Bechara Abi Assi: Choosing Awareness, Humble Honesty, and Self-Compassion

My guest today is Bechara Abi Assi.

Bechara describes himself as a “humble student traveler on this journey of life.”

Bechara is driven by a deep curiosity to understand how people make sense of their inner and outer worlds, and a wonder at the possibilities that opens up for them. He is committed to helping himself and others build close-knit groups and cultivate meaningful relationships with love, safety, empathy and honesty.

Bechara works in the world of leadership development and loves helping his clients learn in an environment that is both safe and challenging, helping people find their growth edge. 

His approach to this work is rooted in deep self-awareness, and informed by complexity, adult development, centered leadership and positive psychology. 

In a past chapter of his journey, Bechara was a management consultant at McKinsey & Company, advising private and public sector clients across the Middle East and Europe on strategy, culture change, capability building and leadership development. Bechara also worked in McKinsey’s internal learning function, focusing on developing programs for the Firm’s most senior colleagues.

Bechara holds an MBA from INSEAD and a BBA from the American University of Beirut in his native Lebanon. 

He lives between Amsterdam, Valencia and Dubai (where he grew up), and speaks Arabic and English, while also trying to improve his limited Dutch, Spanish and French. Outside of work, Bechara enjoys spending quality time with his ‘people’ and discovering new places and cuisines, preferably via road trips.

Bechara and I met in late 2022 at a work event.  I remember sitting and having dinner together, chatting and getting to know each other, and just a few minutes into the conversation I asked – do you want to be on my podcast??  It’s fun to notice how different people respond when I ask that question.  Bechara’s response, as I remember it, was a clear yes!  I knew we would have an amazing conversation and we did.  

Bechara, thank you so much for this deep and meaningful conversation.  Thank you for sharing these pieces of your story.  Your courage in life to jump into the unknown on the journey of self-discovery, your both willingness and ability to articulate the challenges and the successes of handling suffering in life, developing your emotional immune system, and developing kindness and compassion for yourself… it’s inspirational.  

It’s an absolute delight to host this conversation and share it here.


Connect with Bechara here.

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