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| Immigrant entrepreneur: | Abdulhamid Ali |
| Company: | Daar Engineering |
| Place of birth: | Somalia |
| Employees: | 100 |
| Annual revenue: | $15,000,000 |
Show notes
Growing up in Somalia, Abdulhamid had a great childhood, but after the Somalian’s pressident got assasinated he had to grow up very quickly. His father went to prison several times and his mom was left with 6 kids to care for. It turns out that his mom became extremely entrepreneurial and made the best out of what they had.
If you wanted to go to college in Somalia, the goverment told you want you were going to study and you had no other choice. The decision that the goverment made for me, was nothing that he wanted to study so Abdulhamid decided to pursue engineering instead.
There was no other choice but to get out of the country to study his passions in civil engineering.
In this episode he shares his journey from the very beginning, his struggles and reveals why he decided to leave the public sector. So.. stay tuned!
Quotes by Abdulhamid
You can have all the licenses you need, you can have all the education you need, all the experience you need, but if you don’t have that trust of your client in their eyes, you’re not going to win any big projects.
Anyone who’s an immigrant, I encourage you to have excellent credit. The second thing is, you got to have a property, where you can use your property as a collateral.
The only mentor I had was a gentleman that I met at the SBA, and later he ended up joining the company and helped us get some good contracts.
If you live you’re going to fail.
I really don’t dwell on failures.
I set a goal in my mind and I achieve it.
My biggest success as a business owner is that it gives you an opportunity that you want to live. It’s not a life where somebody else is setting the goals and political agenda for what to do.
You have opportunities to help other people.
As an immigrant, the best pride about it, is the advice I provide to my younger brothers and the guidance I can give my younger brothers and my sons.
The beauty of America is that it’s a country that gives everybody an opportunity.
There’s no other country, at least my view, that makes my kind of story true except the United States.
So when I had my business, I really like to treat people the way other people I liked, treated me, and that attracts more people to come to you and that builds trust.
You gotta know the field you’re getting into it.
Have a really good network for your business.
Your business is as good as the people you have that you employ… Without them, you have no business.
Where to find Abdulhamid
Links mentioned
Immigrant Hustle book (affiliate link)
SBA – Small Business Administration
American Society of Civil Engineer
[read more] Alina Warrick (0s):
Welcome to the Immigrant Entrepreneurs podcast, episode 42.
Abdulhamid Ali (6s):
After that Somalia had a free college, you take a national entrance college exam, and the government tells you what to study. You don’t have no choice. I was told that I’m going to be a physics major and I’m going to start physics and I didn’t like what they picked for me. I want to be an engineer or a civil engineer. So the only option you had was if your family had some way of sending you overseas, then you could go out of the country. But if you didn’t have then, well, the government told you what to do.
Alina Warrick (36s):
My name is Alina Warrick. And today we have Abdulhamid Ali on the show. Abdulhamid Ali had two different childhoods growing up in Somalia. Originally, he grew up in an established house with maids, a chauffeur. He went to a private boarding school and life was really good, but at 10 years old, the Somalians president was assassinated and the military coupe took over. His dad worked for the government. And after he came back from his work travels, he was taken into prison and the family didn’t see him for three years. When Abdulhamid came to the United States at 21 years old, he had to take ESL classes.
Alina Warrick (1m 22s):
So he started off like all the other immigrants, at the very bottom. In fact, his very first job was a dishwasher at the college he attended. After graduating with a civil engineering degree, he got into the public sector. So in this episode, we will hear what his journey was like. And what his deciding factor was to start a business where he now makes $15 million in annual revenue. So let’s dive right in. Alright, Abdulhamid, thank you so much for joining me on the Immigrant Entrepreneurs Podcast.
Alina Warrick (2m 3s):
I truly appreciate your time. And I’m really excited to talk to you because I read a little bit about you from the book Immigrant Hustle. So welcome to the show.
Abdulhamid Ali (2m 13s):
Thank you for inviting me.
Alina Warrick (2m 15s):
Let’s talk about your immigrant journey. Tell us where you’re from. And when did you come to the United States?
Abdulhamid Ali (2m 22s):
Yes, I was born and raised in Mogadishu, Somalia. And I came to the United States in September of 1980.
Alina Warrick (2m 30s):
1980, okay. And how old were you?
Abdulhamid Ali (2m 33s):
I was 21 years old when I came.
Alina Warrick (2m 37s):
Okay. And you came by yourself?
Abdulhamid Ali (2m 39s):
Yes.
Alina Warrick (2m 39s):
And was it for school or did you meet some family members out here?
Abdulhamid Ali (2m 45s):
No. I came to go to school here, because back in Somalia, in those days, when you graduated from high school, then they had what they called national SERPs, which was kind of military, you kind of went to the army and you got some training through the army. And in 1977/78, when I graduated, Somalia was in a transition. Was in war going on between Ethiopia and Somalia. And then you go and you kind of teach elementary schools or so forth. After that, Somalia had a free college, you take a national entrance, college exam, and the government tells you what to study.
