Songul Arik is a TV program producer and presenter living in Kayseri, Turkey. She is the president of the European and world team Malaysian company; engage with coffee industry & international organization from the last 10 years, she also works as a public relation specialist and a trainer.
Q1: When have you begun your career many years ago, did you ever imagine that you would be a leader in a male-dominated profession?
Songul: Yes, It was my dream and I followed my dreams. To perform I knew that I would succeed, I ran to my goal with faith, determination and steady efforts without stopping.
Q2: What is some of the advice you share with young women entering a male-dominated profession?
Songul: Let them first decide where they want to be and lock themselves on the target to put themselves where they want to be, just like a smart bomb, and boldly run to their dreams without fear, without any hindrance. That’s when success is inevitable. People always ask me the shortest way to success. The shortest way to success is Faith, perseverance, steady effort. The beginning of everything is believing.
Q3: Have you ever been afraid on the job?
Songul: I was very afraid because my dreams were bigger than my height and I didn’t know how to succeed, but when I set out on the road to success, the road was taking me anyway. I learned everything on that long and difficult road and even learned to be brave on the way. I guess I’ve come to the end of the road, I thought I wouldn’t make it until here. I love my stubborn side, when I want something and believe it, I will be stubborn because I don’t give up until I get what I want, that’s why I love this stubborn nature. As you progress on the road to success, you become automatically brave as the difficulties arise and you overcome those difficulties one by one.
Q4: Who inspired you and why?
Songul: I had a bad marriage, I needed to get out of there but I had to be able to stand on my own feet so I could box. He didn’t have any qualifications; I was a helpless, timid, cowardly embarrassed and bored person. Success was far from me, so I felt helpless… I didn’t even have a diploma. I enrolled in secondary school abroad, studied hard, and successfully got my secondary school diploma. My husband didn’t want me to study; he beat me and said he’d divorce me if I continued school. I’m determined I’ve already been beaten to death, I risked everything, Schools were reopened, summer vacation was over, I couldn’t find a job with a secondary school diploma. I had to get a high school diploma. I enrolled in the school. I endure.
Q5: As a female leader, what has been the most significant barrier in your career?
Songul: Being jealous of the people we compete with within the same lane. My enemies were increasing when they saw me quickly climbing the stairs of success. The road to the top is tough, it’s like a shirt made of fire, I didn’t see anyone climb the stairs to the top therefore I put on my blinders and never took it off because I was locked on the target. Gossip, slander, and intrigue swirling was all around me, I didn’t see any of the lingering, I had to keep moving forward because this was my first and last chance, either you will succeed or I will. I was successful out of necessity. I had no other choice. I lost my family in a traffic accident. Because I was hungry at home for 9 months, I was unable to meet my own needs.
Q6: Do you know who is Successful?? Hungry people succeed!!What!
Songul: Yes! A person who is hungry for knowledge, hungry for development, hungry for innovation, hungry for education, hungry for success, hungry for money and most specially, hungry for love always finds success. I’m so hung up on all of them I always told the team that we need hungry people in the training I gave them; we will take the road with people who believed in us, not with our persuasion. Now I was a leader, I was giving the training I had successfully received as training to the team. Like a copy-paste. And I was copying and tying the information to his team. It was very fast and efficient with this copy-paste job.
You extend our hand to housewives who want to succeed like you and I gave them training, commercial development motivation training for their successful matches. I started to give training for 10 years, and it lasted for 10 years. In 2010, I started giving the trainings. I was born in 2010, apart from that, I ignored my past and marriage. If you are ready for the rebirth, I made a call to help you write your success story together. Rebirth is painful and painful, not everyone can come from 6 years old, but those who heartily like me will successfully be able to do so.
Q7: How do you balance work and life responsibilities?
Songul: I needed to determine my priority; for this I needed a clean brain to relax so I decided to clean first, cleaned my house completely, I cleaned all my drawers, I was relieved, refreshing and I was lighter. Then I started to explain to the people around me that I was getting away from those who stole my unnecessary time. I had done a lot of cleaning and now I had to focus on my goals. It was necessary to determine my order of priority. Because my other sister, who was left from my family, was constantly complaining that I saw them less because I worked hard. Because I couldn’t even have breakfast with them on Sunday, they were getting upset… I had to make a decision; it would be a little bit of e… It was necessary to determine my order of priority because of my other sister who was left from my family. She was constantly complaining that I saw them less because I worked hard. I couldn’t even have breakfast with them on Sunday and they were starting to get very upset with me. I had to make a decision; it would be a little bit of everything, little time for my family, little time for my work, and little time for me.
This was the period to quit everything and focus on my job, achieve success, and spare a lifetime of time for my loved ones and myself.
