Here’s what it takes to sit on the Board of a billion-dollar company at the age of 26
Abdulhameed Shaheen is the IT Director of SISBAN and was once the youngest member to sit on the Board of Directors of one of the largest contractors in the Middle East.
The zealous IT developer shared his passion for technology, the challenges he had to overcome throughout his career and the most important factors contributing to his success.
Here’s what we learned from him during our latest podcast.
Follow your own path and craft your own story
Right after completing his Computer Information Systems degree in Jordan, Abdulhameed turned down his father’s support for the sake of following his own path. Despite the family pressure to return to Saudi, he spent 7 years working across different industries and getting his hands dirty. It was a steep and uncomfortable learning curve, but as he says that is the price you have to pay for growth in the fast-track lane.
You don’t always need to know what you are doing
There are times when a venture seems scary and beyond your capabilities, but it is precisely in those times that Abdulhameed sees the biggest opportunity to level up his game. One of his biggest challenges came in 2010 when he successfully led ARABTEC’s complex international ERP implementation without having previous experience in delivering such a project. This incredible feat at the age of just 26, landed him a place on the Board of Directors for the large conglomerate and taught him one of his biggest lessons, it’s OK to not know, but it’s not OK to not try.
Management is a skill, Leadership is a superpower
Leadership is not a position, but an action. It’s something that can’t be enforced with job titles, but with living examples. Abdulhameed is one of those examples. He values hard work more than anything but admits it is not enough to help you pull off highly complex and transformational projects. The ability to plan well and have your team pulling together in the same direction is a superpower that moves you forward even when all the odds are stacked against you.
Find a life partner that supports your dream
Abdulhameed admits that the people you go back to at home contribute as much to your success as the people you work with. He speaks passionately about the sacrifices he had to make and he is moved when he mentions the great support he had from his wife, who once spent two full weeks helping him enter data into a software system he was building.
Never. Stop. Learning.
Learning takes immense effort but Abdulhameed was never the person to say “I’d like to do less”. That is why he went back to University to get his PhD. while working full-time, and that is why in 2014 he moved to SISBAN to pursue his next big challenge. For him, knowledge has no ceiling and there is never a good excuse to stop learning.
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