A Wealth of Character
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Qatar People, Qatar Interviews|
Better known as one of Qatar’s leading business men, Hussein Alfardan shares with QH the story of his journey from a pearl merchant’s son to the head of a billion-dollarempire that he’s built from scratch. | |
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Company: Alfardan Group
Designation: Chairman
Date:
10/01/2009 | |
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Hussein Alfardan wasplaying a game of cards when we arrived at his farm house.
“Without friends, my life would not be complete,” said Alfardan whose home
is always open to visitors. The game of cards came to a close and he welcomed us with a warm handshake. He graciously ushered us towards a table laden with traditional Qatari dishes to share a meal and sample good, old-fashioned Arab hospitality.
The fish were caught by his personal fisherman off the coast of his beach house and delivered fresh that morning to be prepared by the farm’s cooks.
A large plate of fresh dates was harvested from a nearby tree shortly before lunch.
One dish on the menu was baranjoush – a sweet rice made by soaking the grain with dates. He explained that Qatar’s pearl divers ate only one meal a day consisting of fresh fish and this traditional meal. On this diet, they could dive as deep as 18 fathoms (32.4 metres) and stay under water for up to five
minutes.
Alfardan’s father, Ibrahim Alfardan, was one of the Gulf’s most successful pearl merchants in the first half of the 20th century. He introduced his son to the business at the tender age of eight. Alfardan remembers watching his father make deals with the divers and pearl brokers in their family’s majelis (a large meeting room with cushions on the floor). It was the result of
these animated and sometimes heated negotiations which sowed the seeds of his business acumen.
“The bargaining was fantastic. Back then, we used secret hand signals to negotiate, and when the deal was finally closed, my father would give everyone gifts.”
Although business meetings have moved out of the majelis and into the boardroom, Alfardan has kept the tradition alive by building a comfortable majelis on his farm where, “whoever comes is welcome.”
The majelis is one of the many traditional features of Alfardan’s guest house. Self-proclaimed his pride and joy, Alfardan said the building was designed and built to resemble a traditional Arabian home.
After lunch we walked the short distance down a corridor of flowering bougainvillea and palm trees to the bright yellow guest house decorated with
colourful sculpted motifs.
Hand-carved wooded doors opened onto an ornate inner courtyard. Tradionally, women would draw water from a communal well in a courtyard like this beneath the shade of a single tree. Many rooms branched off of the courtyard, including the majelis, which stores an impressive collection of Arabic artefacts.
Model pearling and trading dhows, ornate perfume bottles, valuable Persian carpets, silver coffee urns, and photos of his friends on falcon hunting trips lined the walls. In the centre of the room a log of ‘oud,’ a rare wood from India worth 40,000 QR per kilogram, sat on top of a large incense burner.
After our impromptu cultural lesson, he led us to the main guest bedroom to experience another traditional feature – a wind tower.
Wind towers were designed to catch the wind and funnel it into the room below. The only problem with these traditional structures is that they could never be closed, so even in winter, the wind whistled down the tower. However modern
technology has taken care of this inconvenience.
With the press of a button, shutters on the tower rolled open and immediately a strong wind filtered down into the room. It was hot and sucked in the heat of the surrounding desert. I was surprised this was used as a cooling method,
but he explained people wrapped themselves in wet robes so the moving air cooled them down by evaporation.
Alfardan settled into a lounge chair and reflected on the past as the warm wind circulated around us. In his 72 years, the Middle East has literally
reinvented itself. In 1952 his family moved to Qatar from Bahrain. His father had four wives and many servants, so he grew up in a large bustling household and was one of 18 children. “In those days the sea was our life,” he says.
“I always had one eye on the horizon waiting for the pearling dhows to come back at sunset, or trading boats from India to pull into port.”
He attended school for only two years before starting his first job at a bank at the age of 18 where he taught himself to read, write and speak English. His resignation at age 23 was refused by his British boss, “who needed [him]”. However, Alfardan decided to make his own luck and began his first small business in 1954 importing jewelry from India. By 1958, his monthly income had
grown to over QR 12,000 a month, which was a princely sum back then.
In 1970, he set up a foreign exchange service and in 1975 made history by opening the country’s first private sector bank. After 32 years, he still
manages the Commercial Bank of Qatar. “I’ve faced a lot of difficulties in my life, but I was always moving strongly and never let anything depress me,” he said.
“I don’t look back; I fight.”
It’s this fighting spirit that has made Alfardan one of Qatar’s most successful business figures with many visionary ventures under his belt.
The Alfardan Group now comprises automobile, jewelry, exchange, marine and real estate divisions, including the Pearl Qatar which is one of his most ambitious projects.
“It’s my dream to see my vision [the Pearl] come true. The day I see it completed, this is my dream completed.”
Alfardan attributes his success to effective leadership and good relationships.
“Since I opened my eyes I was a leader. I feel I can guide people by letting them understand I stand behind them if they need me. I give to everyone and I thank God he gave me the strength to be able to do it,” he said.
“I learned from my father: if you only take care of yourself, no one will come to you or be loyal to you. My assets are not money, they’re human beings.”
He believes it’s this sense of social responsibility and community that keeps his home full of family and his life full of friends. However, he laments
that Qatar’s modernization is erasing these values from the younger generation.
“Life has to change. We cannot go back to the past as it was a hard life. We’ve gained many good things such as education and knowledge of the world, but we’ve left behind the confidence in each other and the beauty of our own simple life,” said Alfardan who revisits the simple life every weekend that he visits his farm.
We were treated to a tour in the gathering twilight of the numerous enclosures housing zebras, ducks, flamingos, impalas, deer, goats, emus, ostriches, peacocks and pigeons. Alfardan parked beside the cow enclosure and got out to chat with the farmer about the health of the herd.
It was a simple scene – a gracious mature man in an impeccable white thobe chatting with a farmer as the sun set and the moon rose, and for a moment I forgot the vast wealth and power he wields on a daily basis. Instead, I saw the person who measures his success not in dollars, but by the love of his family,friends, and loyal staff.
“Some wealthy people are arrogant, but me, I’m simple. The wealth means nothing to me. My richness is my character.”
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