Interview: Şükriye Tahir
Cihan Kılıç Aydın… She’s one of Türkiye’s important business women… She is majestic like her name, she is strong, successful, kind-hearted, loyal to her principles, as well, and she’s is an extraordinary woman… I am honored to host her at the cover of Techno Bussiness Mag magazine. Because Cihan Kılıç Aydın has a tear-jerking and inspiring success story.… The translation office she founded at the age of 21 with no support from anyone has expanded to the world while continuing to open branches in Türkiye… She has started very important enterprises in the field of health tourism and education consultancy. She gave messages filled with hope to youngsters and women. For details, you can read our interview. Enjoy reading it
Cihan, can you tell us about yourself?
My name is Cihan Kılıç Aydın. I was born in Istanbul in 1970. I started my office, at the age of 21, following my graduation. I started my translation business in 1991 when I wasn’t able to speak a single word of English and founded Eylül Translation company. That company has been in business ever since. My small scale office I started in Kadıköy is now a company that has 7 branches around Turkey, in Istanbul, Ankara and Izmir. Besides, I have been working to start a branch in UK in the last four years. My company works with translators for all languages of the world. My company is one of reputable companies of the service sector. Also, I serve health tourism sector under the brand Health Life.
Who do you serve the most?
I serve all leading institutions and organizations of the nation. I serve law firms, countless companies from arms industry, defense industry, nuclear plants, healthcare sector, education.
Well, does your structuring abroad also serve in the field of translation?
Yes, we will mostly serve in the field of translation abroad, too. However, tourism consultancy is one of the fields where we want to do business. Furthermore, we’ll focus on education consultancy, too.
So, what is the secret of your success?
I know this will sound like a stereotype, but, WORKING HARD is the answer. Second secret is HONESTY. If you are honest at a certain business and you believe in the job you do, you do your best to do it properly, you may advance working with the right people even if you do not know how to do that job.
What are limits of criteria of hard work?
What I mean by hard work is this: I never backed down from anything.
I appeared again at places where I was not welcome or wanted. Even when they did not accept me through the door, I went in through the window. I stayed loyal to whatever that thing I believed in. This is actually what I mean by hard work. Therefore, I guess this is the formula for success. Not backing down…
It is not a good idea to ignore human brain!
So, let’s give a message to youngsters, shall we? Youngsters are really important because they have one big competitor ahead of them: artificial intelligence. Therefore, many professions are, now, being taken over by artificial intelligence and it is said that may people may lose their jobs. I actually do not believe that the artificial intelligence is more intelligent and talented than humans. I believe that humans are more talented and have a potential that is 3 to 5 times higher than the artificial intelligence. In that sense, youngsters should go for certain professions so that artificial intelligence won’t take over their lives and professions in future and there must be certain things youngsters should focus on.
My particular business is one of the businesses where threat of artificial intelligence is felt the most. Therefore, here is what I say. I, too, do not believe that existing technologies can take precedence over human brain. Yes, just like cell phones or refrigerators, there will be numerous machines which will affect human life. But all of them exist to serve the human kind. Therefore, it is not a good idea to ignore human brain.
I am a member of a community that eats after dag of the house.
What would be your message to our women and young girls? How should they proceed in life?
They should believe in themselves. My mother is a very strong woman. My mother has six daughters. I am a daughter of a family with eastern origin. I do come from a community where the woman does not exist. I am a member of a community that eats after dag of the house. And, at first, my late father was going to make me drop out of the school. But I am the first daughter of my extended family who went to the school. Because my mother was so determined and stood up, which somehow affected us and we, her children, were able to remain determined and stood up in life thanks to her determination and stance.
I am the first daughter of may extended family who went to school.
I guess my mother’s stance had an impact upon the way we act. Therefore, when you believe in yourself, you mother believes in you, another woman believes in you, you keep marching and make it happen. All of my sisters have their own success stories. Like I said before, we are daughters of a family with eastern origin. We do come from a community where the woman does not exist.
If we did it, I think everyone else can do it.
I believed in myself so much that the people dealing with me had no choice other than believing in me.
My advice to youngsters: never give up. Regardless of the conditions… The most important thing is that youngsters should believe in themselves. I am not from a generation that judges youngsters a lot. I do believe in them and I witness them doing really good things. But the problem is that they do not believe in themselves. Therefore, I say to them: please believe in yourselves. They should say away from stereotypes imposed by others such as “you can’t make it, you can’t pull it off.” I was only 21 when I first started my translation office. I can vividly remember people’s looks on me, saying things like. “Can you make this happen? Is it going to work? Are you going to finish it by tomorrow?”. I believed in myself so much that the people dealing with me had no choice other than believing in me. Therefore, age of a person does not really matter. A person who is a lot older has no chance of success if she/he does not believe in himself. On the other hand, a young person can achieve success despite of being young if she/he believes in himself. The history is full of thousands of examples to this So, I think our youngsters can pull it off, too, they should not back down.
And, finally, did you imagine back then that you could start a network like this before you started this business, or did you think to yourself “yes, I will do this” and what are your goals for the future?
To tell the truth, I always dreamt of being a businesswoman. My mother always told me to make money, do business, do the best in your job. My mother had no idea about what a businesswoman was like, but this was the model she drew for me. Frankly speaking, I followed that model. The more successful you become, the more, the farther you advance, the more… Now, I am taking steps in England to do even better and I am working towards this goal. I hope I can achieve there the same level of success I achieved in Türkiye. Of course, it takes teamwork, it is nothing I can do on my own. We need to collaborate with the right people so that we can pull off better jobs.
Would you like to add anything?
Here is what I’d like to add. I met you, you’re a very beautiful, a very special person and I think you, too, have a great success story. Like every other woman. If Allah has brought us together, I believe this is for a reason. Therefore everyone has a lot to contribute to others. Everybody, whether man or woman, should try to be decent and honest, and I want everyone to walk together on this path.
