Sheikh Mohammed Al Thani inspires AUS students during lecture

Sheikh Mohammed Al Thani spoke to AUS students recently about understanding their purpose in life and setting a plan for achieving their goals through an inspirational lecture entitled "Follow your Dreams." Organized by the Student Leadership Program (SLP), the lecture featured the AUS alumnus sharing his experience of climbing the highest point in the world, Mount Everest. He showed videos of his preparations and spoke about the struggles he faced.

"My goal was to climb Mount Everest, and you don't get this served on a silver platter. It requires preparation," he said. "Having a big goal is scary but you have to prepare for it. Climbing Everest was not an overnight process. I had to put thousands and thousands of hours of hard work into training. I had to climb many other mountains before to practice. And this applies to your life goals, you cannot do anything without being prepared."

Dr. Moza Al Shehhi, Dean of Students said, "Students enjoyed listening to His Excellency Sheikh Mohammed Al Thani's journey of success and recognized that if there is a will, there is a way. His Excellency shared an effective method of mapping ones goals and breaking them down into steps for attainable results. We thank His Excellency Sheikh Mohammed Al Thani for his inspirational lecture and commitment to AUS."

On May 22, 2013, Sheikh Mohammed Al Thani became the first Qatari man to summit Mount Everest. During the climb, he was part of a four-member group called Arabs with Altitude, which included the first Palestinian man, the first Saudi woman and the first Iranian to reach the summit of Mount Everest.

As part of his lecture, he provided the students with activity sheets to allow them to think of where they would be in one, five and twenty years, in order to begin preparing to pursue their dreams and make them a reality.

Sheikh Mohammed Al Thani received his BA in Business (Accounting and Marketing) as well as his MBA from AUS.