The hustle that became the space 1.2

Feeling stuck in the process of bringing your dream to life?  Don’t stop. Never give up. Its full-scale realization could be just around the corner.

When people ask about the high points of your life, you inevitably return to the times when you won.  Though few and far between, such moments of triumph are unforgettable. They occur when your purpose and efforts unify into a single moment, creating something you remember for the rest of your life.

I was lucky enough to experience the high of a win at the recent launch of Malja, a Red Bull space and first-of-its-kind creative hub in Bahrain. Five years ago, I came to Bahrain from London, a hyperactive entrepreneur with nothing but my agency portfolio and my website, Sketchbook. I was stuck without a commercial registration or address—I  had no funding for an office space. All of the incubators were full, and I needed a place to work that wasn’t home. I took my laptop to Starbucks, but found it annoying, loud, and unaffordable. Later on, I was lucky enough to source a rent-free space at the gorgeous H3sixty offices at BFH in exchange for services.

I started wondering what other entrepreneurs were supposed to do: how they could meet and network, how the creative shakers and opportunists of our community could collaborate and create new ideas together. I set out on my journey to create Malja, which means shelter or refuge in English.

I set out to meet over 150 artists to gather information about their needs, pitching Malja to them and gaining their support for the project. I met with café owners, Room to Rock, and sponsors in order to secure funding and strategic partners for the space. I met with various semi-governmental organizations, ministries, Tamkeen, embassies, and private investors, armed with my presentation and the will to make this happen.

At each meeting, I got the same confused faces looking at me, not understanding that this wasn’t a space for training or revenue-making. One after another, the organizations were reworking the goals of the event to align with their own, and I’d had enough. I became depressed and unmotivated to go to work for a few months.

Malja had received plenty of recognition and good press, but it hadn’t amounted to anything but an online directory. It is amazing to think that years later, Hasan Hujairi, the program director of Malja and the person who refused to let the concept go, introduced me to Red Bull, who graciously supported the project and made it their mission to bring it to life.

A few days ago, I was driving to Malja for the first time, and I became overwhelmed with emotion. All of the hours spent gaining support and funding, trying to convince one executive after another that this represented an investment in the creative community of Bahrain, came rushing back. I cried tears of happiness as I parked my car in the driveway of the stunning new gallery space in Amwaj. I saw graffiti artists’ works on the walls, architects attaching a pavilion-like structure to the top of the building, furniture designers wrapping fabrics around tires to make chairs, the team behind Boho Baha setting up the recording studio, bloggers and photographers documenting the process, and curators setting up the exhibition.

It was just like it was supposed to be, only better—because it was real. All that hustle had finally amounted to an actual refuge, made for creatives, by creatives. We had won. It was a moment that I’ll never forget.