A journey of venturing,
adversity & transformation.
I am Walid,
I work with first-time founder CEOs facing intense growth pressures and feeling trapped in survival mode by the fear of not being enough to deliver on expectations. I guide you through a transformative journey, reprogramming your mindset and empowering you to show up authentically. Together, we change your reality—breaking free from survival mode to thrive effortlessly. Scaling becomes seamless, growth happens, and your impact spreads.
I am a certified Deep Transformation Coach and Life Design Coach with a decade in the people development and coaching space and three decades of global entrepreneurship. Like yours, my story is also one of great venturing, great adversity, and great transformations into higher forms of my being…
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Living fully against all odds
I am not supposed to be here.
My birth was accidental.
My childhood and teen years were stolen by fear, terror, and the specter of death that comes with being born into war.
Not until I escaped the war at age 17 and the fear of death ceased to be omnipresent, did I fully realize the preciousness of life and decided to make every moment count. That was my second rebirth.
An artist in my soul, I followed my curiosity in the social sciences before making my professional debut on the business stage. I lived the first half of my career journey like Homer did his Odyssey. I ventured. Pulled towards adventure and novelty, I searched for causes to serve with a thirst for the impossible task. My drive and motivation came from deep whys, burning desires, and stubborn beliefs. Oblivious to risk and mindless of danger, I swam against the currents, rejected conformity, and dreamed visions of impact and significance.
Resilience was the name of the game.
Stress, overwhelm, overwork, sleepless nights, chest pains, panic attacks, mild depression, burnouts, autoimmune flare-ups, and other mental, social, and physical dysfunctions, were an evil but necessary part of how I chose to play the game. So I rationalized.
It all seemed to work, until the dam of resilience broke, and nothing worked anymore.
The moment of truth
At midlife, I embarked on my most daring adventure yet. The stakes were the highest I had ever wagered. The vision was the biggest I had ever dreamed. I overreached, overshot, and tripped. Nothing new. Normally I get up, shake off the dust, and start climbing again.
This time it was different. This time the valley felt deeper than usual, and the summit like it would never be reached. Energy was depleting faster than I could generate motivation. Concentration and focus became almost impossible to will. Clarity seemed buried in a deeper mental fog. The permanence of self-doubt and skepticism ate confidence. Fatigue and drag became the unwanted guests that lurked around from dawn to dusk. All kinds of invaders violated my immune barriers and wreaked havoc on my biological system.
Most alarming of all, the access to an infinite source of imagination, creativity, and inspiration that gave meaning to my life and fueled my career, seemed like it was shut off for good. This time the burnout was scarier than usual. It risked being a show-stopper.
When continuing to tolerate was no longer an option, I decided to stop tolerating.
I decided to stop accepting the cocktail of stress, overwhelm, overwork, panic attacks, anxiety, burnouts, and the rest as evil but necessary parts of playing the game fully, when I understood that they were unnecessarily limiting the play, ruining the game, and killing the players. I stopped wanting to engage in the game in the same way when I understood that, depending on how you play, winning could also mean checkmate.
Giving up on even bigger and more beautiful dreams for the second half of my life and career was not an option. I became obsessed with finding a way to continue to live on the edge, to dare big achievements, to make bold moves, and to deliver impactful results, while minimizing emotional suffering and irreparable mental and physical damage. I became fixated on not only rebuilding my resilience but also finding a way to bypass resistance altogether.
That’s when I began to do my life’s most important work yet. The inner-work.
Eyes wide open
That’s when the real journey started for me. My third rebirth.
The journey inside the journey. The journey deep into the mind. The one paved with deeply coded beliefs and shaped by hard-wired thought patterns, habitual sense perceptions, and automatic emotional triggers. The one etched in our subconscious below the surface of our experience. The journey traveled in the silence of solitude and pursued with a stubborn quest for the truth. The journey back to the unconditioned, powerful, and limitless Self.
The decision to invest countless hours to explore, inquire, research, discover, study, apply, practice, and embody the best teachings from ancient masters and new age gurus in the sciences of self-discovery, self-actualization, personal transformation, ontology, human psychology, philosophy, neuroplasticity, metaphysics, and spirituality; shifted my self-concept and identity and transformed my relationship with myself and with the world permanently.
