EW 050 – How A Resilient Leader Built A Successful Tech Company and A Non-Profit Venture To Empower Youth – Winning with Musap Abdel, CEO of QA Enterprises and Founder of Struggle Is Your Success

Gordon Sheppard (00:00.874)
Moose, welcome to the show.

Musap (Moose) Abdel (00:03.486)
Hey man, thanks for having me.

Gordon Sheppard (00:05.314)
Well, we are so lucky to have you for so many different reasons. You've got lived experience that changed your life. You are an entrepreneur. You are a giver backer as a leader in nonprofit. You support all kinds of people across the community, across the country. And I know that people are gonna be really excited to hear about the win that you're bringing here today, but a lot of people haven't met you yet. So if you had to introduce yourself, what would you say?

Musap (Moose) Abdel (00:10.464)
Bye.

Musap (Moose) Abdel (00:30.676)
Yeah, hello everyone, my name is Moose. Moose App is my real name, but I go by name Moose. I'm the president and CEO of Two Ventures, founding...

CEO of a nonprofit called Struggle Is Their Success, but also an artificial intelligence firm called QA Enterprises, which stands for Quality Amalgamation. So I play two of both worlds, the nonprofit sector impacting the community, but also the tech sector, which is, that's my background.

Gordon Sheppard (01:05.688)
Fantastic, and I just have to jump in and say, okay, Moose, where's that nickname from?

Musap (Moose) Abdel (01:10.528)
That nickname is from my original name, it's Moose App. So I shortened it down to Moose, but I'm also a very competitive person playing basketball. So a lot of people couldn't pronounce my name, so I'm a big guy, you know.

playing basketball and also playing football and different kind of sports. So I'm a moose with two horns, you know, very competitive. And if you if you look at the animal of a moose, he's always competitive, big and always, you know, very silent, but also very aggressive, won't take no for an answer. So if you you're you're hunting for a moose in the forest, they're always quiet with big horns. And once you stare at them, you know,

They come for you.

Gordon Sheppard (01:59.176)
I love that you brought up the silence, those, like a moose run, you just said it. So I hear you're coming silently, but you're coming powerfully and you don't take no for an answer. That's just fantastic. So lucky to hear the origin for that nickname. You have two ventures you've described. I needed to talk a little bit more about a struggle is your success and really give us a feel for that one. And then we also want to learn about your private business as well. Go ahead.

Musap (Moose) Abdel (02:10.633)
I it.

Musap (Moose) Abdel (02:20.01)
Sure, yeah. Struggle Is or Success is an innovative black not-for-profit that focuses on supporting youth at risk for racialized, marginalized, stigmatized communities. And we're teaching them entrepreneurial skills through the Calgary's ecosystem, Alberta's ecosystem, Alberta's ecosystem. So that's basically what we do.

Gordon Sheppard (02:44.492)
And it's so good that that's happening there. And that comes a little bit from your own history. Is that fair that you started this up or is that okay to bring in that part of the story?

Musap (Moose) Abdel (02:52.71)
Yeah, absolutely. I'm myself, I was a youth at risk. You know, I was lost in life, intergenerational trauma and an identity crisis. know who I was. You know, I had family in the US. Was I representing the United States or was I representing Canada or was I representing back home, which is Sudan?

or looking at my family that's in Egypt. So yeah, I struggled multiple times throughout my life. It was never an easy journey.

Intergenerational trauma and and for the audience who understands or doesn't understand what intergenerational trauma It's it's a stigmatized situation Where you go through? physical emotional abuse Through just family

But not just family, but through communities as well. There's that cultural stigma where you know, we strive for perfection and you know, how to become a man and a man is not allowed to cry or share any type of feelings or things like that, you know what I mean? So I was on a bad path, a very, very, very, very dark one.

But what changed me and what helped me is mentorship. Mentorship. And then through mentorship, I had the opportunity to go back home and look at how people in third world countries such as Sudan and the other countries, Kenya.

