Alhan Altamimi

When I came here, everyone told me dentistry is a long road and I needed payment now to live, and I owned nothing in my life before other than dentistry. I was open to everything at that moment. Once I put my feet in loan processing, it was a new thing and I knew nothing - zero. I didn't even know what escrow meant, what title meant, what anything meant. But I put my feet in it and studied, studied, studied, and here I am. My dad always encouraged me when I was a child, always saying 'you are a hero, you are a hero,' even if I did well or not. He would say I'm a hero and I'll do it next time. In the beginning, my dad definitely inspired me. Professionally, the person who interviewed me for the loan processor position had a huge impact. When I put my resume in front of him, it was all from back in the country with nothing from the U.S. When he interviewed me a second time, I asked him why he was considering me when I had zero experience in loan processing. He asked if I was willing to learn, and I said definitely yes. He told me that when he saw my resume and that I came from another country with two kids and was making it this far, while he came from another state inside the U.S. and was struggling, he knew that if I made it this far, learning loan processing would be easy for me. His words had a lot of impact. I still remember him, and maybe he forgot about me and doesn't remember me, but I can't forget. When I passed the exam, I sent him a message and he was proud of that.

The person who interviewed me for my loan processor position asked me a simple but powerful question: 'Are you willing to learn?' When I said yes, he told me something that has stayed with me. He said that when he saw my resume and that I came here from another country with two kids and was making it this far, while he came from another state inside the U.S. and was struggling, he realized that if I made it this far, learning loan processing would be easy for me. That perspective - that my journey and willingness to learn mattered more than my lack of experience - gave me the confidence to succeed in this field.

Just don't give up. In the first year or the first month, you cannot expect any entrepreneur to succeed from the first month or second month - that's maybe in dreams, I think. Just don't give up, because sometimes you work hard and just take a step back while you were maybe one foot away from success. So just keep going. Consistency is the key. And believe in yourself, believe in your capability, and you can make it. I don't like women who are playing low or feeling so sorry for themselves. I don't know why they do that, because a human is a human, and they have capability. Maybe they don't know they have it. They need to believe in themselves, and everyone can reach their goals once they put the goals in front of them, and then just take a step at a time, and then they will one day be doing whatever they wished to do.