Why Stay In America If They Take Half Your Money?

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3:07All right, guys. Welcome back. EYL. We are an international episode. We are in Dubai, UAE. our good brother Daniel King shout out to him man yes M2M yes we did his conference from Toronto that's one of our major hubs we get a lot of support in Toronto and he actually moved out here and has been making his way meeting great people and it was one you know we came out here for vacation and wedding and not necessarily to work but no we always work when work calls we're always up but when Daniel asks us to do anything we have to say yes it's part of our obligation yeah yeah Yeah, he said that we have to, you know, we've interviewed a variety of very important people in the world.

3:52You know, head of states, vice presidents, some of the richest people of all time. But he said we have to interview one of his friends in Dubai who owns the largest water park. The largest water park in the world. Is that correct? For now. For now. For now? Does it make it bigger? Yes, of course. Okay. Ahmed bin Shabay. Shaber Shaber Yeah No Okay let's do it Let's do it Okay Grab it Call on your hand Yeah Okay Do it Drink it

4:30I tried I tried So thank you for joining us Appreciate it Of course Sorry for being It's all good It's all good So alright So walk us through Like the beginnings Alright As far as how do you get to own a water park you're in mirati you're from yes uae i'm from dubai you're from dubai all right well how old are you 44 okay so the first question even before we get to the water park thing right let's let's talk about uae for people that our audience is mainly based in america a lot of people a lot of people have not been to the uae it's an interesting country i think it's like 10 of the people that's actually in the country are from the country right 90 90 come from outside the country yes correct yes exactly so but you've seen transformation happen in your life in real time right you're old enough you're old enough i've seen from the start yeah so when you when how how quickly has this turned the corner and like for you to actually be experiencing it be experiencing it as a native like what is it like for you to actually see the country change right in front of your eyes um it becomes so hard to understand anything else but the speed and the service level and the safety we have.

5:40The fact that I walk around, my cars are unlocked, wearing jewelry and watches, and not worry about anything, that level of safety is a huge thing. It's interesting because people think because we bring a lot of expats in the town and we're just using them. No, they get paid very well. We just learn from the best. The city of Dubai is run as a business, and President Sheikh Hamad is the best CEO. so we dedicate the job for a lot of very very powerful and smart people so and the best about again speed like if this will work for people let's change the rule make it happen so that's the whole thing and the time to have an idea and decide and make it happen is pretty quick like now you're here in Dubai right now in November now come in three months you'll find new bridges that was done so the speed of things are done here is much faster we don't have like this dictatorship in a way works.

6:36And again you're American how much tax do you pay in your city? In your state. We got state tax we got federal tax you're talking about state tax? Yeah. How much in total do you pay tax? Probably 50%. Isn't that stupid? Yeah. Of course. Okay. You're paying half your money so you're working six months of the year for free. For what? No safety? No major education? No proper healthcare? And no lifestyle? Why are you doing that? You have to treat. you can move. And that didn't move because that's the talk I gave him. It's like, why are you staying there? Why be somewhere you are tolerated when you can be celebrated?

7:14Why are you wasting so much energy being worried about all this nonsense that you cannot worry about anymore? Race issues and, you know, taxes and safety and so on and so on when you can just have all the energy back in you and then you can just perform. Because the level of hustle you have, it's phenomenal. Imagine that hustle but with no restrictions. Imagine the level of growth you're going to have in a much shorter span of time these are these are valid points man success love speed and what you're saying makes i mean it's 100 correct right when you have clarity it opens up vision to create and be more creative we've seen that in our careers on a personal level and obviously on a business level i'm wondering when you started this wasn't was it's a vision like i'm going to build park water parks inflatable parks like what was the original vision and how did it get to this It's a very funny question because where we started and where we are right now is so opposite.

8:09Because I had a sleep desk, I couldn't move, I couldn't walk, and I was just in bed for 41 days, and all I could do was consume YouTube that time. That was almost 14 years ago. And the idea of Aquafun, I saw some videos, I was like, oh, that's awesome. And then I was on the beach, and I heard people next to me. I was like, I wish there was something on my case to do. And then I was next day, I was in the yacht. I don't drink, I don't smoke, I don't like that thing. so I'm just sitting there being me dyslexic, very visual. So I was imagining, what if we have a slide from top to bottom? And then those three ideas came together, and then, okay, let me create this aqua fund.

