put pressure on a lot of people. And it was through all of these experiences that I feel, if you're talking about a mask, is that put the pressure, lockdown, pressure, masks, all of these things started pushing me further into a place where I needed to find a solution. And this is where the journey of me writing slingshot came from, Michael Hingson ** 09:14 and we will definitely get to that. I know that when the lockdown happened here, I had just gotten out of New York, where I was delivering a speech before the lockdown happened. In fact, I left early on a day earlier on a day that I was scheduled to leave just because of that, and I'm glad that I did. And for me and my wife, our situation with the lockdown was that she was in a wheelchair her whole life, and she also had rheumatoid arthritis, so she had an autoimmune disease. And so I think the lockdown, or at least, let me rephrase it, us being locked down, was probably a good thing, and we chose. Was to not worry about it a whole lot at the same time, it did affect me as a speaker, also, because I wasn't able to travel and speak, so I did look at other opportunities, which eventually also led to this podcast. I did some things virtually, and some speaking virtually, but now with the fact that my wife passed away in November of 2022 and we actually did a podcast about that in January of 2023 and I had somebody interview me about it. But we with her passing, I'm now starting to ramp up speaking again and working to find engagement. So that's a process, but we'll get there. Moustafa Hamwi ** 10:42 Condolences, and I know this was a tough period for everybody, and losing somebody loved, a loved person close to us is never easy, and especially when it happened during a lockdown and during a pandemic. So Michael Hingson ** 10:54 Well, again, it happened in 2022 so supposedly a lot of the pandemic has lifted. But I agree with you, I think that it's a very complicated issue, and I am very concerned that while covid is airborne, and while there are things that we can do that help lower the potential for death, all it takes is another mutation that we don't catch right away For that to all change, and and covid is certainly not something that has gone away yet. I don't buy the conspiracy theorists who talk about the fact that they're just injecting into us, ways of tracking us and things like that. I'm really not sensitive to to a lot of that, but I also recognize that there are all sorts of challenges. And children clearly had a lot of challenges with it, because they couldn't go to school and they didn't do things virtually as well. I think also, parents are needing to help that mindset, but, but that's, that's where we are, and you know, it will all, it will all be something that we'll just deal with as we can. I'm sure. I'm sure, yeah, tell us about the early Moustafa, growing up and all that that eventually led to where we are. But tell us about your maybe a little bit about your childhood and growing up, and what you did and all that before you adopted the lifestyle you have now. Moustafa Hamwi ** 12:26 Oh, how far do we want to go so? Michael Hingson ** 12:30 Well, whatever. I'll Moustafa Hamwi ** 12:31 give you a bit of background. My I'm Syrian by birth. I moved to Saudi when I was two years old, which is where I spent most of my primary school, went back to Syria for a bit, and then studied my first year of uni in Jordan, then finished my uni in Egypt. And uni is University, okay, right, IO in Alexandria and Cairo, and then I went to Dubai to start my career in 2000 so that, and from there, it's been pretty much a long stint of 20 plus years in Dubai. Michael Hingson ** 13:12 So what was your career initially, when you started after after university. Moustafa Hamwi ** 13:18 So after I started my uni, my first job was a telesales operator, because it was the only job I could get. Funny, I came out of uni, I'm the guy who didn't have holidays or weekends. I was always studying, doing courses, doing internships, with the promise that one day I'll end up getting jobs and everything. And it was a big disappointment, because I came into the job market with a big CV, and all my friends were like, Mustafa was going to be the first guy who gets a job. I didn't even get a job interview. And it was a friend of mine who got my dream job, which is to be a marketing researcher. And he ended up passing on his his side gig, which was a telesales operator, to me as a favor. So you can imagine how that was. You know, as happy as I am for him, the question to me was like, What did I do wrong? What was wrong with me? And that, funny enough, put a lot of pressure on me to perform and figure out a way around. So I said, in one year from now on, I'm going to be working in a multinational. Took me about 13 months from starting that job to end up working in a multinational ad and advertising and public relations agency handling the PR for Nokia and the Middle Michael Hingson ** 14:31 East. So you were doing marketing and PR, as opposed to sales for Nokia? Yes. Moustafa Hamwi ** 14:36 So that was my the start of my proper career. It was in public relations for Nokia Showtime, Cisco and many other multinationals, and that pretty much gave me a lot of exposure to a lot of nightlife and events, because back in the days, I'm guessing yourself and anybody watching the show would be old enough to remember a Nokia phone. Michael Hingson ** 14:55 Well, that was I was actually going to say that there was a process. It. Are you familiar with Ray Kurzweil? 15:02 Yes, of course. Okay, Michael Hingson ** 15:04 so Well, the singularity. But long before that, he was the developer of omnifont, optical character recognition. And he developed a a machine that read out loud for blind people. And in the late 2009 2010 well, 2009 by that time, the software technology had evolved and hardware had evolved that he was able to put his reading software on originally, I think it was a Nokia N 82 and then it went to a couple of other Nokia phones as well. So for probably about three or four years, the Nokia phone was the main platform because it had not only enough memory, it had a high enough resolution camera, and you could load the character recognition software as well as a screen reader, so it would verbalize whatever came across the screen. And actually, I was the major distributor for it, and I worked with others and signed them as distributors in the United States. So we sold a lot of the, what we're called KNFB Reader mobiles in the United States, a lot of Nokia phones. Amazing, Moustafa Hamwi ** 16:20 amazing. Yeah. Well, well, I mean, yeah, you know how big Nokia was at that time. And, yeah, Ray Kurzweil is phenomenal in the tech space, and you're right now that you mentioned, I remember he did have a lot of technology enabling visually impaired people to, you know, to consume data and information from the world around them. Yeah, Michael Hingson ** 16:39 he, he did some really good things for blind and low vision people. And then, of course, later, he developed the, probably, I haven't heard anyone disagree with this best music synthesizer, and it still is the most about the most natural sounding one I think I've heard. And then he also was involved in voice