A week ago, we were invited to Mindset, a prestigious event held by TEDx at the French University in Cairo.
I had the chance to interview Ahmed Abou Hashima, the 43 year old self-made Egyptian business magnate and CEO of Egyptian Steel. I wanted to talk to him specifically about the relationship between success and work-life balance.
“You can’t sleep for 10 hours a day and then look for tips on time management. I perhaps sleep abnormally, around four to five hours but I’d say that if you want to do more you should start by sleeping 6 hours and not more than that,” said Abou Hashima, when I asked him for tips on time management and how he seems to get so much done.
“I wake up everyday at six in the morning to workout, go into the office at eight, and work till around nine in the evening. I still work for 18 hours a day until now but if you stick to normal working hours, you will reach a normal level of success. This is the price I have to pay to be where I am now.”
You don’t have to be a business man in Egypt to understand the frustrations of a bad work-life balance where work engulfs most of your living days. You most probably just need to keep a job. Abou Hashima admits that he sometimes wonders, “Why am I working all these hours?,” he chuckled. “But it’s because these are the circumstances of the Middle East and Africa. When you’re doing business in developing countries, you’re doing it in a myriad of economic and organizational issues that you have to adapt to. And adapting to it takes a lot of work,” he said clarifying his view. “This is also reflected on the work-life balance of my employees who I wouldn’t be successful without.”
I also asked him if there is any piece of popular advice that successful people usually give to the youth that he finds unhelpful. “I don’t know, honestly. Live your life?” he said jokingly. “I guess the advice you give to anyone should depend on what they want to accomplish in life,” he added. “As for me, the most precious advice I received was ‘El rez2 bytwaza3 badry’,” he said referring to a well-known Egyptian adage that roughly translates to ‘the early bird gets the worm.’
“This really made a difference in my daily life and motivated me to always wake up early. And I believe this largely contributed to my success.”