8:42I started going and researching the world, and there was two companies who does this kind of thing in the world. I spoke to both of them, and both of them gave me so much shit because I was nobody, basically. I didn't know this before. It's like, no, you've got to pay me this and this and this, and you're a nobody. What the hell? So I went to China. I spent a month there. I met 41 factories. I found their factories. I created my own brand, I co-found. And the first thing I did was, okay, I need to be bigger than you. Did that. And then I think after six months, I got bankrupt. That was the first bankruptcy.

9:20And for the next four and a half years, I was in dollars, almost$250 ,000 in debt. Just debt. every money I'm making, paying staff, paying debt, paying suppliers, and so on, paying nothing to myself. And then I think almost four and a half years in, that's when I went back to zero. And that's when I changed my team, changed my people, changed my systems, and so on and so on. It's okay. Let's go in now. And then I think, so the last 13 years, I was bankrupt twice, sued 24 times. My first year in business, 617 people told me, no, this idea is not going to work. I was basically every single day getting two people to hear me, no.

10:00Every single day. I opened the map of the UAE. I went to every single beach owner in the whole country. Let's do this. No, no, no. And then eventually now I'm the biggest operator in the world. So the genius thing is one thing. I just don't quit. I just never quit, no matter how crazy it was. There's a couple of genius things you did in there. Not as much as you did. You saw who the competition was. Yeah. You saw what they were using. You said, all right, let me go get what they're using. And let me go destroy them. Yeah. I found a niche and I don't monetize it. So what's the turning point as far as, okay, it's a very extensive business as far as what you're running.

10:36So you have to get capital. If you were bankrupt and you had no money, you have to have at some point in time where you have to have a lot of money that comes in to actually get up and running, right? Sales. You raised money? No, I've never had to stay with any single dollar. All by me. So I made the money myself. I lost my money myself. And then I focused on sales. just keep doing things, changing things, social media, changing the way I present my businesses on social media because I understood in the end I am in the business of creating happy memories. So basically the emotion I was sending, the emotion, the emotion was people having fun.

11:13So I made sure I am involved in that. So I was DMing influencers, getting into the water park, and then I would shoot to my GoPro and my drone and I would edit the pictures and use myself and i'm sending everything so the first hundred thousand followers because of me i was on the beach every single day follow me follow me follow me follow me so it was very for me very personal very in hand um exercise how many employees do you have now 780 780 at the water park around the world yeah you said around what around the world around the world how many water parks you have? 34. Okay. So when you're working, right, what's the scalable model?

11:55If you've never taken any outside of investments, you just literally just, okay, do this water park, then the money, then rolling over there, then rolling over there, and then just keep it going from there? Basically, it was like, let's make one very good. And then, because earlier on, I went too big too fast. So I think we had one park, then two, and then went to 17. And then when that time, we lost so much quality control, branding was bad, service was that everything was just bad let's go back to the beginning let's do one make it right systems usps every step of the business have to be written down and then hire the right people empowering because the the issue is like this whole founder syndromes like i'm the founder i can do the best yes you are but we never scared so given letting away my ego out of the way is okay i'm going to give this person the authority and the power to do this and give them you know part this and then see what they do they wouldn't do 100 job but they might do 60 job but then i could be somewhere else now you this is uh it's pretty immaculate because you think water park but on the service this is an engineering and this is a design build that you're doing did you have a background on that or did you build a team you did this so you designed you have no idea no idea I learned how to design, how to anchor, how to clean, how to do even power supply, connection, distribution points.

13:19I learned diving. I learned social media. I learned everything myself. Because again, here's the thing. Everyone has a smartphone. You have YouTube. You have Google. There's no excuse. It's a tutorial for everything in the world. You're just lazy. Learn. And now we have ShadjpT. It's even much better. the tools are there we a lot of people are just lazy just content they love the dream of saying oh I want to be this cool do the work do the work yeah so YouTube TV yeah YouTube and Google that's it everything so that I mean obviously we're big on that a lot of people watch us on that what are the mistakes that you make though right because if you're learning on your own I'm not sure if there's any mentors in the picture at this point you're figuring things out what are some of the mistakes that you're making early on Thousands of mistakes.

