Business Upside [BU]: What does being an entrepreneur mean to you?
Adam Azim [AA]: It is about carving out my place and my space in international society through ways and means and methods and strategies which may seem eccentric or even strange to others, but are effective and potent nonetheless. It is about getting what you want in life at the bottom of it all and in the very end. But you do so by carving out your place and space in international society first and foremost. Everyone is doing it by the way. Everyone seeks acknowledgement and recognition by carving out their place and space in international society. So why should I abandon my fair share of the world when everyone else seeks to monopolize and hoard everything that is out there? I am not even asking for much. Just my fair share. Take your fair share of the world, your fair portion, and then leave the rest for others to dish out to one another. Leave the rest behind and leave everyone else behind once you have acquired your fair share or your fair portion of the world. It is unacceptable when others seek to deny you your fair share or fair portion of the world because they want it all for themselves, or their threat perception is abnormal and out of whack. Or maybe they are just envious and jealous. Who knows the real motives? But whatever the motives are, they are insignificant and trivial, given that no one can ever achieve absolute power. There is always a distribution of power in the world, and in our case, there is now a novel distribution of power in the world, and everyone should learn to be content with it. No one should overturn the novel distribution of power through violence and oppression and repression.
[BU]: Who has been your biggest inspiration in business?
[AA]: Everyone will idolize someone at some point in their lives. For instance, Michael Jordan was an idol for the likes of Kobe Bryant and LeBron James and others. In other words, Michael Jordan was an idol for aspiring basketball players in modern times. I have no such idol in all honesty. I have lost faith and hope in all the supposed idols in this international affairs business. I believe all of them lack credibility and legitimacy, and many of them should either be in jail or they should be censored and shut down completely.
[BU]: What’s one thing you wish you had known before starting your business?
[AA]: As Oscar Wilde said: “Everything in the world is about sex except for sex. Sex is about power.” So it follows that everyone is seeking to dominate and bully one another in this business. The competition and the hatred for one another is greater than I thought. You become aware of it all once you are the one being ostracized and side-lined for no apparent reason. And then we lose sight of what it is actually all about. What is essential and fundamental is then shrouded and veiled in childishness and pettiness. Even if others drag you down or are seeking to trap you at their level, you have to transcend it all somehow.
[BU]: How do you keep your confidence high during tough times?
[AA]: As Sun Tzu said, every battle is won before it is even fought. So there you have it. That is the essence of it.
[BU]: What’s a common misconception people have about entrepreneurs?
[AA]: The most common misconception about entrepreneurs and entrepreneurship in general is that people become entrepreneurs because they cannot handle a “real job” or they could not get a “real job” or that entrepreneurs are totally insignificant in the world. The price of letting go or losing an opportunity in the bureaucratic and corporate world nowadays is losing your mind. Yet, we have an entrepreneur as president right now, and we have another entrepreneur who is gutting the bureaucracy for him and is flexing his muscles at Congress. It is about influence in the very end. We control people or we manipulate their decisions either through force or influence. And entrepreneurs can wield just as much influence, if not more influence, than anyone else in international society.
[BU]: What strategies do you use to scale your business?
[AA]: Of course, I wanted to go big or go home initially. I was thinking big money like everyone else. But it all evolved in a manner whereby it is all now very much exclusive and hidden and it has to be sought out. I am not seeking anyone out. No one is really at this level for me to seek out. This brand and identity is to international affairs as ‘Krigler’ is to perfumes. You can perhaps conceptualize it in those terms.
[BU]: What role does social media play in your business growth?
[AA]: None whatsoever. Of course, I experimented with social media for a certain period of time. But at one point in time, social media cost me months’ worth of time when it came to content development. Social media is essentially a lie, and I caught onto the lie. So I shifted my focus entirely towards content, and I let go of social media. I got what I wanted out of social media, and then I shifted my focus towards content development. And I have been better off ever since.
[BU]: How do you build a strong company culture?
[AA]: It all has to develop authentically and spontaneously. If it does not develop authentically and spontaneously, then it is bound to collapse and fail. There is a ‘division of labor’ that is maintained through force, and then there is a ‘division of labor’ that is maintained naturally, as Durkheim argued. Or in other words, there is a ‘mechanical solidarity’ that develops for mundane and superficial reasons, and then there is an ‘organic solidarity’ that develops through compatibility and mutual understanding between people. There are authentic and spontaneous ‘libidinal ties’ which emerge in every business and corporation and institution and organization and state and society which then keep everything together. Once the authenticity and spontaneity of these ‘libidinal ties’ are gone, everything collapses and falls apart.
[BU]: What’s one financial mistake startups should avoid?
[AA]: Advertising and marketing and promotion without focusing on identity and purpose and quality.
[BU]: What’s your favorite way to unwind after a long day?
[AA]: I had a colleague while I was an intern at the Afghan embassy in Washington during graduate school. He said that as I approach the door of my house every evening after work, I leave everything I am dealing with outside of the house at the door before I enter the house. Since I work from home for the most part, I leave everything that is being said on television or internet or social media or in my own stream of thought outside of my bedroom once I seek to unwind and relax at night. To be honest, it was very difficult to do that as my blogging endeavor picked up over the course of the last few years. But I am getting better at it now. Leave everything behind in the evening, leave it all behind either at your garage door or at your bedroom door, and if possible, try to have nothing and want nothing as you are lying in bed in the evening or at night. Give it a try, even if it is impossible. See how it makes you feel for the moment. The thought of having nothing and wanting nothing.
More Information
Company URL: www.adam-azim.com
LinkedIn URL: http://linkedin.com/in/adam-a-azim-94bb111b2
