“You cannot control what others do. But at best, you can at least cultivate a mindset or a state of mind for yourself which enables you to get the best out of life and thus live and die with as few regrets as possible.”__ Adam Azim
Entrepreneurship is a journey of balancing creativity, strategy, and resilience, and Adam Azim exemplifies this dynamic path. From his beginnings as a self-reliant entrepreneur to his evolution into a leader focused on building an organization with both creative and administrative components, Adam’s story is marked by thoughtful introspection and an unyielding drive for growth. His candid reflections reveal a deep understanding of the complexities of business, personal relationships, and the importance of maintaining balance in all aspects of life.
In this exclusive interview with Business Upside, Adam discusses the challenges of managing work-life balance, staying motivated through adversity, and fostering long-term sustainability in a competitive market. With an emphasis on self-reliance, intuition, and cultural values, Adam’s insights provide a roadmap for aspiring entrepreneurs navigating today’s evolving business landscape. Whether it’s his approach to handling criticism or his views on creating opportunities, Adam’s philosophy of entrepreneurship is as pragmatic as it is inspiring.
Edited Excerpts from the Interview
Business Upside [BU]: How do you envision the growth and evolution of your business in the next 5-10 years?
Adam Azim [AA]: I see it as evolving from something that has been somewhat rudimentary and basic to something of a machine or organization with a creative component on the one hand and an administrative component on the other hand. I do not see myself calling the handyman to fix a pipe for a tenant in an apartment or cut tomatoes in the kitchen of a restaurant I own. I am focused on creating a machine or an organization with a creative component on one hand and an administrative component on one hand, and my work will pertain mostly to the creative component of the business, as has been the case thus far.
[BU]: How do you balance the demands of entrepreneurship with personal and family life?
[AA]: Actually, the work-life balance is quite difficult, because one can easily get carried away with work and forget about the wife or what have you. I do, in fact, get complaints from my wife at times that I am too carried away with what I am doing. But then again, at times, I make sure to step away from all of it in order to appease her. As I said, it is very easy to get carried away by what you are doing. But you must have the willpower to step away from it all sometimes for the sake of your own sanity and health and the preservation of your most immediate social relationships. Your spouse or partner will always be your closest social relationship. Of course, our parents are the closest to us. But once there is a spouse or partner in your life, the closest person becomes your spouse or partner.
[BU]: What personal qualities or habits do you believe are essential to becoming a successful entrepreneur?
[AA]: Max Weber argued that entrepreneurship requires a certain level of charisma as opposed to the ‘disenchantment’ that is pervasive in the corporate and bureaucratic world, and charisma completely and thoroughly disavows itself of “rational economic conduct.” The entrepreneur is in this world but is not in this world. If one can pull off those personal attributes and qualities, then they will be fit for entrepreneurship. Otherwise, they will have to settle for a safe zone in some sort of career or salary that does not enable expansion and risk-taking. After all, some of the major political and social changes that have taken root in the United States in recent times are a disavowal of “Technocratic Neoliberalism” and the disenchantment that is associated with it.
[BU]: How do you stay motivated during tough times, and what keeps your passion alive?
[AA]: If we consider that I have been doing this all by myself for more than a decade now, then it means it has been very difficult the entire time. First of all, reading and writing were an escape from the difficulties. Reading and writing helped me overcome the difficulties. I also have a spiritual guide who has really helped in resurrect my life when I was down in the dumps in my late twenties. And, of course, indulging in the simple pleasures of life is what it is all about. Why work and struggle when you neglect to indulge in what are the simple pleasures of life? For the most part, we are guided by a ‘pleasure-pain calculus,’ and as a result, we seek to maximize pleasure and minimize pain.
[BU]: What steps do you take to ensure long-term sustainability in your business?
[AA]: I try to take it as relaxed and slow as possible. Of course, the goal of any business is expansion and growth. But I am not going to go berserk and haywire for the sake of expansion and growth. One should take it slow and think things through as you move forward with expansion and growth. There are many dimensions to entrepreneurship. We cannot neglect culture and lifestyle either. It is not all about revenue and profit. Culture and lifestyle are more important than anything else. Thus, one has to really think things through, and that requires being as relaxed as possible and taking it as slow as possible.
[BU]: How do you identify and seize opportunities in a competitive market?
[AA]: We are going through what one writer called a “famine of opportunity.” So, what I have done is try to create opportunities for myself. I try to create opportunities as opposed to eliciting opportunities from others. Others really have nothing to offer. You have to take matters into your own hands sometimes. As opposed to depending on others and relying on others, I try to become as self-reliant and independent as possible.
[BU]: How do you handle criticism and feedback from customers or peers?
[AA]: By being as thick-skinned as possible and differentiating sabotage from helpful criticism. There is no benefit in being thin-skinned. There will be those out there who will want to throw the kitchen sink at you. So, it is better to be thick-skinned and to employ as much wit and sense of humor as possible in order to cope with all of it.
[BU]: What values or principles guide your business decisions?
[AA]: I see life as a set of tradeoffs and opportunity costs. We choose and decide on one thing at the expense of something else every step of the way. And that is the core principle of all business decisions, not just for myself, but I am almost certain it applies to all businesses and entrepreneurs. It is ultimately about style and taste and what you want in life, and all of it is guided by intuition in the very end.
[BU]: If you could go back and change one thing about your entrepreneurial journey, what would it be?
[AA]: I do not believe I have the choice of going back and changing anything. But if I could go back, I would have tried to maintain a better balance between asceticism and fun. I started off with the overall balance being heavily lopsided in favor of fun. I got carried away with it to my own detriment, and then the balance tilted heavily in favor of asceticism. And now, I am trying to maintain a correct balance.
[BU]: What’s your advice for handling competition and staying relevant in your industry?
[AA]: You must try and offer something to the market and the world that others cannot offer. In other words, you must have certain attributes and qualities and comparative advantages and experiences and knowledge and insight that others cannot offer. Also, try your best to live with no regrets. As Mark Twain said, the only two regrets you will have on your deathbed are not having loved enough and not having traveled enough. So, do your best to live life with no regrets. That is perhaps more important than anything else. You cannot control what others do. But at best, you can at least cultivate a mindset or a state of mind for yourself, which enables you to get the best out of life and thus live and die with as few regrets as possible.
More Information
Company URL: www.adam-azim.com
LinkedIn URL: http://linkedin.com/in/adam-a-azim-94bb111b2
