The chief executive of the Organic Foods & Café chain, Nils el Accad, 41, was born in Germany, grew up in Dubai and graduated from the London School of Economics. With no success using conventional medicine to treat a long-term illness, he found a cure in homeopathy. His passion for natural products led him to open four organic cafes in the GCC
1. Expectations are the cause of all disappointments. If you don't expect anything you will never be disappointed. This ideal helps keep your expectations realistic when it comes to dealing with people or certain situations. In my experience, you should never expect more from anyone than what you would be willing to do yourself. Not everyone is willing to go the extra mile. This can be a hard lesson to learn.
2. Listen. If you want things done to your liking, patience is key. You need to take the time for explanation. The saying "Do it yourself" is not always possible, but the better the explanation, the less frustration and better chance of getting what you want.
3.Change starts with yourself. Simply hoping for your life to be different in some way is unrealistic. If you do not take control and change yourself or the way you look at something, it will keep being as it is. This holds true for the environment, too. If you don't start protecting it, no one will. Everyone can do their bit by buying into organic and social responsibility standards, or even just remembering to reduce, reuse and recycle.
4. You are never alone. Help is always there, you just have to be open to it. Whatever your tasks or goals are in life, if you do things from the heart and don't give up, someone will soon volunteer to stand next to you to help. Be optimistic. Life is short and should be fun.
5. Grow vegetables. It's something that teaches you so much: respect for the environment, patience, good quality and good food, balance, respect for those who work hard on the land, a realisation about how fragile life is, how strong the will to survive is, and faith.
As told to Jemma Nicholls
