Editor’s Note: The Readiness Paradox

As I write my first note as the Editor in Chief of Entrepreneur Middle East, I remember 2016/2017, when I was promoted to my first editorial leadership role, and I was not ready. I did not expect a promotion to bring so much anxiety. It was one of the most difficult years of my career.

Now, having served as Managing Editor of Entrepreneur Middle East for nine years, I know the brand inside out. I’ve lived through its best and most challenging moments, and during that time, I’ve experienced some of the highest highs and lowest lows of my personal life.

Today, the Entrepreneur Middle East brand and I are at peace. We are ready for each other. And together, we are ready to bring out the very best in one another.

With this story, I want to make two points:

Too often today, people are elevated before they are prepared. Titles arrive before perspective. Authority arrives before wisdom. It leaves them looking like an elephant in a china shop: moving fast, breaking things, and failing to understand the responsibility that comes with occupying the room. Wait until you are ready.

Then there are times we are not ready for, and never will be. Like the uncertainty all of us in the UAE and the GCC have lived through since February 28, 2026. Yet the lesson here is the opposite: do not wait to be ready. Think, pivot, change direction 300 times, try 3,000 other things to get to the other side.

The key is knowing the difference between the moments that require patience and those that require action.