Against All Odds: HRH Princess Lamia Bint Majed Saud AlSaud "I do everything with passion; I would never succeed in anything I wasn't passionate about."
By Tamara Pupic
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Against All Odds is an Entrepreneur Middle East Live webinar series that features enterprising women who have risen above personal and professional challenges to develop solutions, launch businesses, and lead global initiatives that make them inspirational role models around the world.
In this edition of Against All Odds, we present the career of HRH Princess Lamia Bint Majed Saud AlSaud, Secretary General and member of the Board of Trustees at Alwaleed Philanthropies, which has been focused on tackling social, cultural and economic challenges, especially in the area of youth and women's empowerment.
A journalist by education, Princess Lamia started the publishing company Sada Al Arab in 2003, working as the Editor in Chief of three magazines. "I do everything with passion; I would never succeed in anything I wasn't passionate about," said HRH Princess Lamia. "I am very passionate of empowering women who want to be empowered. For example, at the beginning of my career, a reader [of one of my magazines] sent me a letter, and I invited her to my office. Her dream was to be a writer, so I decided to train her although I was just a fresh grad back then. She is now one of the well known female writers in Egypt. I am so proud of this, because I wasn't that experienced at all, but I was passionate. That is why I believe that passion is the most important."
In 2010, Princess Lamia published her first novel, Children & Blood, which tackles the complex issue of honor killings and reflects on the harsh realities often faced by women in the Middle East. "It was a very strong novel and I insisted on publishing it under my own name, because I am very proud of what I do," Princess Lamia said. "If you believe in what you do, even if there are some obstacles, there will become only challenges that you actually enjoy going through. I enjoy challenges a lot because I like to figure out solutions."
Today, Princess Lamia leads a team of 10 women at Alwaleed Philanthropies who work in four key areas- developing communities, building cross-cultural bridges, empowering women and youth, and providing disaster relief. When asked for advice for those who wish to realize success in their lives and careers, she replied, "Everyone has the right to get an opportunity to achieve what they want. Nowadays, women get a lot of chances, and this is a test for us because there are no excuses anymore, like "I'm not allowed' and so on. Today, women should make sure to succeed brilliantly."
For more highlights from our conversation with Princess Lamia, check out the video.
Related: Against All Odds: Farah Nabulsi, Filmmaker and Human Rights Advocate