Abdulhamid Ali (3m 25s):
You don’t have no choice.
Alina Warrick (3m 27s):
Wow.
Abdulhamid Ali (3m 28s):
I was told that I’m going to be a physics major and I’m going to start physics. And I didn’t like what they picked for me. I want to be an engineer or a civil engineer. So the only option you had was if your family had some way of sending you overseas, then you could go out of the country. But if you didn’t have then, well, the government told you what to do. So that’s why I came here to study engineering.
Alina Warrick (3m 50s):
Got it. Wow. So the government chose a career path for you?
Abdulhamid Ali (3m 54s):
Yes. You have no options. They tell you you’re going to be a doctor. You’re going to be a doctor. They told you you’re going to be a veterinarian. You’re going to be a veterinarian. And they told you you’re going to be a teacher. You’ll be a teacher. That was the way it worked way back in Somalia.
Alina Warrick (4m 5s):
Wow. That’s crazy. Alright. So what was it like growing up in Somalia?
Abdulhamid Ali (4m 10s):
Well, Somalia had two periods in my mind. When I grew up, I was very fortunate. I grew up into a family where my dad was already elected member of parliament. So my dad, he was part of the MPs. You know Somalia is different than here with that Congress and so forth. He became a minister. He was a cabinet member. And one time he was the Vice President of the parliament. So I had a really nice and very fortunate childhood. We had a big home. We had cars. We had guards. We had maids. We had nannies. You name it.
Alina Warrick (4m 44s):
A chauffeur. Private boarding school.
Abdulhamid Ali (4m 47s):
Yeah. So I had a dream life till military coup. 1969 they took over. But even after that, my mom was very entrepreneurial. My dad went to prison for a while and he came out and he became a businessman, but we were well off compared to a lot of other people in Somalia.
Alina Warrick (5m 3s):
Why did your dad go to prison?
Abdulhamid Ali (5m 6s):
Because the military junta that took over, they didn’t want anybody who was in the administration at that time, were political prisoners, basically. Actually Somalia was the first to democracy in Africa, in 1960, where a president was defeated in election and there was a peaceful transfer of power. Talk about that now in the United States. The military took over the military was more of a socialistic, I mean, they started having a socialist party, became very close to the Soviet Union and so forth. And we become more of a socialistic country at that time.
Alina Warrick (5m 42s):
And this happened when your dad was traveling overseas. So was that when he came back and he was taken into prison and you guys didn’t see him for a couple of years?
Abdulhamid Ali (5m 54s):
Yes, actually my dad, October 21 was when the military took over. Before that, the president at that time, in 1969, was assassinated, the elected president. So as my dad was in Europe, I think traveling for government and he was planning to come back anyway, even though my relatives kept telling him, if you come back, you’re going to go to jail. My dad was aware of it, but he didn’t care. He came back and they picked him up from the airport and we didn’t see him for three years.
Alina Warrick (6m 25s):
And how old were you when this happened?
Abdulhamid Ali (6m 28s):
10 years.
Alina Warrick (6m 28s):
10 years old. Wow. And so what was your life like after that?
Abdulhamid Ali (6m 33s):
My life really didn’t change much, but I have to do a lot of growing up. I had a mom as I said was very entrepreneurial and my mom, we are six of us. I have two older sisters and me and I have a younger sister than me, and we’re going to boarding school. But then I have a brother who’s eight years younger than me and a brother who was just born, when my dad went to jail. And I had a cousin of my mine who was my nanny, that really had a rough, it’s tough to have a 10 year old. They talked to me saying life’s changing and I noticed it. You don’t have to see it. The driver wasn’t there anymore. The guards were not there any longer.
Abdulhamid Ali (7m 14s):
You know, you can see changes in the household. When my, I call her my second mom, or my aunt, took me down to say, no things are changing. And I was pretty much a spoiled brat boy. My dad will buy me anything I wanted. Any toys I wanted. And she kind of told me life’s changing now. I don’t want you giving trouble to your mom. Your mom’s going to be the provider of the family. And you have to grow up. And our life really didn’t change much, but I had to grow up pretty fast. [Inaudible]
Alina Warrick (7m 47s):
And you mentioned that all the money was gone and was that when he went to prison and the government took all of it or when the military took all the money?
Abdulhamid Ali (7m 57s):
I really didn’t know how finances work, but I remember my mom and my aunt telling us, you know, when your dad went to jail, cause I guess he was getting a salary and my dad always had it, even though he was in the government, we had trucks. So we were in the trucks business. We had people to drive our trucks and so forth. But I remember my mom saying that when my dad went to jail, all the money she had in the house was 700 Somali shilling at that time. Which basically would be at that time, I think $1 will be trading to 4 Somali shillings. And I remember them telling us, you know, all we have is 700 shillings, guys. Your dad’s not getting a salary, our bank accounts are frozen, nothing.