recognition, which is cool. So he did a lot of really useful things, Moustafa Hamwi ** 17:05 yeah, amazing stuff, amazing stuff. And it was more amazing the fact that it was on a Nokia, on a Nokia handheld, Michael Hingson ** 17:11 yeah, yeah. But then Symbian eventually went away, or the the iPhone came along and was a lot more powerful, and then everything sort of migrated, and Nokia was also, I don't know whether they were making bad decisions, but a lot of things were happening that made it much less popular than than it had been. Yeah, but so, so how long did you work for Nokia and the other companies like that? Moustafa Hamwi ** 17:36 So I was handling the PR for Nokia in the Middle East for a couple of years, and during that period, I got exposed to all the nightlife and events because they were the sponsor for all these beautiful things, and that made me one of the most popular guys in Dubai, because I had backstage access to every single event that was happening. And that meant that I eventually started partying. More and more, started throwing after parties. And next thing I know, I decided to leave the company I'm working for and open up my own event agency. And that led me, that led me to go growing my business from four people, 45 people, multi million dollar turnover, and my life got crazier and crazier. Daytime, we're doing conferences, seminars, events and nighttime. We're sponsoring concerts and parties and things like that. Michael Hingson ** 18:27 That must have been quite a challenge and tearing you in so many different directions. Moustafa Hamwi ** 18:33 Well, it was, it was exciting for a young guy in his 20s to have that, you know, a video clip lifestyle, but Asher, while it did burn me out, and it made me reflect on a lot of things in life, first and foremost was, what am I doing with my life? What, like all of this fine is short term, short lived joys, but they're not fulfilling at all, and they don't make me feel better by the day, if anything, day by day, they start becoming less enjoyable, and they start making me feel emptier and emptier. And this eventually led me to leave everything behind and buy a one way ticket to India on a search, on a soul search journey finding passion and purpose. Michael Hingson ** 19:17 Yeah. Well, you finally discovered was that all that nightlife stuff and all the other things that you were doing were great, but where was it really getting you? Mustafa, Moustafa Hamwi ** 19:28 it was, I mean, look, I was making money, I was partying and everything, but it was fulfilling me. It wasn't getting me far. It wasn't getting me far. That's, that's really sometimes, sometimes the biggest challenges in life, side of the biggest blessings in hindsight, and when we're able to go through the experience, we realize that there's something in it for them that makes us ask deeper questions. And that's Michael Hingson ** 19:50 the issue, and that's what I was getting at, is that in reality, all that other stuff, all that physical stuff and so on, was was fine, but. And as you said, Where does it really get you, and how is it really helping you emotionally and your your your inner self, the inner musafa, and it wasn't really helping that at all 20:11 100% Michael Hingson ** 20:12 so you went to India. What did you do in India? Moustafa Hamwi ** 20:17 Well, it was just, I remember what my mom called me. She's like, What are you doing? I said, I quit my job and I'm buying a one way ticket to India. She's like, are you crazy? What are you going to do in India? I said, I don't know. I'm going to go get lost. It was one of those things where I did not know, but I knew I had to go in that direction. It was an intuition to go to India, but I did not know exactly what I was looking for. I was looking for an answer. Obviously, yeah, no answer for what. And along the journey, I met by coincidence or a universal alignment, a guru or Swami, who had been in caves for 13 years. He had been meditating in solitude in caves for 13 years, and he had came out a few years before I met him, and in one of the interactions with him, I'm asking him about life, meaning of things, and so on. And he goes to me, he used to play with his beard. He goes, Hmm, do you know what you are thirsty for? Because if you do not know what you are thirsty for, you cannot quench your thirst. And that was a big aha for me, like I'm searching for an answer, but I never actually focused on what the question is. And a realization since then, till today, especially when I got into coaching, the real value is in the question. The best thing you can do is ask a question, because a well thought, well designed question gives you a valuable answer, and at that time, I did not know what I was looking for throughout my journey. Then a few months later, I end up, coincidentally, walking into a hospital getting myself checked up, and I discover I had a medical condition that was labeled non curable, and that freaked me out, because I had to reflect and ask myself, What if this was a cancer? What if this was something that was going to end my life? You know, what? What meaning that I have in my life? Did my life have any value? And reflecting on that, I realized that the answer to the question of, What am I thirsty for? The answer was, I'm thirsty for impact, to be able to know that I have left a positive impact on this planet. So then I 2013 I ended up buying a ticket back to Dubai, and I started delivering inspirational talks called Cavalli to Manali, which is talking about the journey of going from the Cavalli club nightlife in Dubai into Manali, where I met my Swami, and a few months later, a random person sees me sitting in a cafe in Dubai and just walks up to me, goes, Hey, you're that speaker guy. I said, Yeah. He goes, you did there talk about India? I said, Yeah, he goes, You changed my life. And that was an aha moment for me of ah, the answer to the question is, I am seeking impact in my life, and I know I can have impact by sharing my story, by doing inspirational talks and by doing coaching. Michael Hingson ** 23:05 Yeah, I absolutely relate to what you're saying. Because as I tell people after September 11 and escaping from the World Trade Center, and people started asking me to come and tell my story, and they wanted to hire me to do it. As I say, I decided that selling life and philosophy was a whole lot more rewarding and a lot more fun than selling computer hardware. Yeah, I have to earn a living at it, and I had a wife who needed me to earn an income as well, and I still need to do that, but the rewards and when people tell you how you've changed their life, those kinds of comments really are what it's all about, as you well know, 100 100% Moustafa Hamwi ** 23:54 and sometimes we feel we are as inspiring as We think we are, and until we meet the next inspiring person. So the reality is not that I am inspiring in the absolute is just that I've had an inspiring experience. However, since I got on this journey, I realized that there's so many more inspiring people, more than me, and literally, until we spoke last time before the episode and you told me your story, I'm like, Wow, here you go. There's one more. And what I love about this being in this industry is actually the amazing