We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Mansur Nurdel. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Mansur below.

Mansur, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Setting up an independent practice is a daunting endeavor. Can you talk to us about what it was like for you – what were some of the main steps, challenges, etc.

I came to the United States as a refugee in 1989. After finishing my undergraduate studies at University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, I was accepted into the Doctor of Optometry program at university of Missouri- St. Louis. I earned my Doctor of Optometry degree in 1997 and moved to Denver, Colorado. I worked at an Eye Surgery Center from 1997 to 2001 when I stablished my private Practice called Eye To Eye Care. I also purchased six other established offices called Look Optical later that year. It is difficult to run seven practices specially with huge financial commitment. I worked seven days a week, 12-15 hours a day. I sold my practices in 2018 and started a project that I had in my list of things to do for a long time. My coauthor, Jeannette Moninger, and I worked tirelessly to write my memoir called One More Mountain.

Mansur, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

As it was mentioned before, I have detailed my life story in my memoir. I hope your readers will get the chance of reading it because it gives your readers the opportunity to learn why and how I decided to purse Optometry and establishing my successful practices.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

My entire book is about human resiliency. In this book I am describing thirteen days of walking treacherous mountains between Iran and Turkey in the middle of winter with snow as high as our chest. I lived in Turkey for eighteen months in Refugee camp. During that time, I managed to memorize the entire Farsi-English dictionary.

We’d love to hear about how you met your business partner.

I met my business partner, Dr. James Kani, at a soccer field. It was after a soccer game that we went to a restaurant for dinner. It was during this dinner meeting that we decided to establish our own private practice of Optometry.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.onemoremountain.com as well as www.eyetoeyecare.com plus www.lookoptical.com
• Instagram: mansurnurdelauthor

Image Credits
John Leyba