Musap (Moose) Abdel (04:37.626)
the youth there were on a survival mindset, right? And no access to, you know, clean water or no access to proper education. And they would build ventures out of nothing, right?

So I founded that and found the struggle is your success and I felt that we all go through struggles. We struggle through university for four years to get our degree. But the success is the degree. But four years of struggle. We struggle through building our ventures. You go through bankruptcy but then the success is community impact. So there's a lot of stuff through that.

through our struggles or success and we wanted to embark the spirit of the entrepreneurial journey.

Gordon Sheppard (05:31.704)
Well, and so I can hear you had lived experience, you've got a global perspective. How lucky that you, we've got this multi-continent, multi-country perspective that you're bringing to what you're talking about. You had your own moments that were down and negative, but you were able to get mentorship along the way and then become a mentor of sorts, way beyond mentorship. Starting up a nonprofit is a big deal. I don't mean to go through the whole history. I just think people are needing to know about.

Musap (Moose) Abdel (05:41.373)
Absolutely.

Gordon Sheppard (05:58.636)
this more. think they need to reach out to you and say, wait a second, this struggle is just, and then there's something about secret sauce that you put into that, because you've helped hundreds of kids in the Calgary area. Is that correct?

Musap (Moose) Abdel (06:07.914)
Correct, we're surpassed 500 plus to date.

Gordon Sheppard (06:12.109)
500 plus and when you see them walk in the door, they're not walking in to see somebody that you've been there done that in your own way. It's not the exact story that these people would have, but it's immediately relatable, immediately able then I'm sure to get connection and then build capacity in the areas that you're talking about. And I love where you jumped. said, wait a second, I met people with no means who were starting businesses.

where they had no rights to be starting businesses, but they were. And then that spirit is now in the work that you do there. Well, how lucky. We could do a whole podcast, I'm sure, about struggle is your success, which would be super cool. And then this also, I just need a little bit of a few sentences about your private venture, because you said you've got a tech background and now you're in the AI space. So tell me a little bit about your own company.

Musap (Moose) Abdel (06:41.002)
Yeah, absolutely.

Musap (Moose) Abdel (06:52.606)
Yeah, so our own company, QA Enterprises.

It's an artificial intelligence firm. It stands for not quality assurance. It's quality amalgamation and Why we're amalgamating things is if you look at the rise of artificial intelligence It's it's come as a massive wave. There's external tools. There's custom tools There's internal tools and we wanted what we wanted to do is bridge the gap in amalgamating these tools together to reduce

burnout for corporate companies but also improve productivity efficiency in the tech sector and for companies that can able to use AI in a very ethical and respected manner where they understand where their data is stored but also understands AI governance and ethical frameworks.

Gordon Sheppard (07:48.098)
Well, and I love speaking with you before this interview. I just like the practical part. You're actually meeting people where they're at today as opposed to a hype concept. It's not like this future kind of thing. You're meeting people right where they are. Is that fair?

Musap (Moose) Abdel (08:00.064)
Exactly, 100%.

Gordon Sheppard (08:02.387)
I love it. And I think I'm going to the PhD school of moose right now. We've got a good feel for, we've got some, some tough history. We've got some mentorship. We've got a transitionary period in there where you became, you were a certain way and then you were another way. But not only were you just becoming somebody who could have got a job, I'm sure, and had a very pretty comfortable thing. You started a nonprofit that's helped hundreds, over 500 kids. Unbelievable. And now you've got your own company as well. We have a very practical approach. So how lucky I'm sure for anybody to spend an hour with you, no matter what they were doing.

Musap (Moose) Abdel (08:06.558)
Yeah.

Gordon Sheppard (08:31.597)
in terms of how rich that would be. I'm sure if I was getting an elbow in basketball or, you know, if I was, my company had to get this quality approach, there's all those things that are kind in there. It leads me to my first question in this interview, which is if you had to describe your biggest win in these, all these journeys up to this point, what would that win be and how would you describe it?

