Like many Syrian youths who are now in the midst of one of the worst civil wars the world has seen, Amin felt he had no future. He had no political freedom, employment was sparse and his prospects were grim.
Now 28, he has escaped the worst of it. The crisis in Syria has been growing in scope for more than two years. The conflict has left more than 100,000 dead and millions displaced. The country’s main cities have been reduced to rubble and United Nations weapons inspectors have been combing through the wreckage.
Last week, for the second time, Amin lost a cousin to the conflict. Before that, he lost his uncle.
“It’s nothing compared to other people,” Amin tells me from his new home, France. “I had no freedom in Syria. At that point and until recently the main dream of Syrian youth was to leave because the situation was so tough. On the political side you have no freedom. Employment was difficult. I felt as a young person that there was no future for me in Syria.”
In Syria’s biggest city, Aleppo, rebels still fight with government forces. Last week, the Observatory for Human Rights reported dozens of deaths in the city’s Northern Province, as a lack of supplies delpetes citizens caught in the conflict.
But it was there that Amin’s passion for business was ignited. His entrepreneurial flair was set off by the famous Aleppo soap – made from the oil of Bay Laurel berries in the country for over 2,000 years.
Before that, Amin had a distinguished career in the IT industry. He had worked for French energy giants EDF, Solutec and Thales Services in a career spanning eight years. But approached by a business partner, the pair developed an idea to market Syria’s famous soap in Switzerland.
They wanted to mix the country’s tradition with a modern marketing campaign and although the startup didn’t flourish, Amin was inspired to switch career paths.
He takes many lessons from that business strategy. “We had nothing but an idea,” he says. “Our strategy was not clear. When I look back after my MBA, it was a strong trigger for me. I like the idea of building something from scratch.
“I worked with people in Syria to make our website, packages and visual identity, and it was a great international business experience. I had a feeling of emergency after that and felt I had to do an MBA as soon as possible. I needed an evolution that would satisfy my ambition.”
Amin is a dual-nationality Syrian and French citizen. When he left Syria, and his father and family, he moved to France, where his mother lives. He feels that if he hadn’t made the transition, his career now would have been unthinkable.
Al-Fanar Media, an independent Arab news website dedicated to higher education in the region, reported last month that direct damage caused to the buildings and equipment that belong to the Ministry of Higher Education in Syria has been cost up to $2.4 million.
Public spending is expected to shrink by half the amount seen before the conflict in 2010, and many countries have banned transactions with Syrian public banks, effectively blocking transfers to overseas Syrian students.
As many as 30 per cent of Syrian academics have fled the country since the civil war began and there have been 53 reported deaths of professors and lecturers. In short, an MBA in Syria is near impossible. “I just hated the education system in Syria,” Amin says. “You had to learn everything by heart and I was never a good student in Syria.
“When you are eighteen, you have a final exam and depending on the grades that you get you can enter different universities. It was very difficult. I wanted to choose something that I really wanted to do. If I stayed in Syria I would have been very unhappy. I didn’t want to do it like this.
“At the time I never thought I would go to business school.”
But go to business school he has – and a distinguished one, too. After dropping his IT career, Amin was accepted into EMLYON Business School in France, a top-five institution in this year’s French MBA Rankings.
After the Syrian revolution, Amin wants to use his business skills to help rebuild his homeland. He thinks entrepreneurship is the key to prosperity in Syria. “I would like to help Syria rebuild after the war ends and I believe the MBA changed my vision towards Syria and the solution,” he said.
“I believe in entrepreneurship as a way to rebuild the country and society; giving jobs to people prevents them from taking weapons and becoming thugs. We have hundreds of thousands of injured people, and if you give them jobs you save them from despair, hunger and death. As soon as the situation becomes stable I think entrepreneurship will do this.”
Amin loved his experience at EMLYON. After studying an MBA, he has a clear vision of where he wants to be. “We had great teachers and great discussions,” he continued. “The in-depth discussions about strategy helped me a lot. I have a feeling this will help me understand politics in Syria better; it raised my interests in human science in general.
“It was management focused but widely applicable. I loved it. You cannot learn this by reading a book, we had to experience it. I’m really happy about this MBA and I’m really satisfied and feel grateful for the opportunity I had to attend EMLYON.”
Amin’s long-term goal is to help rebuild his home, a country ravaged by civil war. Three months after completing his MBA, and Amin is banking on a business development job with a Middle Eastern focus. He wants to work in Europe, but feels attached to both sides of the Mediterranean Sea. When the conflict settles down, he will look to entrepreneurship in Syria.
But for now, he is confident his MBA will help him get a job in the meantime. “I’m very confident by nature, but at the same time the situation is tough,” he said. “Even though I have a long-term vision, translating that into the short-term is not so easy. But I believe I will find something, and have had some good interviews so far.”
Amin left what would have been a world of despair and conflict behind; a world where everyday life for the people of Syria is unimaginable to the Western world. The civil war has touched him and his family personally, but he is on a mission to rebuild the nation.
Inspired by the traditions of Aleppo, Amin has discovered his passion for entrepreneurship. Like many MBAs, he wants to use his business education for a higher purpose.
The crisis in Syria may show no signs of abating, but when it does, this EMLYON MBA wants to do his part. Through business, Amin hopes to make the country a better place.
His intent is nothing but inspiring.
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