SAKHER GHANEM
How do you find strength in opportunity?
It all starts off with one thing, being born in raised in the Tenderloin. I saw my parents working hard everyday with their multiple jobs, my dad had stores, and he was also a maintenance worker. My dad worked so hard to be where he’s at, working hard to pay for the house, having 6 -7 kids with him, moving place to place. I finally realized throughout the years it’s about goals. It started off in the Tenderloin, being there I realized life isn’t just about working a 9 to 5. If you’re just working a 9 to 5 you’re living paycheck to paycheck, so with the rest of the time available you have to starting thinking about other things you want to do in life.
First off you want to hold yourself back and look at the big picture, you ask yourself where do I see myself 5 to 10 years from now. The first thing to me is, I do want to succeed, I want to go to school to educate myself, I want to graduate, I want to be a police officer, I want to join the military. These are the biggest things I stayed with, I had those goals in mind. So what I did with myself is I trained, I went to gym everyday, I worked at my dad’s store, and I went to school. My 9 to 5 was 9 to 9. As time went by, I was accomplishing things and doing pretty good. Even though in high school I wasn’t doing to well, I knew that I had to start pushing myself out of my comfort zone. I ended pushing myself to the point that I realized that I wanted more. I went to Calstate East Bay, Cal Berkeley, and community college ending up with multiple degrees. I still wanted more, I pushed myself through all this training, joined the military, joined the academy, went to one of the best schools in California with multiple degrees. I learned this from the military and my father.
My dad works everyday and pushes himself to help the family, making sure that we’re living comfortably. I took example from that, there’s no time to sit back. I asked myself, “What else do I want?”, and what came next was a business. Along with photography, real estate was another thing added to the plate, and that’s an entirely different beast. It’s very risky and a huge investment. I took the shot, got pre-approved and bought my first property here in Oakland. I got motivated from seeing different houses and took my real estate test, which stemmed from the past family business background. It started from that store in the Tenderloin, the short term goals eventually evolved into my 5 to 10 year goals. If you don’t start with the smaller things you’ll never reach your long term goals.
What has been your greatest teacher? What is a turning point in your life?
Half-assing things is the biggest red flag for myself. I notice if I half-ass things I fail, because I missed a step in the timeline, I didn’t focus, and I need to make up all of the work today. In school I did this a lot, I got bad grades and by the time my junior year came around I was going to be kicked out. When summertime came around, I played catchup taking 4 classes treating the courses like a full-time student, and made it back graduating with a 2.5. I forced myself to do it, never skip the steps, follow the target that you’re going to hit, if you miss the target you’ll need to make another attempt. If you’re going to half-ass it don’t even attempt it. Of course I’ve I had mentors, and I surrounded myself with people way above my level to push myself past my limits.
What does the word strength mean to you?
Mentally things might suck, you may be drained, but you need to constantly remind yourself push now, celebrate later. You have that strength, don’t give up now, pain is temporary but you did it.