Micky Deming: (00:35) Hello entrepreneurs!  This is Micky Deming and this is the TREPX Podcast.  The podcast where we talk about entrepreneurship and how to grow a business, how to build something that is bigger than yourself, and there is a variety of ways to do that.  In this podcast we cover so many different topics and in this episode is one that is I think we covered some of the most important pieces.  They have to do with really how you approach entrepreneurship and how you approach building team and building something bigger than yourself. 

It was so cool to get to meet and talk to the guest of this episode who is Emad Rahim and Emad has quite a background that you will hear in this episode.  A crazy story of where he’s come from and he has been through a lot and turned it into an incredible story.  He has impacted so many people.  He is doing amazing things.  In this we talk really about education, entrepreneurship, and really the future of entrepreneurship and what the younger generation of entrepreneurs need to know.

One amazing take away that I wrote down after talking to Emad was that the most important thing that he wants entrepreneurs to understand, and I want everybody to hear this, is that it’s not about you.  So if you make it about you, you will always be limited in what you can accomplish.  There is always a limit to that, but if you make it about something that’s bigger than you and make it about a team and make it about others who you are serving, you have the opportunity to do something that is really significant.  So that is one of many great takeaways in this episode that I think you will enjoy.

I really want you to check out Emad’s website.  You can find him at EmadRahim.com and you can see his Ted Talk and all of the stuff he does on twitter and all over the place, the books he has written.  A very, very interesting guy and I had a blast talking to him, so check him out, EmadRahim.com.  You can check out this episode which will also have a link to his site and all the stuff he has done at TREPXGroup.com.  Thanks to Emad for joining and thank you for being here and hearing this episode and so I will now turn it over to the interview.  Please enjoy this conversation with Emad Rahim.

Micky Deming:  (02:48) Hello Emad; welcome to the TREPX Podcast!  How are you doing today?

Emad Rahim:  (02:52) I’m doing wonderful!  How are you doing today?

Micky Deming:  (02:53) I’m doing fantastic!  I am thrilled to have this conversation!  I have read about you and your story is an incredibly inspiring one and some of the listeners who may not know it, or not heard it, I really want them to know it.  Can you, just to start out, share a little bit of back story and how you got here today?

Emad Rahim:  (03:15) Oh, wow!  Where should I begin?  I was born in a concentration camp in the killing fields of Cambodia, umm and like many refugees, we escaped the area that was in turmoil, was in the middle of war, and we ended up in a refugee camp in Thailand and eventually we go sponsored to come to America.  Like most refugees and immigrants that come to America, they weren’t placed in a great neighborhood.  They were not often placed in the suburbs, right?  So they ended up placing us in one of the roughest neighborhoods in Brooklyn in the 80’s.  I grew up in Sunset Park, Brooklyn in the 80’s during the height of the crack epidemic, when poverty was at an all-time high, when gangs were at an all-time high.  This was before the “hipster” Brooklyn that we know today with Beyoncé and Jay Z and all of that fun stuff happening.

I grew up in that type of environment for many, many years and as a kid I was shot in the leg, just being at the wrong place at the wrong time during a street block party.  My mother made the hard decision to relocate us to Syracuse, New York, which is upstate New York about 4 hours away from New York City, to give us a better life, but even in upstate we still had our struggles.  We lived in section 8 housing.  We lived in the west side of Syracuse, which is right now considered the highest concentration in poverty of all of the United States so it is still a very struggling community, but a loving community.  I would say people are wonderful here and we decided to stay here, but I found my way through education. 

As a young person, as an adolescent, I struggled with education.  I am dyslexic so I struggled with learning disabilities throughout my public education years, but I realized dyslexia was not an issue for me.  It was actually and opportunity when I entered college and I found ways to really grow and learn and to improve on what was considered disability.  I took advantage of that and really entered programs and engaged in programs that allowed me to take advantage of what was considered disability and I excelled in education in college.  I went on to earn a doctorate in management, studied at Harvard, and also in that process discovered my love for entrepreneurship and really developed those entrepreneurship skills by way of trial and error.  I probably had more failures than success, right?

