'Lee Kwan Yew's book inspired me to build my business'

Talking books with Nour Al Hassan, CEO of Tarjama and Ureed.com

What book(s) are you reading at the moment?
Factfulness by Hans Rosling. News, nowadays, is all doom and gloom, often highlighting the number of crimes in so-and-so city, the political instability in country X, and the spreading diseases in continent Y... which isn't far from reality - but it becomes exhausting when it's all you hear and read about. This book highlights the opposite: how the world moves toward positivity, the fact that medicine is improving, and life expectancies are increasing. It's not grim and it is important for me to focus on positives when I wake up everyday to run two businesses. It keeps me on the right track.
What are the books that changed your life and shaped your outlook?
From Third World to First: The Singapore Story by Lee Kwan Yew. This man took a land that was bare and flooded, with poor infrastructure, a disheartened population and mediocre educational system and shifted a country categorised as 'third world' to where it is today: economically attractive, servicing Southeast Asia and the Middle East as an international hub, housing the cleanest cities and offering a top-notch educational system. He was a determined person with high ethics, fought corruption and grew a country from nothing. The transformation story really inspired how I built Tarjama and Ureed from scratch and out of need for high quality content. If he could grow a country, I believed I most certainly could grow a business.
Most memorable literary character - and why?
Not one, but all the characters in The Little Prince. I read the book growing up and the characters charmingly make several observations about life and human nature, many of which spoke to me at several milestones, with the most resonating "You become responsible, forever, for what you have tamed."
A book you think is underrated?
Rework by Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson is a book we should be making much more noise about. It contains lessons one should read daily as a reminder of how to conduct work, and goes against the grain of everything we're told about the business world. "Plan! Strategise! Be Busy!" Who says busy is productive? Who says you have to plan long-term? It contradicts all modern-day business clichés so smoothly, stemming from a logical and realistic approach I can connect to.
Your favourite book quote.
"Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven't found it yet, keep looking. Don't settle. As with all matters of the heart, you'll know when you find it." - Steve Jobs