“Why Stay In America If They Take Half Your Money?” | Dubai’s Billion-Dollar Opportunities Explained

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1:26Americans. This is the knowledge that actually matters. I applaud both of you for this. Thank you. This isn't a country issue. It's not an American issue. It's a world issue. He came to earn our leisure. All right, guys. Welcome back. EYL. We are 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. He actually moved out here and has been making his way, meeting great people. We came out here for vacation and wedding, and not necessarily to work, but when work calls, we're always up.

2:18But when Daniel asks us to do anything, we have to say yes. Gotta do it. part of our obligation. Yeah, yeah. It's a six-side team. Yeah, yeah, yeah. He said that we have to, you know, we've interviewed a variety of very important people in the world. You know, head of states, vice presidents. Yeah. 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? Ah, yes, of course. Okay. Ahmed bin Shabay Shabay Shabay Ahmed No Okay let's do it Let's do it Okay Call on your hand Yeah Open it Do it Drink it Ahmed Ahmed I tried I tried So thank you for joining us Appreciate it Of course It's all good It's all good So alright So walk us through Like the beginnings all right as far as how do you get to own a water park you're in marati 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 % come from outside the country.

3:47Yes. Correct? Yes, exactly. But you've seen transformation happen in your life in real time, right? You're old enough. Always. You're old enough. Yeah, I've seen it from the start, yeah. So how quickly has this turned the corner? And for you to actually be experiencing it as a native, what is it like for you to actually see the country change right in front of your eyes? It becomes so hard to understand anything else but the speed. and the service level and the safety we have. The fact that we walk around, my cars are unlocked, wearing jewelry and watches, and not to worry about anything, that level of safety is a huge thing.

4:28It'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 Mohammed is the best CEO. So we dedicate the job for a lot of very, very powerful and smart people. So, and the best part, again, speed. Like, if this will work for people, let's change the rule and 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.

5:06That was done. So the speed of things are done here is much faster. We don't have, like, this dictatorship, in a way, works. And again, you're American. How much tax do you pay in your city? In your state. We got state tax, we got federal tax, some of our 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. When Dali moved, because that's the talk I gave him.

5:46It's like, why are you staying there? Why be somewhere you are tolerated when you can be celebrated? Why are you wasting so much energy being worried about all this nonsense that you can not worry about anymore? Race issues and, you know, taxes and safety and so on. So 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 valid points, man. Success loves speed. And what you're saying makes, I mean, it's 100 % correct, right?

6:21When 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 the vision? Like I'm going to build water parks, inflatable parks. Like what was the original vision and how did it get to this point? It's a very funny question because where we started and where we are right now is so opposite. Because 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.

6:55And the idea of Aquafun, I saw a video, 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 for my kids to do. And then I was the next day, I was in the yacht. I don't drink, I don't smoke, I don't like that thing. so much. 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. I started going and researching the world, and there was two companies who does this kind of thing in the world.

7:26I spoke to both of them, and both of them gave me so much shit, because I was nobody, basically. I did this before. It's like, no, you've got to pay me this and this and this, and you're nobody. I said, what the hell? I said, okay, cool. So I went to China. I spent a month there. I met 41 factories. I found their factories. I created my own brand, EcoFund. 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. And for the next four and a half years, I was in dollars, almost$250 ,000 in debt.

8:04Just 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. Every single day. I opened the map of the UAE. I went to every single beach owner in the whole country.

8:43Let's do this. No, no, no. And then eventually now I'm the biggest operator in the world. So the genius thing I did 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. 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 them each and I don't money at it. So what's the turning point as far as, okay, it's a very extensive business as far as what you're running. So 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?

9:22Sales. You raised money? I've never had to raise 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 sales, 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. So 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 we use myself and I would send them everything.

10:02So the first 100 ,000 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 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 Do you have? 34 Okay So When you're When you're working Right What's the scalable model if 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?

10:42Basically, 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 in that time, we lost so much quality control, branding was bad, service was bad, 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 has to be written down and then hire the right people empowering because the issue is this whole founder syndrome I'm the founder I can do the best yes you are but you never scared so 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 part of this and then see what they do they won't do 100 % job but they might do 60 % job but then I can be somewhere else now you this is um 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 one so you designed it 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 I learned diving I learned social media I learned everything myself because again here's the thing everyone have 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 JGPT 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.