Micky Deming: (06:10) That’s the best way!  That’s incredible!  It’s such an incredible question and I have so many questions about that.  One is, just when you were in that as you were growing up and you were in a situation that most people would look at as impossible or you know that there’s just a limit to how much you can grow and you fell in love with learning, like what was your mindset about your own future?  Like when you were growing up in Brooklyn and it was hard, did you see yourself knowing you would have all of this education or like how did you approach your own future in that time?

Emad Rahim:  (06:49) It was survival mode, to be honest.  I didn’t have any future or plans, I would say, or career plans.  I think we just wanted to survive.  I think people living in those types of conditions, you just want to be comfortable, right?  And the word comfortable means different things to different people.  I just wanted to be able to provide for my family.  I wanted to be able to live.  I wanted to stay out of incarceration because so many of my friends and kids I grew up with are locked up, you know?

Micky Deming:  (07:23) Yeah and then you took to learning.  I think that’s such an important thing because so many people either they grow up in a better situation or a privileged American lifestyle don’t really value education and learning.  How did you come across that?  Was just again, out of necessity?

Emad Rahim:  (07:42) You know, education is funny to me because when you grow up, I think most kids hate education.  You might get picked on at school and things like that.  I had a mentor.  I was fortunate to have someone later on in high school see something in me.  He was an administrator by the name of Willie Dardel that really took me under his wing.  He saw that I was struggling.  He saw that I was getting into trouble, but he also a positive, I guess, character in me.  He took me under his wing and he pushed me and he drove me to really desire education, right?  He saw the possibilities of what it can do for me and once I started achieving certain things, like my high school diploma and when I earned my associate degree, it gave me this fulfillment that didn’t exist and it also gave me that push that wanted me to seek other things and look for other things and also know that there are a lot of possibilities out there that I did not think were available to me. 

Micky Deming:  (08:53) Right, right that makes perfect sense.  I love how you say you ran into entrepreneurship as you did that and you fell in love with that.  I have a lot of questions about that and about education, about entrepreneurship and learning it, and I’ll start here because there’s an interesting, I guess, dynamic between education and entrepreneurship.  First, how do you define the word entrepreneur?  I know a lot of people have different definitions.  What does that word mean to you?

Emad Rahim:  (09:20) Well to me, entrepreneurship is innovation, it is creativity, right?  It’s making something unique, something different, something new, and really creating a solution to a problem, right?  That solution becomes an opportunity, whether it is a service or product, right?  So I think that’s where the different definitions come to play is really how you see yourself in that entrepreneurship space, right?  It could be a lifestyle decision.  It could be a growth decision.  It could be an environmental decision.  You want to make a social impact to your community.  So I think it really varies in regards to the definition, but that’s how I describe entrepreneurship.

Micky Deming:  (10:05) Yeah, I think that’s great.  So with the past that you had, the background you had, how does that carry into the way you approach entrepreneurship.

Emad Rahim:  (10:19) I always tell people that I don’t have a plan B, right? So there’s just a plan A, so I’m like gung-ho!  I’ll go at it, just work it to death.  If it doesn’t work out then sometimes I jump ship and I start something new.  I don’t give up.  I think people that grew up without a plan be, right? That’s all you have, like this is the only car your family had, you know, this is the only job you have.  This is the only neighborhood you grew up in.  You don’t really have that plan B and I always say that it’s not a bad thing to have a plan B, but when you only have a plan A that’s all you focus on, right?  That’s all you can do.  That’s all you think about.  That’s what you live and breathe and it consumes you, right?  And I think in a good way. 