Abdulhamid Ali (8m 39s):
Even if I recall, we had some properties, rental properties, we had plenty of properties where the government took over the properties. So we were not getting any more income from those properties.
Alina Warrick (8m 51s):
Okay. And so what did your mom decide to do at that point?
Abdulhamid Ali (8m 55s):
Well, my recollection is my mom became very adventurous. I remember she invested into Somalia’s livestock. They support a lot of livestock.
Alina Warrick (9m 3s):
Okay.
Abdulhamid Ali (9m 4s):
She started buying livestock and exporting livestock and taking care of getting to learn very quickly the trucks business. There was not a lot of women at that time involved in business. So she was the one signing the contracts, going back to the banks, going to the port to see what loads the trucks can carry. And even she managed to take one of our trucks to neighboring country, Kenya. So she was a very courageous woman.
Alina Warrick (9m 31s):
Okay. Wow. That’s amazing. Okay. So a couple of years later, three years later, your dad comes back home and does your life change at all? Does your dad go back to the government sector? Does he pick up another job?
Abdulhamid Ali (9m 45s):
No. My dad came and he kind of started taking over the track business on the side and my mom did something else on the side to the point of my mom had her own properties. Now that they passed away, we have actually sold some properties that were all in my mom’s name, not my dad’s name. And the other properties we had were both on my mom and my dad’s name. But my mom started doing her own business where she had a couple of other properties, that rental properties that she developed. She had a small apartment and downstairs with a lot of little shops, tailor shops, a grocery shop. That was all about that. So, but they kind of divided the work when my dad came out and when my dad came, then that’s the first time really we start spending time together.
Abdulhamid Ali (10m 30s):
We’d go to the beach. My dad was a good swimmer. I’m not a good swimmer at all. And that’s the time we knew my dad would drop us to school because we’d come from the boarding school, go to the beach and go here, take us to movies. And that’s when I got to know my dad really well.
Alina Warrick (10m 47s):
And so a couple years later, your dad was taken to jail again.
Abdulhamid Ali (10m 51s):
Oh, yes. Because what happened is, in Somalia then, after that, Somalia is kind of a clan based society. There were some officers in the army or whenever our clan base has done something, my dad was viewed one of the clan leaders. So he went to jail a couple of times, yes.
Alina Warrick (11m 12s):
Wow. Okay. So I’m sure your mom was terrified. Your dad going to jail a couple of times and she’s left with six kids by herself. Was there a point in her life where she said, you know what, we’re going to leave Somalia for good and never return? Or did you guys remain in Somalia?
Abdulhamid Ali (11m 32s):
No, my dad was never, he was never about to say that, even though my mom’s dad was a missionary, slamming missionary.
Alina Warrick (11m 40s):
Okay.
Abdulhamid Ali (11m 40s):
And he went and preached all over East Africa. So we had an avenue. My mom could go to her dad. And we could live with my grandfather outside of the country. But my dad and my mom were both saying, no, this is our country. This belongs to us. We’re not going anywhere. Until the civil war started.
Alina Warrick (11m 57s):
And what happened with the civil war?
Abdulhamid Ali (11m 59s):
When the civil war happened, we were here. But my dad had already passed away, before the civil war. Then after that, everybody, or even before the civil war, I came to college here. My sisters followed me. My sister studied in the Eastern European countries where she went to medical school. Then she came back. My other sisters went to school in Somalia. They all came to the United States. Then slowly when things were getting back, my whole family by 1988/89, most, except my oldest sister, who’s a doctor, wasn’t here. And she joined us in 1991 after the civil war.
Alina Warrick (12m 35s):
Got it. Okay. And so how did you choose United States? How did you choose to come and study in United States versus any other country?
Abdulhamid Ali (12m 42s):
It was just random. I left Somalia first to go to Saudi Arabia, in 1979. And with the auspices or I might get a scholarship, but things didn’t go the way I planned. At that time my sister was in Romania, in Bucharest, to study. My mom came to Saudi Arabia and said, well, let’s go to Romania to see if you can get a scholarship. While we were in Romania, my mom had a first cousin that worked for the United Nations, but he was based in Zagreb, Croatia, at that time.
Alina Warrick (13m 15s):
Okay.
Abdulhamid Ali (13m 16s):
And he came to Bucharest to talk to us. And then we went to stay with him for awhile. And he was the one who started bringing up the United States. He told me I can help you get a scholarship here in Yugoslavia. At that time, there was no Croatia, it was Yugoslavia. He told me, yeah, you could get a scholarship here in Yugoslavia, but if you really want to study somewhere in engineering, I suggest you go to the United States. I had never decided to go to United States. That was my uncle’s idea. So we applied. The visa came. And I remember the day I went to pick up the visa with my uncle, where the counselor lady told my, I didn’t speak English that time, but the counselor lady in Zagreb, she was asking him, what is he going to do?
