Abraham A. Tarabay, a born Virgin Islander, is a Retail Store Manager at LIME, a position he took up very recently but brings to the table much experience in customer relations. Photo: Provided

Mr Tarabay has been married for over three years and now dedicates much of his time to family, and a few friends. Photo: Provided

Spending quality time with his two year old son who he says has influenced positive changes in his life, "well I look at things in a more clear perspective, I guess that age also had something to do with it." Photo: Provided

Abraham, a born Virgin Islander, is a Retail Store Manager at LIME, a position he took up very recently but brings to the table much experience in customer relations.

Our young professional knows what it is to be loved, what it is to be accepted and what it is to be rejected. He knows the pain of being made to feel as if you did not belong, but yet he has developed strong values, delved deep within himself and pulled out that inner quality that makes a man strong, one that can stand with his head held high after being pulled through tough and adverse situations. He is one with an amazing sense of humor, he has the quality to make you smile when you want to cry, run when you seem to be crawling.

He has been married for over three years with a two year old son who he said has influenced positive changes in his life, "well I look at things in a more clear perspective, I guess that age also had something to do with it."

Prior partying, lots of beach sporting, frequent travel, large circle of friends and many other forms of an over active social life was the order of the day for him. 

All that changed with marriage and the birth of his son as he found himself grounded. "... Where I look at situations differently, where I'll be more emphatic in certain situations, I am more driven because of my son, I see perfection in him and that's from my eyes."

He credits his father as being the greatest teacher ever in his life who always said to him, "our children never asked us to be here, we brought them here so we owe it to our children to make sure that they have a good head-start in life and we teach them the values that was brought down to us," said Tarabay. Another ideal of his father was that through their children, he could achieve immortality. "So I am very proud of him, I am very proud of being a father."

In spite of that life changing decisions following the birth of his son, our Young Professional did not give up totally on his social life, it was just altered.

Considering himself the worst bowler ever in the history of Tortola, jokingly that is, he recently fell in love with the sport of bowling and will be a part of a tournament soon. He has maintained a small circle of friends with who he spends quality time. "But the greater part of my social life is spent with my family, every chance I get I will go to the movies, that would include my family and that would include probably friends."

Abe, as he is popularly called, was born in Tortola, Virgin Islands, however during his early age, had migrated to Lebanon, the country of his father's birth. He returned to his homeland VI, in 1994 due to reasons beyond his control. "I was actually eligible for obligatory army service in Lebanon, back in the Middle East." He said that he was a very strong opponent of the military especially in that part of the world because of political reasons and backgrounds. "So l just left there and I came here abruptly."

It was at that stage his professional world began, first being a key player along with his brothers in the daily operations of his father's general merchandising retail store here in Tortola. "I always wanted to help dad because as he was ageing he would have needed that backing, I never thought of being the successor because I have two other siblings but I always wanted to help dad."

His involvement in his father's business has imbedded in him the love for interacting with people but he wanted to be more than just a sales clerk.

Some years later having done a friend a gentleman's favour he launched out further sometime around November 1996 when he entered the public corporate world working with Columbian Emeralds where he took advantage of several classes of professional training. "That lasted for about five and half years after which I started my own business. It is called Goodfellas."

Left to be run in the capable hand of a close relative Abraham A. Tarabay went on to Fedex where he was filling in for a friend which was intended for just a few months. "But then it became a permanent position because the guy decided on staying away (overseas).

"Working there was a very hard time for me especially when 9/11 happened, because of my Arabic background. It was a very difficult time just dealing with people, knowing that my background was the proposed people who did the 9/11 attack," said an emotional Abraham A. Tarabay."That was another turning point for me in the way I view things in the way that I see people, the way I dealt with people," he added.

Due to that experience at that stage of his life he developed a social policy which says that there are some people he just would not argue with because he realized it wouldn't get him anywhere. "I think that experience really delivered it home for me."

After being there for approximately three years he moved back to working at his father's store. At that time his dad's business needed some attention. He partnered with his brothers and remodeled the family's business.

"Then for the majority part the store then became self sustainable and the boredom stepped in."

It was around that time Little Switzerland came into being on Tortola. Little Switzerland was then Columbian Emerald’s competitor. He spent five and a half years, and it was there he advanced further professionally. "I worked with some wonderful people at Little Switzerland; some of them are still there."

With a desire for a new taste and environment that would allow him to fulfill his passion of community relations, he forwarded his resume to LIME where today he holds the position as Retail Store Manager, actually January 3, marked his one month anniversary.

From his lifelong experiences, professionally, academically and emotionally he left the message for youths, "the most important thing in this life is to keep your head on. Always be persistent, I know that this is a very tough climate that we are living in. I am always a believer in the saying that problems are a sign of progress. So always keep the faith, don't ever give up, just be influential in a positive way. While it may probably take you your entire life to be considered an influential person but it will take you a split second to be considered a bad one and like Abraham Lincoln once said, whatever you are, be a good one."