The story of a successful self-made entrepreneur who started his empire from scratch by believing “I can and I will… just watch me”!
Dionysis Ammolochitis, CEO of Manifest, interviewed for Cricos.
Do you wake up every day and say to yourself “I am the luckiest person alive?” Do you know many people who can say that? Let me answer that for you…the answer is definitely NOT! But today I met a “young handsome self-made super successful entrepreneur” who started his story with: “I am a very lucky man” and his name is Dionysis Ammolochitis! But don’t get me wrong as luck has absolutely nothing to do with his success; but hard work, self-confidence, zeal, perseverance, patience and all the positive “nouns” you can find in the dictionary! A man that punches “Not possible” right in the face and transforms it into “you wanna bet?”…:)
So why does he believe he is lucky? Well, he happens to have a mom who brought him to life in her teenage years while standing next to him believing and supporting him in every possible way. See what I mean? What most of us take for granted, he praises and is grateful for! Bringing up a child on her own while having to take care of living costs doing any job possible is a very noble task…I guess he is lucky after all.
His story starts when after working for a few years in his early 20ies, Dionysis tells his mom to stop working and to start a business together and without a second thought she did! By selling a small asset and gathering 9000€ in 2003, Dionysis together with his mother establish their company Manifest, a facilitating company that little did they know would be a market leader in the next years!
A few months right after they first established Manifest, while doing all the jobs on their own, Dionysis came across a tip regarding a very large retail company and their search for a facility management company. Without rethinking, he closes a meeting with them and shows up with his team (his mother and her friend) looking all professional. He gives them a very competitive offer but what really got him in the door and sealed the deal was his winning attitude! He said: “I told them you have by the end of this week to reply as our deal will be off the table and after that, you won’t be able to afford us” !!! Talk about self-confidence or allow me to say… “cojones”! 🙂 And guess what? They got the deal the same day! He said, they were laughing from joy and crying at the same time as they had no experience nor the manpower nor the assets to cater 60 stores all over Greece! Of course, they did with flying colors and still have them in their clientele till this day. Today they are by far the leading company in Greece who provides facility management, hard services such as technical building maintenance and recollection, security and catering services.
Believe me, I have left out many painful details and all the challenges he has faced till this day! And you would expect him to be a tough-inaccessible businessman with all that he has achieved and been through, but instead, Dionysis Ammolochitis is a true gentleman… polite, kind and open-hearted, down to earth with a “giving back to his society” character! He has given many talks and seminars helping young entrepreneurs by giving them his hardly gained knowledge, know-how, and tools, as for them to go after their ideas and dreams easier and faster.