When Myles Bush, former CEO of PH Real Estate and now Director/Co-founder of Phoenix Homes, formerly known as PowerHouse Real Estate, arrived in Dubai nine years ago, he chose to start working in a sector where only the fittest survived, especially in the UAE of 2008.

However, the then 23-year-old energetic, money-hungry youngster, in his own words, had a big enough dream – to save a sum total of £50,000 over the next two years for an apartment in his home town of Guildford, England.

“I made sure my overheads were low by cooking basic clean food every night and renting a friend’s maid’s room,” he recalls. “In my eyes, if I reached this financial goal then I was set for life and I would be on the next plane home to continue life.”

Within just six months Bush climbed up the ladder at a small local real estate brokerage and got promoted to sales manager after becoming the most successful agent inside of his patch (Emirates Hills). Needless to say that it was not long before he hit his £50,000 target.

The rest of his story continues to involve a lot of climbing, with him often opting to make the trek in a less conventional way.

To start with, he decided not to book a one-way ticket home, but to purchase a controlling and managing partnership status within what today is PH Real Estate, thus becoming his own boss.

Back in 2008, the idea of buying, growing and developing a small real estate company was a nerve-racking thought, he says, especially as two of his other business ventures – a food and beverage company in Ibiza, Spain, and a real estate web portal – had failed.

Working from a steel yard in Dubai’s Al Quoz with his little team of three real estate agents, he dreamt of turning the company into a slick, organised, professional real estate giant, fit to compete with the likes of Better Homes.

“Beneath my tough, brash exterior I did of course have some grave doubts that my hard earned £50,000 pounds was about to become a thing of the past,” he says.

At this stage of his entrepreneurial journey, however, it was not the fierce competition that was stressful. On the contrary, around 30 percent of his real estate competitors went bankrupt or downsized due to the 2008 global financial crisis gaining momentum in the country.

“I, however, decided to continue pushing forward and growing the company by employing only the best brokers in the market,” he says. “Quality, not quantity.

“I increased the commission structure payable to brokers, I increased the marketing spend ensuring that my brokers had opportunities to make money and followed the RERA code of ethics to a tee.

“Basically, I replicated the British estate agency model, but out here in Dubai. That year, rather than giving up, as so many of my competitors had done, we actually came out with a AED10,000 profit.

“We had survived the storm.”

Since then, the company has gone from strength to strength due to the hard work of his 30-strong team, his business partner Nick Grassick and himself.

Recalling the advice of his first boss that ’you get out of life only what you put in’, Bush explains that an engagement in some kind of fundraising activity to help those less fortunate is a must on his business agenda every year. Up to now, he has raised more than $250,000 for various charities.

His first two professional mountain climbs – summiting Africa’s highest peak Kilimanjaro in 2011 and the notorious Island Peak in Nepal in 2012 – were in aid of King Hussein Cancer Foundation, a medical centre based in Amman, Jordan, under the Climb for Cancer initiative.

Bush adds: “After this climb and shortly after the devastating disaster that happened in Nepal, I again strapped up the climbing boots and headed to Russia where I successfully climbed the dangerous Mount Elbrus in 2015.”

The sponsorship money raised went directly to the charity named Children of the Mountain.

He concludes by offering advice for budding entrepreneurs. “First, always remember where you came from and be thankful for everything,“ he says.

“Second, treat people as you want to be treated yourself, and, last but not least, always work harder than you did yesterday. Don’t think that success will land in your lap if you just ‘wish it’ and ‘hope for it’. It won’t, and you may be waiting for a long time.

“You have to push yourself each and every day, keep a healthy body and mind, stay that extra hour in the office or the gym and not leave until you have achieved whatever it is you set out to achieve.

“In the unlikely event that you fail, lick your wounds, like I did, and go again.”