60 in 60 Project: Insights into Success #60in60project #53of60 with Hakim Garuba @ Google

#60in60project #53of60

With Hakim Garuba

Check out all the 60 in 60 articles.

Recap - The objective of this project was to meet with 60 business leaders and professionals in 60 days to gain insights and perspectives into what success means for each of them. I then took that information to see what, if any, are the connections I could make to help further my own understanding of what success really is.

I worked with Hakim a few years back at Go-Communications and later Beyond Wireless, which were both 3rd party Rogers Wireless dealerships here in Ottawa. It’s been quite some time since I’d spoken to Hakim, but I’d been following him on social media recently and I wanted to connect with him to tell his story and his progression into the digital marketing industry.

He happened to be in New Jersey when we spoke, as he had just finished some training in New York and was on his way to Chicago this week for more training, but he was able to find time to chat with me for a bit in between and share his insights into what success has meant for him.

Who is Hakim Garuba? (See photo above)

Hakim Garuba is an Account Manager at Google.

Born in Nigeria, where his father worked as a Diplomat, he moved with his family to Ottawa when he was younger, where spent the next 18 years. After graduating from Ashbury College, where Hakim tells me he did particularly well in math and science, he headed to Ottawa University for the Bio-Pharmaceutical Science Program.

“I didn't actually think about what I wanted to be but I actually had a goal I was working towards. Initially it was a doctor, but as I quickly learned, science was not for me.”

“I started off in that program and it slaughtered me - it was brutal!”

Hakim says that it was the more complex science aspects to the program that really gave him difficulty, such as chemistry and physics, which although he excelled at in high school, University was on a completely different level. It wasn’t for lack of trying though as even though he’d failed a couple classes in his first year, he continued on through the program. It wasn’t until his third year that’d he came to a crossroads after failing another class.

“At that point my thought was that even if I do graduate - in the field I was heading into you needed to have good grades to even get to med school. On the other hand, if I was to stay in bio-pharmaceutical science, I would probably end up working in a lab - however, I’d realized by that point in my life that I love talking to people. I loved social interaction and because I still enjoyed math and was taking business courses on the side, I decided to make the switch to into business full time.”

It would end up being his experience at those wireless dealerships and that exposure he’d gained through that environment of selling mobile communication that created “a passion for Android and pretty much all things Google” for Hakim.

“That really peaked my interest for digital marketing and I decided to go full steam and learn everything I can about it and see where life takes me, if I position myself in the industry.”

After switching to Telfer School of Management at Ottawa University, Hakim tells me he was quick to find his niche within the marketing program and was able to excel within it, with his primary focus on the digital components of that industry. After 7 years, in two very different programs at that school, Hakim ended up graduating with his Honors BA of Commerce and a 3.5 GPA.

“After graduation, I got my first full time job as an Internet Marketing Consultant, which was really just selling advertising. I ended up working there for about 6 months before I was laid off for not meeting my sales targets; my sales approach was always about giving people what they actually needed as opposed to just trying to reach my sales goals.”

During the course of the following 6 months after being laid off, Hakim decided to head back to school to take a Master’s course in Project Management at Carleton University, where he says; “I learned a ton about all sorts of different project management principles that will help you, even on the job, organize the way you approach any task.”

“During that period I decided to also improve my Excel skills and basically anything else that I felt prudent to know that would give me any sort of leg-up in the industry. Given that I’d had all that time, I figured I might as well use it productively. I also used the time to reach out to recruiters, who I have to take a minute to thank because they took the task of finding me a job. They really helped me.”

After finding employment with a local Telus Communications dealership here in Ottawa, Hakim says he was quickly “scooped up” by another company here in town called Halogen Software and that’s where everything really started to take off for Hakim.

“That was where my digital knowledge just skyrocketed. I remember having a mentor; Martin Auger, who I still speak with to this day and I credit him to inspiring my hands on interest in this industry. While I at worked with him at Halogen, I was entrusted to basically manage an 8 million dollar digital marketing budget per year and thanks to him I was able to learn everything from A & B testing, to writing copy for ads, creating dashboards, analyzing returns on ad spending and all this stuff that’s integral to digital marketing.”

Hakim says he spent about a year in that position before they hired him on to be a full time Marketing Analyst, where he then learned even more about the industry and marketing automation software, specifically a program called Marketo, in which Hakim is a certified expert.

“As a result of all that experience within digital marketing and analyzing, I was sort of poached by a company across the street, which was formerly Alcatel Lucent but had recently been acquired by Nokia, where I worked for about a year as their Marketing Automation Specialist. During that time frame I also managed to get into a program at Queens University; for a Masters of Management Analytics, where I learned how to analyze large volumes of data for businesses and generate insights and build predictive models. I also learned about SAS, R Programming, Python and a variety of other programs and mathematical based software, which brought me so many more opportunities after that.

From there, Hakim made the move from Ottawa to Toronto, where he worked briefly as a Growth Marketer for StackAdapt, before getting his latest position at Google.

Where do you see yourself in 5 years?

“It’s funny that you say that because I actually map out my 5 year plan. One of those places, I’m already at now, which came as a little of a surprise and that’s working for Google. That’s been a dream I’ve had and I’m surprised it’s happened in the way it has as I didn’t really plan it, but it happened and I’m grateful for that.”