Abdulhamid Ali (13m 59s):
He said, well, first thing he is going to study English and he wants to study engineering. And she says, okay, since you are from Somalia, I’m going to send your papers to the consulate at the American Embassy, in Somalia. And your dad has to provide that he can sustain you studying there. And we wait a week. We waited a week and the phone rings, they said, everything’s in order, come pick your papers.
Alina Warrick (14m 20s):
Yeah.
Abdulhamid Ali (14m 21s):
So my uncle takes me there. So I’m picking up and she goes, I’m going to tell you, he’s never going to come back to Somalia. [Alina laughs] He goes to the US, he’s never coming back. I remember that word stuck with me.
Alina Warrick (14m 32s):
He told your father that?
Abdulhamid Ali (14m 33s):
No, she. She was a lady. She told him.
Alina Warrick (14m 38s):
Oh, the lady.
Abdulhamid Ali (14m 38s):
In Yugoslavia, she told him that.
Alina Warrick (14m 39s):
Wow. Okay. Okay. Wow. What a journey. Okay. So you come to study and you studied English and engineering in school?
Abdulhamid Ali (14m 47s):
Yeah, I went to for the first eight months, I went to ESL program in the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee. And you had to take the TOEFL test, pass the TOEFL test with septum degree to get accepted in the engineering school. Then I went to the university called, it’s a Catholic university, private university in Milwaukee, called Marquette University that accepted me in the civil engineering program.
Alina Warrick (15m 12s):
Got it. Okay. And did you have any family or friends when you moved to America?
Abdulhamid Ali (15m 17s):
I found some other Somalis living here, but I didn’t have no friends or no relatives living in the United States.
Alina Warrick (15m 24s):
Wow. Okay.
Abdulhamid Ali (15m 25s):
I came to the university, there was another gentleman from Somalia. There were two guys from Somalia studying at the university and there were guys from Sudan. So we had our own group of Horn of Africa students in the campus.
Alina Warrick (15m 41s):
Yeah, yeah. Awesome.
Abdulhamid Ali (15m 43s):
They were older than me guide me what to do, what not to do. So that was kind of nice.
Alina Warrick (15m 49s):
Yeah. So they basically became your family?
Abdulhamid Ali (15m 51s):
Yes.
Alina Warrick (15m 53s):
Awesome. So tell me a little bit more about the struggles that you had to go through when you first immigrated. Okay. So I’m assuming that you didn’t really know any English. So what other struggles did you experience?
Abdulhamid Ali (16m 4s):
The worst thing I remember was the food. When I first came here, the is food so different in the US than let’s say in Somalia or different countries. Here, you see hamburgers, French fries. And then in Somalia, boys are not told how to cook. That’s another bad thing that our culture has. Women cook and take care of you. So I had to learn and the first couple of years then, so the food, the biggest thing was the food and the weather, seeing the snow and the bitter cold. Those were the first difficulties.
Alina Warrick (16m 40s):
Got it. And so did you take public transportation or did you have a car? How did you get around?
Abdulhamid Ali (16m 45s):
Oh, I used to take the bus, public transportation.
Alina Warrick (16m 49s):
Okay. And did you get lost all the time or you were kind of able to maneuver around.
Abdulhamid Ali (16m 53s):
No, no. I was able to maneuver around.
Alina Warrick (16m 57s):
Okay. Good. Awesome. What were some of the first jobs you had when you came to America?
Abdulhamid Ali (17m 3s):
Well, that’s easy. I was a dishwasher at the union of the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, when I was studying ESL.
Alina Warrick (17m 11s):
Okay. So you worked at school?
Abdulhamid Ali (17m 13s):
Yes.
Alina Warrick (17m 14s):
Oh, got it. Did you have any other jobs after that?
Abdulhamid Ali (17m 17s):
Yes, then I got a job as a, what was my second job, as a parking lot attendant and I got a job as a security guard at a hotel. Then I had a job in the summer while I was doing engineering then I had some jobs working as a sidewalk inspector for a couple of months. And another year I had a little job [Inaudible] I worked for the Department of Natural Resources, where you go and inspect dams and so forth. So different jobs, a couple when I was in university with engineering related, or basically the job I really enjoyed the most when I was going to college was working at a hotel as a security guard, because you can study and do your homework or write your projects a lot.
Abdulhamid Ali (18m 4s):
Working 12-hour shifts on Saturdays and Sundays.
Alina Warrick (18m 8s):
Okay. So before you tell our listeners about your company, tell me more about the path you took. And did you try to go into any other fields before starting your business?
Abdulhamid Ali (18m 20s):
Yes. When I graduated from school, I was hired by a private company, but that didn’t last long. So I was hired by the Wisconsin Department of Transportation.
Alina Warrick (18m 29s):
Okay.
