Live Passionately

By Moustafa Hamwi

DO YOU KNOW WHAT MAKES YOU TICK?

Without knowing the answer to this question, you will always feel like something is missing, no matter how successful you are. This is how Moustafa felt many years ago while he was running a multi-million dollar business in Dubai and living a seemingly successful life.

THIS QUE

• Language: English
• Publisher: Passionpreneur Organization
• Release date: Oct 30, 2020
• ISBN: 9780648340393

Book preview

CHAPTER 1

CAVALLI TO MANALI

One-Way Ticket out of Dubai

Courage is a love affair with the unknown.

—Osho

Do You Know What Makes You Tick?

Without knowing the answer to this question, you will always feel like something is missing, no matter how successful you are, which is how I felt many years ago when I was running a multi million dollar business in Dubai while living a seemingly successful life.

I was co-founder of a communications firm involved in events, entertainment, and modelling, with 45 full-time employees, a 6,000-square-foot office, and partners who were pretty much ruling the nightlife in town. Our holding group at that time had created the most successful nightlife ventures, one of which was the first global Cavalli Club, a $30 million restaurant-lounge designed by the famous fashion designer Roberto Cavalli.

I will leave it to you to imagine how my lifestyle was!

Although my life looked super successful on the outside, like the stuff you see in movies and rap videos, I was all empty on the inside. Sure enough, I had a nervous breakdown and started waking up every day, dreading going to work—the same business that, at one point in time, was my dream come true!

My business was great, and my lifestyle was enviable, but I wanted more out of life than this golden cage. I kept asking myself, WHAT AM I DOING WITH MY LIFE? It became increasingly apparent that having clarity about one’s passion and purpose affects one more than just direction; it impacts the quality of life and increases the probability of success!

This question triggered me to start an inner search of true passion, purpose, and meaning.

I spent years and tens of thousands of dollars on courses, books, documentaries, and educational programmes, trying to learn everything related to the topic. Although I spent years on my journey, I never found that one source that did it for me. There were are a lot of either self-proclaimed best programmes and books, which never lived up to the promise, or very shallow content that barely scratched the surface without any profound revelations on the matter.

For four long years, from 2008 to 2012, I sought and searched in vain, till one day it hit me that there was no single definitive source on the topic simply because most of them just regurgitated existing material without adding too much thought into how all of it can work together to provide a complete meal rather than nibbles that would soon enough leave me looking for more.

It was no longer okay to wake up every day feeling lost and confused. I realised that without knowing the answer to this all-consuming question, I would continue to feel empty.

The Guru from the Caves

By mid-2012, my search introduced me to vipassana, a meditation technique where we spent 10 days in absolute silence (16 hours a day of silent meditation). You can imagine how such an experience was for a hyperactive person living in the fast lane.

One of my revelations during the meditation was this:

At a certain stage of our spiritual evolution, there is a point where you have to give up who you are to become who you are meant to be.

—Moustafa Hamwi

I was at the stage now where I had to go deeper on my journey inwards before I looked for resources outwards. I remember waking up one day with a jolt of energy and a thought that got stuck in a loop in my head: I’m going to India.

And so I bought a one-way ticket to India.

I had no clear plan of where in India I was going or even what I would do there. I recall my mother asking me, What are you going to do in India? And, with no hesitation, my answer was, I’m going to get lost. That’s all that I knew at the moment.

The story of my journey from Cavalli to Manali is a whole book in itself, but not the purpose of Live Passionately. I will, however, share two key incidents that stand out for me and that were pivotal in my life.

The first of them could be described (for lack of a better word) as a coincidence—meeting Swami Yogananda who had been meditating in caves for over 13 years. He had just stepped out of a life of solitude and meditation and started teaching wisdom-seekers in his ashram in a small village outside the town of Manali in the Himalayas.

On one of my many deep conversations with him, trying to get an answer about life and the purpose and meaning of everything, he said, playing with his long beard, in an Indian accent,

Do you know what you are thirsty for? If you do not know what you are thirsty for, you cannot quench your thirst.

His words made me realise that while I had bought this one-way ticket to India seeking an answer, I did not even have the most essential element right: the