Mo Gawdat

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About Mo Gawdat
Mo Gawdat is the Chief Business Officer for Google [X], a serial entrepreneur and author of “Solve for Happy.”
Mo has an impressive combined career of 27 years, starting at IBM Egypt as a Systems Engineer before moving to a sales role in the government sector. Venturing in to the UAE, Mo joined NCR Abu Dhabi to cover the non-finance sector. He then became acquainted with the consumer goods industry as Regional Manager of BAT. At Microsoft he assumed various roles over a span of seven and a half years, in his last role at Microsoft he headed the Communications Sector across Emerging Markets worldwide.
Mo joined Google in 2007 to kick-start its business in Emerging Markets. He is fascinated by the role that technology plays in empowering people in emerging communities and has dedicated years of his career towards that passion. Over a period of 6 years, Mo started close to half of Google’s operations worldwide.
In 2013 he moved to Google's infamous innovation arm, Google [X] where he lead the business strategy, planning, sales, business development and partnerships. [X] does not attempt to achieve incremental improvements in the way the world works, but instead, it tries to develop new technologies that will reinvent the way things are and deliver a radical, ten fold—10X—improvement. This leads to seemingly SciFi ideas such as: Project Loon, which aims to use high-altitude balloons to provide affordable internet access to the 5 billion people on every square inch of our planet, Project Makani, aiming to revolutionize wind energy generation using autonomous carbon fiber kites as well as Self driving cars, Google Life Sciences, and many more. The business team under Mo’s leadership has designed innovative business models analogous to the disruptive technologies [X] creates, and has created deep partnerships and global deals that enabled [X] to thrive and build products fit for the real world.
Alongside his career, Mo remained a serial entrepreneur who has cofounded more than 20 businesses in fields such as health and fitness, food and beverage and real estate. He served as a board member in several technology, health and fitness and consumer goods companies as well as several government technology and innovation boards in the Middle East and Eastern Europe. He mentors tens of start-ups at any point in time.
Mo Gawdat is the author of “Solve for Happy: Engineering Your Path to Joy” (2017). Through his 12 year research on the topic of happiness, he created an algorithm and a repeatable well engineered model to reach a state of uninterrupted happiness regardless of the circumstances of life. Mo's happiness model proved highly effective. And, in 2014, was put to the ultimate test when Mo lost his son Ali to preventable medical error during a simple surgical procedure. Solve For Happy is the pillar for a mission Mo has committed to as his personal moonshot, a mission to deliver his happiness message to 10 million people around the world.
Mohammad speaks Arabic, English, German. Outside of work, when he’s not writing or reading up on business and the latest technology innovations and trends, Mo spends his time drawing charcoal portraits, creating mosaics, carpentry and indulging in his passion for restoration of classic cars.
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Books By Mo Gawdat
'He explains how even in the face of the unthinkable, happiness is still possible' – Stylist
Solve for Happy is the equation for happiness. A startlingly original book about creating and maintaining happiness, written by a top Google executive with an engineer's training and fondness for thoroughly analyzing a problem.
In 2001, Mo Gawdat, a remarkable thinker whose gifts had landed him top positions in half a dozen companies and who – in his spare time – had created significant wealth, realized that he was desperately unhappy. A lifelong learner, he attacked the problem as an engineer would, examining all the provable facts and scrupulously following logic. When he was finished, he had discovered the equation for enduring happiness.
Ten years later, that research saved him from despair when his college-aged son, Ali – also intellectually gifted – died during routine surgery. In dealing with the loss, Mo found his mission: he would pull off the type of 'moonshot' that he and his Google [X] colleagues were always aiming for: he would help ten million people become happier by pouring his happiness principles into a book and spreading its message around the world.
One of Solve for Happy's key premises is that happiness is a default state. If we shape expectations to acknowledge the full range of possible events, unhappiness is on its way to being defeated. To steer clear of unhappiness traps, we must dispel the six illusions that cloud our thinking (e.g., the illusion of time, of control, and of fear); overcome the brain's seven deadly defects (e.g., the tendency to exaggerate, label, and filter), and embrace five ultimate truths (e.g., change is real, now is real, unconditional love is real).
By means of several highly original thought experiments, Mo helps readers find enduring contentment by questioning some of the most fundamental aspects of their existence.
'Everything he writes is an enlightening education in how to be human.' Elizabeth Day
To fix a machine, first you need to find out what’s wrong with it. To fix unhappiness, you need to find out what causes it.
That Little Voice in Your Head is the practical guide to retraining your brain for optimal joy by Mo Gawdat, the internationally bestselling author of Solve for Happy. Mo reveals how by beating negative self-talk, we can change our thought processes, turning our greed into generosity, our apathy into compassion and investing in our own happiness.
This book provides readers with exercises to help reshape their mental processes. Drawing on his expertise in programming and his knowledge of neuroscience, Mo explains how – despite their incredible complexity – our brains behave in ways that are largely predictable. From these insights, he delivers this user manual for happiness.
Inspired by the life of his late son, Ali, Mo Gawdat has set out to share a model for happiness based on generosity and empathy towards ourselves and others. Using his experience as a former Google engineer and Chief Business Officer, Mo shares his 'code' for reprogramming our brain and moving away from the misconceptions modern life gives us.
