"Our path is going to look different than anyone else's because we are each unique individuals, and having a diverse niche is of great importance."
Over the course of many years, Gabriel Fouad Nohra, an international artist, traveled all around the world composing music and successfully performing thousands of creative events in many different countries, including T.V., radio shows, and podcasts. His reputation attracted the attention of several producers and touring companies with his own concept, “One Night in Beirut”, which invites people to experience the Beirut nightlife wherever they are in the world.
With his success as a showman based in Paris, Gabriel Nohra has developed his own unique shows. In 2006, his interest merged into music healing integrating subconscious techniques with music and meditation. Gabriel strongly believes that all people are meant to live with energy, confidence, and a feeling of ease. As a civil war survivor, born in Beirut, Lebanon, he knows the value of peace of “mind”. If you feel like there are aspects of your life, your mental health, or your physical health that are holding you back from living the life you are meant to live,
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Table of Contents
Thank you for joining us today. Please introduce yourself to our readers. They want to know you, some of the background story to bring some context to your interview.
Gabriel Fouad Nohra: I am an international music artist and healer born in Beirut, Lebanon during the Civil War. Music was always the key for me to open doors of consciousness. I traveled at an early age to France to escape the war. The peaceful atmosphere in France intrigued me by night. Because I got used to turbulent times in Beirut City. Sleeping next to the sound of bombs exploding was surreal. I felt like I was on a different planet. Far from my parent’s, music became my best friend. I became a “prodigy” playing trumpet in the Normandy Symphonic orchestra, I learned piano by myself, composing melodies that glues in the mind like chewing gum.
When I played music on stage people experienced a wide range of emotions. From laughing to crying from dancing to clapping.
You are a successful entrepreneur, so we’d like your view point, do you believe entrepreneurs are born or made? Explain.
Gabriel Fouad Nohra: I think entrepreneurs are self-made people. Just like Michael Angelo saw the vision of the angel in the stone it is the same way that the entrepreneur put goals that challenge him. Because going through difficult times in your life you learn by experience.
If you were asked to describe yourself as an entrepreneur in a few words, what would you say?
Gabriel Fouad Nohra: An entrepreneur is like an artist. He is independent and a decision-maker. Instead of realizing other people’s dreams an entrepreneur or an artist transforms his idea into reality. He is bringing from the unknown to the known.
Tell us about what your company does and how did it change over the years?
Gabriel Fouad Nohra: As a music producer and leader of my band I have a clear vision for the future. A good producer is a producer who is avant-garde. I saw a lot of changes in our industry. We use to produce tapes/CDs and sell them in music stores or after the concerts and now music is for free on different platforms on the internet. The internet is a good tool to promote artists but the new platforms make it challenging to survive financially and grow in the same ways we previously did. It calls for a lot of adaptation and creativity to have the same financial flow. It is like you have a winery and you end up giving the bottles for free.
Thank you for all that. Now for the main focus of this interview. With close to 11.000 new businesses registered daily in the US, what must an entrepreneur assume when starting a business?
Gabriel Fouad Nohra: For me, it is finding the right niche and having a million-dollar idea is key. Being a leader is also taking a risk. It is like a baby who is learning how to walk. He takes a risk by moving his feet or taking the stairs. It’s risky but it’s doable. If the baby falls, it is learning, and the baby falls thousands of times, but at the end of the day he ends up walking. Entrepreneurship is similar to a baby who is standing up.
Did you make any wrong assumptions before starting a business that you ended up paying dearly for?
Gabriel Fouad Nohra: For me, there’s no error, only lessons, and we learn from our mistakes. I know it may sound cheesy, but I like cheese… I’m French Lebanese. When you survive a civil war, life itself is a gift, and we are dealing with our own internal civil war. For any entrepreneur, we have to deal with decisions and for sure decisions are not always easy to make, but I would recommend keeping connected to your intuition.
If you could go back in time to when you first started your business, what advice would you give yourself and why? Explain
Gabriel Fouad Nohra: I would listen more to myself. At some point, I gave my attention to external feedback and they distracted me because other people’s opinions are only opinions. I would add also that sometimes families send a fear signal because they love and care about us, but they fear. As a leader, you will see that a lot of people project their ideas onto you. I would tell myself to focus on my passion.
What is the worst advice you received regarding running a business and what lesson would you like others to learn from your experience?
Gabriel Fouad Nohra: There are some people who are jealous and some who are unable to do what you do. I’ve had some bad advice distributed from people who fit in those two categories. From my experience, resting on your laurels is something you have to avoid. If you stop walking, you regress.
In your opinion, how has COVID-19 changed what entrepreneurs should assume before starting a business? What hasn’t changed?
Gabriel Fouad Nohra: As a musical composer and producer, I left gaps between productions because of COVID, and as a performer also I had concerts cancel, so now that the paradigm has changed the entrepreneurs should take into consideration all of these parameters. Especially in the entertainment industry where we saw a lot of artists producing themselves on the internet. So even if the virtual world is very interesting, I would definitely go with an organic connection between the audience and the artist.
What is a common myth about entrepreneurship that aspiring entrepreneurs and would-be business owners believe in? What advice would you give them?
Gabriel Fouad Nohra: Many entrepreneurs believe that a person doesn’t have to “reinvent the wheel” so to speak. They believe you can take a business model and still create something unique and vivid for the world. However, I would say we each have to forge our own path. Our path is going to look different than anyone else’s because we are each unique individuals, and having a diverse niche is of great importance.
What traits, qualities, and assumptions do you believe are most important to have before starting a business?
Gabriel Fouad Nohra: A global vision is the most important step to forging the path. A good entrepreneur should be like a swimmer, having a long breath. Entrepreneurship is like running a marathon. Sometimes people on the corner offer you a bottle of water and you can see it as a diamond because you are thirsty, and sometimes you can step on a piece of gum. You need the tenacity to get through both.
How can aspiring leaders prepare themselves for the future challenges of entrepreneurship? Are there any books, websites, or even movies to learn from?
Gabriel Fouad Nohra: Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert T. Kiyosaki, is one of the books that inspired me because I understood that we program ourselves to fall sometimes and we can also learn how to succeed.
You have shared quite a bit of your wisdom and our readers thank you for your generosity but would also love to know: If you could choose any job other than being an entrepreneur, what would it be?
Gabriel Fouad Nohra: Actually I couldn’t imagine myself being an employee. Maybe that is an important key trade. I had a job as an employee and I was unhappy there. I prefer to think about myself as my own employee even if it is risky.
Thank you so much for your time, I believe I speak for all of our readers when I say that this has been incredibly insightful. We do have one more question: If you could add anyone to Mount Rushmore, but not a politician, who would it be; why?
Gabriel Fouad Nohra: The Dalai Lama because he is the epitome of peace, and we really need more peace in this world that we are living in.
Mike Weiss, VIP Contributor to ValiantCEO and the host of this interview would like to thank Gabriel Fouad Nohra for taking the time to do this interview and share his knowledge and experience with our readers.
If you would like to get in touch with Gabriel Fouad Nohra or his company, you can do it through his – Instagram
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