When I found out Forbes had recognised me as one of the youngest billionaires in the world, my first reaction was not celebration.
It was reflection.
People see the headline. They see the age. They see the number. They see “26” and “billionaire” and assume the story moved in a straight line.
It didn’t.
What I thought about in that moment was not the announcement itself. I thought about the first businesses that didn’t work. The decisions that felt uncomfortable. The times we moved before we had full certainty. The projects that demanded more from us than we expected.
I also thought about how quickly five years can pass when every decision feels like it matters.
I started trading in the stock market at 14. At that age, you learn very quickly that markets do not reward emotion. They reward timing, discipline, and the ability to act before everyone agrees.
But trading was only the beginning.
When I was around 16, I started asking myself a simple question: what business could I build with low capital and strong returns? That led me into service businesses. A car wash. An internet café. Other small ventures.
Some worked. Some did not.
The internet café failed. We bought it, operated it, and eventually sold it at a loss. At the time, it felt like a setback. Today, I see it differently. That business taught me lessons I still use every day: due diligence, hiring, management, process, and most importantly, understanding what the client actually wants.
The car wash also struggled in the beginning. The first six months were not easy. There were mistakes. There were days where the numbers did not make sense. But those years taught me something no textbook can teach: execution is where ideas become real.
If I could go back, I would probably spend even more time building systems earlier.
When you are young, you want to move fast. That is good. But speed without structure can become expensive. The lesson I learned is that you need both: urgency and discipline.
That became even more important when we entered real estate.
In 2021, I saw something happening in Dubai. Ultra-high-net-worth individuals were not just visiting anymore. They were moving here. They were staying longer. They wanted homes that matched the way they lived globally.
There was a shortage of true luxury villas, so we moved quickly. We bought five villas in six months, renovated them, and sold them.
Then came the next question: what next?
Villas were successful, but they could only scale so far. So we moved into residential buildings. We bought land on the Canal and Palm Jumeirah, designed quickly, launched quickly, and sold quickly. Before launching, we met potential clients and investors to understand what they wanted. That mattered.
A good developer builds what the market asks for.
A great developer understands what the client will want tomorrow.
That insight changed everything for me.
I stopped thinking only about individual projects and started thinking about environments. How people live. How they work. How they move. What they expect from a city. What they will expect next.
Today, AHS Properties is moving into larger, city-scale mixed-use developments. The next phase is not only residences. It is offices, hospitality, wellness, members clubs, restaurants, and lifestyle in one place.
The ambition is simple: to build something that can stand globally, not just locally.
That is what drives me.
Not the title. Not the recognition. Not even the speed.
What drives me is seeing a project move from idea to land, from land to design, from design to construction, and from construction to people actually living and working there.
The Forbes recognition is an honour. But it is also a reminder that the work is still early.
I am 26. I am thinking about the next 10 years.
I want to look back and see a company we built from scratch, one that created value, shaped places, and made clients proud to be part of it.
Because the real achievement is not being recognised early.
It is building something that still matters later.