Message From The Founder

I was born in a place some historians call the Graveyard of Empires. To me, as a kid, it was not a headline. It was home. Then life changed fast, and at six years old I arrived in the United States on September 24, 1983, sponsored by the International Rescue Committee.

I arrived with senses wide open. A new language. New customs. New rhythms. New expectations. I learned adaptation the way most kids learn multiplication. Repetition, mistakes, and a lot of quiet observation. You start by listening. You copy what works. You get it wrong. You try again. Slowly, you build confidence.

New York City became the backdrop for that reinvention. The sound of the streets. The pace of the people. The music, the accents, the ambition. Manhattan has a way of telling you, without words, that your past is not your ceiling. It does not care where you started. It cares what you do next. Living there taught me something I still believe. You do not wait for perfect conditions. You learn the rules while the game is moving. You earn trust through execution.

After university, I made a decision that shaped everything that followed. I would pursue social impact through entrepreneurship. Not as charity, but as capability. As systems. As companies that solve real problems, create real jobs, and build dignity through momentum.

Over the last two decades, I have lived the operator’s life. I have built and scaled startups. I have partnered with major institutions. I have worked in complex environments where capital, policy, and people collide, and where outcomes matter more than excuses. Those environments make one truth impossible to ignore. The world does not run out of talent. It runs out of pathways.

That is why Defy The Odds exists. Not as a brand, but as infrastructure for human potential. A global mission built to turn resilience into opportunity, and opportunity into durable outcomes. We build programs that connect story to execution, identity to momentum, and discipline to results. We convene builders, operators, investors, and institutions who believe talent is universal, but opportunity is not. Then we do the hard work of building the bridge.

Fail Fast ⇢ Learn ⇢ Pivot ⇢ Repeat is not a slogan to me. It is survival. It is strategy. It is an operating system for anyone building while the plan breaks, the room doubts you, and you still choose the next step.

Defy The Odds is my commitment to that belief. Not hype. Not pity. A pathway.

“I do not build for hype. I build for humanity.’ - Khaled