Othman Qalfas

"enjoy your life and do what makes you happy."

Meet Othman Qalfas a young Kuwaiti presente, producer, and director. He has recently been assigned the role of the General Manager for CP magazine. Othman has great energy and passion to bring some new flavour to the already very popular magazine. We took the opportunity to interview him for our readers to know more about him and to look forward to his more active participation in the magazine from now onwards.

INTERVIEWED BY: JAMEEL ARIF (@jameelarif) PHOTOGRAPHY: RIYAS (@riyas.photokw) LOCATION: BILLY JOE'S (@billyjoes_kw)

Hi, please introduce yourself to our readers? Hello, My name is Othman Qalfas and I work as a presenter, producer, and director in Kuwait Radio Station.

Tell us about your education. I have a Bachelors degree in Public Relations and Advertising as major and a minor in Marketing from Gulf University for Science and Technology.

What got you interested in the field of media and communication? To be honest it happened by chance, I was studying accounting and suddenly I changed my mind to join Public Relation and Media.

What has been your favorite radio show? Which was most challenging? Why? My favorite radio show is my first show, I produced it but couldn’t join the team to present it. It was a competition game and the winner gets money as gift. The challenge was to persuade the management about my idea since I was new and it was my first show.

Tell us about your experience as a Youtuber? I started my youtube channel in 2013 and I was releasing a daily vlog. I have stopped doing that because it’s tiring but I have learned a lot from this experience.

What is your motto in life? “YOLO” you only live once. So enjoy your life and do what makes you happy.

Are you smart, or do you work hard? I’m a little bit from both. I like to play it smart and plan it well, with hard work to maintain a high level of achievement.

What is the best advice you got and from who? Don’t try to impress people. I really believe in that. He who likes you will find thousand excuses and who hates you will find thousand reasons to blame you.

What are some of your hobbies? I like to play video games and I like photography. These are my most favourite hobbies but I also share a hoby with my father which is to collect old cars.

How did you get interested in writing and how has been your experience writing for CP magazine? Somehow the good things in my life happened by chance. One of them is writing, but I really like how CP magazine handles my articles and how they encourage the writers to be part of their family.

You are young but still love magazines. What are the benefits of reading magazines? I believe the magazine brings you the knowledge of many aspects together.

What do you dream of? I dream of wealth and health. Being a part of an international movement or company, I’m part of this magazine and it’s just the beginning. What has been your biggest achievement last year? Being able to stick to a workout routine and changing the mindset of curfews and corona.

What would you like to achieve this year? To bring the best of CP Magazine and being able to work on new ideas that I have for radio shows.

Now, congratulations on being appointed as the new General Manger for CP magazine. How did this happen and how do you feel about this new role? Thank you, I wasn’t expecting it but it happened and I believe that there is a way decided for each one of us. I’m looking forward to put my mark on this magazine.

Tell us about the most interesting or inspiring things you learnt from your meetings with Mr. Jameel Arif – The Founder and CEO of the magazine? Mr. Jameel is more than a friend even before me being offered the new role. We used to meet and exchange ideas and discuss business stuff even with being part of CP. I was happy that he offered me this position.

What motivated you the most to accept this role? It’s a challenge and I know that I can add to CP. I believe that I can help and improve it more.

During these challenging times, what makes you feel that you can achieve what is expected from you in this new role? As I said it’s a challenge specially during this time and I like to put my flavor into it. Just be ready for some changes.

What are some of the new ideas that you will be introducing immediately? I can’t tell you all of my ideas ;), but I will share one of them. I will be focusing on making it more bilingual magazine to attract all readers.

How will you ensure that content is relevant to the target audience of the magazine? We will keep our target audience and impress them but I believe we need another target audience too.

What is your favourite quote? “If you can dream it, you can do it.” - Walt Disney