When Jihad El Eit launched his mobile phone distribution company, Jeetek Group, in 2008, he entered a market few would touch.
Basing his operations in Pakistan, he travelled across the border to Afghanistan to set up a network and sell handsets.
"Security is much worse there. But still there are proper ethics for doing business there, and people respect that," says the chief executive and founder of Jeetek. "Afghanistan is still closed because people are scared. But some people are ready to take a risk."
Mr El Eit is one of those individuals. But, at the time, he felt he had no other choice as all of the big brands were already available in the UAE, which is where he was based - and still is.
With a mobile penetration rate of just 50 per cent in Afghanistan and 65 per cent in Pakistan, the South Asian nations abound in opportunities.
"Afghanistan has a big appetite for mobile phones. It is not 100 per cent penetrated yet. What sells is low to medium-end mobile handsets, and this is what we're focusing on," Mr El Eit says.
But because of security concerns, Jeetek cannot directly reach remote areas.
"If the opportunity allows us [to reach the remote areas], I think the risk is justified, because the higher the risk the higher the return," he says.
Within a couple of years, Mr El Eit had enough money in the bank to expand into the Emirates, where he specialises in mobile phone accessories.
He is a distributor for five brands, one of which makes "funky lifestyle technology" products sold in Virgin stores.
"We have, for example, an accessory like a camera-lens mug," Mr El Eit says. "We are selling huge numbers [of them]."
In November 2010, Jeetek turned to a market that Mr El Eit had been eyeing for 15 years - Egypt. But subsequent unrest there meant the business could not roll out as quickly as he hoped.
"Egypt, now, is very difficult, to be honest with you," he says. "We are scared to expand and to sell more, because in our business you need to expose some credit in the market."
But the difficulties do not seem to have affected his business too much. Last year, Jeetek had sales of Dh500 million (US$136m).
"I have a plan for 2020 that it will be a $1 billion company," Mr El Eit says. "It might be a dream or it might be a reality. But I have a platform that would allow me to reach that if I do it right. Now will I do it? … I have to try."
Whether Mr El Eit achieves his target does not detract from the fact that he is already successful. But he acknowledges learning the hard way.
He lost most of his savings after a retail business he tried elsewhere in the Gulf failed. "Whatever money I have lost, if I would have paid it in a PhD, I would have not learnt what I did in this opportunity," he says.
One of the biggest lessons was choosing his business partner carefully. "I have learnt two basic things: don't look at cosmetic things [on the surface] from outside; sometimes you can find plenty of things that can be bad."
Choosing a partner, he adds, is more important than finding a wife: "Your wife can divorce easily."
