I started with
a black bag.
In the summer of 1996, I emptied the wastebaskets on two floors of UGB Tower into one very big black bag.
I washed the mugs. I vacuumed the carpets. I made sure the windows were shiny. Just like my head.
The pay was BHD 100 a month. The job lasted one month.
I was a student at the University of Bahrain then, studying accounting. In 2001, Unilever took me on as a management trainee in Dubai. Then Jeddah. Then back to Dubai as Regional Finance Manager for North Africa, the Middle East, and Türkiye, looking after five global brands. I passed the US CPA examinations in Denver, Colorado, came home in June 2004, and joined Gulf International Bank as a credit analyst.
Then came the title. I spent more than eleven years as chief financial officer of an investment bank listed on the exchanges in Bahrain and Kuwait. Fifteen years in finance, all told.
4 December 2015 was my last day as CFO. That same night, I boarded a flight to Munich.
Since then, I speak. I write. I travel.
I speak.
To executive audiences at organizations such as Google, KPMG, American Express, Toyota and SDAIA. I trained 220 graduate trainees at the Kuwait Investment Authority. I am a Distinguished Toastmaster, and I still remember the three pages that made me cry at thirteen.
I write.
Twenty-four books, five of them Amazon bestsellers, including co-authored works with Larry King, Brian Tracy, Jay Abraham and Craig Valentine. Start Anywhere is the companion to No Title. No Limit.: The Other Side of Ambition.
I travel.
I became the first ITMI-certified tour director in the Middle East and led coach groups across Europe. Then the mountains found me. Everest Base Camp on 13 May 2022. Mount Kosciuszko in January 2024. Uhuru Peak on Kilimanjaro at 8:01 in the morning in July 2024. And on Elbrus in August 2025, I turned back, because the summit photo was not worth the team’s.
Today I am pursuing PhD research at Kathmandu University on leadership under extreme conditions. I hold an MBA from the University of Hull. I serve as Treasurer of the Bahrain Management Society and as Vice President for PR and media at the Customer Experience Association.
And every time I stand in front of an audience, I ask them the same question I keep asking myself.
What is your Everest?
See you at the Summit!
Mohamed Isa is a Leadership Keynote Speaker & 5-Time Amazon Bestselling Author.
