A LEGENDARY business icon has described his journey of success from a penniless Palestinian refugee forcibly removed from his hometown to a now world-renowned businessman.
Dubbed the godfather of Arab accounting, Dr Talal Abu Ghazaleh is the founder and chairman of international Jordan-based Talal Abu Ghazaleh Organisation (TAG-Org) which is a provider of professional services with around 180 offices around the world.
At the age of 10, Dr Abu Ghazaleh and his family fled gunfire in his birthplace of Jaffa on board a cargo ship heading to Lebanon – just one day before the declaration of the State of Israel on May 14, 1948.
Blessing
Denied the joys of a typical childhood, Dr Abu Ghazaleh recalls times when he carried a box on his back selling ice cream and sometimes worked in a vegetable shop to sustain a living for his family, which at that time relied on assistance from United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA).
However, he said he saw a blessing in every hardship and believed he would not have made it to global fame if not for the struggle.
He was speaking to the GDN as he launched the English version of his autobiography, Blankets Become Jackets, at a ceremony held at the Shaikh Ebrahim bin Mohammed Centre for Culture and Research in Muharraq.
The title of the book comes from how his mother had no choice but to turn blankets given by the UNRWA for Palestine Refugees in the Near East into jackets to help her children survive the harsh weather in Ghaziyah, a coastal village in south of Lebanon where Dr Abu Ghazaleh’s family moved to after the ethnic cleansing of original inhabitants of Palestine by Israel.
“We could not afford to buy jackets as we did not have a single penny on us,” the 78-year-old business leader told the GDN.
“The creativity of my mother led her to take a blanket that was offered by UNRWA and to cut it into a jacket and since my mother had no idea about tailoring, it hardly looked like one.
“Students laughed at me, but in my great pride I smiled at them and said that I fully understand their feelings of jealousy because I am wearing a blanket which makes me really feel warm unlike their jackets which may have looked nicer but certainly didn’t make them feel warmer.”
In 1950 the entire family moved from Ghaziyah to Beirut after he got a scholarship to attend high school in Al Maqasid Al Islamiyya, a charitable society that still runs schools and hospitals for underprivileged families.
He was initially dismissed by the school registrar for not having the money to pay tuition fees but he managed to get the grant after a promise to the head of the society that he would be the top student all year round.
“I didn’t give up. I asked about the home address of the president, Muhammad Salam, and knocked on his door,” explained Dr Abu Ghazaleh.
“When he was informed that a young boy is at his door, he was kind enough to let me in.
“I told him that I came to seek his kind scholarship under the condition that if I am the first in my class ‘you will keep me in school for a full scholarship and if I did not make it as the top in my class then I may be dismissed’.
“He was first hesitant and he did not want to make it a precedent.
“I told him to look at it this way; first, I am a Palestinian refugee, a member of a 13-member family, my father is 85 years old and we are living on UNRWA help in Ghaziya, which means I would have to relocate to Beirut with my family to attend secondary school in Sidon. How many students will you receive who have a similar situation as mine?
“He started writing a note to the school to enrol me and grant me a scholarship if I proved to be a top student.
“I stopped him and made him change that to a top student in every subject and not just on average.
“He said I was making it very difficult on myself and that I am too confident.
“However, I explained to him that this is something far stronger than confidence. It was a need.”
Just like in the village, Dr Abu Ghazaleh lived in a two-room apartment with his family in Beirut, one of which was his parents’ bedroom, while the other one was a multi-purpose room where the children slept, ate, studied and played.
Just as he was ready to attend university, UNRWA announced one scholarship to a Palestinian refugee which Dr Abu Ghazaleh had set his sights on.
His grades earned him a full scholarship to the University of Beirut, where he studied business administration and graduated with distinction.
With a profile that can fill tens of pages, Dr Abu Ghazaleh has led an impressive personal and professional career and is currently the chairman of the Arab Coalition of Services and a member of the World Trade Organisation Panel on Defining the Future of Trade.
He is known for introducing the concept of ‘Intellectual Property’ to the Arab world and is listed in the IP Hall of Fame in Chicago, US, and has served on the board of the UN Global Compact and as chairman of the UN Global Alliance for ICT and Development.
Accomplishments
He also founded the Talal Abu Ghazaleh University College of Business (TAG-UCB), a world class university in Suwayfia that selects top students and prepares them to become business professionals.
Dr Abu Ghazaleh said the secret to his accomplishments has always been his ability to see happiness in everything.
“If you are not happy you cannot achieve anything,” he said.
“If you are miserable or uncomfortable with yourself or have a sense of resentment or hatred you can never achieve anything great.
“I describe my journey as a life blessed by suffering as every challenge always came with benefits.
“For example, I wouldn’t have felt that grateful for my health today if it hadn’t been for the four hours I had walked from Ghaziyah to Sidon for school every day.”
His autobiography, Blankets Become Jackets, is available on www.talalabughazaleh.com.
A number of books have also been written about him, including one that was published by Egypt’s Al Ahram and written by Maher Makled under the title “Talal Abu-Ghazaleh – Rise to the Top”.
shahlaa@gdn.com.bh
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