While nothing changed in the outer context, everything shifted in my inner environment. The game that I wanted to transform ended up transforming me. From a nervous player fighting for every inch and being drained by the game, to a trusting witness holding the playbook with confidence in the ultimate score. From obsessing about the win to falling in love with every play. From sleepwalking through the field to being the one called upon.
The journey ahead
The beautiful thing about the inner work is that it's endless.
The more of it you do, the more you get to BE, the more you get to do.
Much has been done. Much more remains.
My only mission going forward is to deepen my mastery of the inner work that transforms, liberates, and allows one to soar as close to the sun as their imagination can take them without burning their wings.
I intend to share my work with all those who have chosen to live their Odysseys fully, who resonate with my story, who suffer from the same ills, and who want the same lasting cure.
Through my coaching, my writing, my consulting work, and my entrepreneurial ventures, I aim and hope to help as many freed souls as possible accelerate the unfolding of their unique journeys of becoming who they were always meant to be and leave their mark on the world.
My “I”OS
Love
Unconditional love of everything and everybody is my source code. I was programmed to express love and kindness as the only form of being. It’s the transformation supper-power at the heart of my coaching.
Generosity
I am pathologically wired to serve beyond expectations and to please without limits. This divergence is a valuable asset that my clients experience first and foremost, and tap into regularly in the course of our work together.
Authenticity
Uniqueness of experience is a big deal for me. Cookie-cutter coaching is not my style. I am in the business of facilitating profound transformations, impacting lives in meaningful and durable ways, and building life long friendships.
Acceptance
I come from a place of openness, abundance, pure intent, and possibility. I befriend and invite vulnerabilities, in me and others, to express freely and release from fear of perceptions.
Joy
Joy is my highest purpose, my refuge and my home. It's where I live and where I thrive. It’s my default way of being. I show up everyday to consume and serve joy, no matter what the “Plat du Jour” happens to be.
An enlightened humanity awakened to life’s intelligence.
We live in highly disruptive times, socially, economically and environmentally. With or without A.I., the path that the world is on is headed towards the collapse of our civilization as we know it and the extinction of our species, as we currently manifest. A different way of being and operating is needed for the human experience as we know it to survive, and thrive.
A mass scale transformation of our current paradigm is needed. More of us are awakening to this realization, deepening the reflection around who we are and what our role is here, and evolving our thinking around how we want to live, and what kind of world we want to live in and leave behind. Evolution is our birthright and natural inclination. Our collective history of transformation and rebirth is evidence.
The more of us awake to who we truly are and what this is all about, the more of us become enlightened by the potential that lies ahead, the more of us enterprise, the more powerful the movement becomes, and the more possible our task of reinventing our future and defeating our odds becomes. Guided by life’s infinite and bountiful intelligence, and aided by the artificial ones we create in the process.
I am on a mission to live as much of my full humanity as attainable in one lifetime, and breathe life into every form of life around me. Through my being, and through my doing, I aspire to serve the awakening of many enterprising beings and accelerate the transition towards a healthier, more caring, more joyful, and more meaningfully productive society.
Walid is a father, a writer, a coach, and an entrepreneur. He works with first-time founder CEOs facing intense growth pressures and trapped in survival mode by the fear of not being enough to meet expectations. He guides them through a transformative journey, reprogramming their mindset and empowering them to show up authentically. He enables them to change their realities—breaking free from survival mode to thrive effortlessly. Scaling becomes seamless, growth happens, and their impact spreads.
Walid spent the last decade in the personal development, professional skilling and coaching space and served hundred of clients. He co-lead the build out and operations of a career education and placement center inside a global business university serving more than 3,000 international students, before managing the regional P&L of a digital skilling platform for adult learners and life shifters, and most recently, founding an adulting bootcamp for self-determining teen agers breaking the mold.
Prior to the people space, Walid spent close to a decade in the sustainability and clean-technology sector. He co-founded and led a boutique consultancy that operated at the intersection of technology, industrial transformation and policy, acted as the France ambassador to the Clinton Foundation Climate Initiative, and advised the state of Qatar on a sustainability strategy for World Cup 2022. He started his career in management consulting advising clients in the electronic payments and banking sector on new product launches and market expansions. He made several forays into corporate development where he served in key roles towards the launch of new strategic initiatives and brand new ventures.