Abdulhamid Ali (18m 30s):
And I started with the Wisconsin Department of Transportation, in 1986. Then I was trained in the how to be a construction inspection on the highways, later on how to be a designer, helping the department put together plans and specifications for highways. And my career grew up. You know, you start with the CE-1 that you become a civil engineer 2, then you become a civil engineer 3, and then you become a project manager. And I was pretty lucky that I became quite successful. I became a supervisor. And after that, I became a chief engineer, where I had a whole district that I was managing.
Abdulhamid Ali (19m 11s):
But then a friend of my wife, a cousin of my wife, my ex-wife was an Italian-American and her cousin was in the civil engineering business, but he was in the private sector. And actually it was his idea, really. What about three or four years before I decided to go, that he was saying, you know, what, why are you working for the government? Me and you could have our own business and we could do consultant engineering and we could do this thing. And I was in, well, let me think about it. Let me think about it.
Alina Warrick (19m 42s):
And what was his specialty?
Abdulhamid Ali (19m 44s):
I think it was the same as me. He was a civil engineer. He was doing the same thing I was doing, but in the private sector.
Alina Warrick (19m 48s):
Okay.
Abdulhamid Ali (19m 49s):
And then in about the year 2000, I started not enjoying my work. I mean, government works really good here in the United States. You make good money, you have good benefits for retirement. Then I decided to leave and start this company that now I own with my business partner, Frank D’Amato.
Alina Warrick (20m 10s):
And so what was that deciding factor for you? Was it just your partner saying, “Hey, you should just leave your government job. We can do so much better.” Or was there anything else that was deep down inside of you that was wanting to start your own company, DAAR Engineering?
Abdulhamid Ali (20m 28s):
Yes. I think in the last 18 months before I opened my own company, the more you get promoted in state service, the more you get to see the political side of things. And I was not a big fan of that. Let’s say it. Then you need to justify why projects are going this way. Local Senator from the area wants an update from you, our local representative from the area, she wants an update. And I go, well, this is not engineering anymore. This is becoming more of a half political, half engineering thing. And that was the push to go private.
Alina Warrick (21m 5s):
Got it. Okay. And so tell me more about your company. What is DAAR Engineering’s focus on? What are your main projects? Tell me a little bit more about that.
Abdulhamid Ali (21m 14s):
Well, DAAR Engineering is a general transportation engineering company. We do highway design, highway planning, traffic engineering, construction management. Now we even do some design for telecommunication companies, fiber optic companies, and so forth, and mainly our specialties those are municipality, we help some cities to design roadways, maintain roadways and do the construction inspection for them. That’s what our business is.
Alina Warrick (21m 45s):
Got it. Got it. Okay. So what are some big projects that you have worked on or some unique projects that you’ve worked on?
Abdulhamid Ali (21m 53s):
In the last 20 years, any big projects as it relates to highway expansion in the state of Wisconsin, we were involved. I don’t know if you’re familiar with the city of Milwaukee, which is the largest city or the business center of the state of Wisconsin.
Alina Warrick (22m 8s):
Okay.
Abdulhamid Ali (22m 9s):
There is an interchange called The Market Interchange, which is my campus where I went, we were part of that project. We had a big part of the, all the sections of it. Some parts we were the lead team. Some parts we were the sub-consultants doing that. And then there was the Zoo freeway, which is the largest interchange in the state of Wisconsin, billions of dollar job. We were part of the team, there was a conglomerate of teams that designed, part of the time, designing that project. And then when it came to be the construction management of it, it lasted, this will be almost, next year will be the last year. For five years, we were one of the lead inspection companies doing the inspection of construction of the bridges and the roadways.
Abdulhamid Ali (22m 56s):
And then there was another big project that probably you heard of, Foxconn building a factory in Racine, Wisconsin. So there is the I-94 that comes from Chicago or through Illinois to Wisconsin, coming in. That freeway was expanded from three lanes each way to four lanes each way, with all the complications that that does from the borderline, all the way to the airport in Newark was expanded. We did some interchange design and we were one of one other team. And we did the whole County of Racine. That was our area.
Abdulhamid Ali (23m 36s):
And now in the last 3/4 years, we were the guys doing the, we were part of the team, that’s doing the construction inspection. So any big project I would say in the last 15 years that happened in Wisconsin, we were part of it.
Alina Warrick (23m 51s):
Wow. That’s amazing. And what makes you set apart from the other engineering companies in the area?
Abdulhamid Ali (23m 58s):
I think we were lucky enough that when we started our operation, we were able to attract talented people. Since I was part of the department, there was a lot of retired people from the state of Wisconsin that joined us. And that gave us recognition of experience.
Alina Warrick (24m 15s):
Okay.
Abdulhamid Ali (24m 16s):
And the mission of the culture of the department and [inaudible] mission that we have a unique expertise to perform good for the department.
Alina Warrick (24m 27s):
And so how long have you had your business so far now?
Abdulhamid Ali (24m 30s):
We started in 2001. So this September will be 20 years.
Alina Warrick (24m 35s):
20 years. And how old were you when you started DAAR Engineering?
Abdulhamid Ali (24m 39s):
41.