Musap (Moose) Abdel (08:35.146)
You

Musap (Moose) Abdel (08:47.89)
Yeah, you know, I was reflecting on it throughout the week, right? And a lot of people, you know, they have different type of wins. My win for me is impact. Just simple. You know, impact. What does that mean, you know, for the audience who are listening? What is impact? The ability to change someone's life with a phone call, with a sentence, with mentorship.

with walking, know, walking, going for a walk, or just changing that trajectory. You know, I think impact is what fulfills the work that we do in the nonprofit and in the private business. I understand that money's important, right? We all need to put food on the table, right? But how would it be so cool if you can earn money

and be fully satisfied, right, in a way that you've changed someone's life.

Gordon Sheppard (09:55.373)
How lucky that you've got that level of clarity. And I love the one word answers. Randy Volk was on, Randy's from Medicine Hat, he runs an irrigation landscaping business. I said, what's your win? Randy goes, people. Just like that. And I heard you say impact. And that's that's the tip of the tip of the mountain. Like we're about to explore here because when you say that, and I just have to jump in and say, there would be hundreds of examples, but do you have a good example of an impact moment? I like this walk along a sentence, a phone call.

Musap (Moose) Abdel (10:15.38)
Yeah.

Gordon Sheppard (10:25.056)
Is there one that comes to mind that you'd like to share as a story to demonstrate that?

Musap (Moose) Abdel (10:29.92)
wow, yeah,

Gordon Sheppard (10:33.004)
It doesn't have to be the perfect one. you know, first name of somebody and then what, what was that moment like?

Musap (Moose) Abdel (10:38.61)
Yeah, I think there's one in the nonprofit side. We had Izzy and Matthew. Izzy was, when he first started our program, before he started our program, was a little bit lost. And...

throughout the program after he graduated on the nonprofit side. He is now a filmmaker and an engineer.

but he is producing filmmaking in the engineering sector because he felt that the engineering sector was not showcased in Alberta properly. Everybody was talking about pipelines and oil and gas and civil engineering or the types of sectors in the engineering space, but he's like, how can I build a story and tell the story where people can

love engineering. So he graduated from our program and he built his venture and he's now in school and it's incredible. That's one story.

Gordon Sheppard (11:52.811)
And when he entered your program, he might've been on a downward slope. You know what I mean? Or there's something precarious because if they're entering your program, there's something amiss. But through the program and the mentoring and those things, and again, there's another whole podcast about Izzy's journey through your world, but why the impact? You set up the nonprofit. You set up the structure for him to come through and allow that to occur. I say you, there's dozens of people that we're not naming here right now that have.

been part of your journey to support these things along the way. But the impact, it's a great story of impact because we now hear somebody entering your world and we could pull out, I'm sure, dozens of other impact stories if I tapped you right now. But thank you so much for that example because...

Musap (Moose) Abdel (12:31.08)
It's hot, it's hot, yeah.

That's on the nonprofit side. So on the profitable side, there's an impact story there. Yeah, on the profit side, when we started QA Enterprises, we started it right out, just a week before OpenAI was launched November 2022.

Gordon Sheppard (12:40.31)
Go ahead, yeah, yeah.

Musap (Moose) Abdel (12:52.712)
Okay, and I sat down with my partners. They're based out of Arizona and Nashville, Tennessee. And I was talking to Ahmed and Ahmed is like, you know, you have this long for profit, you know, how can we, how can we disrupt the ecosystem around AI?

And then we brought our other partner and then our other partner was like, I have an idea. It was a very crazy idea. He's like, what if we can turn screen time into skill time? And I'm like, what are you talking about? Right, what are you, what are you, I have no idea. He's like, tech titans. I'm like, what's that?

And he's like, no, we want to, you know, there's lack of accessibility for newcomers in Canada and in the US. There's the lack of accessibility and education around STEM, science, technology, engineering, and math. And I'm like, guys, we're not programmers. We don't have the, we don't have money. We're broke, you know. Three years later.

