by Natasha E. Feghali

I have had to make extremely tough decisions in my life and let go of everything to continue to pursue my dreams. It has been an exceptionally long and, at times lonely journey to scrape together enough to get going and stay in the field. Some days are easy, but most are tough when you are the ceiling of your business; and you make all the final decisions. After 10 years in business, I still do not believe I have found the secret to making it all work. However, what I do know to be true is that without a vision and a will to stay on course no matter what comes your way – only fear and lost dreams will set in. In my business we call it analysis paralysis and I have had many days over analyzing a deal to the point where I was too late to the negotiating table and lost the contract or more.

Due to a life-changing event involving my career many years ago, I was forced to make challenging decisions and change the trajectory of my life which also brought me to Kuwait as well. This seems to happen to me all the time and many entrepreneurs have the same fate. We are lucky to have been pushed into making decisions for ourselves and creating a life we worked hard for. Amongst other things, it is a balancing act where you need to harmonize your life and your business. And; as a woman a sister, daughter, friend, colleague to people I cannot let down. They believed in me when I had nothing left.

I always knew that I wanted to be a business owner and that journey took me an exceedingly long time – that seems like seconds. As a leader, founder, and entrepreneur I know that empathy and compassion are the only two traits that engage others to follow your dream and vision. In 2014, I launched my business, and it has grown into an investing and real estate portfolio across Canada; and hopefully more.

Making decisions is difficult and takes strength and courage. Knowing when to walk away and when to hold your ground is essential as sometimes, we are more emotional than rational, and we say and do things that are harmful to ourselves and our trajectory. Also, at times we may be unknowingly holding a bias towards an event or a person and that affects our judgement. One strategy that I have integrated into my life is to take account of my thoughts and biases and ask myself where they come from and how they are going to affect my business and my bottom line. For me in the housing and real estate market; it is particularly important to take account of the way I am thinking and how that can hinder my growth. I started my business with $4,000.00 Canadian dollars and I was not afraid yet as time goes on, I need to continuously remind myself of that brave woman that took a risk.

I see my tenants as clients, and I know that if they are not living well then it will reflect poorly on my ability to grow the business at scale. This has and will always be my philosophy. I also engage in philanthropic work to ensure the community is also living well and that we are invested; where we invest. How can we ask people to live in an unfit home in an unfit neighborhood and profit from them? That goes against our mission and vision. Growingly real estate is less about bricks and mortar and more about human development.

People will talk and they will have opinions about you and how you are projecting your future and manifesting your dreams, however they are not the ones in your shoes living your dream to fulfillment. From the inception of my business, I decided to always do the right thing for the team, community and the clients.

Natasha E. Feghali, a Stanford Fellow and an award winning Canadian for her philanthropy in the community and dedication globally. She is a Stanford University Fellow of the Draper Hills School for Democracy and Democratic Rule. She is the recipient of the 40 Under 40 United Way/ Leadership Windsor-Essex Award 2018, the Sovereign Canadian Medal in 2015 and the Odyssey Award University of Windsor 2018.