12:27Yeah, so YouTube TV. Yeah, YouTube and Google. That's it. Everything. So that means, 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. Yeah, talk 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 in class for it, but nothing beats failure.

13:00Nothing beats failure. Because, like, I know what to work as a rock for my second. Because I did every single mistake past it you can do. Costly. Very costly. Like, millions of dollars of mistakes. But that's the whole thing. Like, you know, the difference, like, I just didn't stop. Otherwise, if I stop, it becomes a loss. So that L could be a loss or it could be a lesson. It's a lesson for me. So let's go back to the geopolitical aspect of it Explain the difference to people that may not be familiar Between the UAE and America Because yet The system of governance is different Obviously from when you have a Democracy where somebody votes for a president When you have a kingdom 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.

13:54We 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 city, like say roads, the city and power supply, they 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 yourself. Again, for example, I think last month there was a power shortage in where my house is.

14:49the 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 what if mind control is real if you could control the behavior of anybody around you what kind of life would you have can you hypnotically persuade someone to buy a car when you look at your car you're going to become overwhelmed with such good feelings can you hypnotize someone into sleeping with you i gave her some suggestions to be sexually aroused. Can you get someone to join your cult? NLP was used on me to access my subconscious.

15:24NLP, aka Neuro Linguistic Programming, is a blend of hypnosis, linguistics, and psychology. Fans say it's like finally getting a user manual for your brain. It's about engineering consciousness. Mind Games is the story of NLP, its crazy cast of disciples, and the fake doctor who invented it at a new age commune and sold it to guys in suits. He stood trial for murder and got acquitted. The biggest mind game of all? NLP might actually work. This is wild. Listen to Mind Games on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. You heard about the golden visa, right? The golden visa, you know, as an investor and so on, you need a golden visa.

16:08Now 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 with a story and you get 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, 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. That'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.

16:55Safety is important. I think one of the things you leveraged and had vision in social media. Yeah. 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, 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?

17:26Because 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 overcompensate and overprovide because you want them to have a hardship. So I realized that that made the kids also leading their shopping and spending powers. 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'll get their father and mother who have very good spending power now to spend with me.

18:06and 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 the way 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 exageratic tips. It's like, hey, how about this? Don't get tips. Ask the customer to give a review for the water park and mention your name. Roy. And then every person who gets a review under the name, I'll give you an amount of dollars, almost$10.

18:51By the end of the month, the 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. Win, win, win. 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 a lot as far as there's no taxes in Dubai. Is there no taxes? Is there taxes on a corporation? Explain the actual tax system.

19:28So there's no income tax. Personal. There's no personal tax. There's no property tax. There's 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 It's 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 Two 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 For the whole year For the whole year For 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 a x-ray, get my medication, offer free.

20:33Private hustles. I don't have to wait a month or two months for a dentist appointment in that nonsense. It doesn't exist here. Just walk in a gate, same day. That's one simple thing. Healthcare. So that's the other thing. So the money you make stays with you. So, okay. If you're not getting tax revenue and you're getting free subsidies, How's that work? Because like if you're, the government taxes usually pays for services, right? Supposedly. The government. Yeah. Supposedly. Yeah, for sure. Allegedly. Allegedly. Thank you. That's what they say. Thank you. Have you seen your roads and seen my roads?

21:19No, that's why I'm asking. Yeah. So if there's no revenue, if there's no, you've seen our roads. There's no revenue coming in. Yeah. From taxes. Yeah. And. school is free we have two double schools 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 and it's a small country so it's relatively less people But still, it says the money managed properly.

22:04When they give, you know, hey, we're doing this new bridge, this bridge is ready in three, four months. Not 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 this, I mean, there's two sides to that. coin right like we've watched when we talk about success love and speed that also leaves the door for error right we've watched recently other countries that have large-scale projects that are now saying that we're not gonna be able to create we'll leave those we'll leave their names out yeah 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.

22:56Does that come into the thought process anytime when you're trying to expand? Okay, 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 this 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. They're very good in this stuff. And again, we have the infrastructures. Remember COVID days? Yes. Okay, so you guys used to fight for tissues, remember?