So that’s how I see entrepreneurship and that’s how I kind of get into entrepreneurship, but also when it comes to the decisions that I make to get involved in different business ventures, I really have to do what I’m passion in, right?  There are a lot of opportunities to make money, but if I’m not passionate in it, if I don’t see a future in it, if I don’t see how it impacts society around me, my neighborhood, my community, people that will utilize it, then I don’t get involved in it because it doesn’t bring any meaning to me. 

Micky Deming:  (11:47) That’s awesome!  Yeah, I think those go together because if you’re going to say I don’t have a plan B, I’m going all in, you’re not going to do that on something that you don’t feel excited about.  Those two things absolutely go hand in hand and it makes a lot of sense.  It goes also into that conversation about connecting it with education and you said when you fell in love with entrepreneurship and started learning, a lot of your lessons learned were learned the hard way and so can you describe that and how do you approach learning entrepreneurship?  Do you have to dive in?  How do you meld those two worlds together?

Emad Rahim:  (12:24) So when I was in my 20’s or even late teens, when I got involved in business projects I did dive in. I was a risk taker.  I jumped right in, right?  I kind of sane or swim type of mode, but that’s being young and that’s being excited.  As I got older, I’m more cautious.  I do a little bit more reading.  I ask more questions.  I observe a lot more before actually agreeing to be a part of something.  I think we have this maturity model when it comes to education and entrepreneurship.  When we are young we are really inspired with the opportunity, with all of the possibilities.  As we get older, we become more strategic, more aware of our surroundings, and the impact of that business. 

Education and entrepreneurship go hand in hand.  I know there have been a lot of debates, especially in higher education.  Do you really need to be taught entrepreneurship?  Can entrepreneurship be taught?  Right?  I think it’s a mixture of both.  Education is really a lifelong learning type of opportunity.  It something that you just can’t stop one day and say I’m done with it and with education you become a better entrepreneur.  That is through experience, through research, and that’s all a part of education.  It doesn’t all have to be academics.  It doesn’t have to be all curriculum related, but the experience in itself is education.

Micky Deming:  (13:58) Right, it’s like you have to learn to love learning to succeed as an entrepreneur, otherwise you’re not going to last too long.

Emad Rahim:  (14:07) That’s exactly it!  And also when it comes to the academic environment, often we get these ideas from our surroundings, right?  Being on campus next to other students that think different, that do different things, have different ideas often allows us to step outside that comfort zone and think of new possibilities.

Micky Deming:  (14:34) Yeah, yeah that’s absolutely true and I think that probably another way to look at it too is that there are certain skills that every, you know every entrepreneur is different, but there are certain skills that I think a lot of them have in common and those can be learned and those can be improved.  Those can be developed.  So with you and all of the experience you have with working with a variety of different entrepreneurs and education, what are some of those core skills that you see that are most common that every entrepreneur needs to at least have a strong level of.

Emad Rahim:  (15:10) Well, one of the skills I would say is really being a critical thinker, right? I think good entrepreneurs, or even great entrepreneurs, are critical thinkers.  They look at the possibilities and opportunity more critical.  They analyze it.  I think Mark Cuban is a good example of that.  He analyzes everything.  You see him in Shark Tank and before he even says anything, he’s analyzing, he’s thinking about it, right?  I think being a critical thinker is a great skill to have and it’s a skill that, I think, every entrepreneur needs.

In order to also work very well with people, with your potential customers, with selling, with getting investors, you need emotional intelligence.  Those people that have this very strong, charismatic trait and are considered transformation leaders.  Someone like, I want to say Steve Jobs, but I know a lot of people say he did not have emotional intelligence, but he did!  I think he knew how to really pick at people a certain way, to push people a certain way, and he knew his customers very well.  I think in so many ways that in itself is an emotional intelligence.

Micky Deming:  (16:27) Yeah, yeah absolutely.  Those are great skills and things that can be developed.  It’s a mix.  You learn them from books and from education and you learn then from throwing yourself in there and from getting better and applying.  I think those are things people need to pay attention to.  A lot has been made of this next generation and the up and coming entrepreneurs.  I know you’re being involved in higher education that you see a lot of 20-somethings that are coming into the world.  I want to know this from you, what’s one thing that, like if you could have one message or one thing that this up and coming generation of entrepreneurs knew, what would that be?