One of The Sunday Times' Business Books of the Year
Technology is putting our humanity at risk to an unprecedented degree. This book is not for engineers who write the code or the policy makers who claim they can regulate it. This is a book for you. Because, believe it or not, you are the only one that can fix it. – Mo Gawdat
Artificial intelligence is smarter than humans. It can process information at lightning speed and remain focused on specific tasks without distraction. AI can see into the future, predicting outcomes and even use sensors to see around physical and virtual corners. So why does AI frequently get it so wrong?
The answer is us. Humans design the algorithms that define the way that AI works, and the processed information reflects an imperfect world. Does that mean we are doomed? In Scary Smart, Mo Gawdat, the internationally bestselling author of Solve for Happy, draws on his considerable expertise to answer this question and to show what we can all do now to teach ourselves and our machines how to live better. With more than thirty years' experience working at the cutting-edge of technology and his former role as chief business officer of Google [X], no one is better placed than Mo Gawdat to explain how the Artificial Intelligence of the future works.
By 2049 AI will be a billion times more intelligent than humans. Scary Smart explains how to fix the current trajectory now, to make sure that the AI of the future can preserve our species. This book offers a blueprint, pointing the way to what we can do to safeguard ourselves, those we love and the planet itself.
C’est l’objet de ce livre. Dans L’Equation du bonheur, l’auteur passe en revue les aspects les plus fondamentaux de notre existence, décrypte les motifs sous-jacents de nos difficultés, et trace un processus étape par étape pour atteindre un niveau de bonheur optimal, comme il le ferait dans une logique « problème-solution » de développeur.
Le message est clair : les humains sont conçus pour être heureux. Mais quand la vie est jonchée d’épreuves, nous avons besoin de réinitialiser et de rétablir notre mode de bonheur naturel. En tant qu’ingénieur du très secret programme Google [X], Mo a toujours fasciné par le défi de faire redémarrer le bonheur quand il semble disparaître.
Vous aussi, trouvez votre propre bouton « reset » et mettez en place un algorithme pour plus de bonheur dans votre vie !
Años más tarde, el algoritmo de Mo fue sometido a una durísima prueba cuando su hijo, Ali, murió de manera repentina. Él y su familia pusieron en práctica la ecuación y pudieron salir de la desesperación y recuperase de la tragedia. Después de vivir esta experiencia, Gawdat decidió que compartiría su algoritmo con el mundo y ayudaría al mayor número de personas posible a ser más feliz.
En El algoritmo de la felicidad, el autor nos explica las razones subyacentes al sufrimiento y nos enseña, paso a paso, cómo despejar la fórmula para lograr una felicidad para toda la vida enseñándonos a disipar las ilusiones que nublan nuestro pensamiento.
Il risultato, dopo anni di ricerca, è una "equazione della felicità" basata sulla comprensione di come il cervello assorbe ed elabora gioia e tristezza e un percorso passo passo, praticabile e concreto, per mantenere la gioia nella nostra vita superando i momenti difficili.
Ma è proprio vero? Pochi anni fa l'equazione è stata messa alla prova nel modo più difficile: il figlio di Mo, Ali, è morto improvvisamente e lui e la sua famiglia sono riusciti ad affrontare la disperazione e a ritrovare la voglia di vivere proprio grazie al metodo sviluppato da Mo.
Da quel momento l'autore ha deciso di portare la sua "formula" a più persone possibile e questo libro è oggi la sua missione. Il messaggio è chiaro: non importa quali e quanti ostacoli troviamo sulla nostra strada, tutti possiamo raggiungere la gioia del presente e un atteggiamento ottimistico verso il futuro. Perché la felicità è il nostro stato naturale, basta solo risvegliare il bambino dentro di noi.
13 Jahre später kam der härteste Test für Gawdats Glücksalgorithmus – sein Sohn starb völlig unerwartet mit 21 Jahren. Doch die Gleichung ging auf und verhinderte, dass er und seine Familie in völlige Verzweiflung abglitten. Nach der weitestmöglichen Verarbeitung dieses Verlustes fand Mo Gawdat seine Mission: die Verbreitung der Formel, die ihm geholfen hat, sein Leid zu überwinden.
Seine Formel hilft heute jedem, wieder klarer zu sehen, die richtigen Prioritäten zu setzen und so zufriedener in die Zukunft zu starten – ob privat oder im Beruf. Die Formel für Glück beantwortet somit eine der häufigsten Fragen: Was kann ich tun, um glücklicher zu werden?
Mo Gawdat, der Bestsellerautor von Die Formel des Glücks und ehemalige Chief Business Officer von Google [X], kennt die Antwort auf diese Frage: Es liegt an uns Menschen, die die KI mit Informationen über unsere unvollkommene Welt füttern und so ihre Arbeitsweise grundlegend bestimmen.
Um unsere Zukunft zu sichern, müssen wir das zukünftig besser machen. Und unseren Maschinen beibringen, wie wir besser leben können – nur dann kann KI dabei helfen, die Zukunft unsere Spezies und des Planeten zu erhalten.