Business Upside [BU]: Did you always know you wanted to be an entrepreneur, or did it happen unexpectedly?
Adam Azim [AA]: By nature, I am very much an explorer and risk-taker. I am an odd combination of introvert and extrovert. I can be reserved and quiet sometimes like an introvert, but at other times, I can be loud and vocal like an extrovert. But in the end, the explorer and risk-taker side won out against the conservative and minimalist side. So I tried virtually anything and everything, and in the end, I came across entrepreneurship. They also say necessity is the mother of creation. At times, I feel as though there was no other choice. If I could, I would have probably wanted to be a professor. But money and pleasure is important. It is pretty much obvious that you can enjoy the pleasures of life more as an entrepreneur than as a crazy, self-absorbed, egotistical, and narcissistic professor. So entrepreneurship it is.
[BU]: How do you deal with self-doubt and failures?
[AA]: Every morning when we wake up, we have the chance or the opportunity to make it right, no matter what it is that happened the day before. Every morning when we wake up affords us a chance or an opportunity for a fresh start. As an older gentleman once told me, when you are happy, you have to figure out what it is you need to do to make all your days happy like that. So we have to do things that make us happy and keep us happy through the day and into the night. We have to judge between what pleases us and makes us happy on one hand and what displeases us and makes us unhappy on the other hand, and then make what pleases us and makes us happy the focal point of our days and nights, day in and day out.
[BU]: What was your biggest turning point in business?
[AA]: Surprisingly, the coronavirus pandemic or outbreak. At that point in time when the coronavirus pandemic broke out, there was sort of a divergence which took place. Up until the coronavirus outbreak in 2020, I was very much anxious and unhealthy most of the time. But when the coronavirus broke out in 2020, certain folks either died or went downhill, while some folks elevated themselves and took off. Fortunately, I was one of those individuals who elevated myself and took off. I received a rejection letter from the last PhD program I ever applied to just days before the lockdown in March 2020, but of course, the coronavirus transformed everything in terms of lifestyle and work soon after that. The PhD became a moot case as a result of the coronavirus pandemic or outbreak. So I would say the coronavirus pandemic or the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic was the biggest turning point not only in terms of business and work, but in terms of basic life and lifestyle in general.
[BU]: How do you come up with new ideas for your business?
[AA]: I follow a certain flow or stream-of-consciousness method which is all generated by a certain kind of ‘frame analysis’ or oeuvre and initiation. Believe it or not, the flow and the stream are both autonomous, and they take over as opposed to being taken over. It might be hard to believe, but a lot of it is out of my control. I don’t really control the flow or stream. It takes on a life of its own once the frame analysis and oeuvre and initiation have taken root, and that is how the ideas and thoughts emerge.
[BU]: If you could change one thing about your industry, what would it be?
[AA]: The American mainstream. A lot of it is a huge distortion of reality. There is a huge discrepancy and rift between the reality of the world which the mainstream seeks to make us buy into, and the actual or true reality of the world. I get very worked up by the American mainstream if you want the truth. The American mainstream is the real and true manifestation of what Foucault called “Panoptic Malveillance.” If I could, I would do away with the American mainstream completely, and let the people have their way through the internet and social media. There is a huge difference between the people of the world and the American mainstream on many levels and in many aspects of political and social life. Not only a discrepancy and rift with the people of the world, but with the American people as well.
[BU]: How do you build brand trust and loyalty?
[AA]: By being myself as much as possible. There is always an inner self that seeks acknowledgment and recognition, and we can never attain happiness and satisfaction until we convey and express that true inner self out into the world and into the public sphere. Once you do that, once you gain the happiness and satisfaction of conveying or expressing your true inner self out into the world and into the public sphere, the trust and the loyalty and following will perhaps come automatically. Certain folks gain a huge following, and some don’t. I am not one with a huge following. But I am glad it turned out that way, because I prefer quality over quantity. We are strangled by what the external world demands of us in terms of cultivating an outer self that is acceptable to others. But it is actually the inner self which seeks acknowledgment and recognition, the inner self is largely taboo and is ‘stigmatized’ to borrow from a writer named Erving Goffman. But no one can really gain happiness and satisfaction until that inner self is conveyed and expressed to the world and into the public sphere. The ‘stigmatized’ inner self or the inner self that is made taboo is actually at the core or heart of our identity. And it becomes easier to find our group or ‘tribe’ once we have this figured out. And then the group or ‘tribe’ gives us the support we might need.
[BU]: What’s the best piece of leadership advice you’ve ever received?
[AA]: Tell the truth, and you’ll get what you want, and the more good you put into the world, the more good you will get out of the world. And of course, let go and let God as much as possible.
[BU]: How do you foster creativity and innovation in your team?
[AA]: There is actually an intelligent design and purpose behind technology that we almost always overlook, which is that technology enables us to spread art, as Heidegger sought to argue. Art is the solution. Art is the minimization of pain and the maximization of pleasure, to borrow from Bertrand Russell. So if you pin down the actual purpose or the intelligent design behind something as deterministic as technology, or rather, the most deterministic thing in our world, then of course you are driven towards fostering a certain degree or level of creativity and innovation in your content and work.
[BU]: How do you stay focused and avoid distractions?
[AA]: Shut off social media and television as much as possible. Close your eyes, close your mind, and relax and sleep as much as possible. Don’t let their manipulations and provocations lure you into a trap. They will hit back at you and undermine your willpower once you demonstrate a certain degree of willpower with their manipulation and provocations. But you have to overcome it all with brainpower and willpower. Or else you will be drowned in all the diversions and distractions.
[BU]: What are your go-to digital tools for business efficiency?
[AA]: They are as simple as a phone, camera, laptop, and email account. I am not very extravagant in terms of my use of technology. It is all very basic and simple in my case. Content creation in my case involves images and videos and reading and writing among other things. Thus, I have what I need, and what I need ends up becoming quite basic and simple. Of course, apps and e-commerce tools such as Amazon and WordPress facilitate a lot of the content creation. But it is all quite basic in the very end. I am not too extravagant in my use of technology. I did not turn out to be a minimalist, but I am not too extravagant either.
More Information
Company URL: www.adam-azim.com
LinkedIn URL: http://linkedin.com/in/adam-a-azim-94bb111b2
