Not all of us really stick to our childhood passions. In fact, it changes as time goes by. While the lot of us were worried about heavy backpacks and buying our favourite candies from the school canteen as children, the young Nora Okail thought like an entrepreneur. So much so that she’s a proficient in the field today.
Okail was into business as a child and made her first profit as a child by opening up a “little supermarket,” as she called it, on the side of the street for the children in the neighbourhood. “One day I was in the supermarket with my father and instead of buying just one bar of chocolate, I asked if I could get a carton,” she said. “I asked him if he can buy me the whole carton so I can sell it. I told him I wanted to open a supermarket and that I will pay him back. He laughed at me and told me to get whatever I wanted.”
The avid child back then would open her supermarket right after school from noon until the Maghrib prayer. She even recalls having a warehouse to store her stocks under lock and key.
Today the 31-year-old is a serial business phenomenon. She is the founder of Squares, a leading events management, entertainment and educational enrichment company in Riyadh. Okail has recently founded Breakout, Riyadh's very own escape room game. Not just that, she has also brought Mad Science, the global Science enrichment provider, to the Kingdom.
Okail’s all-time positive approach towards her work and passion is visionary. She’s a keen volunteer, loves traveling and museums.
Her prodigious ideas may sometimes seem too much for a single brain to handle, but that doesn’t stop her from turning her ideas into reality. She dreams of one day opening her own amusement park.
“It is my dream, not just for myself but I think it will bring families and people together,” she said. What excites me is seeing people having a shared and unforgettable experience.”
