A luck-free tale of a bright-eyed young man who ended up as an English guru.
Mostly, any influencing story holds luck at least in one of its chapters, though luck has no room in this story.
Omar Abdelrahim’s success story is a tale of a self-made man who has wittly utilized each crossroad he encounters, put another way, his silver linings were wisely transformed into a successful outcome.
1990
childhood
Since his early childhood, Omar was dazzled by English; born in the 90s, he was caught by the blockbusters back then including but not limited to, Jurassic Park, and Titanic. While sitting on the edge of his seat Omar asked himself a reasonable question" Why am I listening to a totally different English from what I'm learning at my school?"
From that point, he decided to establish his way of learning English -which was later on adopted to be his ahead-of-his-time teaching method- he decided to Think English; he gathered all the new vocabulary, phrases, and idioms from American movies and songs, and put them in while chatting with the natives he met via the old defunct social media platforms such as HI5, MSN, and Yahoo chat rooms to enhance his language and sponge the English's mother-tongue, of course, thanks to his elder brother who was winded up by all the MSN nudges and the outdated internet dial-up ear-splitting noise all over the place.
2000
high school
Drawing attention to his authentic accent among his school peers, he failed to achieve high scores in high school. It didn't pull him back because Omar had already set his foot into the labor market after hitting puberty, his first job was at a Zincograph workshop, that way, he learned how to make money at a young age. Consequently, he joined the Higher Institute for Languages and afforded his expenses which will take us to the first turning point in Omar's life.
Since day one, Omar proved to himself and his professors that he was a language guru in both languages he was studying, German and English. He graduated first in his class and was offered to work as a teaching assistant yet he was engaged at that time with Google.
2010
microsoft & google
From a peddling sales representative to Google and Microsoft, thanks to his native-like accent, Omar during his academic years till his graduation year in 2010, has wandered the realm of sales. Starting from the US and Australian-based accounts companies where he proved his competency by hitting numbers, the thing that led him to join Google as a Google Ads sales agent, years later he was hired as a Microsoft licensing specialist. Microsoft was an eye-opening life experience. On an ordinary working day, a new batch was bothered due to the trainer's no-show, Omar saved the day by offering his help and delivering the training instead, surprisingly he received positive feedback from the attendees. A silver lining popped up to evoke a statement “You were born for this, training here it is''. He managed to give another training to another batch. Then he made up his mind to pursue destiny’s call-up, unfortunately, Microsoft wasn't welcoming his new passion which led him to the resignation decision to seize the new game-changer milestone.
2016
26 jobs in different industries
Omar started seizing all the available options to fulfill his new life cause; helping people through training, he started as a soft skills trainer, and he cooperated with various clients yet the meal still lacks salt, he isn't there yet, he strives for something more. He figured out that languages were his Gateway to all his past milestones, isn't it the key changer and the answer to his overthinking nights figuring out his future?
He didn’t take the road of school teaching, his objectives were beyond an ordinary school classroom, he is full of beans to light the fire under the adults who have been struggling with the mainstream teaching methods. His first station was Not Courses Center as an English Instructor where he reflected his exuberant spirit to the attendees. This milestone rang the bell to Gateway, finally after 26 jobs in different industries, he landed up at his cup of tea; the mover and shaker of the English language to those who are restrained by the obstacles of thinking with an Arabic mindset while learning English.
2016
the Gateway of Universe
The 6th of April, 2014 marked the emergence of the Gateway of Universe, a universe where English is Fun, Easy to grasp, and Doable to communicate with. Partnered with Salma Selmy who is the Training and Supervision Head to create a customized curriculum that suits the Egyptian mindset and aligns with Omar’s tangible learning method. Yet it wasn't a piece of cake, a shutdown plan was discussed every now and then due to the shortage of the profit margin. Though a silver lining stole the scene causing the utmost climax of Omar’s diligent journey.
At his lowest, Omar needed to boost his giving character, so he decided to provide his knowledge without a financial return through some organizations such as the Supreme Council of Youth; he carried out free English courses for the attendees where the feedback was at its peak. He thought to take it to the next level to conquer social media with his solid knowledge, so he started posting some short videos which he received adequate engagement from his average fan base back then.
2016
AlArabia and MBC
Till the charm of his hard work did all the magic, he posted a video mocking the Egyptian pronunciation of the globally known brands, “I wake up to craziness” That's how Omar described the unexpected feedback on his video. His FB page went from 10k followers to 35k in the blink of an eye, and TV and Radio channels started contacting him to carry out interviews, to which he appeared at prominent ones such as AlArabia and MBC.
2016
hard work throughout the years finally paid off
Out of a sudden, his hard work throughout the years finally paid off, the years between 2017 and 2019 were a turn of events for his Gateway center, as followers kept asking “Where can we learn English with this funny witty instructor”?
Omar builds his name as the sarcastic, intellectual, and unconventional English instructor which truly reflects his original persona. Now it was time to reap what he sowed, starting with one floor to 4 branches in different areas of Egypt, teaching thousands of trainees online and offline to Egyptians and to a diverse range of nationalities like Japanese, Indonesian, Korean, and African.
Omar himself has expanded his knowledge outside Egypt by carrying out events in Dubai, Abu Dhabi, and Agman and carried out interviews on prominent TV channels in the UAE. We can wrap up Omar’s heartening journey that it’s all about passion reinforced by tireless work, success will eventually come running in your favor while luck and disappointment are crying at the corner.