Being involved in the entrepreneurship scene in Egypt, running Egypreneur; I’m certain that entrepreneurship is the vehicle for the bright future of Egypt.
Having the opportunity to speak at TEDxTanta, I used it as an opportunity to reflect this meaning by reflecting entrepreneurs as the “Modern Knights” who are already and will be leading Egypt towards the desired change in the social and economic fronts, you can watch my talk from here.
Hopefully, there are plenty of bright examples that’s making a difference economically and socially right now. One of my favorite is Amr Deabes and Egyptian entrepreneurs who found Ability Contact Center; a contact center that’s fully operated by Egyptians with special needs. We usually consider Egyptians with special needs a load on their families and on their society accordingly.
While everyone is working on mobilizing different forms of “support” for those with special needs; Amr Deabes stepped up to giving them a chance to shine and turn their abilities, passion and patience into a productive tools in the society. I met Amr first time during Startup Weekend Cairo and had this interview with him for Egypreneur:
Reda one of the bright employees of AbilityCC, gave an inspiring speech during the weekend:
Seeing examples like Amr and Ability CC ignites my energy to work further on developing Egypreneur and mobilize as much support as we can to participate in creating the environment to more entrepreneurs to step up to solving social problems, while making an economic impact; Imaging how our new Egypt will be with thousands like Amr.
These are unedited, unorganized and kinda emotional notes written on my mobile phone during my stay at the night of Tuesday Feb 1st @ Tahrir Square in Cairo among more than 2 million Egyptians demanding freedom and dignity by the removal of Mubarak and his regime. Followed by some videos I recorded using my phone as well.
——————– 6:06 PM I’m at tahrir square finished the prayers and moved to the stage where this section is being led after they called for volunteers, couldn’t reach them so just sat down here thinking and reflecting
Had a few dates and some water, not used to loud chanting; I got a headache. decided to take some rest. Om Kolthom’s voice is louder than any other here. Singing “I love it from all my soul and blood” makes me remember from a few hours when a man listened to it, he got into a hysterical crying and bowing of excitment, people hugged him and calmed him down.
Tahrir square is booming not with expired gas bombs this time and not with loud voices only, but with patriotic emotions, a few public figures spoke a long the same line Mubarak leaving before any further step to be taken
As I always do, calling myself a “strategist” I try to find out if there is any better way I can serve. Tahrir square is safter than it ever had been in the last 30 years, it’s quite hard to describe how understanding, forgiving and open-minded these people are. They used to be the extreme opposite from a few days
Anyone spoke about sexual harrasement in Egypt should come today amonst more than two million individuals, girls here are safe enough to move wherever they want among their brothers
For the first time waiting in front of Koshary El-Tahrir the guy to my back is probably a secret police, had been going all the way ..
7:58 PM I’m back after ordering couple of Koshary and had to wait about 40 minutes in a long line. But got ’em and ate one already, I also took a piss, it was a deep human experience, I can write a separate note about it
Well, it’s the first time for me to eat Koshary outside home, which is kinda weird. I was brought up to think that eating outside home is a sin exposing myself to diseases .etc when it was a necessity to eat outside I was choosing take away that’s easier to eat on the fly
I think my people are kinda cute, all girls I came across today were very beautiful and the guys surrounding me are handsome in someway or the other, maybe it’s common purpose that unite us and make us blend.
I’m in love with about 3 million people I’m surrounded with now, more than 8 millions who got out from their homes for a shared purpose with shared chants. Also, I’m in love with 83 million people that makes up the population of my country after substituting the police and controlling regime
I love this country so much that I’ll probably be biased. Now, I gotta move .. it’s my turn to chant 8:15 PM. ——————– Morning of Tuesday. Chants in a part of Tahrir “we demand a revolutionary government .. to build social justice” I was trying to zoom in to a bearded man – who are usually labelled as Islamists – participating in the chants after being noticeably demanding a “civil government” not an Islamic state as the current regime is trying to reflect to westerners to scare them and accordingly get their support and stay in power.
Mixed chants with active presence of Egyptian women; chants are “down down with Mubarak .. tell me who voted for you” and “keep strong o my country .. a new Egypt is being born”
A funny Egyptian man giving Mubarak the red card, football is the most popular sport in Egypt
Creativity and sense of humor are very noticeable there, it was even noticeable by non Arabic speakers. Ben from CNN wrote on Twitter
These guys are extremely hilarious and creative, was the funniest thing in the whole night, they’re altering popular Egyptian songs to anti-Mubarak songs in a wicked way
Ramy a young singer collected all our chants in a single song that was amazing! he’s singing “We’re all .. one hand .. we asked .. for one thing .. go away .. go away”, “down .. down with Mubarak” and “the people .. demand .. removal of the regime” – not my footage here
Early morning of Wednesday Feb 2nd. That was the early morning practice of the guys @ Tahrir while chanting anti-Mubarak and for Egypt. Chants include: “leave .. leave”, “We’ll not go away untill he goes away” and the revolution demand “The people .. demand .. the removal of the regime”.
