Courageously forging a life of giving back with Tarek Kholoussy.

Tarek found more meaning in working for free when he was volunteering abroad, so he set out to follow his dreams to set up Nomads Giving Back.

About Tarek

Tarek is a social entrepreneur with a BSBA from Georgetown University and an MBA with honours from New York University who pursued a career in business development and operational leadership at top organizations such as Goldman Sachs.

In 2013, he felt compelled to leave the corporate world behind in an effort to explore the actual world, go after his dreams and live the life he imagined. Since then, Tarek has travelled to over 100 countries, supported social causes through volunteering, advocacy and fundraising in special places like Bali, Kenya and Colombia, embraced wild adventures like driving a rickshaw 4,000 km across all of India, and ran 25 marathons including an 84 km fundraiser run across Bali!

Now, Tarek leads Nomads Giving Back! with the vision of his social enterprise is to inspire nomads, travellers and expats to give back to the communities we call home away from home. Inspire yourself, inspire the world!

“Travel is about questioning your assumptions in many ways.”

— Tarek Kholoussy

In the episode...

Growing through his struggles Tarek was tested after moving to New York and losing his job.
Tarek couldn’t find meaning in his daily grind which led him to be curious to travel and volunteer across the world.
Tarek found that when he was working for free he was much happier and so were the people around him.
What led him to break free to a new life
- When his cousin passed away “life is temporary, we all know that, but do we live our lives like that?”
- In the lead up to running his first marathon, Hurricane Sandy hit NYC and the marathon was cancelled. Instead, he volunteered where he came across a family that took shelter in their attic. Later he found out that some of the children died.
- Ran the marathon 2 weeks later which he never through he could do considering is past poor health habits.
- Tarek bumped into a woman who was living her dream of visiting 100 countries and then going on to set up a social enterprise which is exactly what he wanted to do.
Creating 3 massive life goals and going after them.
Tarek found himself living in Bali where he bumped into Chrissy, the women who had inspired him to take action to start achieving his goals.
Completing an Ultramarathon and the challenges he faced in the lead up to this.
Setting goals and announcing them to the world.
A half marathon is a physical challenge, a full marathon is a mental challenge and an ultra marathon is a spiritual challenge.
The lessons Tarek has learned from travel
- You don’t know what you don’t know - travel forces you to see things from a different perspective.
- Growth happens outside your comfort zone.
Why Tarek set up his social enterprise Nomads Giving back.
How you can have an impact when you travel through Nomads Giving Back.

Why Tarak continues to seek out travels and adventures? He loves it when he realises that he changes his mind about something. Knowing he is going to change and that he is not defined by his beliefs and that they can change.