23:32Remember that time? That was a time, yes. We used to have offers on tissues. Offers. But I think it's fine for free. 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 hospitals for what they call them, quarantine and stuff, they built, I think, one of the hospitals that 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. They took a big exhibition hall and switched to a hospital. So that's the whole thing.

24:15The management is different here. They have backup for backup for backup. That's the difference. You know? 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's 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. A family member was renting it I think four years ago for$100 ,000.

25:07Now it's$350 ,000. How is the system here as far as there's no mortgages, right? There'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 with crypto there's multiple ways but that's the best thing about 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.

25:53But 90 % of the population barely surviving. So do you worry that a city like Dubai can reach that level of, it's not sustainable after a certain point when all the billionaires from all over the world come in, but people still need to work, right? So the workers are at the bottom level, and then you have people that's worth$100 billion at the top level that gap is so wide that it leads to a not sustainable living situation Dubai is like an onion and there's so many layers and sometimes the layers don't touch each other so yes we have I think this year we had almost 90 ,000 millionaires moved already to Dubai and I think 20 or 17 billionaires moved to Dubai already so that space is already packed Good, amazing.

26:48Now, we're about to get middle and low. Now, I can go right now and have dinner for four of us, and we can spend less than$50. Or we can have dinner together and spend at least$500. So both levels are there. There is affordable housing here. Definitely need more of that. But it's there. It exists. There is ecosystem that basically all exists together in that space. So there's levels. And again, here's the thing about Dubai. Dubai will show what you are oh I burned out in Dubai Dubai doesn't burn you out you your true cars came out if you're good you're good if you're bad now we know how bad you are so again this city keeps you comparative keeps you very strong it'll be strong 34 water parks for now for now gonna have I mean already has the largest water park in the world we'll have it again in the near future I want to get more of it and we're gonna get bigger yeah 91 businesses no now I have nine businesses.

27:47Nine. 91 investments. Investments, I'm sorry. 91 investments, nine businesses. In my head, I'm thinking, how are we running operations on a day-to-day? How involved are you in or do you have CFOs, CMOs? Is the structure the same? Different structures. Some, I'm very involved in daily things because again, most of my Zoom calls are under 20 minutes. Most of my Zoom calls with my teams. Intentionally? Yes. Why? It doesn't take that long to understand what you want. I know what I want. Explain to me points, one, two, three, four. Give me point points, what's happening, what's going on. What situations do you have for these problems?

28:24And then I pick from them quickly. I wake up early in the morning. I go to my gym. I do my workouts. Done. Then I go to my beach and just go see everything in the beginning, make sure everything is done the way we do. Then let's go. First office, second office, or Zoom calls. I try to keep things all in the same geographic space so I don't have to travel too much. that's what it was a big tactic but like usually I do all the things in the same space so my businesses offices and my penthouse all in the same space so I don't have to move too much because again time is a very big factor here so my day is always structured like in the T so there's no bullshit and if you 10 minutes, 15 minutes late in one meeting I can't see a meeting because I can't because you overlap somebody else today I had like a 7 hour shooting so it was just hectic.

29:14It was before hours, it became seven hours. It's okay. Everything else had to be canceled. But it's very structured. Makes sense. Yeah, but I don't have days off. I don't understand days off. Like I still, now I do 80 to 100 hours a week. I still. So talk about your branding because you're obviously branding yourself, right? Yes. You call it Aquaman on your sleeve. Yeah, yeah. You have a necklace, like a rapper. You got a necklace on. Like, you know? It's all mine. It's not borrowed. Slight difference. Slight difference. So, you're obviously intentional about how you want the world to see you, the image that you're putting out there.

29:53I think you're doing a show with Netflix. So, you're not like a behind-the-scenes guy. It doesn't seem like that, right? Talk about that. Talk about your intentionality with your branding. You need to be very purposeful and very intentional with every single thing. You do everything you say or do anything. Because there's three levels when you meet people. they will see you they will smell you they will hear you you need to look good you need to smell good and you need to know what you're talking about those are very important things I understand the power of personal balance very very well because again there is it gets it creates rapport people know oh I've seen you read you somewhere I relate to what you say about this topic or that topic so it takes away that whole fluff of when you meet somebody people know oh I've seen you I like you especially if you if you're authentic and if you're real and you say the right things, people relate to it.