I left Tahrir square 7:30 in the morning of Wednesday Feb 2nd. A few hours, the regime-hired thugs attacked peaceful protesters at Tahrir killing 5 and injuring about 1000.
Governmental and western media called them “Pro-Mubarak Protesters” which is so far from the truth! We’re used to the government and its police hiring thugs or pushing them to achieve their purposes and some of those detained explicitly stated who hired them and what they had been told to do.
And the struggle of the Egyptian people for their freedom continues …
I delivered a speech at ToastMasters Cairo club last Thursday entitled “The Development Way“, this is a follow up Email I sent to the club members, thought to blog about it too, might add more details later.
As I didn’t find enough time to emphasize on the idea of the project, so thought to share some information about it for whom might be interested. By the way, I picked up the title as of presenting the project as a solution to the pre-discussed problems but may be I didn’t get that clear.
1) A very descriptive article from Al-Ahram weekly: May, 2006! [English]
Desert Development Corridor: Into The Sahara
Farouk El-Baz proposes a superhighway to solve Egypt’s pressing problems
This article advances the case for a proposed superhighway west of the Nile from the Mediterranean Sea coastline to Lake Nasser. The proposal would provide numerous opportunities for the development of new communities, agriculture, industry, trade and tourism around a 2,000 km strip of the Western Desert. The Government of Egypt was unable or unwilling to pursue the project, when I first proposed it 20 years ago, for whatever reasons. Because the country is presently facing insurmountable problems, the proposal is resubmitted for consideration by the private sector — local, Arab and international investors.
3) Aljazeera, “Without Barriers” interview with El-Baz: December, 2007 [Arabic]
A general talk about why his generation wasn’t able to introduce much development to Egypt and the way to developing Egypt from his own experience. Discussing the issues of education and leadership in Egypt too.
Through Egypreneur I’m seeking to establish a support network for sharing ideas and experience for those who started, starting or planning to start their own businesses. And for those who want to watch and learn too until they have a chance to get their hands dirty..
This group is the first step in establishing an online community for Egypt’s design professionals that will offer a communication and interaction portal that will help design professionals in Egypt excel in their careers and businesses and open opportunity for collaboration too, Insha’ Allah.
This is just a quick notification that I’m working on MarwaElSherbiny.com a project supposed to be backed by volunteers to network the incident in which Dr. Marwa El-Sherbiny had been stabbed to death in a German court, her husband get severely injured and her 3 years old son witnessed the incident.
The site will be an up-to-date portal dedicated to Dr. Marwa, the updates of the incident and different feedback, articles, blogs from anyone have something valuable to say.
The site is being built with Joomla! in order to ease admin tasks and adding content for everyone.
Site sections:
About Us
About Dr. Marwa
The Murder (Detailed information about the case and its motives)
Formal Updates (Follow up with the case)
They Said (Blogs, Articles from anyone have something valuable to say)
Hijab (Illustrating the meaning of Hijab and why Muslim women wear it)
Community Builder (Members Profiles, Messages, Board .etc)
How to Support (What you can do for Marwa)
I hope to source the content in English and German, that’s why I’m contacting people who’s active or administering groups talking about the same issue. Hoping that they’ll be active on the site too.
Despite being shocked with the crime and the reactions, I didn’t blog about it YET, as I preferred to plan for a long term response that will have a continuous impact, other than a one time blog post. Also, to have sufficient accurate information and read different points of view.
Details will be published soon, If you’re interested in participating in such project, please Contact Me ASAP.
This is just to inform everyone that I started a new phase with Egypreneur – the project that was supposed to be active more than a year ago. And just like everything else you find yourself in need of a long list of requirements to proceed with it.
Egypreneur or (Egyptian Entrepreneur Support Network) was started on Ning http://egypreneur.ning.com with very limited interaction since June, 2008. That was the announcement (here)
The project is supposed to be a social business network for Egyptian young entrepreneurs just like myself, the network itself is still in the development phase, well, it’s just a matter of some free time to get it sorted out. Plus, till then the project is active on the following Social Media facilities + the project blog currently in the home page http://www.egypreneur.com :
The new phase will include online videos, presented by myself and anyone else interested and have something beneficial to say. The first video had been live yesterday, well, check the last post if you’re wondering about the poor quality of the video!
So, I’ll be seeking to make videos and get the project known and lead the interaction through these videos. Will be making contacts and some PR work with business professionals who might have something to say or some help to offer.
But as you know me, If I didn’t move no body will, so, I flaw with the pants of my seat as usual and will go for it.
Will keep you posted and you give me some feedback, please!
I had been searching for a role model, even unconsciously most of the time. But frankly. I never get impressed by a personality in our modern time enough to motivate and inspire me to be and do better.
Recently, after watching Aljazeera’s “Witness to the age” (Arabic: شاهد علي العصر) I get impressed by that man and found some similarities that might encourage me to make him a real role model.
I’m in the process of reading his book(s) and proud to have such example in our modern Egyptian history!
