Described by WIRED as a "formidable speaker" and by a celebrity fellow musician as being "like a 300-year old sage who is wise beyond his years," Amir Ahmad Nasr a.k.a. Drima Starlight is a writer, emerging artist and founder, frameworks creator, president and lead facilitator of AssertiveU™ here to fast-track your growth.

Rumor has it that his name and identity as Amir Ahmad Nasr, like what the journalist Clark Joseph Kent is to Superman, may in fact all be a cover as his "Earthly Alter Ego" for who he really is as the otherworldly emerging musical artist, Drima Starlight.

He has been instrumental to innovative founder-led billion dollar and $100 million brands, Fortune 500 teams and executives, NY Times and Wall Street Journal best-selling authors, Inc. 500 and Forbes 30 Under 30 founders, Grammy and Emmy recognized storytellers, and many diverse aspiring and renowned speakers, coaches and consultants in owning and ampliyfing their true leadership voice and fast-tracking their growth resiliently.

A spiritual being having a human experience first and foremost, in Earthly terms, he is a Nubian, North American, Khartoum-born, English and Arabic speaking Black man who traces his lineage and heritage to the Nile Valley civilization located in modern day northern Sudan and southern Egypt. He's been blessed over the years to share the stage with leaders including presidents and prime ministers as well as Nobel Peace and Literature Prize laureates who affirm human rights and potential.

A poet at heart, when Amir was just a six and a half year old playful little boy in the early 1990's in Doha, Qatar, he was secretly and methodically tortured, tormented, and sexually assaulted, including orally, over weeks, nearly to death in a small mosque in Al-Mamoura neighborhood by two Islamist Egyptian terrorists who were disconnected from their humanity.

This heinous incident happened to Amir not long after one of them had taken over as the imam of the neighborhood mosque with a hidden theocratic antisemitic agenda, and they discovered in a class Amir attended that he's the son of an American educated father and professor. Despite the impending onslaught, Amir stood his ground but could not physically stop them. To make matters worse, they tricked him into believing "God" will tell them if he dared to utter a word and that they would kill him and his parents if he did so. He coped the best he could.

Both terrorists belonged to the rogue group the Muslim Brotherhood whose members themselves were tortured in the prisons of secular Arab Egyptian nationalist, President Jamal Abdel Nasser under his orders after an attempt on his life by a Muslim Brotherhood member.

It was a pitiful vengeful act, cowardly inflicted upon Amir by two of the least and lowest of so-called men, out of empty, sad envy for being a better reciter and caller to prayer whose parents lovingly as best as they could raised Sudanese-American. Gratefully, feeling in this world but not of it, it wasn't in vain as he did not have the freedom or luxury to wallow in victimhood or cynicism in those earlier difficult years. And needless to say, he refused to give up on himself and his humanity, and that little boy's grand imaginative dreams as Nubian North American.

It took Amir many years to regain his joy and freedom in living by being able to write and speak about his origin story and by embracing timeless resilient spiritual development practices to reclaim his voice and that freed him to thrive. He is a firm believer in the benefits of "verbal fasting" and teaching leaders who consult with him how to harness the power of the inner voice of wisdom and "stillness that speaks" in their spiritual development and personal growth. In a complex noisy world, now more than ever, the ability to accurately and productively self-reflect and be self-expressed and self-fulfilled in your leadership and advocacy for greater impact, is a superpower.

As a global brand, AssertiveU™ is inspired by an ethos drawn from Amir's international upbringing as a third culture kid. Starting at age 11, after leaving Qatar, Amir attended British and American international schools in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, and grew up with a third-culture experience in his formative years. According to the research summary on Wikipedia, "third culture individuals (TCI) are people who were raised in a culture other than their parents' or the culture of their country of nationality, and also live in a different environment during a significant part of their child development years. They typically are exposed to a greater volume and variety of cultural influences than those who grow up in one particular cultural setting." Amir's humanist global perspective with attunement to the cultural nuances of storytelling in different contexts is thanks to this experience of growing up in multiple settings with family in Sudan, Qatar, Malaysia, America, Canada, England and then back to Canada where he is now rooted and invested in leading and growing AssertiveU™ on our mission.

Throughout his journey as a seeker, he was fortunate to be warmly welcomed as a curious student practitioner by accommodating hosts and spiritual leaders at profound Hindu temples in Bali and Shinshoji Buddhist temple in Japan as well as in churches, mosques and synagogues with diverse interpretations. Along the way he also learned beneficial lessons and experienced real growth after immersing himself in the Human Potential Movement despite at times its over-emphasis on "positive thinking" and outright denial of the tragic dimension of the human experience. Notably, it was from within the timeless human spiritual lineages that he found the most potent principles and practices.

Of particular resonance to him is the univeralist Inayati music-honoring Sufi Muslim lineage of Pir Vilayat Inayat Khan and of Sufism in the words of Kabir Helminski as "a way of life in which a deeper identity is discovered and lived. This deeper identity, beyond the already known personality, is in harmony with all that exists." As it turns out in Amir's experience, when one stays true to a desire toward universality, a big more potent possibility shows up that is accessible to all who become open to it as an inherent realizable part of our human potential.

