In light of Berytech’s mission to offer the right ecosystem for innovative entrepreneurs, to create and develop their startups and SMEs, fostering innovation, technology and entrepreneurship, Maroun N. Chammas, Chairman & CEO of Berytech, a strong believer in innovation and an entrepreneur at heart, shared an informative session to Berytech’s employees presenting the different aspects of what it takes to be an entrepreneur.
Raghid Jarrah, part of Berytech’s Communication team, wrote about his major learnings from this session.
What is Entrepreneurship
“I started selling watches as a child,” said Maroun, as he shared his journey into entrepreneurship. Sitting among the crowd and listening to him speak about his journey, I realized entrepreneurship, though rewarding on multiple levels, is not easy. The sheer discipline needed to keep finding opportunities in the face of defeat is courageous, to say the least, and remaining humble at all costs, even at the brink of immense success, will help the entrepreneur keep on growing.
Expanding on his entrepreneurial guidance, Maroun said “success is relative, and you must seek to make friends. Make the effort to keep good people around you, as enemies will show up either way.”
Putting in the effort to lift-up others have multiple benefits, one of which is enhancing their creativity, to come up with their own creations, building such friendships is rewarding and being in an environment that encourages such relationships is motivating to pursue greatness that seemed far to reach.
The Axes of Entrepreneurship
At Berytech, the traits of entrepreneurship are encouraged to be developed and be part of your personality. In his definition to conceptualize entrepreneurship, Maroun presented the three axes that entrepreneurs should focus on.
The first axe is the entrepreneur’s Inner Space, which is everything you can control, such as allocating the right resources, proper planning, time management, communicating well, and autocorrecting yourself are all part of the Inner Space. Maroun further developed the Inner Space to include the personality and the mentality required of an entrepreneur, such as staying positive, being humble, rational thinking, and talking cautiously.
These characteristics are essential to building a strong foundation for future growth. Maintaining a balance in all forms between professional and personal skills increases the level of stability in an entrepreneur’s journey.
The second axe is Middle Space, defining the process for your business with clear procedures and maintaining high standards in quality for your product and service.
Continuously improving the efficiency of your business value chain helps to uphold a competitive edge over the competition and most importantly, we must keep evolving and innovating our solutions.
The third axe is Outer Space, the things you cannot control – up to a certain extent, such as other people, the customers, the market, and the environment.
One example Maroun shared of an environment that was out of his control, when he ventured into a telecommunication startup in KSA. “Though we planned for everything, studied the market, established our product, and started to generate profits, we failed. But we failed not due to a lack of preparation nor a lack of competency, we failed due to matters outside of our hands, Saudi policy makers made changes to telecom law to favor the national telecom company.”
Maroun added “It is important to take the positive side of any situation and make sure it’s beneficial for your development, learn from constructive feedbacks to turn failures into learnings. Be realistic and look at the glass both half full and half empty.”