He earned an MBA from HEC School of Management in Paris, and a BA in political economics from the University of California at Berkeley. He pursued an InnerMBA offered by a partnership of LinkedIn, Wisdom 2.0, and SoundsTrue. He is a certified Deep Transformational Coach from the Center for Transformational Coaching, and a Life Design Coach from the Life Design Lab, an offshoot of the Hasso Plattner Institute of Design at Stanford.
He is a citizen of three countries and currently lives with his wife and two teenage boys in Seattle, Washington.
My work.
Some coaches are like talking to a TV. They don’t really listen, and seem to have their own agenda to push. Some coaches are like talking to someone through a glass window...
Some coaches are like talking to a TV. They don’t really listen, never really respond to what you are saying, and seem to have their own agenda to push. Some coaches are like talking to someone through a glass window. There’s some connection, but mostly you are talking past each other. Other coaches, like Walid, are like a mirror. Not one of those “magic mirror on the wall” mirrors, but one of those illuminated, two-sided mirrors where one side shows you things as they are, while the other side shows you things in a more magnified way. Walid is a master at knowing when to show you how things are, how things look upon closer inspection, and how to “turn on the light” to illuminate the things one might miss upon a cursory glance at oneself. Walid has helped me see myself in a different light. When overly focused on the ugly details of a situation, he’s helped to flip my perspective, take a step back, be kind to myself, and see things as they are. He’s led me through a number of exercises and encouraged me to go into places (even the boardroom of my own mind) that I would not have gone to myself. What I value most about Walid is his ability to listen, to reflect, to recount, and to reframe. He’s humble, approachable, wise, clear and challenging. I’m happy to not only call him my coach and “professional development partner,” but happier to also call him a friend.
Before I met Walid I had a vision, general ideas and goals. Pursuing them was like hiking a dense forest obscured by the shadows of doubt and fear, and the lack of commitment that comes from lack...
Before I met Walid I had a vision, general ideas and goals. Pursuing them was like hiking a dense forest obscured by the shadows of doubt and fear, and the lack of commitment that comes from lack of faith and detailed process.
From the moment I met Walid, I was drawn to his aura of soothing settlement. I had never had a coach before, and felt that if I were to dive into this new experiment, I’d like it to be with him. Two and a half years later, Walid’s ability to weave seamlessly between the practicalities of navigating my professional landscape and the profound depths of self-discovery, helped me cultivate a deeper sense of self and ground my decisions with a newfound inner faith and confidence.
Walid is a master listener, always ready to meet each topic I bring with open ears, and an open heart. No judgment and an unassuming wisdom. His guidance has transcended the professional realm, impacting my life in ways I'm still discovering. He became a partner in my decisions, a sounding board in times of doubt, and a cheerleader for my personal growth and the growth of my business.
To every founder who wants to accelerate the realisation of their vision, I say this: find your Walid. He's a catalyst for transformation, a co-pilot on the journey to the destination.
As a young leader of complex programs and professionals, my journey is often not straightforward. The time Walid and I spend together is dedicated to troubleshooting and...
As a young leader of complex programs and professionals, my journey is often not straightforward. The time Walid and I spend together is dedicated to troubleshooting and optimizing a path that is uniquely my own.
At the same time, there are elements common to all journeys regardless of who we are or the space we occupy. These elements make the conceptual frameworks and practical tools/resources that Walid uses to guide the process of reflection and creation very helpful.
Walid promotes a comprehensive approach to life management that encompasses the professional and the personal self, considerations of time, passion, value, and impact. This approach is gained from a large amount of literature and qualitative research, as well as the vast and rich lived experience he has gathered from all the ups and downs on his own journey.
I would recommend Walid as a very talented, highly adaptable, deeply accountable thought partner/coach/accountability partner/Sherpa (whatever this means to you!). I would say this is especially true for those on the non-traditional journey. Happy Discovery!
As a 15-year Venture Capital investor focused on high growth software companies, I have had the chance to work with many executive coaches as they assist first time CEOs and Senior Executives...