Right from Tech Titans, we launched Mini Techies. We changed the name. Mini Techies is an educational app that teaches kids STEM through gamified learning using AI tutors. Both of my partners, their mind went from corporate working as, they're still working in the corporate sector.

But they unlock the entrepreneurial journey. now they've never thought that one day they will be startup founders in today's ecosystem, along with myself. I've never thought that I'll be a tech entrepreneur, even though I have a tech background. So yeah.

Gordon Sheppard (14:46.024)
I love it and many techies, I was on there right now on your app, which was an idea three years ago and is now out in the world making an impact, I would go on there as someone who wanted to learn and using my screen time in a positive manner. Is that correct?

Musap (Moose) Abdel (15:02.186)
turning screen time into skill time. if you look at the stigma, parents, schools, they're like, get off your phone, go to do sports, do your homework. I put food on the table for you. You're always on your phone. And we wanted to bring that innovation spice to it and say, how can we leverage these youth where they're so innovative and very

Gordon Sheppard (15:05.558)
Love it.

Musap (Moose) Abdel (15:32.13)
creative, where they're on TikTok, they're dancers, they're on Instagram, they're on Snapchat, but turn in that screen time where they know there should be no stigma between the educational sector and within the parental sector with the parents as well. So just innovative learning, you know?

Gordon Sheppard (15:50.145)
Wow, so already we've heard two massive impacts, right? So you build a nonprofit with a vision and a mission and someone comes through that nonprofit and changes engineering and communications and engineering through video and how much further is that gonna go? Cause that's just on its way launched out the door. Another impact, you got a couple of people, but between the creativity with you and your partners, you're like, wait a second. then you're allowed, there's something about the conversation. Cause that takes dozens, hundreds of hours to...

bring to life, but there's a spark, but execution, that's remarkable to make impact. It's one thing to say, let's build an app. It's another thing to get it out there in the world and get it into full use. Wow. That's just two again of, I don't know how many stars on the walk of fame you're going to end up with, but it's a bunch. And I think that's just wonderful to hear examples of the impact is that's what you talked about as the win. And whenever we have a win impact, I always like to explore what I call the anatomy of a win. So what is the strategy, work plan, people, operations and results?

behind the wind. When we talk about strategy, this has to do with vision, mission, values, goals, this kind of thing. Is there a strategically about why you want to make impact? What's the why?

Musap (Moose) Abdel (17:01.468)
One of the things that really changed my life is I'm not a book reader. I'm not. I don't like it. It's just too much for me. Until I came across Simon Sinek.

watch YouTube video and he's like start with your why if you really understand the why and then I picked up I went to the Calgary Public Library right I have that picture embedded in my phone I went and got that book and I I wrote I was like

I'm a lazy person and then Bill Gates has a you know Has a famous quote hire lazy people because they find innovative innovative ways because they're lazy people They're finding innovative ways to do the work. They're very creative. So I'm a lazy guy, but I picked up that book and I Simon Siddon just blew my mind What's the why why are you doing it? Who are you doing it for? Where are you doing it?

You know the process that led me to journaling

And I think with leaders, I think all leaders will totally agree. If you journal, the most...

Musap (Moose) Abdel (18:33.952)
The most amount of success you'll get out of that is close to being in reality, close to being guaranteed. So, yeah, think no framework. There's no framework. It's just an inspiration.

Gordon Sheppard (18:54.636)
So you found the Simon Sinek. It gets you to the why. The why leads to the win now, which is impact, which is just simply, it's a why. But also it is a how in terms of, because you've described the how as well, that's built in there. Sinek has got you working from the inside out on those circles. I know that circles on that video. It's a famous video. I think if people haven't seen it yet, they should look it up for sure. You went from a non-book reader to book reader. You were that compelled. Like something got you this lazy guy out of whatever.

Musap (Moose) Abdel (19:16.243)
Yeah.

Musap (Moose) Abdel (19:22.154)
to this.

