“If you are comfortable with crying and experimentation and failure and high risk, then entrepreneurship should be fine for you.”__ Adam Azim
Entrepreneurship is not a straight path, and Adam Azim’s journey is a testament to this truth. From humble beginnings as the son of Afghan immigrants to becoming a writer, blogger, and entrepreneur, Adam’s story is one of resilience, risk-taking, and continuous self-education.
In this exclusive interview with Business Upside, he delves deep into his accidental entry into entrepreneurship, his unique perspective on success, and the lessons he’s learned while navigating life’s challenges. With unfiltered honesty, Adam shares his insights on problem-solving, the sacrifices of marriage, and the evolution of the “infosphere” in shaping modern businesses. Whether you’re an aspiring entrepreneur or simply curious about the mindset required to build empires, Adam Azim’s journey offers valuable lessons and inspiration for all.
Edited Excerpts from the Interview
Business Upside [BU]: Can you tell us about the inception of entrepreneurship and what inspired you to start?
Adam Azim [AA]: Entrepreneurship is actually something I stumbled into and had never deliberately planned on entering. First of all, we have to pin down a definition of ‘entrepreneurship.’ In essence, the word ‘entrepreneurship’ translates into ‘problem-solving.’ When I was younger, I was a problem-maker. Thus, it is quite ironic how a person who always seemed to run into some sort of issue or problem when they were younger ended up being put into a position where he had to address very big problems.
[BU]: Can you tell us about your background?
[AA]: I was born in New York City on December 1, 1988. My parents were immigrants from Afghanistan who left Afghanistan in the early 1980s as a result of the Soviet invasion and occupation. After Kindergarten and the first grade, I ended up in a private religious school between grades second and eighth. After that, I attended a local public high school, went to college at George Mason University, and then attended American University in Washington, DC, for a master’s degree. Then, after some travel and soul-searching, I became a writer and published a book which came out in January 2018. I ended up assisting an ambassador of a foreign country for a very short period of time soon after my book came out, and after that ended, I got married in May 2019 and started a blog in June 2019. And ever since then, my whole life has become my blog. That is the short story when it comes to my background. The long story involves lots of other stories, and life is all about its memories and stories, I would assume.
[BU]: What challenges did you face in your journey, and how did you overcome them?
[AA]: The challenges I faced were mostly personal. As a child, for instance, there was the challenge of having to do what I hated, which was going to school and dealing with classmates and teachers who I would probably want to punch in the face when I considered how vulgar and unpleasant they were. As a teenager, there was the challenge of finding the right friends and mentors. Depression was also somewhat of an issue for me as a teenager and young adult. As a college student, there was the challenge of balancing academics with going wild. As a grad student, there was the challenge of beginning to act like a responsible adult and transitioning to the point in life when you come face to face with the very sad reality of the world. Reality struck me in the head in a very severe way when I was just finishing grad school. And that transformed the entire direction and trajectory of my life. After I finished grad school at the age of 25, there was the challenge of figuring out what to actually do with my life. I realized that real life, the real world, was actually much worse than student life. The student life was heaven compared to the real world. Thus, there was the challenge of coping with the hell of the real world. When I got married in 2019 in order to escape loneliness and isolation, there was the very difficult challenge of having to adjust to another person who has now taken over my personal life and autonomy. We do not realize it at first, but we sacrifice lots and lots of our autonomy and freedom in marriage. And when I started my blog in June 2019, there was the challenge of being a responsible citizen in society. I had to think through every word because I assumed that there was someone out there who was clinging to every word. Every stage ended up presenting its unique challenge or set of challenges. And I am sure a new set of challenges will emerge out of all the previous ones. I am not done with challenges yet. It will probably get much worse.
[BU]: Looking forward, what are your plans for the future as an entrepreneur?
[AA]: My plan was actually to get a PhD and teach if I could. But given my lack of connections and given the overall situation of the academics industry, in the sense that everything seemed to get harder and harder for everyone in recent years, we were all getting squeezed and repressed from the top, with lots of nefariousness at the top, I was drawn towards self-education which then manifested into my blog (www.adam-azim.com). I see the future as a continuation of this self-education. I believe that self-education will never end. It will continue on deep into the future. And it will be at the center of my life for the foreseeable future. More and more of reality will begin to unfold for me as a result of contemplation, self-education and self-learning.
[BU]: What major industry trends do you see shaping the future of your business?
