If you could describe your day-to-day at work in 3 words, what would they be?

HUSSEIN: My life manifesto, be it personal or professional, lies around 3 words: Seize the day.

What’s the best piece of career advice you’ve been given? Or what career advice would you give to developing marketing leaders?

HUSSEIN: An old friend once wrote down a phrase and asked me to meditate on it: “Maturity is the ability to manage uncertainty.” I find myself coming back to those words of wisdom again and again, and using them as a rudder to navigate my life, which I hope can be characterized by this complex definition of maturity.

What factors contribute most to your success?

HUSSEIN: My personality, character, and empathy / compassion.

What is your biggest challenge this year? How are you overcoming it?

HUSSEIN: I recently joined Deloitte Digital in an industry (Professional Services) which I never worked in before. As much as this journey excites me, and I am sure will be a very rewarding one, it will be a big challenge to me which I look forward so much to learning and adapting to.

What is your personal philosophy on marketing?

HUSSEIN: Evolve or vanish! The world of marketing is changing at a very fast pace, what worked a couple of years ago doesn’t necessarily mean it will or should work now. You need to keep evolving, testing, trying, and learning otherwise you’re obsolete.

What are your three non-negotiable daily habits that you believe contribute to your success?

HUSSEIN: Curiosity, Passion, and Determination. I am never satisfied with easy answers, with simple explanations: there always has to be something else, something more interesting and complex beneath the surface of things. This is perhaps a defense mechanism: growing up in a country like Lebanon, in a city like Beirut, where the sectarian civil war colored so much of my childhood and taught me early on that much of the circumstances of life are beyond one’s control, and that loyalties are both multi-layered and multi-faceted, I also learned that knowledge is power. Exercising one’s mind allows one to travel beyond the personal limitations of borders, of place, of culture, of circumstance. And perhaps this gives a measure of feeling some control over a world that is so uncontrollable. This curiosity then informs my entire life philosophy.

What is a quote or saying you live by?

HUSSEIN: “Nothing to lose, everything to gain.” My father used to (and still does) tell me this statement ever since I graduated from University. And time proved he is right about it. It never failed me but rather helped shape my character and endurance to every challenge or roadcross in life.