Jimmy Khan,CEO, Lafarge Egypt: Each week, My Morning Routine looks at how a successful member of the community starts their day — and then throws in a couple of random business questions just for fun. Speaking to us this week is Jimmy Khan (LinkedIn), CEO at Lafarge Egypt.

I am Jimmy Khan, CEO of Lafarge Egypt, a husband, and a father to Sophia — and the latter two are my highest priorities.

We are very lucky to have one of our largest businesses in the group operating in Egypt. We have got a very large — 10 mn ton — cement plant in Ain Sokhna, and we have nine or ten mixed plants all over the country. We also have a total of 2.2k direct employees and USD 500 mn in annual revenue, which equates to more than EGP 10 bn.

The current trend circulating our industry is LC3 [limestone calcined clay cement.] Only two earth materials are globally abundant: limestone and clay. We have recently discovered that you can make a reactive cement out of clay, and Egypt has an abundance of this natural material. Although the country’s building code hasn’t adopted this yet, we are going to be investing in producing LC3 locally in Egypt. Until we can use it here, we will export it to Europe — where LC3 has already been adopted as a replacement material for cement.

My morning routine starts at 5:30am, and I can confirm this because my communications director sees me at the gym every morning [laughs]. I quietly roll out of bed so as not to wake my daughter up, have a strong coffee, and bike to the gym.

I have to leave my house for the gym before the morning edition of Enterprise comes out. If I’m still at home when Enterprise arrives in my inbox, I will invariably start reading it without getting up, and that throws off my entire schedule. I get on the treadmill at 6am sharp, and those 15-20 minutes on the treadmill are probably my most important scheduled moment of zen. So technically, I owe Enterprise a lot of credit for the fact I’ve lost ten pounds over the last three months.

Afterwards, I go for a walk with my wife and daughter, and then head home for a quick breakfast. I know you’re going to laugh, but I’m an American and I’ll have a Diet Coke with breakfast. Then I jump into the car with my chauffeur Mahmoud, who does the hard work of driving in Cairo. That’s usually when I start doing my work.

My work day is usually very packed. I start by looking at sales and production numbers. We also have two leadership meetings every week. I schedule all my appointments a week in advance, so if someone would like to see me on a short notice, it’s usually between 7-8:30am or after 5:30pm. From an organizational perspective, I’d like to tell you that I do everything myself, but I can’t. I have an army of people who help me to be successful.

The one constant in my day — other than Diet Coke — is that I am so grateful for the opportunities God has given me. Honestly, if it all disappears tomorrow, I would only be thankful and happy for the experiences I have had. No regrets at all.

I’m not happy with my work-life balance. I think most of us believe or have convinced ourselves to believe that we have a good work-life balance, but the truth is that hypertension, weight gain, cardiac disease, and anxiety have all increased dramatically in the professional sectors. Now that I’m in my mid-life career, I think my focus both professionally and personally moving forward will be on finding a better balance.

I like to sit in peace and unwind whenever I have free time. After 10-12 hours of being at work, I like to sit quietly by myself for about an hour. Of course, my wife hates it — she sits there waiting impatiently and I can feel her foot tapping.

I also love working outside. I used to be a car mechanic when I was younger, and it’s always been a dream of mine to own a garage where I can get lost with my cars and motorcycles for hours everyday. I already bought a small garage and I am having it outfitted with tools. I’m really excited about it.

I wish I had a classier list of favorite shows and podcasts, but I guess my dirty secrets are the YouTube Channel Matt’s Off Road Recovery, and probably Joe Rogan and Lex Fridman podcasts.

The piece of advice that I live by is “Do or do not. There is no try.” Those are the immortal words of Master Yoda from Star Wars. In other words, have confidence and faith and if it doesn’t work out, at least you tried with all your heart and learned something.