Identity and Values

I'm Tarek, I've been living in Auckland for almost five years now, but I'm originally from Lebanon. I understand the importance of having an individual identity, but I'm also from a place where a misplaced sense of pride towards one's identity led to a lot of conflict and human suffering. Due to this, I feel like I identify as a human more than I identify as someone from a specific ethnicity or country. The things I value most are honesty, empathy, and having a growth mindset.

I'm originally from Lebanon, a country plagued by corruption and greed, especially coming from the leaders. Most educated youth end up leaving the country due to a lack of opportunity.

Strengths

My personal and professional experiences helped me gain a number of strengths.
Learning
Making decisions quickly
Thriving in chaos and ambiguity
Empathic
Driven to Succeed

'Strengths' is a deceptive word, since the above traits aren't exclusively strengths - they can also be framed in a way to be seen as weaknesses. My empathy means I can sometimes become a little to emotional. My drive to succeed has led to burnout on several occassions. Because I thrive in uncertainty, I find it hard to organize myself properly, and my thoughts tend to be quite scattered.

Working collaboratively

As someone who's started a few businesses, and who is currently operating a business, I've grown a habit of working almost exclusively alone. Even in my professional full-time job on the Technical Team, I work individually, not collaboratively.
That said, I have worked on group projects before, and they can sometimes frustrate me. I'm looking forward to learning how to better work with other perople, and how to collaborate as part of a team.