surroundings and people that you hang around and you communicate with. But this is not to say that someone who's not in the industry is not inspiring. I feel I've had so many experiences where I've been inspired by some of the most normal, average day experiences, because they also remind us to that the passion and purpose is a day to day pursuit. It's not just about a mission of changing someone's life, because a mother who's sacrificing and dedicating her life to her children is is as inspiring, if not more inspiring, absolutely Michael Hingson ** 24:57 and um. You know, I think for me, the the issue is that I love to meet people. I think everyone inspires me to some degree, some more than others, and there are some that I don't need to ever meet, just observing them, if they inspire other people, that's that's fine. But I also think that it's important that as we inspire, as we speak, as we do, the things we do, all of those affect our lives. And so every inspiration, every time we meet someone, it affects us, and I think it helps us. I was going to say, codify, but it helps us more specifically understand what our philosophy is, and it helps clarify it, and helps us move forward. And I think that's very important, Moustafa Hamwi ** 25:53 100% 100% it is. I there's a there's a saying in Arabic. I'll try to translate to English, but it says the wisdom is the PERS is the Holy Grail, and pursuit of the wise, wherever they might find it, they will grab it. So really, any any experiences that would help, any interactions that would help us as a person and as a human being grow is really the pursuit should be the pursuit of every, everyone, Michael Hingson ** 26:24 yeah, and, and if we can contribute to that in one way or another, then that's great for For my part, I don't try to quantify how inspiring I am. My goal is to inspire where I can, and I know that not everyone who hears me necessarily goes away and will be as inspired as other people, but they're probably looking for other things. On the other hand, I know that I have contributed to inspiring some people. There was an article, oh well, I delivered a speech in 2014 and last year, somebody wrote an article about that talk and said some very positive and kind and nice things about my talk. And I love to say to people, how many times do you remember a speaker nine years later and decide to write about him so he must be doing something right, and what what I do right is what other people feel I'm doing right, and as long as as they feel that, then I'm going to continue to do what I can do. And certainly my message will evolve over time as your message evolves over time, as we learn more. That's very important in what it's all about, Moustafa Hamwi ** 27:36 100% 100% and it is a journey, not a not a goal, I think, correct the whole conversation about mindset, you know, and kind of a beautiful segue into talking about mindset. Here is when I was talking to you last time, and then I, you know, was talking about my book and the mindset and everything, and you talked about your experience, you know, leaving the Trade Center during the 911 or escaping more, more than leaving, you know, and I asked you, how challenging was it for you? You actually gave me a huge mindset shift talking about that. Probably that was a more natural environment for you, not not being able to see, compared to someone like me, who's used to to external visual references, to be able to find my way, you probably had better chances and better mindset being able to deal with with everything that was going around you, which was very impressive, and a mindset shift for me just having that conversation with you. Well, Michael Hingson ** 28:38 I think it's important, though. The the other part about that is, and as I think I explained a little bit, I spent a fair amount of time learning all that I could about the World Trade Center, what to do in an emergency, where all of the exits were, what the process was. And so, whereas sighted people typically want those visual cues. I knew that if I were ever in an emergency in the building, and what started that was that, of course, there was a bombing there in 1993 it wasn't something that caused a lot of damage, but it had happened, right? And so the bottom line is that being in that building now, right, there have now been something that happened, and there could be something else that happens. So I needed to know, and also I was the leader of that office, and so it was important for me to make sure I knew all I could, because it might very well be that we would find ourselves in a situation where there weren't visual cues for people smoke and other things like that, which we didn't really have in the building that day, but still we we could have, and it taught me how to be more observant. So for example, when we got into the stairwell, I began smelling an odor, and it took me about three or four floors to realize I was smelling the fumes from burn. Jet fuel. None of us had any idea what really happened. The airplane hit 18 floors above us on the other side of the building. And as I love to tell people, the last time I checked Superman and X ray vision were fictitious, so none of us knew what happened. And in fact, none of the people on the stairs from all the offices where we were and that we we and with the people we encountered, hundreds of people all the way down. No one knew, because we were all on the other side of the building. And so I smelled this odor, and it took me a while to suddenly realize I'm smelling the fumes from burning jet fuel. And I observed that to other people, and they said, Yeah, we were trying to figure out what that is. We must have been hit by an airplane, but we didn't know why. We didn't know any of the details, but again, it's learning to pay attention to the details, and it's really learning to have all the knowledge that we can possibly have. Visual cues are really lovely as far as they go, but that's visual cues that don't necessarily really point to the level of knowledge that we can have if we focus on maybe learning how to deal with an emergency as a blind person should. And I say it that way because I know of a lot of blind people who don't take the time to do what what I did, and so they might very well be in a fearful situation, but that was my makeup, and that's what I chose to do. Moustafa Hamwi ** 31:21 Amazing. Michael Hingson ** 31:23 And, you know, I think it's important, and I think in fact. And so the article talked about some of that, and I've given a number of speeches on emergency preparedness and safety, and talk about the fact that people need to learn about what to do in an emergency. Don't rely on reading science, because that may or may not work for you. And there have been a few situations where after giving a talk like that, people have come up to me like somebody who is involved in running a power company for a state, and he said, you raise a really good point. We're going to figure out, we want your help to figure out a way that the people can evacuate from our generating stations, our electric generating stations, if there's a fire and there's smoke, so that they can't see where the signs are, to tell them where the emergency exits are. And we figured that