Alina Warrick (24m 40s):
41? Wow. That’s amazing. That’s awesome. Alright. So how long did it take your business to start seeing some real traction in the beginning stages? Did it take you a while or was it on a fast trajectory that you guys were going on?
Abdulhamid Ali (24m 56s):
I think when we started, we right away had a project. My partner was working for another company and he was the resident engineer on that project. And when he quit, they kind of just gave that project to us. And we started that with two people. Then I think within few months we were back to six people. Then we started winning some little design work here and there. I would say within three years, really, we start growing really fast, 3-7. And within five years we were almost 60 people.
Alina Warrick (25m 31s):
Wow. That’s awesome. And were there any tips or strategies that you used to grow so fast?
Abdulhamid Ali (25m 38s):
It’s not something we really had as I pointed out to you. I think in my business, what’s important is the relationship you have with the client. Since I was part of the DLT and now things are changing. The people I knew retired from the department, things have changed, but any advice I have for somebody who wants to do the kind of business I do, you got to have the trust with the customer. You got to have the expertise that they know they can trust you with a big project. You can have all the licenses you need. You can have all the educations you need, all the experience you need, but if you don’t have that trust of the client in their eyes, you’re not going to win any big projects.
Alina Warrick (26m 18s):
Yeah. That’s so powerful. Thank you so much for sharing that. So did you have to raise any capital to start your business?
Abdulhamid Ali (26m 23s):
Yes, a little bit.
Alina Warrick (26m 26s):
Okay. And what, did you do venture capitalist or was it like bank loans?
Abdulhamid Ali (26m 30s):
No, it was the SBA, which is the most expensive loan you can get. But the truth of the fact is when you start a business, first of all it helps that you have a good credit. So anybody who is immigrant, I encourage that you have excellent credit. And the second thing is that you got to have a property where you can put your property as a collateral, but once you have those two things, usually United States is great about supporting business startups. So the SBA has a loan, since banks don’t know you, they don’t trust you yet, it’s a lot more expensive, but at least the government’s putting their skin on the table trusting you. You’re going to create a business and you’re going to create employment opportunity for other citizens.
Alina Warrick (27m 11s):
Abdulhamid, did you have any mentors that helped you out to start your business?
Abdulhamid Ali (27m 17s):
The only mentors really we had is a gentleman I met with the SBA, that later actually joined the company and helped us get some contracts. He was a really good advisor because we knew the engineering business, but we didn’t know how to deal with banks, how to get a business plan together.
Alina Warrick (27m 35s):
Okay.
Abdulhamid Ali (27m 36s):
What are the banks looking for? How you talk to a banker? The SBA has great people to advice you. We had a good guy at least at the office in Milwaukee in SBA, that we became friends. Came to work for us at the end. That was a good mentor.
Alina Warrick (27m 54s):
Got it, got it. So I’m going to put the SBA loan in our show notes for people to check out. So thank you so much for that. Looking back at your immigrant entrepreneurial career, how do you look at failures and how do you overcome them?
Abdulhamid Ali (28m 8s):
I think how you look at failure is a personal thing, I think. So to me personally, if you live, you’re going to fail. That’s part of life. So I really don’t do well on failure to me. To me, I set a goal in my mind, I want to achieve it. And any obstacle that comes in the way, it’s the lessons you learn. So when I start something, I sit down and think about it and say, well, this was this one. And this was that one. And nothing, but when you open a business or when you go to school or anywhere you go, is part of life. Sometime you’re fortunate that Allah is gonna bless you, sometimes Allah is gonna test you. It’s just how you deal with it.
Alina Warrick (28m 49s):
I read in the book that you make decisions really fast.
Abdulhamid Ali (28m 52s):
Yes I do.
Alina Warrick (28m 53s):
Right? And is that just the talent or characteristics that you just had or is that like a business mentality that you want to make decisions fast and move forward?
Abdulhamid Ali (29m 3s):
I think it’s more about a spiritual sight. To me in the Islamic tradition is you pray a prayer [inaudible] and you put in the hands of God that you basically ask, “God, if this thing coming towards my way that I’m thinking about it, if it’s not meant to be or if it’s going to make my life worse, or if it’s going to take me away from you, don’t make it easy for me, basically. If it’s something that’s good and I’m going to be a moral person that’s not going to leave your path, make it easy for me.” And from there, I just jump and run. That’s how I do my prayers.
Alina Warrick (29m 38s):
That’s an awesome prayer. That’s awesome. So let’s switch gears and talk about the successes because it’s important to talk about failures and the successes. Are there any successes that you would like to outline from your immigrant entrepreneurial journey?
Abdulhamid Ali (29m 53s):
People define success in different ways. To me, my biggest success that I see as a business owner, that it gives you an opportunity to live life, the way you want to live. It’s not life where somebody else is setting the goals, a political agenda on what to do. That’s one thing. And second thing is that you have opportunities to help other people. To me as an immigrant, I think I take the best part about it, is the advice I provide for my younger brothers and the guidance I can give to my younger brothers and my sons.
