Page 38 - Final Project.indd

CORE
CAREERS
Maghrabi

ll of us had this dream as kids of having
Aour own business without having a boss
who dictates where to go when and what to do. So
I spent three years working for different companies
until a certain time where I saw that taking a step
towards independence was necessary.

When I decided to launch my own business,
which included a major career shift, I checked
for what I needed to learn the most. I needed to
learn about finance, which I actually had a good
background about; I needed to understand the
difference between finance and accounting, get
a good grasp of the meaning of strategy as well
as planning. I started learning these things while
working until the right strung along.

Can you imagine the number of failed attempts
at starting my own project?... They are seven out
of nine. Degla Campus has proven to be greatly
successful, though!

I had to start from a scratch in order to start
my own business, where the first rough patch I went
through was living with low finances for a while. This
is when I started reaching out for my friends, the
ones whom I already knew want to start their own
businesses as well, and luckily, I found financers. The
first project was a success! Once I felt like I’ve had
enough with it though, I left to continue learning for
two additional years about how to build a community
of entrepreneurs.

I went to the District, the first coworking space
in Egypt, to learn all about building a community for
entrepreneurs. Working there with a team, we have
collaborated with loads of start-ups, we saw an
abundance of companies rising. I got more involved
with the community and saw the challenges they
have come up against, and that was when starting
my own coworking space that mainly relies on the
strength of its community seemed plausible; which is
exactly what I have achieved in Degla Campus.

Advice

One of the most important things when it comes
to choosing a career path, is the learning process.
Start with what you know in order to continue with
what you want. If you start doing something you want
to do, while lacking the ground information needed
Art Work By
38 Aya Mandour