The first African and Arabic woman to go to space reveals her brutal routine to obtain the position: 4:30 am of training, while juggling with a full -time technological concert

It is a common childhood dream, but that few realize. To start, you need to access a plane just to accumulate the 1,000 hours of flight required to apply for programs like NASA.

For Sabry, the mission was even more impossible. She was not born in a country with a space agency. There were no astronauts that looked like him. And she had no elite connections or deep pockets.

So, to put his foot in the door, the 28 -year -old had to wake up at 4:30 am to sneak in training and research in bioastronautics early in the morning, all before running for his full -time job as a CTO of a technological startup based in Berlin at 9 am

Then, after work, she worked more on her own training in start -ups and space – and this is the kind of exhausting discipline which she says that young people of today should not hesitate if they want to unlock their dreams.

“At the time, it was, it was really, really, it was really difficult,” she recalls in the first days of her career, speaking exclusively Fortune During his stay in London for the American Express Leadership Academy 2025. “You would wake up at night, then you would come back at night, so you barely see daylight.”

She says she would tackle the most important tasks on the day before 10 hours, when others start to take place online.

“I see a lot of young people now, they want to take the easy way without working so hard. But the truth is that you have to make sacrifices. You have to put yourself through a lot of discomfort, ”adds Sabry. “Of course, it’s not easy to wake up at 4:30 am every morning and be completely isolated from the world, right? But it shows that you can really transform your life – and you have so much control over your life.”

Sabry says that experience radically moved the way it considered the limits linked to class, geography and identity.

She did not have the passport, the platform or the privilege, but she still pushed. And in doing so, proved what is possible when ambition is supported by an implacable effort.

“It has changed the way I see things now. Having been in space and having done what was impossible, honestly, the probability that it happens was about 0.0%, unless I change my nationality. ”

She beat the chances – and more than 7,000 other candidates for this blue flight – to make history.

Now she has succeeded, but still pulls days of 1 p.m. and has a jet-section calendar

Despite the success, you will still not find Sabry by getting your feet.

In addition to being an astronaut, now 32 years old, the executive director of Deep Space Initiative – a non -profit organization that she has founded to make the space more accessible – the co -founder of the ambassador program of the Egyptian space agency and ends a doctorate in aerospace engineering. It also conducts research on engineering of the next generation of planetary space combinations at HumanspaceFlight LAB funded by NASA.

If that was not enough, Sabry builds new businesses and develops a speaking career that takes him to the world. And with such a crowded and jet schedule, she learned to adapt her rigid routine in something more flexible. But that does not mean that it is elongated.

“I haven’t lived in a place for three years,” she said. “I have to live out of my suitcase, so you have to adapt.”

Nowadays, Sabry starts his day around 6 am with a training session, before responding to emails and doing “administration tips”.

“It is no longer 4:30 am, because I have to work late these days,” she explains, adding that the jet lag for international calls that she must take while often in Egypt rejects her work schedule, bringing her total working day at 1 pm.

“My first meeting is at 9 am and my last meeting is from 9 p.m. to 10 p.m., so I can’t wake up too early,” continues Sabry. Eight hours of sleep are not negotiable – just like the task for the day blocked in its calendar.

“Because I balance a doctorate, two companies, my public speaking, and more, I think it’s really about planning. As soon as the tasks are scheduled in my calendar, I don’t have to think about it, ”she adds.

“It is so easy to distract when you work on other things, and you think:” Oh, I have to work on my research or I have to respond to emails. But no, the emails will stay in the reception box until the scheduled time to look at emails.

Eyes on the price: the remedy for exhaustion

If you feel exhausted by reading Sabry’s routine, not to mention copying it, she says that there is only one way to survive it: become obsessed with your mission.

Sabry said that she had no other choice because the alternative did not give everything and risked not realizing her dream.

“It was always this fight,” she explains. “I was never going to have an opportunity. After having grown up knowing that things just wouldn’t be me, I didn’t expect anything.

And she says that having a crowded schedule helped her move forward with her goals because she didn’t even have time to think about something else.

“Most of the day, you are in the dark, but you are so consumed of it – having this orientation and not having time to look at what is going on in different places was really, really key,” she says Fortune.

“If consumed and so consumed and have just a really crowded schedule, and knowing that I was investing in me. When you work on things you know towards your goal, it gives you so much peace.”

In the end, she would only kill herself if she knew that there was an additional hour or two during the day that she was not used to pushing herself forward.

“If I did not do everything I can and I could do more, then I would not feel in peace. Then, I would somehow pass like the other rabbit hole, you know, to be a bit like a hard towards yourself. So, by doing a lot, it gave me peace.”