Alina Warrick (30m 27s):
What does the American dream mean to you?
Abdulhamid Ali (30m 30s):
The beauty of America is this is a country that gives everybody an opportunity. And I have seen that by myself. Are there challenges? Yes. Is there people perceiving you differently just because your name is Abdulhamid? Absolutely. Are you going to have obstacles? Yes. But there’s no other country, at least in my view, that makes my kind of story through, except the United States. Does the United States have a lot of problems? Yes. But it gives you opportunity that nobody else gives you, far none. There is no other country in my view, that will give opportunity that you have coming from Russia, that I have coming from Somalia, or somebody coming from Mexico.
Abdulhamid Ali (31m 11s):
Somebody coming from Brazil, somebody coming from Germany or Italy, or you name all the countries here, no other country would be able to afford that. And actually that’s the advice, my uncle when I was leaving, he gave me, saying this is a country of opportunity.
Alina Warrick (31m 28s):
So you kind of hung tight to that and never let it go.
Abdulhamid Ali (31m 32s):
Oh, he did tell me that. And I’ve seen it coming here. But I remember when I graduated, I wrote a letter to my dad say that I’m coming back. And at that time there was no internet or nothing. And he will send me back a letter and say that no, get experience. Don’t come back. The fight of the civil war. But my plan always was get as much experience, technical experience, field experience, then go back to Somalia. But really God works in mysterious ways and it didn’t work out for me going back home. So US became home.
Alina Warrick (31m 58s):
Why did you want to go back? Because life was good in Somalia? No, besides the civil war.
Abdulhamid Ali (32m 4s):
No, life was not really bad or good. To me it was just being a good son to my father. My father wanted me back. Then I’ll go back. It’s more of doing my duty more than anything else.
Alina Warrick (32m 15s):
And so is giving back either volunteering time or giving back to the community, something that is part of your business values?
Abdulhamid Ali (32m 22s):
Yes. And I don’t know if that’s a community value or practicing my religion. So yes, I do give back to the community and I do give back to Somalia too.
Alina Warrick (32m 34s):
And do you think the entrepreneurial career path allowed you to do that?
Abdulhamid Ali (32m 38s):
Of course. That offers you a lot more leeway, a lot more resources to do that.
Alina Warrick (32m 44s):
So what’s next for you? What are some business goals for the next couple of years? Anything you can share with us?
Abdulhamid Ali (32m 50s):
Yes. I think now at least my partner and I are thinking about since we are both in our sixties, to transfer the business to our employers. To make it an ESOP for the employees, come buy up the business and continue the name of the company.
Alina Warrick (33m 5s):
Okay.
Abdulhamid Ali (33m 6s):
And my goal is to go back somewhere in either Somalia or North East Africa and do something else. I don’t know yet, but some kind of other business.
Alina Warrick (33m 17s):
And what is that process to allow the employees to? Is it stocks?
Abdulhamid Ali (33m 21s):
It’s called ESOP; Employee Stock Ownership. [Inaudible] Yeah, it’s a three or four year we started, we have a feasibility study coming up now. And when you become an ESOP, the way I understand it, or the lawyers tell me is whatever profit you have, when you become a hundred percent ESOP, you don’t pay anymore either the state or federal income. So the employees can use those receipts to buy you out gradually in an agreeable length of years.
Alina Warrick (33m 54s):
Got it. Got it. Okay. So I know that you have, what is it, about a hundred employees right now?
Abdulhamid Ali (34m 2s):
Yeah, it’s seasonal. We swing by one construction, it stops and winter, we go from high eighties to low hundreds.
Alina Warrick (34m 9s):
Okay. And what was that journey like for you? Because you were a government employee and now you’re managing from 80 to 100 employees. That’s a really big leadership role. It’s a really big responsibility. How did you prepare yourself for that?
Abdulhamid Ali (34m 25s):
You really don’t prepare, but when you quickly learn is when I was working at the DLT, you see different leaderships and you learn from, and to me, I like to model the ones I liked. Example I can give you is when I started with the DLT, I started at the region called Northwest. It’s called now, but at that time was called disaggregate. Disaggregate is way up in Superior by Lake Superior, very cold area. You go there and you don’t see anybody who looks like me or anybody who worships like me, it’s really unique. But the district director, his name was Lee Crook, he made a big impression on me, because I show up in a district and then he comes over and he talks to you. He makes you feel the district.
Abdulhamid Ali (35m 6s):
But I mean, he’s my boss, his boss, his boss, his boss, invites you at home. You meet his wife and family. And every Thursday we get paid. So every Thursday, the whole district went out bowling and came back and he assigned me a mentor, a supervisor who was a mentor. Then I requested a transfer to come back to this area. Where I went to college, and it’s a bigger district. And at that time I wanted to go back to Somalia from the first time for a long time. And when you’re a young engineer, you only have like two weeks of vacation. So I didn’t use my vacation. So I wanted to carry it over to January. So I can go for three weeks.