Gordon Sheppard (19:23.338)
Got you to the library, right? Yeah. Right. And there you are with, now you got books on your desk and you actually became a reader because the why was so compelling. So now we've got a really good understanding of the strategic highlight. Anytime we have a win, you know, a strategy, we always need a work plan. So would you say, with your first moment of wanting to make impact, what month and year did that start? And then how long did it take? Did it start when you were five?

Musap (Moose) Abdel (19:25.344)
Sorry.

Gordon Sheppard (19:50.423)
Did it start when you watched the Simon Sinek video? What year, if we had to look at sort of the timeline of how long it takes to get to this win, when did that start?

Musap (Moose) Abdel (19:59.731)
That's a very good question. Are you talking for both ventures?

Gordon Sheppard (20:02.891)
No, I'll just go with impact. You know what I mean? We're talking about a lifelong journey here. Like there was pre-impact and then there's impact. Cause with the wind you described as impact. So it's not as defined as your companies necessarily, or your nonprofit. It really is that moment of when did this wind start to occur? Cause there's a moment where it's seeding. You know what mean? Maybe it's in your down times. Things are negative, things are, but maybe it's not, maybe it's post. Like when did it start?

Musap (Moose) Abdel (20:24.714)
That doesn't, that doesn't,

Musap (Moose) Abdel (20:28.966)
It started four years ago after understanding who I am.

Me. I really had to hone in through therapy. Right? We're here trying to be authentic. Right? I don't want the readers to like, you know, strive for perfection. It was a journey over four years ago where I needed to understand who am I. Right? Why am I doing this work?

Like literally why is it for the money? Like I had to understand my authentic self.

That is so hard to do, Gordon. I could not tell you. Yeah, it's a process.

Gordon Sheppard (21:29.749)
I'm just trying to imagine there's a moment when you didn't want to explore your authentic self, maybe for the majority of your life, if you're talking about just the last four years being this clarity that you've gotten into. So there's, like you said, there was a pretense or a culture that you were coming through. There was all these things that were evolving as you kind of then, but then you hit a moment where you're like, nope, I need to find out who I am. And I'm going to go through the peaks and valleys of what it takes. And there's a first moment in the therapist's office, for example, where you're just,

fish out of water, I'm sure it's, I'm guessing. Do you know what mean? Like it was not like you walked in there in one session and got this figured out. Is that fair?

Musap (Moose) Abdel (22:05.298)
No, no, no, no. This is like, we're talking about years of work, right? How to balance your ego, right? How to balance your imposter syndrome. How to balance, how to...

Do you deserve it? Do you not? Are you trying to figure out if you're a people's pleaser or not? Are you willing to open a door for another person? How do you deal with struggles when you get a rejected email or a rejected sales pitch?

Musap (Moose) Abdel (22:43.584)
How do you deal with anger management? know, when you get rejected, you're making a hundred sales calls a day, right? And they're all of them, they're saying no to you. How do you be authentic with yourself and say it's okay? Right, you keep going. How do you...

Yeah, all of these things that I've been through, all of these things, how do you, you know, how do you, like on the non-prophetic side, how do you report back to your board? Who holds you accountable? Is it your wife that holds you accountable? Is it your friends? How do you show up? Or you just show up? Like these are like very, you know, like how can you be the same person on LinkedIn to be the same person on the ground and be the same person at home?

Gordon Sheppard (23:37.858)
Wow, this is, what a gift. Cause I'm actually now going through, I'm going through each session. I'm going through some journaling moments and you're being very articulate. You're getting the laundry list out, but that's a one at a time thing. Do you know what mean? Like it's not a, you don't go, I'm going to figure all those 10 things, but that's the four years of work. And thank you for doing it. I'm always thankful when the people that come on this show have gone through some torture so that we can get you at this most articulate moment when you're like, well.

Musap (Moose) Abdel (23:52.48)
No!