“I also recently incorporated a company, called Think Analytics Inc, which was formed with people from my master’s program. Our goal there is generally just to apply machine learning, AI & deep learning principles in order to improve the quality of life for businesses. Whether it’s the health of their business or for people; in terms of health care, medical imaging or stuff like that or even agriculture and helping to improve farming techniques. I see myself running an organization like that with a group of people, trying to deliver impact on the world.”

“I also envision myself acquiring a hell of a lot more knowledge. I think I have this burning curiosity that I have to satisfy; whether that’s becoming an AI expert or becoming well versed in a few programming languages. I think in 5 years, I’d like to become an expert in those fields.”

What would you say is your biggest accomplishment in life so far?

“It’s both personal and business in the sense where I think my biggest accomplishments were learning how to overcome failure and take failure as a lesson rather than a roadblock. I think that stems from other instances when I was in school; I went through this phase where I very anxious to the point where I would get panic attacks over what my future was going to be. It was due to the grades I was receiving which almost led to me being kicked out of school. Eventually, I was able to change it all and managed to graduate Cum Laude (with distinction) from my program. For me, my biggest accomplishment wasn’t the graduation itself, but learning that failure only happens when you stop trying and success is just the accumulation of failures; it’s the lessons that you’ve learned from each of those failures one day translating into a success. That to me is my biggest accomplishment.”

“In terms of tangible accomplishments, it would be making it to where I am at Google. Also, learning how to produce music without the knowledge of how to play a single instrument.”

What are your driving factors?

“I think everyone has something different that drives them and centers them. For me, it’s a combination of things; it’s faith and it’s family. Definitely the intersection of those two are what drives me. I’ve had the pleasure of being the last born in my family, so I’ve had the older siblings to look up to in terms of inspiration. My family has for sure driven me to be the best version of myself; not be the best, but be the best version of myself. They’ve always been incredibly encouraging and supportive and I’m very grateful in that regard to have that stability at home.”

“In terms of the faith aspect; I am a christian but I’m not just a church going christian in that I don’t go all the time, but I do believe in the idea that basically God is love and to share that love with those around you. It can be as simple as a smile you give someone or the kindness that you show. I believe that something as simple as being kind and nice to people really does go a long way. When you generally show an interest in others and you basically serve first or follow first and then you somehow become a leader, it’s this weird thing where you impact others and then they impact you. It’s always giving of yourself first, that definitely drives and motivates me to continue to be the best that I can be.To inspire others as well as be inspired by others.”

What does success mean for you?

“I think it stands on 3 pillars for me; there’s obviously the money, which you need to live, then there’s the impact and the relationships. It’s the work life balance; doing something that makes you happy while also impacting the world around you in some way and still finding time to maintain your relationships. If you work, but can’t enjoy your time outside of work, then you have to ask what’s the point?”

“With regard to the money, I just want to be able to live comfortably to be able to get the things that I need and maybe some of the things that I want. More than anything, I want to impact. I want to impact the world by just showing them who I am as a person; I love to laugh, I love to talk and I love to make people smile. I also love to produce music, so if I was to create an ideal scenario it would be being able to work, while being able to produce music and share that music with the world as well as take care of my family and friends along the way.”

“As long as you’re healthy, you have the finances and you have your family and friends around you, then I think that’s success to me.”

Insight -

That common pattern of that idea of just wanting to create something that impacts other people, whether it’s in the realm of a product or a service or something as simple as a drawing. I’m really starting to see that notion of creating something that provides value to someone else. You might even go so far as to use the word legacy; creating something that has a lasting impression on this earth. We all want to be remembered as my friend Andy Mac pointed out the other day and there’s this need within so many of us to leave some sort of legacy behind, which I think a lot of people associate with their career - but there’s one thing I’ve noticed after speaking to so many people and that’s the idea that a legacy isn’t necessarily something you can see or touch, but almost more like a feeling that you leave behind - a part of you that remains within the mind of another and I think that’s easier to achieve that we think. Hakim loves to talk to people and to make people laugh and smile and I think regardless of what he does in life, which given his age and his track so far, will probably be great things, but at the end of the day, it’s his character and the joy he brings to others that will be his ultimate legacy and impact on the world.

“Failure only happens when you stop trying.” - Hakim Garuba

Learning anything and everything he possibly could about the digital marketing industry and because of all the experiences he’d gained and knowledge he’d accumulated, he was able to position himself exactly where he wanted to be to ensure a successful career in an industry in which he could be considered somewhat of an expert in.

As someone who’s interested in so many aspects of so many industries, it’s been difficult to focus on one area. From what I’ve come to understand, that’s okay but the key is to find something that works for you or that perhaps you have a passion for and then learning everything you can about that thing - for Hakim it was the digital component to the marketing and advertising industry and everything that’s associated with that; he even went above and beyond and learned all the backend analytical components as well. He did all of this not only because he was interested in it, but because he knew it was only going to help him - it’s not like learning something new will be a detriment, unless you’re forced to learn it, but in most cases, it’s only going to help you along the way. The more you know, you further you’ll go.

Side Note - It’s a funny thing having social media when you really think about it. Although I’m not very old, I remember it wasn’t that long ago that if you didn’t remain in contact with someone or hear about them from a friend, there was no common way of knowing what would become of them. You would graduate from school or leave a job and that would be it; most of the people you knew would completely disappear from your life. That was the norm and nobody really questioned it. I imagine the opposite would be harder to fathom today.

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Hartley is a content marketer who has set out to meet 60 people in 60 days in order to find insights into the idea of success. If you would like to be profiled on this project, you can reach Hartley here on LinkedIn or via email: [email protected]. #60in60project