I struggle to achieve my dreams and not to avoid failure.

Going back to study and finish my degree in a complete different field than what I have studied before has been a long time “dream in the making”.

I am a professional engineer, just like all the males in my family are. Besides this “family tradition”, I also proved early on to be particularly skilled in this field. This offered enough obvious reason to take this path. 

Not that I am unhappy about it, but I think I am now again at a point where I am really looking forward to a new perspective, new opportunities and challenges. I am looking forward to moving something else than networks and wires and means of communications. I would like to move minds.

Mine first, of course – that’s how it all starts! But in the future I am hoping to be a teacher to others and to teach at an academic level. 

I think it’s my love to share new ideas and my enthusiasm for speaking and teaching that drives me. It is also my ability to analyze and gain a deeper understanding for things, events and people.

About 10 years ago, I decided to start an addition to my engineering career. I opened a restaurant business, which was a new challenge in a completely unknown field to me. Of course, I was aware that I could always fall back on my engineering expertise, but I had made an investment –financially, personally and professionally - and I was eager to see it succeed. I put a lot of time, work and sweat in it to get it where I wanted it to be and maybe I should now be content and relax a little. But I don’t feel like this is the end.

I have been working in the food business for over 10 years now and I have to admit, that even though it proved to me that I am able to work with people of all kinds and paths of life, I ended up feeling sometimes that I am intellectually at a dead end. It seems to me that the usual folks who work in the food business generally lack education and often motivation. Let’s face it, for the majority that is sadly the reason why they are doing a kind of job that offers very little possibilities of promotion or development.  As much as having a business is a daily challenge, I am missing an inspiring atmosphere, where new ideas and perspectives about significant issues are developed and shared.

Over the term of this class, these thoughts manifested themselves over and over again and my decision to go for the degree and career path that brought me to Belmont in the first place got reinforced by the experiences and exchanges I had a chance to make here so far. It seems like I came here already quite determined and it seems that I am going to pursue what I came for in the first place.

Currently, I am working on getting things organized here at the school to the point that I will later be able to pursue my studies I plan to aim at a PhD in Political economics.

Over the past weeks it became clearer to me that there are two dimensions to these decisions concerning my –hopefully- future career path: 

First of all, it is the possibility to have a job that encourages a life of learning in an environment that fosters investigation, analysis and discovery of new information and knowledge. It also offers the opportunity to share and develop this knowledge with others, colleges and students. This dynamic meets my own desire to develop myself and to help others to develop. People take so much for granted without ever getting down to the essence of things. I would love to teach students to really learn how to analyze, think and draw conclusions on their own. Unfortunately, most people are intellectually passive; they are spectators rather than participants even in issues that affect their lives greatly.

This brings me to the second dimension: the fact that economy is the governing factor of our lives. It determines not only our financial independence but also sadly often our mental, psychological and spiritual freedom and offers or restrains the possibilities that these fields offer to our personal lives. Economy is at first sight the science of finance and money, but if you look at it closely it turns to be a science of people: their behavior, their spending, their needs, their desires…so many human traits are represented by this single word. However, the majority of people believe that they cannot understand or comprehend it, because they were let to believe over time, that it is a science that rises over their intellectual capacities. I believe that this is untrue for the greatest part. Economy is such a practical field, that it can be understood by many more than presently believe that they can – and I would like to make it one of my missions to give others more understanding about it in terms that they will be able to grasp the concepts and underlying mechanisms of it.

Further on, history has proven time and time again, that “money rules the world”. So economy by itself wouldn’t give you the complete picture why things happen in this world the way they are happening. If not paired with political insight, economy stays on a level of commerce without really revealing to us the true motivations of political decisions. Politics are made by countries to secure their interests –sadly often enough- above all other motivations. In order to understand the relations between monetary interests and political decisions on a national and international level, only political science can offer the tools and means of evaluation and analysis for the past and –most importantly- the future.

My own country Egypt has lived through an eventful that brought a lot of change and hope to many. It also created a lot of expectations and fears. But it proved –and that is surely reason for hope- that money doesn’t always rule and that people can change their destiny and the destiny of their communities and countries by standing together against what they perceive as deep injustice and treason towards them. When people are knowledgeable, encouraged, and brave, than great things can happen. And this is the part of political science that surpasses the “just material” part of life. I feel very inspired by these events that took place in the country I grew up in and I love. This inspiration carried me through the last year, sometimes wishing that I could do more than just publishing my thoughts and opinions in videos online to support the brave citizens of Egypt. It is also one of the factors that carried my decisions during these meaningful last weeks, when it became clear to me that my vision of a new career might become reality through entering the school and starting the first steps one at a time, class by class.