Emad Rahim:  (17:13) That it’s not about you.  It’s not always about you.  I have mentored a lot of startup teams at various universities and sometimes the conversation changes from the business to the person, right?  I see teams really taking selfies and tweeting what they’re doing, versus doing it.  Instead of using the word “I”, use the word “we”.  I started noticing a lot more of this type of behavior and this type of communication in this generation versus Generation X and so forth. 

So you have to go back to the roots and the roots is not you.  It’s the customers you’re going to be serving, right?  People need to like you, obviously, as the lead and as the face of the business, but that business needs to provide a service.  It needs to create a solution for a problem that exists in our society.  That’s what makes business successful.  An example would be Facebook.  A lot of people didn’t like Mark Zuckerberg, right?  When you read the books, when you read all of these articles about him, even the movie, it didn’t pain him in a good light, but at the same time you wanted the product.  You wanted to be on Facebook.  You wanted to utilize its services and a lot of people can’t live without that now.  So if I had to say anything to this generation, is to always reflect on what you’re doing and remember it’s not about you, it’s about your team and about your business.

Micky Deming:  (19:07) That’s awesome!  I love that so much!  If you make it about you, then you’re trapped.  What if something happens to you or how do you ever get away?  I think that’s such an important point and so I want to go into a little bit more because I think that’s a huge challenge.  Even entrepreneurs that maybe it’s not like ego-tripping, it’s just like I don’t know how to separate myself from it or I don’t know how to make it about the business and not about me.  What are some things that people can do that are struggling with that?  Like, I’ve built this business, but it’s kind of all coming back to me.  How do I get it to grow beyond myself?  What are some ways that people can think about to do that?

Emad Rahim:  (19:46) They call that founder’s syndrome, when you’re the founder and you become emotionally attached to it.  The important piece is to focus on that passion again.  Why are you doing this?  Why are you a part of this?  Find other people that are just as passionate about that idea, about that product, about that business because if you surround yourself with like-minded people that have the same drive and have that passion, you become re-energized.  You become re-engaged not just in what you’re doing, but in why you are doing it and you create a community around you that is invested in you, the product, this idea, and the possibilities of this business.  So I think that’s the important piece is to really surround yourself with good, like-minded people that are just as passionate as you, that will push you, that will support you, that will drive you to success.  At the same time, you have to reflect back and know that you didn’t do it alone, right?  I always take time to do some reflection.

Regardless of my success, I always remember that I didn’t do it alone.  I have to humble myself and really reflect and say you know what, I didn’t do this.  Who can I thank right now?  Who can I call and thank?  Where can I show my appreciation?  Who should own this credit?  It humbles me to do this and sometimes humbling is a good thing.

Micky Deming:  (21:23) That’s awesome.  I think that is probably one of the hardest things about entrepreneurship is that you can’t do it alone and so you have to learn how to work with people, how to work with a team, and it’s so important and so rewarding when you do it.  When the team comes together and it is bigger than you then that’s ultimately rewarding and so I really appreciate your perspective on that.  I think that is so important for people to learn that it does not have to be all about you.  It really goes back to, as we start to wrap this up there’s one thing I want to come back to you, and that’s just your definition of entrepreneurship and your passion for entrepreneurship and just how important it is just for our world and the possibilities out there.  Can you share a little bit, you said you were passionate about it, why are you so passionate about entrepreneurship?  Why is that so meaningful to you and to our world?