Gordon Sheppard (24:06.325)
you if you put in four years, but you can hear it, but also in the background leading up to that story, back to the timeline, funny, we're saying the four years when you're doing the who am I moment of starting, there was some tenacity in there, there's some pieces in there that you have, you know, innately in you as well, there's some environmental factors that you were able to, again, convert into this moment to be ready for that moment, and now it's four years later, boy, I can't wait to hear, to meet you in four years from now, because what a journey that you're on as you're leveling up through this process. So we heard the win was impact.

The strategy is I figured out my why. We talked about the work plan, but it really is this thing of who am I and what are the pieces that I need to put in month over month, day over day, over a four year period to land at this moment to get this win. Very well said and I think leaders could just stop right there and go, you know, this is what it is. And it's funny, do executive coach and advise and this kind of thing. And when I work with people in the sessions,

12 year old selves pop up all the time, but this is amongst the leader of an organization and you can't be your 12 year old self leading an organization. You gotta have it worked out and I'm so glad to hear someone like you who's giving them a pathway when they're listening now to say, no, it's work. You gotta get it in and by the way, it's not a day, it's four years. Shawnee Gwyn was on the podcast. She talked about getting clarity in an ambulance. She did the overwork as a leader and she knew that, she didn't know if she was gonna live, but she knew that if she did, she knew exactly what she had to do getting out.

she put in the work as well. So I love getting these conversations going. Thank you for demonstrating that process over that time. Strategy, work plan. There's always people involved in a win. How would you describe, if we take it back from that four year point, not your whole life, but let's go from the four year point when you hit that moment, how would you describe your attitude, peaks and valleys throughout this process? Was it easy sailing or ups and downs or what would you say?

Musap (Moose) Abdel (25:52.415)
Really ups and downs really really like really ups and downs in both ventures Let's talk about the the AI venture when we first started QA enterprises. We wanted to be We wanted to be the artificial intelligence firm for the Middle East so Saudi Arabia Dubai Although you know the Gulf region and we we brought in nine members

We brought in like nine members, right? All of us, were, you know, we were just a team together and we called ourselves brothers, right? We called ourselves brothers. We created a WhatsApp chat, all that stuff. I cannot believe the journey. Everybody's like, all of us, including myself, our egos went like from zero to 100%.

and everybody had an opinion. And it was just chaos. It was really chaos. It was fire. It was, I'ma sue you. I have to do this. I, you know, it was really chaos. And then going back to the four years of understanding who am I, I was like, I've noticed that we have never shared our values.

ever. We called ourselves brothers but we never shared our values. And if you don't share your values there is a massive disconnect in communication. A massive one. So what happened? Yeah, we ended up breaking the WhatsApp group, breaking everything. Everybody went on their own.

We never communicated four years later where we are today. Out of the nine members, three only stood, myself and the two members are in the US, Ahmed and Ahmed. And we're still struggling. But, but.

Musap (Moose) Abdel (28:06.31)
Our values are so respected, we put it in a box, and that box has put us in a situation where we communicate effectively. And we, in that box, nobody takes it personally. And that has led us to really dive into the impact that we want to do.

and then we know that the money will come later on.

Gordon Sheppard (28:40.363)
love it. It's such a miss in startup world, not understanding yourself. I had an emergency call from a startup founder and what did he say? I've got my co-founder, I'm not sure, my co-founder was upset, this kind of thing. said, print off the unanimous shareholder agreement and read it out loud together. And that blew his mind. I'm like,

Musap (Moose) Abdel (28:44.66)
yeah!

Gordon Sheppard (29:03.851)
it'll take y'all whatever three hours, but just read it. Cause then what it's gonna force you to do, I like your values box. I think that's outstanding. You know, cause they didn't have that either. They had never spent the time. And I said, well.

those basic questions of how does that go? And you've got again this lived experience. It's so funny when the egos are up and there's no money that's been made yet. You're gonna solve a billion dollar problem, but there's no dollars coming in, but everyone thinks it's gonna be the next Bill Gates or whatever that is, and that's where the egos get funny. And how lucky that you have the self-awareness in your leadership style to go, that was a learning experience. You're still in the game. You know what mean? Like you're still in the game, you're still doing your thing, and that's gonna be something that you then.

will just simply strengthen for every new person that you onboard now. There's never gonna be a moment where they don't come in and have that values conversation upfront. Is that fair?