As much as possible, I tried to choose classes that foster my skills in communications and analysis. Those that I thought were most likely to encourage independent thought, tolerance and informed interest in current affairs, those which I thought will teach the mechanisms of defining a problem and contributing to its solution. This will surely be one of my criteria for the future choice of classes, as well as the imposed restrictions that I have to take into account in order to be able to continue with my phd.

At this point of my life, going back to school is a completely different experience than my first studies. Today, I have to consider, how to sustain my family while I am studying and I have to carry on with my responsibilities towards them, my business, and my employees.

At this age, the “puzzle of live”, the landscape, has changed a lot and so have the demands and expectations of the people around me. There are so many factors to consider that I never had to think about in my early years when the only responsibility I had was myself. 

In the 1990’s, I started a telecommunication business early while still at college in Cairo (Egypt) and ran it during the following 5 years. I experienced a lot of stress and pressure related to the professional part of my life. However, I enjoyed the ups and -even the- downs much more with a carefree attitude than I would be able to do now. 

I am a person who naturally takes on his responsibilities and is very serious about them. I cannot fail those who depend on me and I will almost do my up most to meet my promises and what else I am required to do. Whenever I am –due to a situation not able to fulfill my promises, I will make it up to the person, because I feel that I cannot leave someone disappointed or discontent with me. I set the expectations towards myself high and I won’t be satisfied until I meet them.

As I went, I realized that communication is highly important in this phase of my life. On one hand, with my family: Because when time is of the matter, efficient communication is essential. Explaining myself and involving them in my planning has become even more important.

On the other hand, excellent communication skills are obviously also extremely important when dealing with my employees. As I am naturally less time around to supervise them now that I am studying, good communication habits are key. Being with them in the phone instead of being physically with them, facing the problem directly and on site often requires good analysis skills and precise answers from my side. They also have to feel that I am still with them –through my empathy, and I am still in control – through my decisions.

Often, employees will feel nervous or even overburdened when left with the responsibility of running the business in the absence of their employer.  So it is important to have a sensible schedule to get into regular contact with them, even if they do not contact me. It is reassuring for them, when I check on them and I stay in contact, so they know they aren’t going to face difficult situations all by themselves.

However, my managerial style is still a goal oriented one. If you reach the desired result, than you did the job. Everyone is different and therefore does things differently. Quite often there is more than one way to do things right and I recognize that. I don’t like to determine every single step in a process. I will give the big outline and where I want things to go and how I intend to get them there. You need to be on the same page with me, than you know what is expected of you. I believe giving this kind of freedom to my employees fosters their sense of responsibility and creativity. I am still there to guide, if they get stuck, but I want them to try it on their own and their way first.

On the way I try to teach them alternative ways to get things done, so they can develop and design your own “best practices” over time. The more someone is successful the more I put trust in him or her and I am willing to add new responsibilities.

It is basically a healthy balance between the delegating, trusting and the controlling, guiding side of managing.

However, work ethics are absolutely essential for me and I strive for the most ethical behavior myself when I deal with my employees – and I will always expect the same from them. My restaurant is a place of business and nothing else. I expect professionalism paired with high personal standards.                            This is something I will let any newcomer know, before they even enter the kitchen. You can learn how to bake a pizza, but you cannot learn values, ethics, and proper behavior, if you don’t have them already!                 Meaning, I am more than willing to teach you the technical part, but I expect you to know the meaning of manners, loyalty and respect for yourself and others.

Unfortunately, the field of food business seems to be the playground for a lot of peoples’ personal agendas and personal dramas. I am human and I can feel their difficulties and pain. However, I don’t believe that it is professional to bring these things to your work place. These things should be dealt with on a personal level –as that is the level they emerge from. They, most certainly, have nothing to do in the work relation with your employer or your co-workers. Unfortunately, this causes a lot of disturbance and stress in addition to the professional pressure and leads to the termination of many work relationships. This is sad, because as an employer and on a personal level I highly appreciate long-term work relations for their reliability and trust.

But in spite of disappointments and difficulties in my current business, job, studies and life, I learned that there is always ease after hardship. And without wanting to sound “over the top” here, I need to admit that seeing the struggle of some other students here at the school and the difficulties they face on a personal and professional level makes me appreciate my own situation much more.

It is humbling to know, that your own difficulties aren’t really as bad as they seem at times. I am aware that I struggle and that for a part because I challenge myself more than I would have to. But it makes me feel thankful to know that I do have choices and that I am not just forced to go with the flow because I am lacking other alternatives due to a certain situation.  I struggle because of the choices I am making and not because of an external circumstantial power that forces things on me. I struggle to achieve my dreams and not to avoid failure. And this makes all the difference!!!