What are the secrets to your success?
Determination, Passion, Positivity, and Discipline.
Success in life does not come very easily, and there are many obstacles that we have to clear before achieving our goals.
How did you persevere through tough times?
Challenges make you stronger and strengthen your ability to face and defeat more difficulties in the future. By finding ways to keep going, and keep moving forward, I was willing to take on all the challenges despite the struggles and delays in reaching my goals.
It is that inner drive that kept me in the game when everything else was telling me it is time to quit!
When going through tough times, the key is to have a clear vision, to be able to accept and anticipate change, to accept the uncertainty and unpredictability of Life, to incorporate gratitude into our daily routine, to remain positive, and to focus on the things that bring us happiness.
We have to stick to our dreams until they become a reality.
As Thomas Edison said: “Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up”.
Now that you have reached your goal, what do you want to achieve next?
Once you reach a goal, take the time first to appreciate the outcome. Allow yourself the luxury of indulgence and satisfaction. Pause for a deep breath to admire the results, and get some credit for your hard work. Enjoy the moment, celebrate your success, and feel the comfort and joy in order to recharge for your next adventure.
Then, the key element is to keep the balance. For me, it is now the time to try some new things, gain new experiences, and have new things to aim for. My bigger goal is already set, and am now working harder and smarter in order to expand it, and to prepare myself for the next level.
What are some of the challenges you face regarding the advancements of the financial world?
The issue of data breach is a major concern in the financial world. Financial services are always a target for cybercrimes due to the sensitive nature of their data. With the increase of online transactions and communications, security and risk mitigation are key factors that we should focus on.
Also, one of the main challenges facing the financial services industry is managing regulatory risk and compliance, which is a fundamental component of the financial industry.
Too much regulation can oppress innovation and increase costs, while too little can lead to mismanagement, corruption, and collapse. This makes it difficult to determine the optimal way to implement government regulations within the financial services sector.
What are your plans for growing BeyondComply?
My plan is to drive the name of BeyondComply to be associated with compliance worldwide, and to grow the company to become one of the top compliance firms in the world.
The key now is to focus on customer service, explore new opportunities to extend the value of my customers, grow my team, build on my expertise, and focus on the right strategic partners.
Switching from a role to another can be stressful. What drove you to opening your own business besides your position in a well-established multi-national company?
Like every entrepreneur, I started my own business in order to follow my dreams and fulfill my passion. Pursuing what I want involves vision and requires intensive alignment. Being in charge of creating my own business from the ground up fills me with purpose and satisfaction, and enables me to shape my company into something I can be proud of and that I can pass on to my children as a foundation.
Prioritization can be difficult no matter how experienced you are, and great leaders do it very well. On a related note how do you define leadership?
Leadership is not an action or a title. It is about how we influence and guide others, how people learn from us, how they look for our advice, and how they are inspired by us.
Our success as leaders is based on how we provide others with clear direction, how we develop our skills and know-how, share our knowledge, empower others, and continue learning at the same time.
Making bets can be a familiar experience that women entrepreneur encounter. Do you feel like you have taken risks in your career?
The ability to think outside the box and color outside the lines is by itself a big risk that one can take in his or her profession. The day I decided to get out of my comfort zone and challenge everything around me to head towards a new horizon was the biggest bet of my life.
Career risks can be alarming, but they are sometimes necessary to reach your overall goals. I took a lot of risks in my career and I challenged a lot of people to reach where I am now. I have risked my job at various circumstances, but I was never afraid to recognize my own value and ask for more, while of course assessing whether the potential rewards will outweigh the potential loss.
Switching gears, what advice would you give someone who’s just starting his career?
Pursue your passion. Know who you really are and what you really want.
Show enthusiasm for what you are doing. Motivate yourself with personal tasks to achieve your goal.
Outside of work, what else are you passionate about?
