Turkey’s Best Selling Person: Hamdi Akın

The most important thing that led him to this success was undoubtedly Emotional ties to the companies he founded Pursuing a successful strategy in business by selling without

With the income obtained from selling companies Focusing on creating employment by investing in new ventures, Akın is one of the rare business people who has made a name for himself with this approach in Turkey.

His story started with studying mechanical engineering.

Hamdi AkınAlthough his life began in Fatih, Istanbul, Ankara was where he spent most of his life and developed himself. in Ankara Akın, who graduated from mechanical engineering departmentContrary to his family’s expectations of a civil servant job, he decides to start his own business. Instead of graduating and choosing to become a civil servant, he wanted to chart his own path.

While talking about his youth, “I knew I wasn’t going to be a civil servant or even consider going into a government office.” He emphasizes his own determination with his statement. Immediately after graduation, he was inspired by steam boilers and started producing heating boilers, steam boilers and heat engines in a small workshop, thus starting his career.

In 1975, at the age of 21, he entered the business world by signing his first check.

Their business grew rapidly during this period, at a time when boilers were turning to fuel oil and coal. At the same time Eczacıbaşı and Demirdöküm He also took over the dealership. The period from age 26 to 36 and from there to age 46, These were the periods when Hamdi Akın was at his busiest. Over time, their business, which started in a small workshop, grows and spreads to different sectors.

From construction to mining, from tourism to privatization tenders, from airport management to automobile inspection stations.In a wide range of sectors, from hotel management to restaurant management, from housing to the maritime transportation sector, each of them has the signature of Hamdi Akın and Akfen Holding. Hamdi Akın attributes this diversity to not being stuck in a single sector.

He did not have a goal when entering business life.

He established his own business, Akfen, in 1986 and entered the construction, tourism and trade sectors. This breakthrough actually constituted the turning point of his life. One of the most important achievements in his business life is undoubtedly TAV Airports Holding was to establish. After undertaking the operation of airports in Turkey and many parts of the world, he merged TAV with Tepe Group in 1997 and a great partnership emerged.

This success He took TAV forward towards becoming an international brand. He also managed to make a name for himself in foundation services by establishing the Turkish Human Resources Foundation in 1999. He is also one of the founders of the Education Volunteers Foundation.

Akfen Holding will acquire its remaining shares in TAV Havalimanları Holding in 2022. Aeroports de Paris Group transferred to the company.

Hamdi Akın says that he is not someone who supports setting a goal first and focusing on it. “I have never dreamed, my goal would be this” He states that he has no such thoughts and also states how important it is to focus on his current job and concentrate on his daily work.

In many motivational speeches we come across, “First dream, then pursue your dreams.” they say. Hamdi Akın’s thoughts are It was completely opposite to this idea.

The thing called a company is an entity that has employees. Akın, who sees himself as its shareholders, has never thought otherwise.

Since he acts with the logic that shareholders can change their shares, he says that employees will remain no matter how many times the company changes hands. One of the most important features that distinguishes Akın from others is Maybe if there is a need to exchange shares for the employees to be in a better situation, this should already be done. He attributes the fact that the company is happier at the moment of sale than at the moment of purchase to the following reasons:

“Because it was always in my will to buy it. We went, we gave the money, we took it. But Selling is not in your will, at the buyer’s will. Convincing the buyer, having the buyer running after you with his check in his hand… That moment, when the work is done, the signatures are made and that check is transferred to your account, I think is the happiest and most successful day. It is very important to sell something, not buy it; It’s very easy to get.”

Hamdi Akın defines his primary duty as ‘make money by transferring shares in companies in which they are shareholdersHe defines it as ‘establishing new companies and creating new employment areas with that money’.

According to him, entrepreneurship essentially means creating employment. That’s why entrepreneurship is about discovering something, He saw it as employment rather than making money from something. He showed that capital accumulation is possible even when selling from scratch, and he was chosen as the business person and entrepreneur of the year in 2006.

He didn’t set out on this path thinking he would be an entrepreneur, he made his choices along the way.

Hamdi Akın reiterates every time that he did not realize the award he received and the fame he gained to become an entrepreneur, but because he saw it as a job for himself. Since he had to buy and expand TAV While talking about it, he states that TAV cannot remain only with Istanbul Airport, otherwise it will remain a very simple investment.

for Akin How important is reputation? And we see that he adopted this as his motto. Nowadays, the reputation of almost every business person is usually money. According to him, true reputation; It should be measured by the number of people he employs, the companies he establishes and the amount of bread he gives.

Hamdi Akınalso gives important advice to beginners: “You will either win or lose; the important thing is to start. If you start thinking you will win, it will not work, you will start thinking you will do this job. The market will evaluate the work you do; the market will determine whether it is positive or negative. It is wrong to say ‘I will earn this much money from this job’.” It is right to say ‘I will do this job, I will do this job’.“

It is known that the successful businessman, who started his business life at a young age in a small workshop, has done business worth over 10 billion dollars since 2005. It is currently working in the mining, health, housing, hotel management, restaurant management, port and energy sectors. Today he is His fortune is known to be 1.3 billion dollars.

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