Musap (Moose) Abdel (29:48.201)
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. You know, one of my partners just said to me just two weeks ago, he said, or, you know, we're going to meet in person. He said to me, he's like, QA may fail. QA may never succeed. Minitech is will never succeed. Right? And that's okay. And he's like, that's okay. But he's like, you know, whatever, I'll never forget our friendship.

And I'm a die-hard Lakers fan, and you're a die-hard Boston fan, Moose. And I just love, when he said that to me, I was like, wow, we really put a framework together. We really, so it's okay to fail. Denzel Washington said it the best, fail forward. But fail forward with your authentic self. And, yeah.

Gordon Sheppard (30:41.389)
I love it. I'm just going to jump back to my Larry Bird magic Johnson days. Sorry. That's some historical for you right there. I love it. And the brothers thing is real for the, you know what I mean? If you started out with brothers, there was nine, then there's three. And it's funny when you put together soup mix for startup, this is part of that glue that it's funny enough about then really it may just be the team that then will find its way as you kind of go forward. But you've been through that learning journey. You've gone through the attitude ups and downs.

And now you're able to be more aware of it so that as you go to build, it'll be lightning in a bottle. That's once you get that problem solving sort of dialed in. I love it. So strategy, work plan, people around impact. Operationally, this is the fourth step in there. And I always talk about there are operational highlights that help a win to occur. Journaling, funny enough, you've mentioned is one of your operational, make it real type of activities that you've done to realize impact. Anything else operationally that you'd like to point out? But yeah.

Right, exactly. Thank you for showing me that paperwork. That's exactly, exactly right. Love it. Every day. Yeah. And so journaling is a mechanism to get things done. Anything else operationally you think that has helped this to occur?

Musap (Moose) Abdel (31:44.19)
That's every day, scribbling every day.

Musap (Moose) Abdel (31:56.755)
Operationally?

Gordon Sheppard (31:57.89)
Yeah.

Musap (Moose) Abdel (32:01.076)
Yeah, well, you know, when you journal or when you write everything down, it kind of forces you to execute. Operationally. It forces you to execute. And once you execute, the satisfaction of a win, regardless of the...

regardless of a negative outcome or a positive outcome, just the satisfaction of the win of execution, I would say. Right? The win of execution. Once you journal, I need to email Gordon. I need to follow up with Gordon. I need to message on LinkedIn. I need to get out and put it and have it in my calendar. Just that simple process.

That is an executive win that you can always take away home when you're at home and having that beautiful chicken or that beautiful steak. You can say that I have executed today and I have no worries whatsoever what the outcome is. If it comes through, sweet. If it doesn't, you keep going.

Gordon Sheppard (33:16.876)
I love it. you're turning this operational approach, turns it into action. And again, it's this journaling activity that leads to so many good things along with that sort of end of the day, get to relax as opposed to wondering if you didn't leave it out there on the field as a moose running silently through the forest. I love it. So here we got impact, strategy, work plan, people, operations. Finally, there's results. If I make impact, we've already heard some of the results. Results are often quantitative and qualitative. Quantitatively,

There's a young engineer built, built, you contributed to the building of this engineer video person that you talked about Izzy earlier on, that's sort of a quantitative outcome. The quantitative outcome of forming the right level of brotherhood partnership. There are three people now that are on a journey together in your private venture. Any other quantitative outcomes that you'd like to point out from impact?

Musap (Moose) Abdel (34:15.156)
the strategy of sustainability.

Musap (Moose) Abdel (34:20.286)
What's, I know in the entrepreneurial world, we always talk about a strategic plan. What's your two years, what's your five years, what's your 10 year, what's your 20 year? I feel sometimes, I feel sometimes that those strategic plans can be a little bit overwhelming. But I would simplify it through what,

you know, what is a sustainable path rather than just a simplified sustainable path? It can be like a one pager, right? Versus looking for 10 years or 20 years ahead. Yeah, that can become for some. a qualitative.