out. Moustafa Hamwi ** 32:16 Wow, amazing. Michael Hingson ** 32:18 It is. It is part of what, what we need to do. So again, I'll contribute where I can. I'm not an expert on electric generator plants, but I know what I did, and if I can help people and and inspire them that way, that's great. But you know, we all have our experiences, and hopefully we can contribute and and help other people. And that's what it's about, of course, 32:44 beautiful. Michael Hingson ** 32:46 So for you, I want to go back to your Swami said, What are you thirsty for? Did you have an answer for him? Or how did you deal with that at the time? Moustafa Hamwi ** 32:56 Well, at the time, I did not have an answer what. What ended up happening, obviously, is what I just mentioned earlier, is that my journey of first discovering I had a medical condition, and I had to ask myself, well, if this was a cancer, if it was undiscovered now and could have turned into a cancer, would have I been proud of my life and what that was? And the answer was, Well, what I was thirsty for is to have meaning and to have impact, but I did not know how I'm gonna do it. And eventually, the experience in Dubai of somebody saying, You changed my life made me understand that. The how, so, the what, the what was impact and the How was speaking, coaching and sharing my story. Did Michael Hingson ** 33:40 you ever get to go back and tell your guru what you discovered? Moustafa Hamwi ** 33:46 I actually not. I discovered I got to see him again on the same journey while I'm still in India. And actually, that's why I went back to him after I discovered I'm seeking purpose. At that time, I did not discuss that with him, because, remember, I was still dealing with my own medical condition. So my priority was me, because as much as Yes, of course, we want to help, but the reality is, I can't help anybody if I'm dead, so I my priority was healing and dealing with my own stuff and and I spent a lot of time with him, but that was not a, not a conversation I had with him, as much as reflecting deeper and deeper and a lot of other things in life with him. But Michael Hingson ** 34:24 that question really did change your life in so many ways over time. 100% Yeah, which is, which is, of course, probably what, what he intended, as long as you were willing to think about it, and clearly you were so that was great, yep. So you know a lot of us, I believe that as we go through life, we make choices, and I love to realize that I can trace a lot of where I am. A day, back to choices that I made some time ago and the choices that brought me here, for example, whatever that is. But in dealing with our past and dealing with choices, is that an important thing to do, or do we just forget our past and we just live in the moment? Beautiful Moustafa Hamwi ** 35:19 question, and what you're asking about is kind of the whole premise and trigger behind my book slingshot. And the analogy of Slingshot is that, yes, we do need to go and take a step back to deal with our past, but only enough to discover what is holding us back, but then we have to let go of that so we can slingshot into the future. So the answer is not an absolute yes or not an absolute no, it is a yes. And how do we move on after we take that step back? Otherwise, we get stuck in the past, which happened to me for a while, while I was stuck in the space of healing, and all the healing space does is dig deeper and deeper. And it's like peeling an onion. You take one layer out and there's another layer and another layer and another layer, and that alone becomes an addiction. So reality is, yes, take a step back, but let go so you can accelerate into the future. So Michael Hingson ** 36:15 how does the healing process then actually work? Moustafa Hamwi ** 36:20 One, of the biggest elements of healing and growth in life is actually awareness. So the first step is, is if we're if one is able to step back and face the reality of what happened. And one system I use in slingshot the book is actually we ask people to write their story first. So the way we do it, and I can do it here is with you, is ask, okay, if your life was a movie, what genre would it be? Okay? And then you'd put a name to that movie. So you say, okay, my the genre of my life is, I'll give you an example. The genre of my life was at a period when everything was not going well in my life, and losing my business and so on. The genre was a sad drama, and the title of my movie was dreams broken on the shores of reality. I mean, I say it now and I laugh at it, but at that time, I was very depressed, sitting in and staring into the horizon, at every sunset, going, Oh, my life, everything is not working. And then, and then, the story of my life was, I'm a failure because of my upbringing, because I didn't have a good English education. I didn't have a proper university education. I had a uni, but it wasn't a, you know, something that is inspiring, and all these stories that the outside world fills into our head. And I was looking for an excuse for any failed experience which is not failure in the ultimate and then reframe that story and through the exercises that go through the book. So what happened is, by reframing a lot of those stories, the genre of my movie changed from a sad drama into an adventure, and then the title of my movie was an adventure of a lifetime, a life to die for. So then suddenly that little mental shift and reframing of the story showed me the best side of the life that I'm living and allowed me to capitalize on the opportunities. Yeah, Michael Hingson ** 38:15 I hear what you're saying. Well, go ahead, Moustafa Hamwi ** 38:19 yeah. So I'd say this is a simple exercise we can give to any listeners to really start by asking yourself, if life, my life was a movie, what genre would it be? And be honest with yourself, because the healing element here does not work. So if I was to pretend that I'm in, that I'm positive about my life, I don't believe positivity works. It's a bunch of bollocks, because positivity, if you're not truly inspired from inside, is just putting makeup on something. It doesn't change the reality of what that thing is. We have to face, honor and acknowledge and understand that we are sad, that we are upset, that we are angry, that we are hurt. These are all natural emotions and the challenge is throughout now this industry, unfortunately, the self help industry, people are are feeding people. No, you got to be positive, and you got to be this, and you got to be that. You can only be what you are congruent with. And that has to come from genuineity, from authenticity and from truth. And if your truth and genuineity and authenticity in that moment is sadness, then honor it, because you can only resolve some emotions, or the emotions and emotions you have. You can only resolve them when you go through them, not over them. You know when they say, get over it. You cannot get over it. You have to get through it. And once you get through it, you dissolve it, and then healing can happen. It's like, if you have, if you have something under your skin that's a an infection that is so bad that it's starting to develop pus. The only way to heal it is to actually cut it open, clean it and then stitch it again. If you