From a remote village in Al-Karak Governorate, Salah Al-Oqabi launched towards the world, through the chalk industry, as his products reach 150 countries, competing with the major countries that manufacture this material.

Al-Aqabi (50 years old) did not leave a dream that he began planning to achieve in 1995, and he lived with it every moment of his life, until he reached the goal in 2003, to establish a chalk factory, and a few years later he would be among the countries exporting it, and his name would be written on the list of its producers.

“Since my childhood, I have only accepted to be the first in everything.” With these words, Salah began his speech to the Anadolu Agency correspondent, during his visit to his factory in the industrial city of Karak Governorate, and he said: “Without my insistence, my success would not have been achieved.”

Salah’s style of speech was like someone reading a novel and trying to focus on its smallest details, so as not to get distracted by reaching its end, in a clear attempt to explain the most important moments and difficulties he faced in reaching his goal.

Al-Aqabi comes from an extended family, and he is the eldest son of his parents in a family of 23 brothers and sisters (16 males and 7 females). He holds a university degree in chemical engineering from the Jordan University of Science and Technology (governmental) in 1994.

Fate was stronger than all circumstances, and God’s power wanted Salah to live until a day when he becomes one of the most important names in the world in his profession, despite being exposed to three causes that almost killed his life in his childhood, according to what he tells Anatolia.

Salah says: “My personality was shaped by my father and mother. My mother is kind, and my father does not know the impossible, so some see me as an introvert.”

The Jordanian in his fifties went through difficult living conditions. The primitiveness of life in his village, and his father’s work in the construction profession, prevented him from being able to see the developments of life, like his peers in cities, but he did not lose hope and did not lack the means.

During his speech, Salah recalled a situation that was the main motivation for him to achieve success, as he said: “My father came to school while I was in the first grade, and he looked at my grade and his features showed that he was not satisfied with it.

He continued, “One year after I graduated from the university, specifically in 1995, I worked at the Jordanian Carbonate Company as a production engineer, with a salary of 142.5 Jordanian dinars ($200).”

He added, “One day, I heard the general manager speaking in an interview on the radio about a substance produced by the company, which is considered a raw material for the chalk industry.”

And before he completed his speech stating the details, he interrupted his speech by saying, in a manner that reflects pride, “I am currently their largest customer.”

And he went on, “After that, I worked in another company, but the issue of chalk did not leave my mind for one moment, and then I moved to work in the Jordanian Potash Company (governmental).”

And he added, “Working with potash was an opportunity for me to analyze a finger of chalk, to ascertain the details of its manufacture and components.”

And he added, “I confirmed what my former boss said about the materials, and the idea began to grow day after day, but the issue is not that simple, as our living situation was not even classified as poor, but rather below that.”

He added, “There were 3 chalk factories in Jordan, but they did not continue and soon closed, so I decided to visit their owners and meet with them, to find out the reasons behind that.”

And he added, “I got married in 2001, and I told my wife that I would jump in the air, either I succeed or I failed, and I told her the details of the factory.”

And he continued, “I told her that I am not a coward, and I told her that I will fight the battle.”

He explained, “I learned from my university professors the importance of writing a business plan and not being satisfied with imagining it. Indeed, I prepared it with a technical study, the feasibility of the subject, the places of sale, and the most important thing is how to obtain costs.”

In a way that emphasizes the importance of planning before work, Salah emphasized, “I do not accept that I base my life on an impression, but rather on a study. I started looking for a financier, until I got a financial loan of 30,000 dinars ($42,000) from an institution, and I went to Britain to buy machines.”

He pointed out, “I opened my factory and the dream of my life near my father’s house, and I started working with two of my brothers in 2003.”

And he added, “In the same year, a bid was put out by the Ministry of Education, and its value at that time was 70,000 dinars (98,000 dollars), and I was able to get only a quarter of it, claiming that they wanted to test me.”

Amid regret that appeared on his face, Salah said: “In the following year (2004), the ministry put out a tender and changed the required specifications, and that the quality of chalk be without dust, and it was only produced by France and South Korea, and it objected to that, but without result.”

And between, “I did not stop at that, and I decided to search for machines that produce this type of chalk, and indeed, I found them with the same specifications in a German company, at a value of 2 million euros, which is a large amount at the time that I cannot afford.”

“It was forced to sell in the local markets, and the value was very low, and it did not cover the costs,” Salah continued.

The insistence on achieving success and achieving the goal prompted Salah and one of his brothers to implement thousands of attempts to reach chalk without dust, to be able to do so at attempt No. 2149 in 2006, thus breaking the monopoly of this product on France and South Korea.

After achieving this result, the Jordanian engineer searched for what would show this to the world, to participate in the largest stationery exhibitions in Germany, ending his participation by obtaining 13 applications from 13 countries, with a total sales margin of 700 thousand dinars (985 thousand dollars) in 2007, and the number increased to 40 countries in the following year.

Production increased and profits increased, so Salah decided after that to move the factory to a more suitable place, and this was already done, and Salah turned into a “millionaire,” as he said, and he continued to work and develop, and to develop machines year after year, so that his products reached 120 countries in 2012.

Salah was proud of the way he managed his factory and the tribal-tribal pattern in his province. He devised a special labor law he called the “Jordanian Labor Law,” through which a brother is allowed to fill in his brother’s place in his absence, and he accepts the worker’s leave from the tribal sheikh as well as health centers and hospitals, out of honor and homage to them.

Today, Salah’s products reach 150 countries in the world, but he did not hide his dissatisfaction with the official way of dealing with him at the beginning of his work, and attempts to thwart him. However, at the same time, he affirmed, “No matter how some try to destroy you, trust fully that God is greater than everyone, so all officials were absent, except that King Abdullah was the one who attended, and I was honored by his visit in 2012.”

He said: “The factory now covers an area of ​​7,500 square meters, and the number of employees in it is 150 people. I added pastes and colors to its products, and its production is 50 percent of the world’s production of chalk.”

When asked about the level of turnout in light of the development and reliance on white and smart boards, Salah revealed that “only 15 countries in the world use chalk for schools.”

Anatolia