Ever since I was a kid I always enjoyed competing…in anything. I received a prize for a painting I did from the governor of our city, I was awarded by the governor the “Ideal Student” award and in college, my soccer team won the first place among all Arab universities.
During my last year in college, me and my peers, a team of electro-mechanical engineers, participated in Robocon- a robots’ invention contest, where we created two automated robots and a manual one.
Later, we participated in one of the biggest contests in Egypt, known as Made in Egypt during which our quad copter drone invention won second place, that gave us the chance to participate in Made in The Arab World Competition and won second place, a few months later we were nominated to join the Euro-Mediterranean Innovation Marketplace.
It was quite an achievement for me to be chosen as a Ted Talk speaker since it gave me a chance to share my experiences and I realized I was able to inspire many people. As a person who was raised in the countryside, it was very hard for me to compete with others brought up in the capital city. I left my job in my hometown, and started from scratch in Cairo as a technical support representative in one of the GSM companies. After a while I joined Centro as a junior IT specialist and in less than one year I got promoted to a team leader.
One of my noticeable achievements in Centro is leading the voice team to develop a free open-source platform with the needed functions, which became one of the main platforms that Centro relies on currently for all 3 sites.
One of my dreams is that one day I’ll be able to establish my own business that can provide robotic solutions and innovative electronics ideas for people.
I believe that the hardest way to succeed is by pushing yourself to do something and be committed to it. What makes us stop and give up is that we are in a rush and want to change the world in one day. Just take your time! Don’t get consumed with how hard your path is. Never miss a day without taking a step no matter how small. Every step counts!