try to ignore it, it doesn't work. So really, awareness is a big element in any healing journey. Me. Michael Hingson ** 40:01 For me, I kind of view positivity a little bit different than I think you're describing, and I appreciate what you're saying. I think that positivity is, in a sense, focusing on dealing with the things that are going to help you advance and trying to not focus so much on the negative things that you can leave behind you. Maybe another way to put it is so many of us worry about so many different things, and most of the time we don't have any control over them, if we would just focus on the things that we can control and leave the rest alone, we would be a lot more productive and a lot less stressful in our lives. Moustafa Hamwi ** 40:48 I totally agree with you, however, I would still want to debate that the positivity conversation, and I'll ask you a simple question and to anybody who's listening, would you consider yourself a glass half empty or glass half full guy, Michael Hingson ** 41:03 I guess I would probably view myself more as a glass half full guy than a glass half empty guy. Beautiful, Moustafa Hamwi ** 41:09 and I'll tell you I personally disagree or and I would tell you you're probably not that, and I'll explain why. Okay, I'm I'm a guy who says the glass is half empty half full. And how can I fill the empty this is by that, yeah, so you are the guy who's practical. And practicality versus positivity are two different stories, because what happens sometimes people who are just focusing on the positivity never also understand where they need to develop and they they need to grow, and they become stale, right? And that it's just a labeling conversation that we're having. Of course, yes, it is attitude, and of course, you gotta look at the glass half full. And if you focus, if you focus on the negativity in your life, you'll never get, get get out of that. But also, equally, if you don't acknowledge and understand that these things require growth, then you also never grow there. So it's a, it's not a, it's not a black or white conversation. It's a conversation of totality, of looking at the half full and half empty. Otherwise people get mis eluded, and that's why I keep talking about the self help industry, because it it sells a lot better to talk about positivity. People don't want to hear about the hard work they have to do to fill in half of the glass. Nobody wants to talk about, okay, you talk about positivity, but nobody understands that the level of hard work, as you said, you had to go through to be prepared to deal with situation where you're not getting visual cues, because you had to depend on other things that took work that didn't happen by itself. So what I talk about here is not just the positivity, it's the totality of the approach of being truly realistic and honoring that the struggles in your life do bring their own opportunities, and they allow you to grow only when you own them rather than ignore them. Yeah, Michael Hingson ** 42:51 and again, for me, and as I was describing, the whole concept of positivity is really dealing with the negativity that we focus on so much that we don't need to have around us if we choose to deal with it and we can, there are things that go on that are challenges to us, but we have the choice of dealing with those challenges, and I think that's the important thing, as I tell people we had no control over September 11 happening, and I am not convinced that all the communications between all the government agencies would have figured it out in the US having read the September 11 report. But what we all have control over, and all had control over, is how we deal with September 11, and we can choose to deal with it as a horrible thing, and it was a horrible thing, but we could choose to deal with it in a very negative way in our lives, or we can learn and grow from it. And I think that's the issue of making a choice that helps move us forward and get away from the negative stuff. And I met some people who are very negative after September 11, and I could see years later that they were locked in a mindset that wasn't ever going to help them be more productive and help them grow Moustafa Hamwi ** 44:13 beautifully said. And it's that mindset conversation about how to really not get stuck in your past story. However, I only talk about the mindset mastery as a second stage to the healing. And the healing is what requires us to look at the half empty so we can acknowledge what needs to work and then work on the half full. And in that, we'll have a totality of a full glass that that is always serving us, and never get stuck in diving into negativity layer after layer after layer. So it's always a yin and yang approach. It's a coherent approach. So agree on that point. Michael Hingson ** 44:50 Yeah, it's, you know, it still becomes an issue of of growth and of choice and and I would never say. You don't pay attention to the negativity part. You've got to know that it's there before you can deal with it. And it's it's more an issue of, again, the choices that we make, and I agree with you, mindset is a part of it. And you can talk about, oh, I got this mindset. Well, do you really, how is that helping you advance, do you really have it? And it's it's so often the case that people talk a good talk, but they're not really walking it, and which is part of the problem, Moustafa Hamwi ** 45:29 100% and not just that. It's actually having the courage and the humility to acknowledge where we are now and then working towards where we want to be. Otherwise, it's fake. It's just all the Rura hooha motivational Yes, yes, yes. You can do it. You can do it. Yeah. Well, guess what? I do a lot of extreme sports, and one of them is skydiving. Skydiving means opening the airplane door at 13,000 feet and jumping out if I don't acknowledge that. One of the things is, I'm not a bird, and I don't have wings, and for me to do that, I have to have a parachute. So so in a way, it is a it is a weakness, not to have a wings, but then when I acknowledge it and I understand it, then the strength, there's the design and the engineering that goes behind the parachute that I have to make sure it's strapped onto me, that have to make sure it's ready. Allows me now to complete that picture of the glasses half empty, where I'm not a bird, but with the parachute, my glass becomes half full, Michael Hingson ** 46:27 right? And and the joy of skydiving, I've never done it, that's okay, but the joy of skydiving and the experience and what you see when you're doing it and you land and so on. That fills up a lot of the rest of the glass, for the moment, Moustafa Hamwi ** 46:46 100% it's a beautiful it's one of those amazing experiences that I'd highly recommend you do. I Michael Hingson ** 46:51 want to do it someday. I just haven't. I haven't tried it. It is, it is a doable thing. I know some blind people who have done Moustafa Hamwi ** 46:59 it. I mean, I mean, you do a tandem anyway, the first job. So maybe this is your cue. Somebody will be strapped onto you, and they will, yeah, yeah. And Michael Hingson ** 47:05 the other blind people who I know did it in tandem, and that's fine. I'm I still get to experience it. And I I've done a number