Entrepreneur and motivational speaker Afnan Khalifa (@theafnankhalifa) captivated attendees at 2025 Invest Fest with a keynote on the power of mindset, persistence, and legacy building.
Using a live stage demonstration with a piñata, Khalifa illustrated how unseen progress, when compounded over time, leads to breakthrough success.
“This piñata is your life,” Khalifa began, recounting a story from a child’s birthday party. She described how several children struck the piñata with no results before quitting in frustration.
Finally, a smaller child delivered the final hit that broke it open—not because he was stronger, Khalifa explained, but because of the accumulated efforts of those before him.
“The piñata represents the invisible progress that we go through every single day,” Khalifa told the audience. “Most people quit because they don’t see the invisible progress. They quit right before the breakthrough. But legacy? Legacy is invisible progress made visible over time.”
Her keynote stressed resilience in the face of setbacks and highlighted the importance of consistency in entrepreneurship, wealth building, and personal growth.
“You’re going to go through times and you’re going to be like, why is nothing working? Why am I not seeing the candy of my life, the fruit of my life?” Khalifa said. “But you have to go through the compound pounding of every single thing that you do to make sure you get to every single goal that you want.”
Invest Fest, known as one of the largest gatherings for investors, entrepreneurs, and business leaders, continues to spotlight voices like Khalifa’s that blend personal empowerment with financial literacy. In its fifth year, this year’s event, from Aug. 22 to 24, brought education and empowerment to over 25,000 people in Atlanta.
Her message underscored a central theme of the event: building lasting legacies requires perseverance, discipline, and faith in unseen progress.
