My Morning Routine looks each week at how a successful member of the community starts their day — and then throws in a couple of random business questions because we simply can’t help ourselves. Extracts from our conversation this week with our friend Amal Enan, executive director of the Egyptian-American Enterprise Fund.

Who are you? My name is Amal Enan. 32 years old. I’m the proud wife of a very inspiring and brilliant Egyptian tech entrepreneur, daughter of a superb working mother and doctor who taught me strength, determination and the power of dreaming, and lastly, sister to the most awesome human who is definitely way cooler and a much more energetic go-getter woman working in the entrepreneurship ecosystem. You can say I’m fully invested in supporting women and entrepreneurs just by looking at my family.

What do you do? I’m the executive director of the Egyptian-American Enterprise Fund (EAEF). EAEF is a private investment fund seeded by the US government to invest in Egypt’s thriving private sector. Our mission is to promote job creation, financial inclusion and to improve quality of life in Egypt by backing talented management teams in sectors of high development impact.

What’s your morning routine? You’ll laugh — mine is a little different from the morning routines featured here so far. I wake up at 6am and make a point of not checking my phone first thing in the morning; on most days it works. I meditate every morning for 20 minutes, no matter what. For me, leaving the house without meditating is like leaving the house without brushing my teeth. It’s a non-negotiable commitment. The practice helps me stay grounded throughout my day, less reactive and a better listener. Next, I sit and write three full pages of unscripted writing. It’s something I learned from The Artist’s Way, a book on reviving our inner creativity. I really enjoy my morning writing; it helps me clear my head and be more connected with my true intentions and purpose. I spend a few more minutes thinking of things I am grateful for and running through things I want to accomplish today while sipping on a cup of hot water with a slice of lemon. I’m not “good” for much longer — before you know it, it’s 7am and I’m reaching for my coffee and getting up to speed on email and Instagram!

What does the rest of your day look like? I aim to leave my place by 7:30am to catch a morning workout class at my favorite spots or do yoga at home. I never leave the house without sunscreen. To keep my commute interesting, I’m always listening to an audiobook or podcast. It absolutely absorbs me and I tune out all the traffic. I’m currently listening to Michelle Obama’s ‘Becoming’ and think it’s fascinating I get to hear a former First Lady speak to me while I navigate Cairo. Some of my favorite podcasts include ‘How I Built This,’ ‘Hidden Brain,’ ‘Stuff You Should Know,’ and ‘The Art of Charm.’ It’s also when I catch up on Enterprise and TheSkimm to stay current on world affairs.

For the rest of the day I’m either meeting with our current investment companies and portfolio managers or meeting with new potential partners and promising potential investments. Otherwise, I’m hunched over my computer at the office firing emails and memos to get things moving. My favorite time is when we pose the question, “What are we going to eat today?” I really love lunch with colleagues and sharing random insights on this or that. I like to be home by 7pm to have dinner with my husband and talk about our day. I’m in bed by 10pm — not so fun, but I need my 8 hours of beauty sleep.

What’s the best thing you’ve watched / read lately? That’s a tough one — I just finished ‘Educated,’ and recently enjoyed reading ‘Homegoing’ and ‘CommonWealth.’ Nothing really beats Harry Potter or childhood detective stories — I was a big Agatha Christie fan growing up. As for non-fiction, I’m reading Homo Deus. I also recently enjoyed reading and/or listening to ‘Shoe Dog’ and ‘Daring Greatly.’ A lot of my movie-watching happens on flights or Netflix binging with my husband but I went to see ‘Yommedine’ in the theater and was in awe. I really like documentaries, especially those on strong women. I loved watching ‘RBG,’ ‘Being Serena,’ and ‘Looking for Oum Kalthoum.’

What’s the origin story of EAEF? Enterprise Funds were first pioneered in Eastern Europe way back in the 1990s before the model made its way to Egypt. Following the fall of the Berlin Wall and liberalization of a number of economies in Eastern Europe, the US government established Enterprise Funds to support those economies during their transition and strengthen their private sector. Fast forward to 2011, after the Arab Spring, the US revived the model and established two funds: one for Egypt and one for Tunisia to support their economies during the post-2011 economic turbulence.

What’s EAEF’s niche? Impact. EAEF is a private entity governed by a board of directors, all of whom have international private sector experience and leverage their expertise and network to advance Egypt’s investment potential. The chairman of EAEF, James Harmon, was the former chairman of the Ex-Im Bank and an active emerging markets investor. We are a small team and we rely predominantly on enabling and working through local fund managers with presence on the ground. Our real niche is social impact; we are a long-term investor with a strong commitment to our development mission and that is a quality much appreciated by our partners and stakeholders.

What do people not understand about your business? That we genuinely believe in the dual bottom line. For a long time, the industry has been conditioned to think in terms of trade-offs like sacrificing social impact for profits. Our investments all prove that the two can co-exist, that excellent management teams solving for underserved sectors are capable of achieving both competitive returns and sustainable social value. Another misconception was that we would crowd-out other investors whereas it is evident today that EAEF acts as a catalyst to attract new foreign investors to the market. We are always eager to partner with value-adding investors for the purpose of attracting diversified sources of capital to the country. We care and think a lot about how we can do more for Egypt.

How is the “business of finance” (or impact investing in general, if you prefer) changing? The wave of impact investing is large and growing, particularly from US and UK foundations, endowments and family offices. These investors now care more about aligning their investment activity with their values and are upholding investment managers to this commitment. Development financial institutions have always cared about impact and serving their greater mission but with private investors now also joining the cause, we are seeing more advancement in the space in terms of both defining and measuring impact as well as new, creative and efficient investment models for reaching the people in need. This is also widening the window for blended finance where public funding instruments partner with private investors who now share the same objectives to reduce the risk profile of the investments and create greater avenues for value creation. What’s interesting is that investors are sincere and are asking the harder questions; they are no longer content with wishy washy answers and just checking ESG boxes.

What do you do in your free time? I love creative writing and spend hours on the weekend between reading and working on my writing. I also like to deepen my yoga practice and take long walks in our neighborhood, mainly to get good coffee. I also recently returned to tennis and am spending more time with family. I try to get out of Cairo at least once a month; we are blessed with a great variety of landscapes in Egypt and I love it.

How do you stay organized? I walk around with a notebook. I write down everything I want to do, break it down into smaller achievable tasks and tick them off one at a time. I love the rush of dopamine from checking something off and it gets me to aim for the next thing. I certainly can do better on time-management and showing up on time. An optimist’s dilemma.

What’s the best piece of business advice you’ve ever been given and by whom? ‘Always have compassion, put yourself in the other person’s shoes.’ I grew up witnessing how my mother thrives on helping others and her advice never failed me in both life and business. Also: ‘It’s not the smartest people in the room who are the most successful, it’s the emotionally intelligent who get much further.’ That one’s from James A. Harmon. I got lucky with an inspiring boss who believes in the potential of people and encourages young women to grow.