of things like that. I've flown an airplane and and flew it for about an hour. The trick is, as I tell people, you just stay high enough that you don't hit the mountains and you're good, 47:26 amazing, and it works. And Michael Hingson ** 47:29 I've driven a car and some other things like that, although I had some directions, that's the technology is getting better, not autonomous vehicles, but literally, it is. It is possible. There is technology so that a blind person can drive a car. If you ever want to explore that, there's a website. It's called www dot Blind Driver challenge.org, and you can actually see a car that was developed with the technology so that a person who is blind can get behind the wheel and truly get the information to drive the car. And I, I did the simulator, but I haven't driven the car, but again, a lot of adventures. I've traveled to a number of countries, and I travel alone, and it's part of what I do, and I love doing it and inspiring people. And I've spent a number of days in countries where I don't speak the language, and we had to rely on an interpreter to help with doing a speech. But it, it's so fun and so rewarding when, again, people come up and say, we really appreciate what you say Moustafa Hamwi ** 48:35 amazing. Michael Hingson ** 48:37 So it's, it's, it's a lot of fun. Well, tell us a little bit more about slingshot and what makes slingshot and your methodology different than other things. Moustafa Hamwi ** 48:49 A beautiful question. Michael, it's basically the practicality of it, as as you figured with this conversation about you know, half full or half empty. My my my approach is very pragmatic and practical. So I always like to have things that number one are coherent. So slingshot really offers the healing and the mindset mastery together, the schools of thought out there generally have been kind of, you know, unipolar in a way, where they're either they're either trying to talk about coaching, which is just go, go, go mentality. You can make it. You can do it. It's all in your mind, or other schools that are just healing. And let's dig into the past, and let's be in the feeling. But that is a never ending journey. You don't know how deep the rabbit hole goes. This book offers a coherent approach where you take a step back to heal, and then you release to mindset master. The second thing that makes the approach in the book slingshot special is that it is also results driven, because myself, I've struggled a lot throughout my journey with a lot of you know, self proclaimed goo. Gurus and coaches and things like that, that promise the sun, the moon and the sky, but don't deliver results. So I've always promised myself, whenever I deliver something, it'll be measurable results. So everything in the book is structured. You read on one page, but then the practical it's not just theory. The practice is on the other page. You fill in the blanks, and you yourself will get immediate results in that moment to understand it. And third thing is that it is actually a continuous journey. So the kind of books I offer are not just theory. They're practical, and they entice you to reuse them all the time. So what happens is, okay, you do one exercise at a certain point of time, but that doesn't mean it's not a one time transformation. You get immediate results. But I say in the last chapter of the book, I say, keep brushing your teeth, and that's an analogy of you can go to the doctor to get teeth whitening, but if you don't brush your teeth daily, you don't get the consistent results. And the same thing with the book that I offer, it's a companion that allows people to consistently keep working with the book at any stage of life when they're having challenges. And Michael Hingson ** 51:01 that makes sense to have a way to keep being able to go back and re examine whatever it is that that is guiding you along the way. And you have to do that. I think that any decent book or any decent kind of instruction that we allow ourselves to do has to be something where we can continue to do it. It isn't just a one time thing, 100% so that that makes a lot of sense. Well, you know, we're always talking about mastering our destiny and and really becoming a whole lot better than than we are. And we've also talked about the mindset. Why is it important to master your mindset on the way to mastering your destiny? If that's a relevant question to ask Moustafa Hamwi ** 51:48 amazing question, Michael and I'll give you a simple example. What what mindset does is minds. Our mindset impacts our behaviors, and our behaviors impact our actions, and our actions impact the results. And naturally, the results feed our mindset so and that becomes either a positive loop or a negative loop. When our mindset is inspired, using your terminology, positive, I'd like to call it more inspired, determined in a mastery state, then we behave in that way, and our probabilities of taking inspired actions increases, and as the actions increase, probability of success increase. And then the more we succeed, then we start reaffirming ourselves that we are really successful. But the same thing can happen in negative way, because if we're having a negative attitude, we will not do our best, and when we don't do our best, the results probably will not be the best, which then reaffirms that things do not work for us, and it becomes a negative feedback loop. And if you think about the importance of a mindset, it's like a car driver. Imagine a supercar. Okay, what's what's your favorite? Talking about cars, what would be your favorite supercar. Michael Hingson ** 53:01 Oh, gosh, um, not me much of a driver. Um, oh, I'll just say a Cadillac. What the heck? Moustafa Hamwi ** 53:11 Okay, let's, let's say a super Cadillac. Yeah, the racing Cadillac has, I think it's a scene. Michael Hingson ** 53:15 Let's say a Ferrari. Okay, that's more racing. So we'll say a Ferrari. Let's Moustafa Hamwi ** 53:19 take a Ferrari. Okay, let's take a red Ferrari. Typical, typical image in people's head is a red Ferrari. Yeah, okay, so take a Ferrari. Now imagine that Ferrari being driven by your average taxi driver. How much will he or she be able to get out of the Ferrari like an average taxi driver can get out of a taxi. Now imagine the same Ferrari, same red color, driven by Michael Schumacher, being a professional race driver, he will get 110% out of that car, same car, same color, same everything. Two different drivers, two different results. Michael Hingson ** 53:55 I would only say if you're comparing it to New York tab drivers, some of those guys are pretty good, but I'm just being silly. Go ahead, Moustafa Hamwi ** 54:02 yeah. I mean, yes, but still I hear what you're saying. No, I hear what you're saying nowhere near as good. I mean, they're probably get skidding with it and move fast, but they would never be as good as somebody who never seconds. And the reality is, in between those two, the driver is the mindset. So the same you split Mustafa into two, and you put a taxi driver in to drive this as driving a taxi, and you put then a professional Formula One driver, the driver of the Mustafa's, the one that's driving more professional, will get professional results. And that's how life goes on. So that's why