In a brief interview, Taha Al‑Rumani recounts his “one‑shot” journey from Egypt to the United States, describing the risks of leaving family and familiar surroundings to pursue the American Dream. He entered the automotive industry in 2002 as a sales representative, learned on the job, and quickly rose to become the top salesperson at his dealership. His performance earned him a promotion to sales manager, where he doubled sales within a year. In 2009 he relocated from Minneapolis to Sioux Falls, South Dakota, following a single contact, and eventually became the general manager of his own dealership, overseeing two franchises. Throughout, he emphasizes hard work, perseverance, and a mindset of always staying at the top.
I'm here with Taha Al-Rumani, and he'd like to share his one-shot story.
My one-shot is when I took the risk and moved from Egypt to the United States, leaving my family behind and leaving my friends and everybody I know and coming over here to a new place, not knowing what I I'm going after, chasing that American dream. But soon enough I realized that it's not really a dream. You gotta work hard for it. You gotta get the job done. And I got in the car business back in 2002, in the automotive industry, just as a sales representative and made my way up. And here I am 13 years later. I'm a general manager of a car dealership here in Sioux Falls.
Wow.
One of the biggest in the country too. Wow. And it wasn't by luck and it wasn't served to me on a silver plate. I had to work hard for it. Did my dues. Started by selling cars. not knowing nothing about the business. Yeah. Learning from people that's been in it for a while, challenging myself to compete with these guys, learning from them and competing from them, competing with them, and soon enough I was the top salesperson in the store. And once I saw my name on the top of that board, I said to myself, my name will never be off the top. I'll always be the top guy in the store. And that was my another challenge. And I did it. And later on, I got promoted to become a sales manager of one of the stores that I worked at and worked my way up. Took a store from selling 100 cars to doubling the business in less than a year just by doing things right, shaking hands with people every day. Then in '09, I took another opportunity to leave Minneapolis and come to Sioux Falls, South Dakota, where I knew one person and one person only that brought me over here. And I took that challenge and I accepted the opportunity and I came and worked for another company that gave me this— Status. Probably the best opportunity that I've had in my life, and here I am today, 5 years later in Sioux Falls, running my own store with 2 franchises and taking it to a new level.
