Meet "Firas"

Firas is not a new friend that I'm meeting for the first time, but the last time I saw Firas was 8 years ago, when he left Leo Burnett Dubai, and after that he relocated to Cairo and then decided to move with his family to Canada..

And what a pleasure meeting Firas in Tornoto after almost 3 month of my landing, and hearing the story of the journey they went through and how they decided to change career and work closely with his wife after he tried couple of things until he reached exactly what he likes to do and overcome all the fears and doubts he had and many obstacles along the way..

Firas is, as he mentioned it in his Linkedin profile, "A breakthrough coach, a storyteller, strategist, Marketer and speaker".. And I can assure you he's good in every single one..

Chatting with Firas felt like almost a spiritual conversation, he was so zen and talking from the heart..

I shared with him the couple of ideas I have in mind and he gave me his point of you and asked me to listen to my heart, even if this will put me through doubts and sometimes stress and fear and lack of self confidence.. And asked me to forget about the "I should.. I have to.." And put myself as a priority vs what others want and expect from me..

Time passed so quickly and Firas had to head for his training and I left thanking him and kept thinking of our discussion and I was so glad to catch up with him after all these years and hoped we gonna see each other more often from now on.

Meet "Yoti"

Habibi.. Habibi.. That was maybe the only word in Arabic that Yoti knew, but it's still interesting to see people trying to be closer by speak your language...

I met Yoti through our common friend Hadi, who lives in New York and put us in contact by sending an e mail to both of us asking us to meet so I can know more people in Toronto and I can start having more friends..

After couple of phone calls with Yoti we agreed to meet for a morning coffee, and we met at Summer Hill subway station.. half way from his place and mine and we walked to Terroni on Yonge St.. It was sunny outside but extremely cold.. So I couldn't wait to get in and order a hot drink..

Yoti is Canadian Greek, which was a good start for our discussion as I'm a big fan of Greece, and I have two Greek friends one lives in London and the second in Lausanne, and we have what became a tradition of meeting in Athens and the Greek islands every Summer, we've been doing this for 6 years and every year it's lots of fun.. So we talked about Greece and Canada a lot, and he gave me insights and tips from the gym to where going for grocery shopping, to where to go for a nice message (as he saw me stressed with the move and the change and some of the difficulties I was facing to settle in properly in my apartment)  and ended our discussion about London (UK) and his dream of moving there and finding a good job..

The grass is always greener on the other side.. We always wish to move to different places and believe that our life will be much better.. And that was one of the main motives that pushed me to move to Toronto.. so I wished Yoti the best of luck and we agreed that next time we re meeting for a drink.. time to get wasted..