Success is the quality of the impact you make | Dalia El Gabry | TEDxDelftWomen
look at the map and look at the picture the map shows you where I come from and what I have accomplished over the last 20 years of my life so I'm a proud Egyptian I have been working for one of the leading multinational companies in the oil and gas sector in finance position regional and local position different countries from the sunny Egypt to the slippery cold Norway then to Morocco South Africa Qatar and now in the Netherlands the picture is a picture of my lovely family my husband and my two daughters and on top of it I have an extended family in Egypt my parents my sister my brother and my in-laws I have been always there supporting me so wow it sounds that I got it all nice job lovely family a very strong support model in place but it all depends on how you define success for some people it is a large pay slip that they get at the end of every month for others it is a prestigious position or the Titan that they would carry for a few years but for me it was a bit different so let's hold that thought for you know some time and allow me to take you few steps back and share some of my stories and specifically in 2001 when I looked around in my workplace and I didn't find any opportunity for career progression if I stay at my home country it was very clear that if I want to grow in my role I need to look for opportunities outside my home country in my culture my friends my family would say are you crazy enjoy what you got stay at home you have a lot of stuff but for me it was not fulfilling and it was not enough I was very honest with myself very well understood by my husband then what i did i looked around and i applied for an opportunity in norway which I got after some competition some interview some tough questions I got a row and it was extremely hard to set such a decision to my mother my mother-in-law everyone was saying you would be divorced this is not the right way to move but jointly me and my husband we took the decision and this is because i underst I recognized and he supported me if I don't develop if I don't grow in my role I will only have a negative impact on my surrounding and more importantly the people I love so we moved ahead and the deal was that my husband with an engineer would keep his business in Egypt and I will move on take my two daughters grab and seize the opportunity in Norway and it was a win-win two on the plane two daughters two years and seven years and nany and myself everything very well planned every tiny detail was planned ahead but of course life is not a dream I didn't predict that the utes immigration in norway will not find me fitting in any box especially after the turmoil of September 11 an Arab woman coming to work as a corporate controller in Norway so I didn't get the visa for my nanny and I had to get nne every three months from home to take care of my kids so it was not an easy ride full time portal controller full-time mom was a frequent visitor mahaz but at the end of the day when I look back it was a success and why would I say it was a success first because we have done it four times after so if it didn't work we wouldn't have repeated it but more importantly because of five key main reasons for me personally I took a lot of positive stuff out of it I grow I learned a lot not only the technical skills as a finance professional but also understanding the differences dealing with different cultures and I bet a friend of mine from the University couple of months ago when I visited home and she was saying I hardly recognized you was already knows education that you worked on and finally with your decision sending your daughter to study in Scotland by herself for me it was unnoticeable for my teams it was a success because personally I had in all those locations different people different hierarchy different sizes of group reporting to me and it was always in my mind a shared responsibility when it comes to their career a development that progression majority of them ended on the high performers list and few have always valued the difficult honest discussion that they are not the right match for the current organization where they work and they stepped out of it I think more importantly when I reflect on my teams is a deliberate decision that I took by me being more and more involved in their lives I spent eight to ten hours per day with my teams I'm so interested to know every tiny detail in their lives so I was so involved and big events like marriage frustration when you don't you know get it to the right person delivering birth all those type of things so it was a success for my peers and my mentees it was also a success for me because when I come and I get approached to provide an advice and you tell a real story not only the positive stuff but even sharing failures sometime that helped many of my colleagues and few of them followed the same path for my daughter's it was a success because when I compare them to their peers at home and I see how independent they are they value difference they have friends from every culture nationality and religion they don't care and coming from a very conservative culture this is a big advantage and then last but not least more important my husband has always supported me with love and respect we give each other the space to excel it was a win-win but our key goal has always been how to keep this family close regardless so what a success I've learned over the last 20 years that what got me over a tough time is the people that I dealt with it's all about people about getting the best out of every person you deal with and more importantly the impact that you make so success for me my legacy is the quality of impact that every one of us makes every day in our lives thank you very much