[AA]: The biggest trend or development in the economy and society is the fact that the ‘infosphere’ has now colonized the physical world. Most of our reality is now manifesting in an ‘infosphere’ as opposed to the real physical world. It is quite odd as well, but this is, in fact the biggest transformation or trend which has taken root in our economy and society, and one has no choice but to adjust to it and to cope with it. The adjustment to it from my end came very late. I did not become fully oriented to this novel social reality until recently. But now I feel as though I have come to terms with it, and I am doing my best to utilize the ‘infosphere.’ If I did not utilize it effectively, I do not think I would be answering these questions.
[BU]: Could you offer insights into the challenges and rewards of entering into entrepreneurship?
[AA]: Entrepreneurship entails lots of risk-taking and suffering. Most people are into a set career and salary, but nothing is set in entrepreneurship. It is a very dangerous game and gamble. The entrepreneur seeks success in a way that is entirely odd and foreign to an ordinary person. But if you are the type who enjoys games and gambling like I do, then entrepreneurship is your thing. If you do not have the stomach for very dangerous games and gambling, then your best bet would be to find an actual career and settle for a set salary and a boss. There is a distinct gap or rift between entrepreneurship and what we would consider the corporate world or any industry for that matter. Entrepreneurship requires an out-of-this-world sort of mentality and personal condition tailored towards what is largely an imagined reward as opposed to anything that is basic or ordinary. Also, entrepreneurship is not about how it looks. It is about whether your definition or criteria for “winning” and “victory” have been met.
[BU]: What is Your Passion in Life?
[AA]: This is probably the most difficult question to answer thus far. I feel as though art and poetry have become my main passions in life. I always appreciated art and poetry, even as a much younger person. But now, as I have grown older and more thoughtful and melancholic, I feel as though my passion for art and poetry has gone up to a whole different level.
[BU]: What to do to Become a Successful Entrepreneur?
[AA]: I would say that individuals such as Donald Trump and Elon Musk, for instance, have set the bar for what “success” means in entrepreneurship to a new height. Entrepreneurship is almost revolutionary now. It is nothing short of revolution and the overthrow of the status quo of affairs in the world. I pushed the boundaries of what could be done and what was socially acceptable in order to get to this point of feeling like I have made some sort of forward progress when it comes to shaping the world the way I want to shape it. Any kind of success in entrepreneurship requires some level of pushing boundaries and doing what is not socially acceptable nowadays. But who knows? This might have been the case all along. But it has become evident and manifest to me as a result of personal experience. You need to have the courage to be an outlaw and a revolutionary in order to be successful. I could be wrong, but this is my honest belief and opinion.
[BU]: What strategies have you found to be most effective in growing your business?
[AA]: Burning bridges and relating personal knowledge and experience to real-life circumstances and events. Applying personal knowledge and experience to real-life circumstances and events. I feel as though my whole life and what I have learned and experienced in life has intersected with world history itself, and this has defined everything about my life. An American intellectual by the name of C. Wright Mills called it “The Sociological Imagination.” Where biography intersects with world history, and the former defines and explains the latter. My life has amounted to nothing short of this.
[BU]: What advice would you give someone looking to start their journey as an entrepreneur?
[AA]: My advice is that it is not easy, and it is not for the faint-hearted. Like I said earlier, it is a very dangerous game and gamble. If you are comfortable with crying and experimentation and failure and high risk, then entrepreneurship should be fine for you. But if you prefer certainty and clarity and safety and stability, then finding an actual career with a clear salary would be better for you. My game and my gamble are still in the process of paying off. I am still in the process of deciphering what the payoff and outcome of entrepreneurial activity actually is. The payoff and outcome of entrepreneurship are also something that is entirely subjective. The payoff is defined subjectively. It is not necessarily about how much money you make. It is about how we end up subjectively defining the payoff. What if the payoff is love? What if the payoff is structural change and reform or the complete reorganization of the state and society itself? No one knows. It is all quite complex and uncertain. As a result, it requires being able to cope with complexity and uncertainty. And for that, you need nerves of steel. You fail, and then you end up achieving something even bigger than what you had initially set out to achieve. Most people would perhaps prefer simplicity and certainty. But none of that exists in entrepreneurship. So enter at your own risk and peril. And good luck.
More Information
Company URL: www.adam-azim.com
LinkedIn URL: http://linkedin.com/in/adam-a-azim-94bb111b2
