Eleven years ago, His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, may God bless him, published his remarkable book My Vision: Challenges in the Race for Excellence, in which he set out his deepest insights on management, development, and work. Among its chapters was the distinguished tenth chapter, titled "The Concept of Excellence in Dubai's Development Vision," which he opened with the words: "Excellence in development, for us, is a comprehensive civilisational concept and a process of vertical and horizontal construction of the society concerned. To achieve excellence in the Arab world, all elements of development must be distinguished: the vision, the objectives, the leadership, the ideas, the management, the team, the planning, the standards" — and so on, as His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid elaborated at that point in the book. He went on to affirm that excellence is an advanced stage, and posed the question: how do we create excellence in Arab societies that we must honestly admit are not yet distinguished? That candour became the key to writing one of the most inspired chapters one can read on the concept of civilisational excellence in all its intertwined elements — confirming the authenticity of this vision in the thinking of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid and the depth of a passion whose dawn broke in the mid-1970s, when he carried the idea of "Dubai as a destination" to his late father Sheikh Rashid bin Saeed Al Maktoum, whose answer — encapsulating all the support needed — was a single word: "Al Namous."
For fifty years, Dubai has lived in a state of excellence and expressed itself through a unique pattern of achievement that has made it one of the world's most distinguished cities across all civilisational indicators. It is a resilient city capable of pausing at any given moment in order to surge forward at an even greater pace of achievement. Over the course of this journey, it has crystallised a distinct character, expressed by His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid in the phrase "Dubai of Deeds" — coined in a richly substantive tweet on his social media accounts, affirming the authenticity of Dubai's development vision and the firmness of its foothold in action and achievement. It was an expression of pride and admiration for this city that dwells in the depths of His Highness's heart and whose love has run through his veins since his earliest childhood and throughout every blessed stage of his life.
"Dubai's work philosophy is based on achieving exceptional results in record time with precision and excellence" — with these few words, which resemble the language of a constitution, His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid summarises Dubai's philosophy of work and achievement by examining both the method of work and its distinguished results. This robust statement offers a concentrated summary of Dubai's work philosophy: the attainment of results that are sometimes difficult to explain, owing to their exceptional character that nearly departs from the familiar rhythm of work. One might suppose that these distinguished results were obtained thanks to an open-ended timeframe, but His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid dispels that illusion by affirming that this exceptional achievement is accomplished in record time — time that can itself serve as a practical model for others to emulate. One might further suppose that this comes at the expense of precision and quality, but His Highness anticipates these doubts and affirms that the exceptional achievement is realised through the dual combination of precision and excellence, which bestow upon things their uniqueness and an unrivalled quality.
"Speed does not mean haste, quality does not mean slowness, and ambition is worthless without execution." Reinforcing the foregoing, His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid clarifies through a distinction between concepts that speed does not mean haste: speed is a positive state within the rhythm of work and achievement, whereas haste — in the sense of rashness — is not; rather, it is sometimes the fruit of recklessness and impulsivity, and its consequences are invariably unfavourable. In our Arab-Islamic culture, deliberateness comes from God and haste from the Devil. Likewise, refining one's work does not mean proceeding along a path of slowness that may be synonymous with laziness and neglect; rather, refinement is precision achieved through speed and temporal agility, which are the fruit of intelligence and determination to accomplish. This steady rhythm of work is the practical, executive embodiment of ambition — which must be realised as a tangible reality in life, failing which it remains a dream of dreams with no value on the ground.
"Dubai-it" means swift achievement, precise and distinguished execution, and results the world sees in record time. In this part of the tweet, His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid explains that this abbreviated symbol has acquired civilisational significance as an expression of Dubai's character. At its core it means rapid achievement that invests time with full intelligence, and precise, distinguished execution that endows Dubai with its exceptional personality — the fruit of all this being those exceptional results achieved in an extremely short time that truly merits the description of record time.
"We launched 'Dubai of Deeds' to convey Dubai's work philosophy to future generations, to embed it as a work culture in our institutions and companies, and to build with it the next leaps forward." With the intelligence of a seasoned leader, His Highness chooses for Dubai a name that matches its true essence and character. The name "Dubai of Deeds" thus expresses Dubai's deep-rooted character of work and achievement, with the aim of transmitting this practical philosophy to coming generations who are looking ahead to their future and seeking a clear vision — so that this remarkable formula, "Dubai of Deeds," becomes a work culture drawn upon by companies and institutions, and invested wisely to achieve the next leaps in Dubai's pioneering development journey.
"Our motto always: we say what we do, and we do what we say." With these remarkable words, His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid concludes this inspiring tweet — a tweet that draws upon the spirit of work and creativity, stirs resolve, and places generations before the responsibilities they will shoulder in the days ahead with full courage, authenticity, and capability.