Emad Rahim:  (22:16) Because it takes a person out of poverty.  It takes a person out of desperation and into something that is amazing and that is wonderful.  I think only entrepreneurship can do that.  When you have non-for-profits that offer a service, it’s a short term solution.  When someone is inspired to create, to make, to do something that transformed their life, transformed the way they lived, that is more meaningful and only entrepreneurship does that.  At least from what I’ve seen.  Only entrepreneurship can do that.  I have had the privilege of seeing how a business idea come to fruition and not only that person’s life, but also change how they see life, right?  Their self-esteem increases.  Their sense of awareness and accomplishment increases.  Their network, they step outside their comfort zone, they become a different person, a better person, and that also changes the people around them, their family, their friends, and the people in their community.

You are in a place, or you should be in a place, to help others.  To reach out and do the same for others.  That is why I’m so passionate about entrepreneurship because it has not only transformed a lot of lives of people that I’ve worked with, that I have taught, but also my life.  I don’t think I would be in the position I am today, be who I am today, married to the person I am with today if it wasn’t for the entrepreneurship mindset. 

Micky Deming:  (24:07) That’s amazing!  It changes your life as the entrepreneur, hopefully impacts the lives of people who you are serving with whatever you’re doing, and also your team.  You give a chance for meaningful work and for people to have work that has pride.  I think that’s really, really powerful.  That’s great.  I have one last question just to wrap up because I think this is another important piece because what you’re saying is so inspiring, it’s meaningful, and for entrepreneurs that are listening they want that and they want more.  The other side of it is when you’re in the grind, when you’re in that day-to-day and you’re trying to get momentum, get things moving forward, you don’t always feel that “Woohoo, I’m making such an impact on the world”.  You can lose site of the things you’re initially passionate about or who you’re serving.  What is your advice for that person?  The person that’s in that today and they want that meaning and they feel passionate about entrepreneurship, but just in the day-to-day they’re working and they don’t really feel it.  What’s your message to that person?

Emad Rahim:  (25:14) I always say it’s a good thing to take a break, to reflect why you’re doing this.  My break is often leaving the environment I’m in, leaving the place that I’m in, and going to see my children, right?  Enjoy their company.  Take them out for ice cream or go get a cup of coffee at my favorite place.  As entrepreneurs we forget to take a break sometimes, right?  When we worked our 9-5 we are eagerly ready to take that lunch break, we fight for that lunch break! We would protest if we don’t get that 15-minute water cooler break, but we don’t give that break to ourselves when we become a business owner.  When we become these gladiators of our business, we fight constantly, we promote constantly, we market constantly, and we don’t take a break.

I have known people who get burnt out very quickly because of that.  They lose that inspiration.  They lose that desire and sometimes all you need is really to take a break and just sit, relax.  Whether you want to meditate, whether you want to read a book, whether you want to just drink coffee and just kind of think about something else, or you want to hit some Wu-Tang Clan and just go bang your head really quick, right?  You have to figure out what that is and utilize it.  It kind of gives you a, it can breathe new life into you, right?  Actually, it can make you think about your product or business or service a little bit different because it allows you to come back refreshed.

Micky Deming:  (26:58) That’s great advice.  Detach from the situation, see it from a new angle, widen your frame, and all of the sudden you’re seeing things that you haven’t been seen for so long.  I think that’s incredibly important.

Emad Rahim:  (27:10) It’s almost like we need to detox sometimes.

Micky Deming:  (27:14) Right, yeah just take a deep breath and see this from a bigger picture.  Emad, this has been a fantastic interview.  I am so thankful that you took the time.  This is super inspiring and helpful and I have really enjoyed chatting with you.  Just for all of the listeners that are going to want to see more of your good stuff, where can we find you everywhere online?

Emad Rahim:  (27:35) Alright, so you can find me on my website at EmadRahim.com.  You can follow me on twitter @DrEmadRahim.  You can also locate me on LinkedIn, on Facebook just look up my name.  You might find a few other Emad Rahim’s, but I’m the good looking guy!

Micky Deming:  (28:03) You’re the one that stands out!  You’re the one on top at Google!  Thank you so much; this has been fantastic!  Everybody definitely check out your site and thanks again and keep up the great work.

Emad Rahim:  (28:15) It was an honor!  Thank you so much!

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