14:09Talk about those. Oh, I am the king of comebacks. I love doing mistakes. It's the most fun thing ever. Because again, you can read about it. You can go to class for it. But nothing beats failure. Nothing beats failure. Because I know what to work as a rock from a second. Because I did every single mistake possible you can do. Costly. Very costly. Like millions of dollars of mistakes. But that's the whole thing. the difference is like I just didn't stop. Otherwise, by stop, it becomes a loss. So that L could be a loss or could be a lesson. It's a lesson for me. AI is changing everything right now, and website creation is officially part of the wave.

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18:09Explain the difference to people that may not be familiar between the UAE and America. Because, yeah, the system of governance is different, obviously, from, you know, you have a democracy where somebody votes for a president, where you have a kingdom, right? and a lot of people in the western world have been trained to think that that is not an efficient way to govern you can have a counter argument to that and say you know how we look at democracy is not efficient we just had a government shutdown so talk about the differences as far as government and how it's beneficial for entrepreneurs amazing question each section of the the city like say roads the city and power supply.

18:54They are run as enterprises, businesses. And every year they have a competition. Privately owned? No, government owned. Government owned, okay. And each year they are basically competing about who gets the best customer happiness survey. Competition. And the people who lose, they get a month's notice and they get fired if you don't fix your stuff. Again, for example, I think last month, there was a power shortage in where my house are. The government said, hey, there might be a shortage. So they got a generator outside the house to connect the houses in case we have a shortage. For example, that's like one small thing.

19:41You heard about the golden visa, right? The golden visa, you know, as an investor and so on, so you need a golden visa. Now they've built an embassy for golden visa holders. So if you have a golden visa in Dubai, if you have any problem anywhere in the world, let's say you pass a bookstore and you got an issue, they give you a document so you can travel back to Dubai. So you've been treated more better than your own country in a lot of senses. Again, like, the only way for you to explain Dubai is to come to Dubai. Because you think you're having a good life. You think so, but it's not. I look at Dubai as like Miami, but cleaner, and with no drugs and just better service.

20:25That's the description. Like Miami, same style, same car, same people, but like just cleaner and with no drugs and just better lifestyle and safer. Safety is important. I think one of the things you leveraged and had vision in social media. Talk about having the vision early on because you're talking about 14 years ago. So it's really at the start of Instagram and kind of shaping the narrative of, yes, Dubai, tourism, but more so Dubai family. Yes. Right? Because that's where your sweet spot is. Talk about watching that evolution over the course of your expansion. For the business-wide business?

21:05Because we are almost the same age. So there's a lot of guys like us who come from nothing. You know, self-made. Obviously, all of us. So we didn't have the life that we have right now. So now when we have children right now, you're overcompensating, you overprovide because you want them to have a hardship. So I realized that that made the kids also leading their shopping and spending power. And I thought, okay, so why am I talking to them when I can just talk to them and they will talk to the kids and the families and they get the father and mother who have very good spending power now to spend with me.

21:44and that was the whole thing. So I made sure all the videos are real people having real fun. I think we got 4.9 stars on Google with 4 ,000 plus reviews. That only happens because you're good when you do. That's it. And what I did with that was something very simple. I always have to do win-win-win. So okay, I saw my staff working with the customers and my lifeguards and I saw them trying to do exagerate tips. I said, hey, how about this? Don't get tips. Ask the customer to give a review for the water product and mention your name. Right. And then every person who gets a review under the name, I'll give you an amount of dollars, almost$10 almost.

22:30By the end of the month, first month, we've grown, I think, 300 reviews. My customers had great service. My staff got tips and they got more money. and my business look better. When, when, when. Such a simple thing. Because if I'm going to buy a review, it's going to cost you much more money. And it would look like a bot. It's real. It became an incentive. Yeah. Talk about taxes. You mentioned that at the beginning, but really break that down. That's something that's been on social media as far as there's no taxes in Dubai. Is there no taxes? Is there taxes on a corporation? Explain the actual tax system.

23:07So there's no income tax. Personal. No personal tax. There is no property tax. There is no federal tax. We have 5 % VAT, via tax, on goods, 5%, and there's a 9 % corporate tax. That's on your profits of your annual year. So you understand how you made this much revenue. How much of that is your profit? That is 9%. That's it. Now, if we compare apples and apples, the fees you pay for certain government entities compared to what you get somewhere else is cheaper. How much do you pay for insurance? Health insurance? Like$2 ,000 a month. A month? Good God. For one person? Me and my son. Two people.