As an entrepreneur, speaker, senior executive, wife, mom and gym enthusiast all rolled into one, with 27 years of experience in a male-dominated industry, I have grown to understand how men and women function in relationships. Seeing the power of a strong woman, I am passionate about helping other women increase their confidence in their relationships and have helped numerous women to embrace their femininity and transform their relationships into exciting, successful and fulfilling experiences.
In that regard, I am collaborating with a manifestation coach in Dubai on a program for empowering women to increase their self-confidence and self-discovery, promote their sense of self-worth, create their lives and relationships more deliberately, and claim their right to influence social change for themselves and others.
What advice would you give your younger self? OR If there is one piece of advice you would give your daughter, what would it be?
To my younger self I say: The woman who follows the crowd will usually go no further than the crowd. The woman who walks alone is likely to find herself in places no one has ever been before. And if I would give my daughter an advice, I would say: Always show up as the best version of YOU. Grow into a High-Value woman, and always remember to be yourself. Seek to fill yourself with what brings you joy, peace, and happiness.
When you’re faced with the situation of having alternatives as a result of your strong performance, how do you assess which opportunity is the right one for you?
I always choose those opportunities that align with my career goals, fit my core value, stretch me, get me out of my comfort zone, and advance my career, without getting in the way of other things I want to do.
How do you cope with the situation, when despite your due diligence, you find yourself in a job or company that is not the right fit?
Sometimes there are several steps we can take to improve a job, even if we really do not like it. We need to consider all of our options before deciding to leave a position.
However, if we truly dislike our job, we might need to quit, as it becomes very unhealthy to work in an environment that is not the right fit for us. Yet, even when we are eager to quit, the key is to leave the job on positive terms with our employer and coworkers, and always offer help in the transition period.
On another note, what are the challenges that you think women, specifically, face in the business world?
Women have been an essential part of the business world. However, they still face a lot of challenges, such as the little funding opportunities mainly in the startup businesses, gender bias, and male-dominated work places.
Many businesses that are led by females are still not as large as other non-female-led institutions.
It is very important to understand the value of women in the business field, and there are several factors that can contribute to the rise of women in various industries such as including an increased focus on gender equity, increasing the number of women entering the executive world, raising the number of women in decision-making roles at big institutions, and focusing on women-oriented mentorship networks.
If we want women to impact and evolve the various business sectors in a small period of time, we then have to give them all the resources they need to create this change. We need to provide them with full access to awareness programs, mentorship sessions, coaching, and networking with top female professionals, and most importantly provide them with exposure to the rules and regulations that are governing the industries they are operating in.
There is no doubt about the positive influence that women have made in the business world. We can all play an important role in this field and build a community that reflects the crowd and the public that we serve.
A big job entails a lot of obligations, both at work and, obviously, at home. You have a young family, a challenging job, and you never had a break. How can you succeed at both work and home?
The idea that women should always have to choose between a successful career and being a loving and caring mother is definitely a misbelief. Having a family was never an obstacle to my profession, but rather a great push to build a prosperous career and to show the great example to my children.
Throughout my whole life, I was able to pursue a fulfilling full-time career while keeping a happy family, and finding the right balance that works for my life.
The key point is to know how to set priorities, be organized, plan and do things in advance, have a good support, and get the appropriate assistance both at home and at work.
By building rituals into my life, I was able to balance work and family while still taking care of my own-self.
Do you feel content with the level of bounds that you have – Is it right for you and your family?
I have never felt close to my family the way I am feeling it now. I am keen on paying particular attention to all the good things my children will learn through seeing me empowered in my career, especially in this new phase. They have been implicated from day one in the process and they are so proud of where I have reached, a good example for them to follow in the future in order to attain high levels in their own career.
Last question, now that you have opened BeyondComply, what are you looking forward to achieving in the future?
Once you have achieved a goal, you will never stop! No matter where you are in your career or what goal you have achieved, you will always endeavor for more. Life is all about setting new targets and pushing yourself towards achieving them. The feeling of reaching one goal will fill us with confidence and motivate us to set other targets which are more difficult than the previous ones.
It is now the time to REACH NEW HEIGHTS…