it's very important for us, for us to master our mindset in the pursuit of mastering destiny. Now how I discovered that is when I was doing my work with passion, early on in my speaking career. So about 10 years back, with the live passionately book, I would help people discover their passion and. Would know with absolute certainty, this is it. What I want to do. I want to do this. I want to pursue that. It's going to make me fulfilled. But then self doubt kicks in, and anxiety, fear, limiting beliefs, and suddenly they would quit on their dream before they even start, because they're so scared of the outcome, and their mindset is not ready. So suddenly they've got a dream of a Ferrari but a mindset of a rickshaw or a tuk tuk or a small car, and then they're never able to accelerate their life. So without that mindset upgrade, people don't go very far in life, or even if they stay where they are and convince themselves I'm happy. Pandemic has taught us that nobody's immune to challenges in life, because even when everybody thought they're immune, everybody got it tough and during pandemic. So reality life is going to hit hard sooner or later, and the more our mindset is upgraded and prepared, the better for us. Michael Hingson ** 55:55 And the other part about that, let's go back to the cab driver and Michael Schumacher, the reality is, with a mindset, you can develop and change your mindset and develop a different mindset. So it is certainly possible, depending on the drive of the cab driver and his motivations or her motivations, they might develop the skills to be a professional race car driver, but they have to work at it, 100% Moustafa Hamwi ** 56:23 100% there's that that funny story of every overnight success takes 10 years. People only see the final outcome, but they don't see how much work it took that person to prepare and train. It's the 10,000 hours that we all have to put in. And people have that dream, have that aspiration, but don't have the mental tenacity to stay at it, day in day out, to reach their goal. And this is where mindset mastery becomes very important. Michael Hingson ** 56:49 How do people develop this kind of mindset mastery methodology, and how do they develop the ability to master their mindset? Moustafa Hamwi ** 56:59 Beautiful question, and that part of the second part of slingshot the book, answers with a lot of exercises. However, I will give a couple of exercises that would make it easy for anybody listening to apply a little bit of those. So first question I like to ask people is, actually, what would you regret if you did not pursue your passion. So what is that regret? So if you say, I'm dreaming of becoming a speaker, a coach and an author, because I struggled with that at the beginning, remember I didn't fly out of India to become who I am today. I struggled with that, with that self limiting beliefs. So if you ask yourself, what would I regret by not pursuing that dream or that passion that would Michael Hingson ** 57:43 I would and my answer would be, I would regret not knowing how far I could take it and what I could do with it. Beautiful, Moustafa Hamwi ** 57:50 beautiful. And then you keep going. So what you do is, I want a long list. I want at least 10 or 12, a list of 10 or 12 items. So you keep showing going, Okay, I'm not going to discover how far can I go? I I will, I will. I will be, I will be sad. I will lose my self confidence, because then, you know, I've doubted myself, and Michael Hingson ** 58:09 I'll always wonder, what if, what is, which is that's me, but that's what I would do? Yeah, everybody, Moustafa Hamwi ** 58:16 not just you, because that's where, that's what happens, is the regret for what we did not do is bigger than the regret, and then we Michael Hingson ** 58:23 talk ourselves into having taken that position, well, I wouldn't have been able to succeed. How do you know, Moustafa Hamwi ** 58:28 deep inside, we know this is yes, exactly right. People will when you question yourself, you will lose confidence in yourself, and that's the negative self limiting belief cycle that I talked about. So what happens is you put that list of what, what would I regret if I did not pursue my passion? And then that gives you a motivation away from so you run away from that ugly space of you know, regrets, right? Then I give another exercise, and I say, What's the best that could happen if you pursue that passion and that goal? So that gives you a motivation too. So one regret is I would never know how far I could go. So now if I ask you, what's the best scenario if you pursue that passion, I succeed. You succeed. And then deposit what are the positive outcomes there. People Michael Hingson ** 59:21 ask me to speak. They tell me that I changed their life, beautiful. Moustafa Hamwi ** 59:25 So you get to speak, you get to change people's lives. You get to travel. You get to explore the world. And then you put that list. So now you've got a motivation too. So you've got one motivation away from the regret, one motivation towards the aspiration. And typically, there's a blockage there of but what if this does not work? Then I ask people to write a list of what's the worst that could happen if you pursue that goal or passion. So let's say you decided to speak, what's the worst that could happen? Michael Hingson ** 59:55 I didn't get many speaking engagements. I wasn't able to change. Change lives, Moustafa Hamwi ** 1:00:00 and I and then I didn't charge as much as I could charge, and I didn't charge as much as I could have charged, right? And then you put that list, and then, then this is a list where I'd say, Well, get over it. What? So what? So what if you didn't get as many speaking gigs, you just keep marketing and promoting. So what if you couldn't charge as much as you want, you just keep working till you can raise your prices over time. So what if you did not inspire the millions that you thought you would? Well, guess what? Inspiring one person is as good as inspiring a million. It's still a life that you have changed. So once we put all of these stories that you know, that we tell ourselves, of why I don't want to do so that away from that, what am I? What would I lose by not pursuing the passion? And then what would I gain by pursuing that passion? And what's the worst that could happen if I pursue that passion or goal? Those three things are the simplest excerpts I could give from slingshot, the book that would help people mindset, master their life. Michael Hingson ** 1:00:53 The other well, going back to the third thing, the other part about that is, and then maybe it's the physicist in me, or the way I look at things, if I don't succeed at it, then I need to also ask myself why, and I need to teach myself by learning what maybe I'm not doing right or or what I'm doing but I could do better and figuring out how to improve. So I'm a firm believer in the fact that people can learn how to overcome challenges like that. I do agree with you, but it is also important then to take it further and say, Well, why am I not succeeding? What is the deal? Go back and learn some more Moustafa Hamwi ** 1:01:36 100% and that's but that you can only do that when you have developed that level of mindset mastery where you're not looking