Business Upside [BU]: What motivated you to step into entrepreneurship instead of a traditional job?
Adam Azim [AA]: There was a combination or confluence of factors which led me into entrepreneurship instead of a traditional job. The preponderance of culture and health and lifestyle was one factor. Another factor was the inadvertent and unconscious trek into a sort of bohemian and counterculture art and literary excursion or journey which could not be balanced or sustained with a traditional job. And then there was the issue of mental and spiritual health. Norwegians have an expression in their culture and language known as “hygge.” In essence, hygge is a modern or secular variant of the religious and traditional abandonment of the world and all its worries in order to achieve what is essentially a euphoric feeling of salvation or ‘union.’ Salvation and ‘union’ are thought to be affirmed when the orgiastic and manic ecstasy of Washington and New York and London and Brussels is replaced with a moderate but enduring feeling of euphoria. And a traditional job could not afford me the ability or the chance to develop such a mental and spiritual state. Only entrepreneurship could afford me the ability and chance to accomplish something of this magnitude and importance.
[BU]: What was the biggest fear you had before launching your business?
[AA]: Losing in the prediction and speculation game. A lot of this international affairs business involves prediction and speculation. But luckily, I was right about everything. And I was going up against a very cruel and repressive elite and mainstream as well. As Foucault argued, the very basic aim and objective of liberal bourgeoisie work is to repress and suppress the productive and sexual capabilities and energies of all nations and societies. Liberal bourgeoisie work is highly repressive in essence and nature. In turn, our basic hypothesis when going into explaining and understanding a phenomenon like the rise of Donald Trump, for instance, or even the resurgence of Russia and the rise of China and the disorder and upheaval which has resulted from these phenomena in the international system, is liberal bourgeoisie repression. So simply put, I was right, while almost everyone else in the elite and mainstream was wrong.
[BU]: What were the early roadblocks you faced while setting up your business?
[AA]: The biggest roadblock was maintaining my basic decency and my ethical and moral code and compass in the midst of what was essentially highway robbery and looting on an unprecedented scale and scope. Europe and the United Nations, for instance, looted us badly in the name of ‘Afghanistan Reconstruction.’ Of course, there were so many culprits and suspects when it came to this Ponzi scheme and plot against humanity. But the biggest roadblock was maintaining my decency and my ethical and moral code and compass while others were abominable and treacherous and perhaps even nefarious and treasonous.
[BU]: How do you measure growth and success in your business?
[AA]: Through the affirmation of a unique and unparalleled perspective and style. And it is the only perspective and style which matters, even if others deny it. For instance, culture wars have become a way of diverting everyone’s attention and focus away from the erudition and luxury at the very top. We have developed and fostered a kind of information ecosystem which traps everyone in these culture wars, while the very few at the top get to enjoy erudition and luxury. And it also seems to be lost on everyone amidst the current breakdown of a ‘social contract’ on both a domestic level and international level that the absence of a ‘social contract’ is mutually exclusive from a condition and state which would enable self-preservation for anyone over the long run. Thus, the perspective and the style which I have developed is enough of an indicator of growth and success. I have gotten far ahead of anyone else by now. Even if I slow down, I will still be far ahead of anyone else who is second.
[BU]: How do you handle failure and setbacks?
[AA]: We can perhaps answer this question by taking the flipside of failure and setbacks into account, namely, progress and success, and understand how progress and success are enabled and spurred. As certain experts and thinkers have argued, the “formula” for success consists of five basic elements. One, an edifice or foundation of success in a particular path is developed. Two, once the edifice or foundation of success is set, more success is guaranteed to follow from it. Three, getting the right advice from the right people. Four, performance and persistence. And five, having a network pick you up after nailing down all the aforementioned. Thus, I keep all of this in mind when I feel like slowing down or giving up. It’s a long game after all. Nothing good will come easy. And I acknowledge this and recognize this. Even though you feel cheated when you consider that much less intelligent people have already met the entire criteria. But I control the anger and sense of indignation as best as possible.
[BU]: What’s your secret to building a strong brand identity?
[AA]: Almost all of it is taste and intuition. As one Russian proverb states, nothing brings people together more than appetite, and nothing divides people more than taste. What sets this brand apart and elevates it from all the mass-mindedness and uniformity is taste and intuition.
[BU]: If your brand had a slogan, what would it be?
[AA]: “You’re damned if you do, and you’re damned if you don’t.” So I did it, even if it was difficult and humiliating at times. Because there was no other choice. One cannot remain pigeonholed for life. You have to move and get out there. What else is there to do? We vilify idleness in our culture, and we revere busy. So I try and stay busy as best as possible, without getting carried away and overwhelmed.
[BU]: What’s your financial philosophy when it comes to running a business?
[AA]: Don’t become a buffoon and imbecile like the people whom we coincidentally and idiotically entrust with ruling this place. Consider Congress, for example, and imagine if you had an approval rating like Congress does amongst your family and friends and community and society. You will be ruined. And by the way, Congress gets people to inflate their actual approval rating. Their approval rating does not even break into double digits. It dwells somewhere in the single digits. They cannot manage something as simple but important as debt anymore. If businesses and entrepreneurs and families and households don’t manage debt properly, they go under. So why should these buffoons and imbeciles get away with it? Moreover, all the debt and mismanagement has spurred to a large extent the “American Carnage” which a former and current president alluded to, and coincidentally, this “American Carnage” is virtually a synonym or a translation for the ‘structural genocide’ we highlighted previously. Or in other words, the final outcome of mismanaging an empire, akin to what occurred with the partition of the Middle East and Pakistan and India after the collapse of the British Empire and French Empire in the mid-20th century or with Afghanistan and Yugoslavia right after the collapse of the former Soviet Union towards the end of the 20th century and even now in Europe and the Middle East as a result of American decline. Fiscal responsibility is virtually the same as social responsibility at this point in time, and without social responsibility, a state and society will crumble.
[BU]: How do you handle cash flow challenges?
[AA]: By downsizing as much as possible and living within my means and controlling and reining in on what are otherwise insatiable appetites and desires.
[BU]: How has entrepreneurship changed you as a person?
[AA]: I have become much more humble and wise as a result of entrepreneurship and writing. It has been a humbling and enlightening experience above all else. I am humbled and enlightened by all of it. It is all akin to Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave.” All other discourse and philosophy and thought is a merely a footnote to Plato, as one British philosopher once said. Whereby a withdrawal from the world amounts to coming out of a dark cave in which all you see are shadows and silhouettes as opposed to anything real and substantial. The world is the cave, and a withdrawal from it enables you to see the light and truth about our reality. I appreciate quiet and solitude a lot more as a result of it as well. The more you end up experiencing and knowing, the more you go into quiet and solitude. And you become more anti-social as a result of it as well. The greater the intellect, the more anti-social a person becomes. But I try to be fair with people. As one American entrepreneur said, whatever you do or say, be fair.
More Information
Company URL: www.adam-azim.com
LinkedIn URL: http://linkedin.com/in/adam-a-azim-94bb111b2
