Fintechs want to be banks. Banks want to be Fintechs.

It makes me genuinely angry when I see people wishing ill on the UAE—on Dubai, Abu Dhabi or any of the other emirates. The Emiratis are good people. They are kind, thoughtful, and generous.

Best money I've ever spent as a CEO... an internal AI transformation hire. He doesn't care about title. He just wants to ship. And he goes across your entire org, sales, revenue, hr, apps, tech and kills stupid manual processes. Such an underrated unlock I have since hired 2

too many founders building for people who say “that’s cool” instead of people who say “i need that”

Working on something ambitious is like climbing a mountain that’s covered in fog. You can't see a clear path to the top. You have to take a few steps into the unknown to be able to see the next few steps in front of you. Inevitably, sometimes you’ll end up a local maximum and

Shoutout to all the Dubai small business owners who, along with everything the rest of us are dealing with right now Are also fighting to keep their heads above water, wondering whether they'll even have a business by the time this is over And despite that, are still showing up

A rule of thumb that has served me well: Beware of anything with "innovation" in the name.

Culture is observational, not aspirational. Culture doesn't come from what you hang on the walls of the breakroom. Culture is how you act.

If you really want to hold yourself to a high standard, graph the growth rate of the number you care about instead of the number itself. Then you're winning if you can even keep it flat.

Never underestimate a subtle challenge to someone who is relentless.

BREAKING: Claude can now build your personal finance system better than most $3k advisors. Here are 7 prompts to go from financial chaos to calm control in under 30 days: (Save this before it disappears)

The sign of being a great entrepreneur is not how good your ideas are. It's how clever you can be about figuring out quick, cheap, and easy ways to try them.

The downside of “experience” is that once you think you know how something works, it’s a mental shortcut to jump right to the answer. But that leaves you vulnerable to applying old solutions to new problems. My workaround is to constantly be trying out new things, new

You know that person on your team with AI Derangement Syndrome who won't stop talking about what AI could do for the business? They've already built three internal tools over the weekend and sent them to the team on Slack. Whatever you do...don't shut them down. Fund them. Get

I have a secret to share After your first $2–$3 million, a paid off home and a good car, there is no difference in quality of life between you and Jeff Bezos. Both of you have limited amount of time on earth; you have twice if not more than Jeff, so you are richer than him. A

Best money I've ever spent as a CEO... an internal AI transformation hire. Here’s how we hire AI operators at Contrarian Thinking (steal this): 1. Find them The people you want live on X. Search "build in public AI," "n8n," "Claude workflows." Look for demos, shipped work,

You should be reading old books almost as much as you're learning from AI. You can't change my mind on this.

To succeed you just need to do so many reps is unreasonable that you fail.

Here’s the thing about startups: sh*t happens. Not “sometimes.” Constantly. Markets crash. Deals fall apart at the last second. The one person who knew where the bodies were buried quits without warning. A platform changes a rule. A regulator wakes up cranky. And that’s just

You'll realize eventually, as a founder, that the A players are always the ones who can put on blinders. They're usually not the most charismatic, remember that.