Business Upside [BU]: What personal values align with your business vision?
Adam Azim [AA]: Culture and faith are inescapable. Both are embedded in our very basic nature as human beings. When you are in the midst of a near death experience or crisis, for instance, your visceral reaction is “Oh my God.” There is perhaps a debate as to whether you can actually be a good person without culture and faith or not, let alone a good businessman or entrepreneur. In my humble opinion, I highly doubt one can be a good person over the long run without an actual, meaningful immersion into culture and faith. But of course, everyone is entitled to their opinion. I don’t even think you would make it very far as a businessman or entrepreneur if you make a mockery out of the culture and faith tradition of the place in which you live or of any place for that matter.
[BU]: What’s the bigger purpose behind your entrepreneurship – profit or impact?
[AA]: Impact, and perhaps impact to the point of controversy and drama. But of course, a lack of brainpower and wit will turn everything into controversy and drama. As Einstein said, if you can’t explain it simply enough to people, then you don’t understand it enough.
[BU]: Looking back, what’s the one moment that changed your life as an entrepreneur?
[AA]: It was not just one moment, but perhaps it was the prolonged reflection on all the chaos and upheaval I experienced as a young person, particularly in my late teens and early twenties, when I entered into my early thirties. What bothers me the most is why youth had to be so difficult as opposed to pleasant. When I afforded myself the space and the time to reflect on all of it in my early thirties, a sense of direction and purpose then began to develop.
[BU]: How do you build trust and transparency within your team?
[AA]: By matching my thoughts and words and actions with reality itself. If there is a gap between discourse and reality, and you are unable to bridge it somehow, or if the propaganda doesn’t match the actual action and behavior, then how do you expect to build trust and transparency? Of course, none of us will really be able to explain or understand the world. But there are some explanations which are credible, and others which are not. You will be surprised, but the actual weltanschauung or worldview of those at the very top is defined by childishness and pettiness for the most part. Childishness and pettiness is perhaps at the very heart of our social fabric, for one reason or another. We have to get to the root of it all. I have at least tried to get to the root of it. But perhaps most of it is psychoanalytical in essence and nature.
[BU]: What’s one book that every entrepreneur must read?
[AA]: I’ve built a fabulous and extraordinary personal library which then makes it incredibly difficult to recommend one book over another. We would have to recommend based on subject or topic as opposed to just recommending a book in general. But if I am forced to recommend just one, and for the time being, it would be ‘World Order’ by Henry Kissinger. It was simply incredible as to how he was able to write about so much in such a compact and succinct way. It was written in a very parsimonious and sweeping manner. He aimed for the bullseye per se, and he got to it, or at least he got very close, closer than anyone else would be able to get. Rarely does a writer cover so much in such a brief and parsimonious manner. But he managed to pull it off. So as a starting point, if one is to embark on a journey of reading and writing, start with ‘World Order’ by Henry Kissinger. As a matter of fact, I resumed my entire reading and writing endeavor with Henry Kissinger’s ‘World Order’ when I came back home from Europe in 2015. The journey itself started with Sartre when I was finishing grad school almost twelve years ago in 2013. But it all picked back up with Kissinger.
[BU]: What’s your secret to maintaining mental peace while running a business?
[AA]: Avoid the addiction and manipulation of media and social media on occasion. That’s how I at least try to maintain mental peace.
[BU]: How did you fund your business in the initial days?
[AA]: A stipend from my parents every two weeks.
[BU]: How do you deal with negative reviews or criticism?
[AA]: You have to remain consistent. Consistency overcomes a lot of the noise and criticism over the course of time. They will at least acknowledge that you were consistent and true if nothing else.
[BU]: How do you stay updated with industry trends?
[AA]: My personal library actually brought me up to speed with all the current trends, believe it or not.
[BU]: Do you believe businesses should focus on profits or social impact?
[AA]: It gets to a certain point in accumulation and growth where you have no choice but to convert economic or financial clout into political or social clout. Aristotle said no poor man becomes a tyrant. It is always the rich who become tyrants. Joseph Nye of Harvard called it “power conversion.” Major powers and major players in international society always seek to maintain a fine balance between ‘hard power’ on one hand and ‘soft power’ on the other hand. Thus, there is really no choice. One particular focus immediately translates into another focus. Consider our own personal lives, and how we seek recognition from as many people as possible. The same applies in international society when we are assessing major powers and major players in the overall international structure or system itself.
More Information
Company URL: www.adam-azim.com
LinkedIn URL: http://linkedin.com/in/adam-a-azim-94bb111b2
