Meet Mohamed Elwan | Maker

We had the good fortune of connecting with Mohamed Elwan and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Mohamed, we’d love to hear more about how you thought about starting your own business?
There really wasn’t any thought process. At first it started as just a side hustle when I was in school and needed to make some extra money. Being the son of immigrants, the American dream was always enforced so I ended up getting a bachelor’s in computer engineering and I worked that for a few years but I absolutely hated it and after my fourth layoff I realized that I wasn’t cut out for that lifestyle and I had a side hustle that I kind of kept throughout the entire time and it made money and I was happy doing it. So I thought to myself why not just make this my business, my full-time job and work for myself

What should our readers know about your business?
I believe happiness is important to success. You perform your best when enjoy what you’re doing. A lot of people in my trade do it for the money solely, so they’ll cut corners or not pay attention to the details. But I like to finish a project and take a step back and tell myself, look at what you made. There’s a pride in finishing something perfectly and I feel like my customers see it. They see the happiness and pride I feel with their stuff and trust me to do the best job possible. My biggest challenge believe it or not was my friends and family. How could an engineer leave his comfortable office to go build stuff in the sun or do dirty work? There was a time I got in my own head too, but the final push I needed to move forward was getting laid off from a job while I was on my way there for my first day. That helped me realize I can’t put others ideas before mine, and at the end of the day if I have money and I’m happy, then I’m ahead of most people.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
First things first, food. Can’t explore on an empty stomach. First stop would be 3rd Coast BBQ or Corkscrew, best BBQ in town. Old Town Spring is great place to walk around and check out small local shops. Herman Park and all the museums and gardens around it are great to walk off all the food. Bellaire is great spot for all kinds of East Asian food and lots of cool shops and arcades. Discovery Green always some kind of event happening and aside from parking it’s a lot of fun. NASA is personal favorite, love all the exhibits and fun new information and tours. From there Galveston is a good stop, Moody Gardens, downtown Galveston, tours, seafood, and great fishing spots.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
The only help I really got was from YouTube. Super helpful online community and if there was anything I ever wanted to learn how to do there was a video for it and any unanswered questions I was able to get answered in the comments. Networking online is an underrated tool

Instagram: Moes_wood

Facebook: Moe’s Wood and Customs

Image Credits
Noah Bynum