Abdulhamid Ali (35m 49s):
In order to do that, you need to get the blessing of the district director. So I went to this district director, the officer in [inaudible], my supervisor, a lot of times says why you need to go talk to the district director and he will listen to you. So I went up to his office, I knocked on the door and he doesn’t even look at me. I knock on the door and then he looks at me with a kind of annoyed look and says, what do you want? Like, well, I come to talk to you. And he doesn’t answer me again. So I knock on the door again. “Well, sit down!” I was a bother to him while the other district director I had, he looked out for me. One time he will come to your desk. “You want to have a coffee with me?” And I’m really shy. This big boss, why is he paying attention to me?
Abdulhamid Ali (36m 30s):
So I quickly learned that if I ever become a boss, I really want to be more like Lee. Not like this other guy, who’s always bothered by somebody stopping or someone. So I had supervisors and senior engineers that I learned from their management style, what I liked and what I didn’t like. So when I had my business, I really like to treat people the way people I like, treated me and that attracts more people to come to you. That builds trust.
Alina Warrick (36m 52s):
So you kind of just slowly developed that natural sense of direction, natural sense of leadership, where you were just completely open to talk to people and regardless of their background, regardless of where they came from, you would always sit down with them and build relationships.
Abdulhamid Ali (37m 9s):
Yes, you don’t have to be, you want to treat people the way you want to be treated. You want to be fair. And that does not mean you’re going to be weak and accepting and something doesn’t work out. People will accept criticism from you if you treated them really well.
Alina Warrick (37m 24s):
Great. Thank you so much for sharing that. Wow. What an amazing journey. What are some things you would advise the next aspiring immigrant that wants to start their own business and listening to you right now?
Abdulhamid Ali (37m 36s):
A couple of things. I think you get to know the field you’re going into. You got to be really not an expert that you know what you’re getting into. That’s one. Second, you got to have a good credit. As I said before, it’s important to have a very good relationship with your banker and that’s with trust. Any form you fill in anything you’d say or do, it’s gotta be 100% the truth. When things don’t work out, pick up the phone, sit down with them, tell them, you know, I picked up the loan, this was my projections. My projections have changed and that’s going to build up trust between you and your bank. Another thing is to have a very good network in your business and know what’s coming ahead.
Abdulhamid Ali (38m 20s):
Always know what the plans are for the future. What’s coming up. How can you be part of that or whatever you’re selling? How can you modify your product to meet the demand that’s coming up in the future? And if you had a business like mine, you know, business as good as the people. So you have to treat the people that you employ really, really good. And really honestly. Without them, you have no business. And once you realize that you’re headed in the right direction.
Alina Warrick (38m 51s):
Wow. Such invaluable advice. And when you mentioned networking, are you part of any entrepreneurial groups, organizations, or how can someone reach out and develop their network?
Abdulhamid Ali (39m 3s):
In my field that our professional associations that you join and you belong and it doesn’t have to be an official organization. Those guys include those, you know, you attend annual conferences, you learn what’s coming up in the business, you know, American Society of Civil Engineers or the road builders of your state. If you’re in my business, ACC, American Consultant Association, there are many things you can join. But there are always what I call the unofficial networks. That’s up to you to develop it. Who’s expert in traffic design, who is an expert on bridge design, how you can reach to that lady. How can you reach out to that engineer that has done a great job and start networking with them and picking their brains and what’s coming up?
Abdulhamid Ali (39m 50s):
How do we solve this problem? Things like that, but you’ve got to be seen in the network and you got to be part of that community that you decided to be part of that business.
Alina Warrick (40m 1s):
Yeah. Make yourself known because a lot of immigrants think that they can do it all by themselves and they try to do this business all alone, solo, but it’s really important like you mentioned networking, building relationships, whether it’s with employees, clients, customers, or the bank loan officer. Right. So thank you. Thank you so much for sharing that. Well, Abdulhamid, thank you so much. This concludes our podcast chat, and I really appreciate your time. Thank you so much for sharing all the amazing and awesome, powerful advice to all of us listening. And I truly appreciate your time and I’m really excited to share your journey.
Alina Warrick (40m 42s):
So thank you so much and I wish you all the best.
Abdulhamid Ali (40m 44s):
Well, thank you. Thank you for inviting me, for giving me an opportunity to share my 2 cents worth of what I think is value.
Alina Warrick (40m 51s):
Alrighty, guys, thank you so much for tuning in. If there are any links that were mentioned in this episode, make sure to check them out on my website, under this episode, to find all the links conveniently located in the show notes. I just wanted to ask for a quick favor. If you could please leave a review wherever you’re at listening to this podcast. Also, if you’re an immigrant entrepreneur and would love to be on my podcast, please email me and we’ll get connected. I’ll see you guys all next time for another exciting and impactful episode. Take care.
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