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Name: Arzu Kayhan
Business: Tapirus Pazarlama Ltd.
Location: Istanbul, Turkey
Industry: Professional Services
Reason for starting? To be honest, the reason why I started my own enterprise was unbearable conditions of working environments and an unresolved dilemma in business life: Live to work or work to live? I decided to chose none. Instead, I live for happiness, while working with passion. I am a professional translator and author who transforms strange worlds into familiar ones.
Related: Read about another Professional Services entrepreneur here.
How do you define success? If you are happy with what you did or what you accomplished at the end of the day, if you are one step ahead of where you previously were, you feel success. If anyone you know changes their life or attitude in a good manner, telling you that they somehow owe it to you (your presence, thoughts, encouragement etc.), success becomes visible. If many people think you are the reason for them to be better, success is then uncountable. This is how it transforms from being personal to sentimental.
Biggest success: Years ago, my definition of success was counted in numbers, in monetary values and the capacity I had to enhance an organization which I had created. Today, my biggest success is to transform one world to another. I translated three books of non-fiction, and now people who speak Turkish and are unable to read in English are reading those three books of political analysis written about world politics and active war zones in their native language.
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What is your top challenge and how you have addressed it? Being a small company of two translators, I am unable to scale up my business easily because increasing the number of accounts requires increasing the number of translators, and therefore increasing management. When I grow my business, I have to split my time between translation/writing and management. This means that I am going back to point zero, this time I am the employer not employee.
Who is your most important role model? Stephen Fry.
[box_light]Website www.sanahaber.blogspot.com.tr
Facebook www.facebook.com/maskesizcin[/box_light]
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Edited by The Story Exchange