My father was a diplomat and as a young boy I always thought I wanted to be a diplomat like him. But my mom, who had a clothing and textile business (which she started in 1971) always pushed me to work with her. In 1985 she finally won out and during my last year in university I decided to join her in her business. At the time, the company made evening wear and evening gowns for women, but when I joined, we completely shifted to men's casual wear.
To tell you the truth, before EMyth, I was the kind of person who ran the business as a very authoritarian dictatorship. I always thought that I was right, that I knew everything and when I asked people to do things, I ordered them to do it my way. There was no room to question or negotiate. If they couldn't deliver, it was their mistake or my mistake because I hired incompetent people.
When I took over the business back in 1987, that seemed to work. But at some stage it started failing. My business was not profitable like it used to be. I started feeling hopeless. I started thinking of closing down and maybe doing something else.
When I started reading the The E-Myth Revisited, it gave me hope that something could be done about this business. A business that once was doing well but needed to be revived. But I also thought the book would tell me how to do it, and that wasn't the case. The book was only about the concepts, not the details. By the time I finished it, I was ready to start EMyth Coaching immediately.
Once I started the program, it didn't take long for me to understand where the problem in my business was. The problem was me. It was not my staff. It was not the market. It was me, all this time. Once I realized that, everything started changing—quickly and dramatically.
Before the program, I had a staff that I (for one reason or another) tried to interact with as little as possible. It was very frustrating to sit down and have a conversation with any of them because it was usually a very negative conversation about why we didn't achieve this or that, and whose fault it was. That atmosphere has changed 180 degrees! The general mood in the company is so much better and we're all so much more motivated and hopeful.
Discovering my vision was a real eye opener! It's not something that I invented today; it's been there my whole life. I just didn’t know it. Discovering what I'm here for and what I’m trying to achieve is enlightening. And it only took me 23 years in my business to figure it out!
I also see now how much time I used to waste! I realize that I just didn’t know what to do, what to focus on or how to prioritize a day. I was very bad at time management before wasting a lot of time on trivial things. Now, using the time management tools, I feel much more organized and productive.
I've always wanted to create a big company. Not an international company, but a well-known one in the Egyptian market. I imagined a company that behaved like a multinational company, but was completely Egyptian. EMyth has helped me realize how I can achieve that. The coaching program has given me the tools and the confidence to do it. I now understand what it takes to build a big company, what it takes to create that kind of working environment and that kind of culture. I know now how my company needs to behave and plan for the future. It's exciting to go to work now!
Learn more about Ismail Seif El Nasr and Dockland Clothing Company
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