Haji Quotes & Sayings

I have a feeling that there is a gap in the food retail market - a niche below some of the current budget operators such as Aldi and Lidl. — Stelios Haji-Ioannou

No story worth telling should ever be about blame or regret. What happened was what was meant to happen. — Nafisa Haji

I decided very early on that the way to make a difference in my life and in other people's lives was to give them services and products that are actually for the many and not for the few. — Stelios Haji-Ioannou

I didn't want people to say: Stelios does everything on the cheap at work, and in private he lives in the lap of luxury. That's not me. I don't need those status symbols. I don't need a private jet either when I can go everywhere with Easy. — Stelios Haji-Ioannou

Unfortunately I have no rags-to-riches story to tell. Money never played a big role for me. My parents just had it. — Stelios Haji-Ioannou

I've always been conscientious and hardworking. I've never wasted time. — Stelios Haji-Ioannou

I know easyJet is not luxury, but we certainly don't charge for wheelchairs or take away essentials. You have to make the passengers reasonably comfy for the sake of health. — Stelios Haji-Ioannou

You won't understand this now, Saira. Later, perhaps. When you are older. When you learn that life is not only about the choices you make. That some of them will be made for you. — Nafisa Haji

Greek shipowners like to boast, 'I bought ships at the bottom of the market, and now they're worth ten times as much.' It goes back to the days of Onassis and Niarchos competing with each other over who had the biggest fleet, the biggest yacht and the most famous girlfriend. — Stelios Haji-Ioannou

I have to manage and protect my brand. For the details I can always hire people who can knuckle down much better. For that I need people who are different to myself. People who compensate for my weaknesses. — Stelios Haji-Ioannou

My biggest mistake was when I started up easyEverything, a chain of Internet cafes. The idea that people would go to a shop to use a computer was revolutionary in 1999. It worked for a while, but cheap technology almost killed it. One silver lining of the problems I faced was that it gave me experience of turnarounds. — Stelios Haji-Ioannou

These tears are proof that there is love in the world. Tears are only bitter when we cry selfishly for ourselves. When we deny and forget the sweet love that tears are made of. When we let sorrow turn to anger. When people cry for each other, it is a good thing. Always remember that you are a human being, connected to all other human beings. When you cry for others you are opening your heart to God, who must see what we do and weep for us, too, for the suffering we cause to one another and to ourselves. — Nafisa Haji

Failures teach you more, there's always something fundamental about them. — Stelios Haji-Ioannou

The only way to rise above is to rise above. The only way to respond to wrong is with right. The only way to deal with injustice is to be just. — Nafisa Haji

America has its roots in a tradition of risk-taking pioneers. In more conservative Europe, if you fail in business or actually end up going to jail for it, you're finished as a businessman for good. — Stelios Haji-Ioannou

I wanted to be my own boss. I was fascinated by airlines and how I could change travel for the average person. Then I wanted to diversify. — Stelios Haji-Ioannou

There is an old Arab Bedouin saying: I, against my brothers. I and my brothers against my cousins. I and my brothers and my cousins against the world. That is jungle law. It is the way of the world when the world is thrown into chaos. It is our job to avert that chaos, to fight against it, to resist the urge to become savage. Because the problem with such law is that if you follow it, you are always fighting against someone. — Nafisa Haji

In America you can be Donald Trump, have a business go wrong, and file for Chapter 11. You can move on, and no one complains. When his casinos were in Chapter 11, he was still on TV telling people how to get rich. I had to persevere for years with easyInternet because I couldn't afford to hurt the brand. — Stelios Haji-Ioannou

Passengers don't like changing planes. That means waiting time, stress, running around. There's a joke that the hub principle is supposed to have been invented by cargo firms. The baggage doesn't care where and how it's pushed around. — Stelios Haji-Ioannou

This industry attracts more capital than it deserves. — Stelios Haji-Ioannou

Successes are always unique and hard to copy. The fact that easyJet became a success is due to a mixture of talent and luck. — Stelios Haji-Ioannou

Even if someone is competent, it's so damned easy to crucify him as long as he's only working on his father's account. So at the beginning I certainly wanted to prove myself to my father and the rest of society. That quickly turned into a greater challenge. My lifestyle hasn't changed as a result. — Stelios Haji-Ioannou

Haji Ali taught me the most important lesson I've ever learned in my life ... We Americans think you have to accomplish everything quickly. We're the country of thirty-minute power lunches and two-minute football drills. Haji Ali taught me to share three cups of tea, to slow down and make building relationships as important as building projects. — Greg Mortenson

Sir Richard Branson is probably the best communicator ever. He was an inspiration for me - contrary to some reports, we've never done business together, although we did discuss an aviation venture very early on. I don't think easyJet competes with Virgin - we're in different areas. — Stelios Haji-Ioannou

On reflection, I am always pleasantly surprised when ordinary members of the public stop me in the street to say, 'Thank you,' I guess for making travel and other goods and services affordable to them. — Stelios Haji-Ioannou