As a 15-year Venture Capital investor focused on high growth software companies, I have had the chance to work with many executive coaches as they assist first time CEOs and Senior Executives with the challenges of growing a company, scaling a team, implementing larger deals and of course facing the inevitable challenges that come along the way. For the most part, executive coaches I have encountered use a cookie-cutter approach and are difficult to differentiate. That changed for me when I met Walid and decided to work with him when I left a comfortable partner position to launch my own investment fund. For 3 years, from launch to now growth, Walid was there, along the way, coaching me, and providing me a space to challenge my inner programming to achieve success. He effectively combines the practical and mind, the subjective with the objective. Being a founder and a leader doesn't stop in the office, you are constantly 24/7 living and breathing your objectives. What do you do when anxiety hits? Catastrophic thinking? The highs of a win and the lows of a loss? Who do you turn to? I know who I turn to.
I look forward to my weekly sessions with Walid. He has become an essential part of the firm and portfolio's success. I now refer him to all our portfolio companies and other investment firms for his skills. Describing Walid's program and approach defies words, you have to experience it.
Growing a high-scale business and having a family with young children is no easy feat. The stakes are high on both sides, and it is imperative that I live with intentionality, efficiency, and...
Growing a high-scale business and having a family with young children is no easy feat. The stakes are high on both sides, and it is imperative that I live with intentionality, efficiency, and clarity. The need to re-design my Inner “Operating System” was clear, but I was deeply struggling, jumping from fire to fire.
Walid’s program and partnership has allowed me to regain control of life, yielding significant growth in my business and my person. His programming has allowed me to become a witness to my life and empower transformative change in how I show up everyday that I never thought possible.
I wholeheartedly recommend Walid to anyone seeking a transformative coaching experience, that is way beyond what you might think coaching is or is not. I can’t wait to discover what the next weeks and months bring from our work together. It’s truly the gift that keeps on giving.
I met Walid at a time when what I needed, I thought was a quick shot of advice. He gave me much more. Walid is very perceptive and he meets you where you are—he doesn't use a formula or take you on...
I met Walid at a time when what I needed, I thought was a quick shot of advice. He gave me much more. Walid is very perceptive and he meets you where you are—he doesn't use a formula or take you on a cookie-cutter coaching path. He listens deeply and then designs a path just for you. He offers thoughtful questions that make you reflect on what you want and how to be the best version of yourself.
He’s warm-hearted, responsive and generous in his approach. He's not the kind of person who sends you in circles—he celebrates your clarity with you. Who would I recommend Walid to? Anyone seeking practical guidance and advice in a time of transition, especially those seeking wisdom and empowerment in a time of meaningful transformations in their lives. Enjoy!
Walid was instrumental in supporting my most recent professional metamorphosis in how I show up and contribute, and my personal transition into a more poised and purposeful operator in whatever I...
Walid was instrumental in supporting my most recent professional metamorphosis in how I show up and contribute, and my personal transition into a more poised and purposeful operator in whatever I tackled next.
Through structured listening and coaching sessions we charted a course for a more fulfilling tomorrow. I appreciated the clarity and challenges he brought to the discussions, the navigational support, and the confidence boost that came from having someone like him in my corner.
The engagement resulted in a year of growth and learning (mostly by doing) and several calculated leaps. Happily, I'm now leading a complex multi-year global health research and software initiative with the potential to significantly advance development sector practices.
The past year of partnering with Walid has been transformative on many levels. He's supported me on a journey to better understand and reinvent myself ...
The past year of partnering with Walid has been transformative on many levels. He's supported me on a journey to better understand and reinvent myself and I how I show up in my personal and professional life. He's helped me build awareness through deep noticing, listening, synthesizing, and questioning results I did not want, behaviours I never noticed, and belief systems I did not know I had signed up for. His approach and line of questioning evoked deep insights in me of the opportunities and challenges before me, leading to breakthroughs in intentionally and positively evolving my mindset. I'm a better leader, husband, parent, community member, and all-around person because of what I have been led to reflect on and gain insight from, by Walid and with Walid!
Walid is not your typical coach. I have been fortunate enough to work with him for two years now, and I can confidently say that it has been a transformative journey.