23:49Two people. Okay, that's$2 ,000. So in a year, that's how much? $24 ,000. $24 ,000. Okay, so for me, so three people. I remember as well. Three people will cost me around$700 a month for the whole year. For the whole year? The whole year. But I will get private hospitals. I can walk to any place right now, get an MRI test, get a blood test, get an x-ray get my medication offer free private hustlers I don't have to wait a month or two months for a dentist's appointment in that nonsense it doesn't exist here just walk in again same day that's one simple thing healthcare so that's the other thing so like the money you make stays with you so okay if you're not if you're not getting tax revenue and you're getting free subsidies, how's that work?

24:40Because the government taxes usually pays for services. Supposedly. Supposedly. Allegedly. Allegedly. That's what they say. Have you seen your roads and seen my roads? No, that's why I'm asking. So if there's no revenue

25:04coming in from taxes and school is free. You say we have two double schools. They have private schools and government schools. Private schools, you pay them. But if you compare them here in America, it's way cheaper here. Government schools is free, obviously, but it's a different kind of education. How do we make the money? Because there's fees. There's service fees. Service fees on goods, products, services. Yeah. But again... It's a small country, so it's relatively... Regardless, but still. It says the money managed properly. When they give, you know, hey, we're doing this new bridge, this bridge is ready in three, four months.

25:49Not two, three years. You understand me? When we build the metro in three years, Jeremy said, how do you do it in three years? It's impossible. It's nine years. It was done in three years. So that's the whole thing. The money is managed properly. There is no bullshit. There is none of that nonsense you have there. Is there, I mean, there's two sides to that coin right like we we've watched when we talk about success slogan speed that also leaves the door for error right we've watched recently other countries that had large-scale projects that are now saying that we're not gonna be able to hear it we'll leave those we'll leave their names out of it right is it too ambitious and does it leave you susceptible to making mistakes that potentially could be harmful because this is a place that relies on tourism and people coming to invest and now live does that come into the thought process anytime when you're trying to expand?

26:38Okay, so Dubai don't have oil. No oil, no natural gas. Dubai income is from tourism, import and export, and trading. Just to clear that up. There's no oil in the city, whatever. Oil comes from Abu Dhabi, the capital, but that money doesn't come here. That's a different city. So Dubai doesn't have that. Dubai is good in the tourism, the trading, import, export, the free zones, all this stuff. The revenue and stuff. And again, we have the infrastructures. Remember COVID days? Yes. Okay, so you guys used to fight for tissues, remember? Remember that time? That was a time, yes. We used to have offers on tissues.

27:15Offers. But I think it's factory. Okay? Our supermarkets, it was not empty. It was nothing empty. It was never a shelf empty. Logistics were good here. When they needed to build these hospitals for what they call them, quarantine and stuff. They built, I think, one of the hospitals had 8 ,000 beds was done in 48 hours. With... 48 hours? Yes. It was built with beds, all the machines, nurses and everything. In 48 hours. Took a big exhibition hall and switched to a hospital. So that's the whole thing. The management is different here. They have backup for backup for backup. That's the difference.

28:00You know what? Real estate. Oh, yes. Talk about real estate in Dubai. Powerful stuff. Dubai, UAE, regardless, it's just, it's not going to stop. It's just like, you know, whatever is holding you back, stop it. Because you need to be part of it very quickly. Because it's not slowing down. It's just going up. It's just going up. Everything is going up. What's the percentage of growth now? Every year? Year on year? 30 %? 40 %? There you go. Yearly. 25 % yearly. It's insane. Like I remember there was a villa. One family member was renting, I think, four years ago for$100 ,000. Now it's$350 ,000. How is the system here as far as, there's no mortgages, right?

28:52There's mortgages. Mortgages. Like America? Yeah. There's mortgages, but there's also payment terms. Because if you buy directly, if you buy off-plan, that's good. that because now you have no interest you can just pay directly with the with the developer so they just pay payment terms until you receive the thing otherwise you can pay cash directly crypto there's multiple ways but that's the best thing about it so we're from new york right yeah so i don't know if you follow local geopolitical politics but they got a new mayor has been elected yes you know that you know about that he's a socialist the reason why he got elected is because the city has become so unaffordable because the top 1 % is doing extremely well.