Gordon Sheppard (35:10.774)
And then you can feel that you've got that sort of simplified version as sort of a quantitative outcome for what you've done in the work that you've done in both those ventures. And then finally qualitatively, how does it feel? Like, I mean, you said the win was impact and you've talked about some impacts amongst the dozens, if not more. How does it feel when you're able to execute and get this win?

Musap (Moose) Abdel (35:32.65)
Beautiful. It feels you have a calling. You have a purpose. You have a reason to come to work. Right?

I love coming to the office. I love working. I really do because it gives me a purpose. It gives me a satisfaction that I can solve real complex problems. And I'm not just doing it by myself. I'm bringing people with me that can contribute to these complex problems.

It's so beautiful, it's so beautiful. It's an innovation network that allows your brain to...

Look at yourself that you had skills that you never thought you were able to do.

Gordon Sheppard (36:36.834)
I love it. I got a chance to meet you at the Technology Alberta puts on an event called the Aztec Awards. Can you just take me through what happened that night at the Aztec Awards for you?

Musap (Moose) Abdel (36:43.996)
Right.

Musap (Moose) Abdel (36:49.568)
Okay, so yeah, what happened? Yeah I was a finalist twice in a row the previous year and the current year and Every time I look at the finalist. I'm like too academic. I'm not this is not no

This is like I'm talking like these people that I'm standing up with these guys are solving real Complex problems. Like these people are solving like climate change You know aerospace engineering

You know oil and gas emissions and productivity through you know the next pipeline that's going to be built artificial intelligence and data sets some massive massive big words

Musap (Moose) Abdel (37:45.611)
When I won, I was like, who, me? A guy who works for the kids? Really? What happened that night was unbelievable. Like, un-unbelievable. And I did not have a speech. I just winged it, right?

But I think I've never spoken in front of, I don't know, there was 300 people there or 500 people in that audience. I've never spoken to a speech in front of 500 people in my life. But I gave them a takeaway. I think it was my moment to show what impact is actually is. Ever since that night, my LinkedIn has never slept.

Gordon Sheppard (38:36.268)
And what was, and what would you say again? What was the takeaway that you gave or what, do you remember what you said?

Musap (Moose) Abdel (38:36.35)
So...

Musap (Moose) Abdel (38:41.62)
Yeah, the innovation lies through the journey of collaboration.

Gordon Sheppard (38:49.984)
Innovation lies through the journey of collaboration.

Wow, this has been just such a lucky time spent with you. I'm so glad we met. Thanks for winning an award. Thanks for putting it all together that we can learn so much as leaders from you and your journey up to this time. I always like to leave a few sentences for you. If you were talking to a young leader, another leader right now, and you had a few sentences to leave for them, what would be something that you would say?

Musap (Moose) Abdel (38:56.852)
Yep.

Gordon Sheppard (39:23.746)
to make an impact on their leadership journey.

Musap (Moose) Abdel (39:27.904)
That's a tough question, Really. I don't like to give things without a real, tangible takeaway.

Musap (Moose) Abdel (39:49.522)
If a young leader is watching this, I would say three things.

Musap (Moose) Abdel (39:58.568)
Nike said it the best. Just do it.

Just do it, get your hands dirty. What does that mean? Not actually getting dirty in the mud. Like, start doing it. Start journaling. Remove the noise. And find someone that will champion you.

I that's the biggest takeaway. A lot of people, they're like, don't do this, don't do this. Find someone that will invest in you and be there for you no matter what. Yeah.

Gordon Sheppard (40:41.486)
That is just a wonderful, wonderful finish to a fantastic interview that I've learned a ton from. People have gotten to meet you. Moose, thank you so much for being on the show.

Musap (Moose) Abdel (40:49.077)
Yeah.

Musap (Moose) Abdel (40:53.536)
Thank you, man. I appreciate it. This is incredible.

Thank you.