Hi I'm Mona
I'm a former engineer, former product manager and former organizational leader. Today I'm a business owner who helps individuals and organizations reach their full potential by using neuroscience backed methods and human evolution knowledge.
Early life
I was born and raised in Iran post revolution 1979. I was an energetic child who loved to be outdoors, play, dance and laugh out loud. My mom was an ambitious sports teacher and she was my first role model of a successful woman. The department she was leading was closed down post-revolution and her career was compromised. I witnessed how unexpected events in life stopped my mother's growth and I didn’t want to experience the same.
I enjoyed learning by reading scientific books and that passion for learning kept me going,every time I could find myself reading a new scientific book and later the psychology books caught my attention too. Sometimes you can’t stop your curiosity, I guess I couldn't resist mine back then and it’s true until now.
Dancing and gymnastics remained as a forgotten dream that my brain used to remind me from time to time. Especially when I watched someone dancing or gymnastics on the tv , I would always tell myself, I wish I could do that too.
Ignoring one part of me for years eventually led to living in my headspace.I had a half life disconnected from the rest of my energy that was trapped in my body. .. That is how I forgot about the most important part of life: “Being Me”..
Carrier life
My focus on science from childhood to my adulthood, led me to study process engineering in the university of Tehran in Iran and later I got my masters in MBA.
By the time I graduated from University, I was proud of myself, showing and expressing only the intellectual side of my character in work and everyday life. I wanted to impact society as an intellectual woman.
My dreams of an exhilarating career in the oil industry were short-lived, broken into pieces almost at the first day of my professional career.
I brought my head and my intellect to the workplace only to understand that I was nothing but a woman being looked upon as a vessel of production. The body I had been forced to deny all my life was the only thing that mattered in the environment.
The seven years I worked for the National Iranian Oil Industry are still among the toughest years of my life. Yet, all of these challenges strengthened my focus: I was determined to prove myself.
I worked hard everyday to make others believe in what I could bring to the table but after many years achieving great results and making an impact I was never treated as an equal human being. After 5 years, I knew I needed to leave and pursue my life elsewhere.
Immigration and restar a new life
I knew I needed to make drastically different decisions, most of them probably tough and rebellious. I was in a marriage I did not feel happy and I was working in an environment that was draining me and people who treated me unfair. But I did not believe I was ever able to do so. Making such decisions as divorce or changing the dynamic of dealing with family members as a woman, especially a woman in Iran, is extremely costly both in economic and emotional currencies.
I had to do something. I could not just sit still and continue my life as it was. So I allowed myself to start making smaller decisions.
The ones that were accepted - even though not so easily - within the rules of traditional society and family. One of those was fitting my wish and that was moving somewhere else. I told myself I can postpone the decision about the divorce until the day that I am living in a safer environment.
My first decision was to take one step to change my working environment. I applied for a working visa as a skilled worker and got accepted. I made the first move, fearing what comes next? Despite successes printed on my CV, I arrived in Europe mentally and emotionally broken in 2013.
Planting new seeds for growth
The move landed me my first job contract and became the starting point of a series of changes in my life that gave me challenges and hope simultaneously.
I came to Europe on a working visa to search for a job. At the same time, I was going through a divorce, a process where, as a woman from Iran, I had no rights to, meaning I had to buy myself out of my marriage. This process cost me absolutely all my belongings in addition to being banished by my family.
These challenges made my progress incredibly painful and slow but I kept dragging myself because by then I had grown a belief in my heart that there was hope to experience a better life. I kept telling myself every single day, "I only need one chance to be able to make it." Every step seemed like I was planting one seed, not knowing that when one of these seeds grows into becoming a tree, I will not get one fruit back - This is what I did not know at the time, but when my efforts started to give back results I found myself surrounded by opportunities I did not imagine.
The results started to showup
I started my role in Siemens Energy as a Quality Engineer, in one year time, my role was unofficially expanded to be a Quality Manager, responsible for execution of ISO standards and quality audits in the organization and on suppliers.
In the next year, in the time of a complete downfall of energy sector, where the oil prices had crushed very low and Siemens Energy also started to downsize, I who had entered as last member of the team were promoted to head the Quality Manager team for the Business unit in Norway. In a few months time, the organization in another effective measure combined the quality and EHS organizations, and I was offered to lead the bigger department on the country level.
I continued that role for a few years before I felt I really missed my technical background and decided to change my role.
That is when I was offered to join the Product Management team to lead a product for vessel control and automation.
Having access to empowering networks, opportunities, and being trusted gave me the foundation I needed to rebuild a whole new life starting from scratch.
I continued that role for a few years before I felt I really missed my technical background and decided to change my role. That is when I was offered to join the Product Management team to lead a product for vessel control and automation. Having access to empowering networks, opportunities, and being trusted gave me the foundation I needed to rebuild a whole new life starting from scratch.
Starting my business
I knew I needed to make drastically different decisions, most of them probably tough and rebellious. I was in a marriage I did not feel happy and I was working in an environment that was draining me and people who treated me unfair. But I did not believe I was ever able to do so. Making such decisions as divorce or changing the dynamic of dealing with family members as a woman, especially a woman in Iran, is extremely costly both in economic and emotional currencies.
I had to do something. I could not just sit still and continue my life as it was. So I allowed myself to start making smaller decisions. The ones that were accepted - even though not so easily - within the rules of traditional society and family. One of those was fitting my wish and that was moving somewhere else. I told myself I can postpone the decision about the divorce until the day that I am living in a safer environment.
My first decision was to take one step to change my working environment. I applied for a working visa as a skilled worker and got accepted. I made the first move, fearing what comes next? Despite successes printed on my CV, I arrived in Europe mentally and emotionally broken in 2013.
I was once in your show
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