Bit by bit, with steady patience, Amir rediscovered his love for spirituality and the Mystery of everything: referred to as Ma'at in the temples of the Nile Valley and described as the "indestructible Unity of Existence," the "Beloved" in the Sufi tradition and "Source" in New Age spirituality. An experience available to all who allow it.

In the words of the Sufi poet al-Shaykh al-Akbar: "O Marvel! A garden amidst fires! My heart has become receptive of every form: it is a pasture for gazelles, a monastery for Christian monks, a temple for deities, the Ka'bah of the pilgrim, the tables of the Torah, and the book of the Qur'an. I follow the religion of Love. Wherever its camel mounts turn, that is my religion and my Faith." In other words and said differently, he was referring to a state of being rooted in unity consciousness and the "Unity of Being."

As a storyteller, accounts of the story of Joseph's rise as visionary dream interpreting confidant to the King of the Nile valley, and then as ruler of Egypt, hold special meaning for Amir.

Full of practical wisdom on patience, love, assertive leadership, strategic foresight and good governance, Joseph's story richly informs Amir's personal journey and facilitations with everyone.

Many have found and continue to find his lived lessons invaluable, and even life-changing. It was in 2006, after starting to share learnings, art and experiences with inquisitive close friends and colleagues, that the requests to teach his methods and strategies grew. In 2014, after arriving in Vancouver, Canada to seek protection and political asylum from persecution due to the banning of his debut book, crisis set in.

Then well into 2015, in particular after a week-long leadership development seminar he was immersed in at the Aspen Institute, it started to make a lot more sense for Amir to consider starting a new kind of educational endeavor.

Crucially, like the Aspen Institute it would not shy away from dealing with the global challenges of the human experience too often ignored by much of the "New Thought" and human potential movement. Moreover, like Esalen Institute, at its heart would be a potent transpersonal psychology-based, spirituality-informed approach infused into it. After all, without peace and human rights, we cannot realize our human potential and express our human creativity. Despite initial doubts, and in response to the increasing demands on his time and bandwith, in mid 2016, Amir eventually founded a new formerly stealth venture available in-person and online virtually globally. Today AssertiveU™ has intensives for leaders, like you, to own your voice and fast-track your growth.

Amir's long track record as a writer producing literary, intelligence and investigative journalism work as a spiritual humanist and classical liberal has attracted growing praise from a global audience and influential readership. They include Academy and Emmy Award recognized Hollywood personalities, Marvel and Disney storytellers, White House officials, military leaders, Five Eyes alliance intelligence officers, national security professionals, celebrated entrepreneurs, Ivy League academics and tech investors, and fellow artists, activists and entrepreneurs. Having traveled as a TCI writer to dozens of countries, Amir merges the best and most proven of timeless Eastern and Western philosophies and practices along, amplified by technology and A.I. to serve you with greater understanding and versatility.

Most of all, Ken Wilber, the world renowned American integral philosopher of consciousness as well as respected scholar of transpersonal psychology featured in the classic Matrix trilogy movies, praised Amir's work as revolutionary.

He described Amir's debut book as "important and significant... especially at this time in our history... This is the right message, at the right time, from the right person."

Integral philosophy pioneers strive to comprehensively organize, harmonize and merge the best and most proven of humanity's wisdom traditions, experiences and sciences into an illuminating grand "theory of everything" about our reality.

Amir has been featured in dozens of global journalism media outlets in over 13 languages telling stories about spirituality, human flourishing, our new sci-fi present and better alternative models of reality that free you to thrive.

Privately, through incisive strategic intelligence, he remains involved in award-winning initiatives that support national security and bolster human rights globally. He has also been interviewed and featured in the Emmy nominated documentary film Live Your Quest along with Tom Chi of Google X, Rev. Michael Beckwith of Agape, and the NYT best-selling authors Jack Canfield and Lisa Nichols, among others. As the founder of AssertiveU™ he has pioneered facilitation methods that resolve stubborn issues where others failed. He is a permanent resident and soon to be citizen of Canada, the land of maples, redwoods and beavers.

A deep insightful listener and reflective artist whose personal lived values are transcendence, musicality and conviction, he guides leaders who are conscious reality creators and experts in their fields, like you, to face their foremost fears as well as powerfully find, clarify and amplify their true voice and be in their element.

These days, as a now emerging poet, singing and guitar slinging neo-soul artist he is at last also learning to sing emotively about his origin stories and dreamtime visions as seen in his raw talk on TED.com, stepping into his next post-traumatic growth phase of life. When he is not at AssertiveU™ facilitating sessions, he is deep at work as a singer-songwriter, screenwriter, director and producer on his debut cinematic concept album and short film.

As long as you too are reflective, self-responsible, committed and resonant with our values, welcome to the AssertiveU™ campus.

Explore how to fast-track your growth today. To learn more about investing, sign up with your email to access your complimentary facilitation session to become a client today. Speak to you soon.

- The Team at AssertiveU™