In this episode of The Spotlight, Khaled sits down with Ahmed Habib for a deeply human conversation about identity, leadership, culture, faith, and the emotional cost of building businesses.

Ahmed shares the story of moving from Egypt to the United States at 14, hitting rock bottom as a teenager, and realizing years later that this moment was an “ego death” that forced him to reinvent himself. From there, the conversation opens into what it means to adapt, lead different companies, build culture, and stay spiritually grounded in business.

This is not a typical CEO interview. It is a conversation about the human truth behind leadership: how the leader’s ego, wounds, values, faith, and self-awareness shape the business. We explore:

• – Why culture is really “أخلاقنا”
• – Why core values are the principles you are willing to lose money for
• – How Ahmed led through COVID while protecting his people
• – Why you cannot copy a company’s soul
• – How the ego creates chaos inside organizations
• – Why self-awareness may be the biggest opportunity in business and life
• – What “What got you here won’t get you there” really means

The Spotlight is a cinematic interview show revealing the human truth behind business success.

00:00 — Cold open: جهاد النفس, responsibility, and reinvention 00:43 — Why Ahmed starts with story, not title 02:06 — Moving from Egypt to America at 14 02:55 — The birthday breakdown and rock bottom 04:34 — Realizing it was an ego death 06:38 — Adaptability, identity, and ego as “clothing” 08:17 — Why he refused to return to Egypt 10:37 — How survival became a business skill 12:03 — Leading different companies and different cultures 13:09 — Culture يعني أخلاقنا 15:31 — COVID, 400+ employees, and the promise not to let people go 20:21 — Core values are what you lose money for 22:31 — You can’t copy DNA, identity, or soul 24:00 — Why ethics must show up in business 25:56 — Zero-sum thinking vs value creation 27:57 — جهاد النفس and the scars that shape us 29:50 — Therapy, self-awareness, and peeling the onion 31:29 — The real role of a CEO 32:24 — “I am the creator of everything in my life” 33:34 — The hero ego and why leaders create chaos 35:21 — Family entertainment and the Disney of the East 38:10 — Self-awareness, relationships, masculine and feminine energy 40:25 — Meditation, prayer, and listening 45:21 — What he would tell his 15-year-old self 46:56 — Removing yourself from the equation 49:20 — مسؤول يعني ستُسأل 51:34 — The hardest truth: what got you here won’t get you there 54:17 — Closing