Egemen Mustafa Şener Says Three Lessons from His Black Sea Village Still Guide His Business

Egemen Mustafa Şener says the values he learned growing up in Çifteköprü, a village in Turkey’s Artvin province, continue to shape how he runs his business. In an account about his approach to construction, he identifies three guiding ideas: labor, promises and land. Şener was born in the village in May 1968. His father worked the land, while his mother came from a Laz family, according to the account. He describes an upbringing where work had to be seen, a spoken commitment mattered, and the land rewarded effort rather than shortcuts. After high school, Şener moved to Istanbul to study business and entered agricultural trading in the late 1980s. In the early 1990s, he turned to residential and commercial construction and began managing projects in the city. The account says the habits he had learned at home remained part of his working life as his career developed. For Şener, labor is more than an abstract business principle. The account presents it as the practical work behind every completed project, including the tasks that are not visible in the finished result. It also links dependable delivery to the people doing that work, arguing that schedules and commitments cannot be fulfilled without their contribution. He also places weight on keeping promises. In the village where he grew up, a spoken commitment carried the force of an agreement, the account says. In construction, contracts set out dates and standards, but Şener’s stated approach is to honour what the parties understood and promised even before the paperwork was complete. The article connects those principles to a career spanning residential, commercial, industrial and infrastructure projects. It also refers to international expansion in Ukraine, Eastern Europe and South America, including work associated with Montevideo and Recife. Across those settings, Şener’s account presents the same three lessons from his childhood as a continuing guide to how he expects business to be done.