at limitation, you see the exit. And that's why, if you remember I said, this book is not a one time use. It's a manual that you keep using, because every time you use it, you slowly develop the habit of not paying too much attention to the negative outcomes and focusing more on the positive outcomes, and then building a bridge of what is needed for me to to get there. So one other exercise we use there, which is, you know, follows the methodology that you're talking about, is, is called Use what you have to get what you want. So it's about putting a list of what resources do I have. And I think you are an amazingly walking example of somebody who has done that, because if you were to focus on what you don't have, you're going to go, hold on. But I but I can't see so how am I on Earth going to be able to do podcast interviews? But you did not focus on what you did not have. You focused on what you had, and you capitalized on it. Your ability to ask deep into deep, deep, deep questions, deep, reflective questions, to be passionate about it, to figure out the technology around it, capitalize on your technology background, to be able to find the tech that supports your journey. That's a beautiful example on how you can master your mindset and master your destiny Michael Hingson ** 1:02:52 well and for me, and it goes back to again, the thing we talked about and I mentioned earlier, choices I can trace back why I have that mindset today. It goes back in part, to my parents, who said, You can do whatever you choose to do. There's more than one way to do things. It goes back to training and getting a master's degree in physics and very intelligent physics professors like my academic advisor was Dr Fred reines, who was the discoverer of the neutrino and won a Nobel Prize for it, although it was long after I knew him that he won it. But you know, he he also was very clear. And there's always a lot of ways to accomplish something. You have to look for it. And so many people have said those kinds of things to me, along the line that I realized blindness isn't the problem. It's our attitudes about it that are the problem, and the sooner we get over making that the problem and recognizing that other people's attitudes are their issues, I need to continue to do what I can do, and I need to use my knowledge to be able to move forward. That's the important part. Moustafa Hamwi ** 1:04:01 100% love it. Michael Hingson ** 1:04:05 Well, if people want to learn more about what you do and maybe talk about or explore being a coach and and also get slingshot, how do they do that? Thank Moustafa Hamwi ** 1:04:15 you for asking, Michael. I'm really grateful for you having me on your show, and for your listeners for listening in. So I would love to give everybody an a gift and an opportunity to heal their past and master their mindset. So I will give a free e copy of my book slingshot, the Practical Guide to Becoming a Master of your destiny, not a victim of your history. The only thing they need to do is go to moustafa.com forward slash slingshot. So that is spelled Moustafa M, O, U, S, T, A, F, A.com forward slash slingshot, like a slingshot. And over there, there'll be a form that they would fill. Typically, that's only for people who bought the book, but for your guests, what they have to do is put their name and email and then in the Code Section. In they just have to put unstoppable, which is in reference to your show, and they will be able to download the free copy, a copy of this book and my previous books, including The live passionately book, they'll be able to download a bonus meditation and several other amazing bonuses. So I'm really grateful to you and to all your audience. Michael Hingson ** 1:05:18 Well, thank you for offering that, and I hope people will will take advantage of that. What other forms is the book available? And obviously it's in print. It's an ePrint. It Moustafa Hamwi ** 1:05:27 is an ebook, and I'm actually in the process of recording the audiobook very soon. Also, Michael Hingson ** 1:05:33 are you reading it? Moustafa Hamwi ** 1:05:34 I will do it. That's the reason it just took a little bit longer, because I'm planning to read it myself. Michael Hingson ** 1:05:39 Good for you. When we did thunderdog, I didn't read it, and I'm coming out with a new book learning about learning to control fear. It's called Live like a guide dog, and they actually have already arranged for someone to read it, and that's fine. I don't need to be the reader rabbit, Moustafa Hamwi ** 1:05:55 but you can always record an intro. You can always record that is exactly Michael Hingson ** 1:05:59 right, and I will make sure that we we work that out. Well, I want to thank you again for being here, and I want to thank all of you for listening. I hope you've enjoyed this. I hope you've learned a lot. I certainly have, and I appreciate Mustafa taking time with us today. Love to hear your thoughts, by the way. So if you would please email me and tell me what you think you can email me at Michael h i@accessibe.com so that's m, I, C, H, A, E, L, H, I at accessibe, A, C, C, E, S, S, I b, e.com, or go to our podcast page, which is w, w, w.michaelhingson.com/podcast, and Michael hingson is m, I, C, H, A, E, L, H, I N, G, s, O, N, All one word if you're looking for a speaker, I would love to hear from you. We are always looking for speaking opportunities to talk and inspire and teach. So if any of you out there need a speaker, I'd love to hear from you about that. And wherever you're listening, please give us a five star rating. We value those a lot. We value your input and your thoughts and especially your ratings. So once more, though, Mustafa, I want to thank you for being here and taking the time with us. Moustafa Hamwi ** 1:07:07 Thank you very much, Michael and to all the listeners. Remember you are the master of your destiny. Michael Hingson ** 1:07:16 You have been listening to the Unstoppable Mindset podcast. Thanks for dropping by. I hope that you'll join us again next week, and in future weeks for upcoming episodes. To subscribe to our podcast and to learn about upcoming episodes, please visit www dot Michael hingson.com slash podcast. Michael Hingson is spelled m i c h a e l h i n g s o n. While you're on the site., please use the form there to recommend people who we ought to interview in upcoming editions of the show. And also, we ask you and urge you to invite your friends to join us in the future. If you know of any one or any organization needing a speaker for an event, please email me at speaker at Michael hingson.com. I appreciate it very much. To learn more about the concept of blinded by fear, please visit www dot Michael hingson.com forward slash blinded by fear and while you're there, feel free to pick up a copy of my free eBook entitled blinded by fear. The unstoppable mindset podcast is provided by access cast an initiative of accessiBe and is sponsored by accessiBe. Please visit www.accessibe.com . AccessiBe is spelled a c c e s s i b e. There you can learn all about how you can make your website inclusive for all persons with disabilities and how you can help make the internet fully inclusive by 2025. Thanks again for Listening. Please come back and visit us again next week.