There is a website http://el-shazly.com includes very interesting information about himself and introduces his books/articles, I get to know him as a person- after some basic information reading about Operation Badr from different sources – through the 10 episodes. I created a Playlist on YouTube includes the 10 videos: http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=D9A843498AFDDCD9
Frankly, lately I was getting impressed by Sadat out of his speeches, but understanding the details of his life and Operation Badr made me swing to El-Shazly but still maintain respect to Sadat, no one is perfect but some mistakes is different than others!
You know that I’m supposed to be studying Engineering, Mechanical Design and Production specifically. Actually, my focus in the last 3 years had been business-wise and the skill set I was investing in the most had been everything had to do with the web & business.
I think during that time I didn’t focus on my Engineering skills, you might know that studying at FOE Cairo University, doesn’t give a lot of space for “skills” to develop, other than solving equations and memorizing formulas!
So, Engineering-wise I was planning to somehow work/study Mechatronics Engineering and make it my future career, of course while taking care of the business, or more intelligently delegating that to someone while maintaining ownership. I got some books from the Evil Genius series from a while and decided to get closer to Electronics the upcoming year.
Anywayz, There is an annual competition called ABU Robocon, that’s going to be held this year in Cairo, I joined a team in the faculty and meeting daily from a few days to plan on how to sort things out, participating in the competition, I was lucky to join a team with colleges who previously participated in Robocon last year, they practically didn’t achieve anything, but have good experience. All the team members are really awesome! Zizo, Hussein, Ghandor, Islam, Hussein and myself with the mentor TA Eng. Mohamed Omar.
While my focus is going to be Mechanical-wise in the project, I’ll appreciate the opportunity to get closer to the Electronics and Control part of making robots too and I think that’s going to be my long-awaited introduction to Mechatronics.
The competition itself is illustrated here:
I’m living a life of an Engineering student though, reading books, watching videos from different universities and soon to get down to Electronics Market / Mechanical Workshops to get / manufacture what we need for the robots.
We all get stressed during exams times especially provided the education system and attitude we have in our country, Egypt.
I used to get stressed during exams time as I prefer to focus on business and leave studies to the last few days before the finals, that’s very difficult with complex engineering subjects that need ongoing practice on solving problems and accordingly that got me over-stressed and my performance wasn’t that good.
As they say; attitude is everything. How we act is a direct result of how we feel which is resulted from what we believe in and what’s going on in our minds, If we can find away to change how we feel about the situation and ourselves, we can break free from stress and perform to the best of our ability.
I came across a very interesting paraliminal session from Dr. Ahmed Emara especially made for students under exams pressure. If you don’t know what a paraliminal session is, I was first introduced to it through LearningStrategies and they have something to say about it here: http://www.learningstrategies.com/paraliminal/home.asp
I was sent the following on FB:
أحمد عمارة
متخصص في الصحة النفسية
وعضو رابطة الأخصائيين النفسيين المصرية
بيقدم حل مسعف لدوامة الإمتحانات
I just finished a work task for Lane-8 Creative Digital Marketing working on a web application for Unilever Egypt – the funny thing is that I shared the progress with some photos of my whiteboard and some ideas came to my mind while working freely on Twitter.
Don’t know specifically why, but it was just fund and after finishing the task, I can track back all what I have done in the past 12 hours getting ready for a deadline.
Have you every considered something like that, what’s your limits for Tweeting about your work and publicly sharing information about what you do.
Just like every professional in Egypt – especially web professionals – I’m suffering from the unavailability or exaggerated cost of some services, which for me have to do with human rights before having access to professional services.
Last march, I started practicing Parkour with EgyFlow; an awesome Parkour team I first knew about via its facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=101307227731 despite the fact that I don’t have much time to invest weekly on Parkour, I’m maintaining a minimum of a session per week and enjoying it so far.
The other point around is that my company will be taking care of the team’s website http://EgyFlow.com as soon as the materials get ready.
Here’s some photos I took during some training session.
we were actually running on here ..
team members practicing
Stay tuned, I guess I’ll be taking more videos and photos during our trainings .. wanna run after me?
Life goes on, as usual, tough, troubling and confusing, but extremely incapable of changing few things, those who’re noble enough to love a concept, idea or a piece of land when they have absolutely all the right not to, will be the ones to stay with it longer and perhaps forever.
It’s very rare for crowds to move in the right direction except either when it’s absolutely as clear as the sun for the -80 IQ or when they’re inspired by a leadership, let it be an individual, character or an idea.
When it gets confusing everyone returns back to where he/she belongs! Don’t follow the crowds, either be among them when it’s absolutely right or lead them when it’s turbulent and you have a vision.
Tech Entrepreneur, engineer, teacher and researcher.
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"A vigorous, trustworthy and meticulous hard working man. He was the principal organizer of the event"
"Inspirational, motivational and mind-broadening entrepreneur. He is surely one of the “multis”; multi-talented, multi-tasking and multi-discipline – all governed by a great vision and seamless implementation."
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