I was one year old when my family left Lebanon for Australia in 1985. It was impossible to stay—the civil war had made that clear—so my parents did what they had to do.

I don’t remember the move itself. What I do remember, and what has shaped every year of my working life since, is what came after: a family that arrived with nothing and built everything that followed on a handful of simple, unshakeable rules.

25 years into running Dardas Construction, having delivered over 1,000 projects across New South Wales, Rural Victoria and Queensland, I can trace almost everything I believe about work and people back to those early years. Here are the lessons that have stuck with me the longest.

Lesson 1: Hard Work Was Expected, Not Admired

Growing up, hard work in my family wasn’t something you were praised for. It was simply expected. We started with nothing, and there wasn’t really another option—both my parents worked from the beginning.

My father:

• Worked until he was eighty, building buses
• Retired at eighty
• Passed away at eighty—the two happened close together

My mother:

• Is 76 years old today
• Still works as a school teacher
• Still carries the same old-school values she raised us with

Watching two people hold that kind of standard for decades, without ever treating it as remarkable, taught me the first real lesson: work isn’t something you talk about. It’s something you do, quietly, for as long as it’s needed. That’s the standard I still hold myself to.

Lesson 2: We Are All Equal

Those years built a set of rules I’ve never compromised on:

• Pay people on time
• Stay humble
• Never think you’re better than the person standing beside you—we are all equal

That last one matters more to me than almost anything else. When you’ve grown up with very little, looking down on someone else—whatever their job title or pay packet—gets a lot harder to do.

On a Dardas construction site, that means:

• A subcontractor gets the same respect as a client
• A labourer gets the same respect as a project manager
• Success hasn’t changed where I stand, or who I am

Lesson 3: Your Word Is Your Name

The third lesson is really a rule more than a reflection:

Pay what you owe. Stay humble. Respect every person. Your word is your name.

I’ve built this business through life experience. I was once on the other side, as a tradie myself, and I know exactly how it feels — the quicker you pay, the quicker the project completes with quality.

That’s not something I picked up from a business course. It’s something I learned from watching how fairness was practised, or wasn’t, when I had very little myself.

Lesson 4: Master the Trade From the Ground Up

I mastered construction from the ground up — one trade, one skill, one hard-earned lesson at a time.

The path looked like this:

• Nine trades mastered in total
• Foreman of a 120-unit development within three months of entering the industry
• Started my own contracting business in 2006
• Nineteen years building under my own licence since

That business has grown into Dardas Construction — a developer, builder and contractor now working across:

• Homes and duplexes
• Big industrial areas
• Heritage works
• Remedial works
• Maintenance and strata works
• Subdivision and multi-unit developments

With a team of more than 20 people behind me.

Formal qualifications behind the experience:

• Builder’s Licence
• CM3 Safety accreditation
• First Aid certificate
• All heavy machinery and crane tickets
• BASIX/NatHERS Assessor qualification
• Diploma in Building — Miller TAFE
• Certificate IV in Building — Ultimo TAFE

Most of it is completed through private colleges. Every one of those qualifications sits on top of years spent learning trades the hard way, one at a time.

Programming sites like clockwork makes the team work as one, between the contractors and the Dardas team. My experience working on site through every trade over the years is what helped get me to where I am today. I work for all types of clients, from big to small — the lesson from those early years was never about chasing the biggest job. It was about doing the work properly, whatever the scale.

Lesson 5: Success Means Giving Something Back

The business has grown. The projects have grown. The responsibility has grown.

But the roots haven’t moved.

What I still back, season after season:

• Rydalmere FC
• Guildford Owls Rugby Club
• Dunbar Rovers FC
• Cancer research fundraising, every year
• Membership with Port Hacking, Botany Bay and Sydney Game Fish Club
• A number of other community groups

The support goes where the work goes — into the same suburbs as the sites. Junior football, local rugby, fishing clubs and cancer research. You’ll see the name on the jerseys, not written across the website.

Sponsorship isn’t marketing to me. It’s responsibility.

That belief goes back to the same place everything else in this story goes back to — a family that had very little and who understood what it meant when the community around you gave something back. Family life for us was always built around modest, meaningful things:

• Fishing trips
• Picnics
• Church
• Family visits

That’s stayed part of how I live, even now.

What These Lessons Mean for How I Work Today

None of what I’ve built came from a single big moment. It came from decades of small, consistent decisions:

• Mastering one trade before moving to the next
• Showing up on site early in my career and never really stepping away from the hands-on side of the job
• Holding onto the same values whether a project is worth a hundred thousand dollars or ten million

From the tools to leading complex projects, my reputation has been built on experience, accountability, and results. No matter the scale of the project, one thing hasn’t changed—I still walk every site, lead from the front, and stand behind every detail that goes into it.

That’s really what moving to Australia gave my family and what it taught me personally. Not a shortcut to success, but the chance to build something on solid ground—and the responsibility, once you’ve built it, to remember exactly where you came from.

Frequently Asked Questions

What lessons did Ibrahim George Dardas learn from his family’s move to Australia?

Five stand out — that hard work is expected rather than praised, that everyone deserves the same respect regardless of their role, that paying people fairly and on time is non-negotiable, that trades and skills are best mastered one at a time, and that success should give something back to the community.

How old was Ibrahim George Dardas when his family moved to Australia?

He was one year old when his family left Lebanon for Australia in 1985, during the civil war.

How did Ibrahim George Dardas’s parents shape his work ethic?

His father worked building buses until he passed away at eighty, and his mother, now 76, still works as a schoolteacher. Both treated hard work as simply expected, not something remarkable.

What values guide Ibrahim George Dardas in business today?

Paying what you owe, staying humble, respecting every person regardless of title, and remembering that your word is your name.

How did Ibrahim George Dardas build his construction career?

He mastered nine trades from the ground up, became foreman on a 120-unit development within three months of entering construction, and started his own contracting business in 2006—now Dardas Construction.

Why does Ibrahim George Dardas support local sporting and community groups?

Giving back was part of how he was raised. He backs Rydalmere FC, Guildford Owls Rugby Club, and Dunbar Rovers FC, supports cancer research fundraising, and holds membership with several fishing clubs—support he sees as responsibility, not marketing.