Walid is not your typical coach. I have been fortunate enough to work with him for two years now, and I can confidently say that it has been a transformative journey. He has an unparalleled ability to listen, and he does it with an open mind and an open heart. His empathetic nature and emotional intelligence create a safe space where I feel heard, understood, and supported.
What sets Walid apart is not just his expertise but his genuine kindness and compassion. He has a remarkable gift for quickly understanding people’s struggles, seeing the potential in them and guiding them towards solutions. Thanks to him, I am in the process of pivoting professionally with more courage, clarity and determination.
The time spent with Walid is not just well spent; it’s invaluable to the point where I’m always looking forward to our next session. Each conversation leaves me feeling empowered, confident and re-centered on myself. He has become the voice of reason and encouragement - a voice that has managed to stay and echo within me long after a session is over, guiding me through my day-to-day until we meet again. This tangible impact is the ultimate testament to the effectiveness of his coaching.
Having Walid as a coach has been a game-changer, and my life is surely transforming for the better. I am grateful for his wisdom and support, and I can't recommend him highly enough to anyone seeking help navigating tough challenges. You’ll be rewarded with way more than you think.
I’ve worked with Walid as I navigated a professional transition in a very complex time in my personal life. Since our first session, Walid impressed me with his ability to ask... thoughtful questions
I’ve worked with Walid as I navigated a professional transition in a very complex time in my personal life. Since our first session, Walid impressed me with his ability to ask thoughtful questions as a way to help me gain clarity on my own goals and better seize perceived challenges along the way. Walid was very quick to understand what was holding me back. He encouraged me to test different approaches and pushed my thinking to explore new directions that were pivotal in my growth, and essential to realize my full potential.
Every so often I find myself asking what would be Walid’s thoughtful question that would help me understand why I am thinking in a certain way and where I should take my thoughts when making critical decisions. His approach has also been invaluable in teaching me how to guide my team in their own individual growth trajectory. After working with Walid, I feel much more confident in my ability to continue to grow and succeed.
I was fortunate to work with Walid at a critical crossroads in my career and in my life. During Covid I found myself looking for a new direction and engaged the services of Walid to help me...
I was fortunate to work with Walid at a critical crossroads in my career and in my life. During Covid I found myself looking for a new direction and engaged the services of Walid to help me navigate that path. I was keen to jump straight back into the market and seek a position in line with my prior role and experience. Walid encouraged me to pause, take stock, welcome, and accept the opportunity to consider options and to go through a process to determine the right path for me. Walid did a great job of holding up the mirror in a thought provoking way. He quickly identified that my inclination is to not waste time and seek a quick solution and instead highlighted the value of my experience and the wide range of opportunities that might be open to me that better align with my passions.
This time of reflection was invaluable on a personal and professional level. For the first time in my career, I spent time evaluating what was important to me and what would define a successful next step. After exploring a number of options I ultimately found a great senior position in the Space industry, a field I have always had passion for but where I perceived I had no directly applicable experience.
Walid was great to work with, he took time to understand what made me tick, highly intuitive in challenging perceived notions of value, great at connecting me with a wide range of resources to engage with as I considered options and skilled in herding a scattering of ideas into a strategic roadmap that ultimately took me in a direction I would not have travelled alone. Ultimately the whole experience was extremely rewarding with a successful outcome.
As a leader in a highly-competitive tech environment, I navigate uncharted territories, often with limited visibility and certainty. For a long time, this scared me. So, I started working with Walid.
As a leader in a highly-competitive tech environment, I navigate uncharted territories, often with limited visibility and certainty. For a long time, this scared me. So, I started working with Walid. My goal was to build inner strength, maturity and confidence in how I approach critical decisions.
Walid is an incredibly talented coach, listener, advisor and advocate. Through active listening and deep questioning, Walid has helped me master my inner dialogue and build extraordinary levels of discipline and mental toughness. He has helped me reframe, restructure and re-wire my inner thoughts. In a practical, deeply personal and human approach. Using action, not perfection. Kindness, not self-doubt. Reflection and non-conformism. Thanks to Walid, I am able to effectively use the different voices in my head to calm my anxiety, weigh the trade-offs and get clarity on the way forward.
If you’re hungry for growth and constantly seek to transform, learn and develop, Walid's program will show you that there are no boundaries to personal development, no matter your story and your context.