He knows what lies before them, and what is after them, and they comprehend not anything of His knowledge save such as He wills.' i traced the words with my finger, over and over again, and realize what i did not before. that not all questions can be answered. that some truths are beyond the capacity of our minds to understand. — Nafisa Haji

Yes, I first visited Korphe village, Braldu valley, Baltistan, Pakistan, after failing to summit K2 in 1993, and met Haji Ali, a long time dear mentor and friend. My second visit to Korphe was in 1994. — Greg Mortenson

Forgiveness is the fastest way to a spiritual path and inner peace of mind — Muhaya Haji Mohamad

I like organised things. I don't like the corruption and slowness of Greece. — Stelios Haji-Ioannou

I've made mistakes in business, but none so big I couldn't recover and learn from them. The more you try to change consumer behaviour, the riskier it gets. You have to work out your potential losses against the obvious gains. — Stelios Haji-Ioannou

In simple terms, I realised that food is the most fundamental need for a person. In difficult economic times, people's priorities change, and they might be willing to do something that secures for them the lowest possible weekly food bill. — Stelios Haji-Ioannou

People are grateful when you make a difference in their lives. That is the essence of any successful business — Stelios Haji-Ioannou

As a self-employed person, the idea of a break is completely foreign to me. If I completely switch off for any period of time, I know I'm going to pay for it several times over. For me, it's a lot better and easier to stay in touch and know what's going on seven days a week than to switch off. — Stelios Haji-Ioannou

I'm sure there are managers who have had far greater financial success. But my companies such as easyJet have changed the lives of many people. We haven't just made flights affordable for a lot of people. — Stelios Haji-Ioannou

My cosmetic range, easy4Men, is not going that well. It's meant to be for the no-nonsense man, but now I don't know if the no-nonsense man exists. — Stelios Haji-Ioannou

I'm not a communist - I believe in the free market and that entrepreneurs should be allowed to take risks because it creates wealth and jobs, but I draw the line at people risking other people's money. That's deplorable. — Stelios Haji-Ioannou

The whole concept of the travel agent is absurd. They appear to be agents of the traveller but are actually agents of the airlines. — Stelios Haji-Ioannou

The NOW is such a magical moment that you have the time to live a magical life and have no time to have guilt of the past, worry of the future but to live now fully and unfold our magnificence with the help of Allah — Muhaya Haji Mohamad

Faith is revelation. And in order to receive revelation you have to be open. Belief is about closing yourself off
a lie you tell yourself to make the world fit in with how you've decided it should be. Real faith is an action - a verb. It's truth unfolding. — Nafisa Haji

There is a place and a time for philanthropy, and there is only so much money you can give away. — Stelios Haji-Ioannou

There are still too many people out there who are claustrophobic. On easyCruise, we are going to open up as many cabins as we can. — Stelios Haji-Ioannou

When someone stops saying hello, I don't see that there's any need to say good-bye. — Nafisa Haji

To give voice to the questions
even in my own head
would have been to give them power, to confirm the presence of doubt, to risk eventual downfall. — Nafisa Haji

You can divide airlines into two camps: expensive and cheap. But I believe that we will only distinguish between long-haul and short-haul airlines in the future. — Stelios Haji-Ioannou

The only law that means anything - that can have anything to do with God - is one that is alive and that strives for justice given the circumstances of the present. Otherwise, the law is merely something dead, a weapon in the hands of those with power. Against those with none. — Nafisa Haji

I think that my original drive as an entrepreneur was precisely that desire to get away from the image of the shipping magnate's son. — Stelios Haji-Ioannou

When I opened the world's largest Internet cafe, certified by the 'Guinness Book of Records,' in Times Square in New York, I was live on 'Good Morning America,' and for me, that was an achievement. — Stelios Haji-Ioannou

That there are many things that we cant understand. the past. the bad things that happened ... and we become afraid. of what might happen in the future. its okay to be afraid. but we have to keep hoping and believeing ... to keep hoping and trying our best to be good and do good. even when we're afraid — Nafisa Haji

What I saw there explained everything
the reason he had stayed away, why he had come to say good-bye. I can only describe what I saw by its effect on me. Every woman should be looked at in such a way, at least once her life. With a longing that cannot be contained
with love that goes beyond mere feeling because it transforms and-like the verse of the poem he had read
it dissolves, as an offering, a gift. I felt my face flush and waves of knowing suffused every pore, every cell of my being. I was loved. And in that love, I felt beauty
my own, unrealized until that moment, suddenly rising to consciousness in a way that made everything in me come alive to the beauty all around me. Nothing more needed to be said. — Nafisa Haji

I see easyHotel as one of the best, most natural extensions of the 'easy' brand from the airline. EasyHotel is raising money to accelerate growth at a much faster rate than I could have grown it as a private company, whilst enabling me to spend more time on my diversified portfolio of other investments. — Stelios Haji-Ioannou