Amjad Hussain

Amjad Hussain is an Account Management team lead based out of Elmira, New York. After graduating high school, Amjad enrolled in the National Guard and continued to serve throughout his undergraduate years. He attended Excelsior College and obtained his Bachelor’s of Arts degree in 2016. Wanting to further his post-secondary education, he was accepted into Western New England University where he completed his Masters in Communication with a concentration in Public Relations. Today, he works as an interview specialist and is currently studying for the LSATs. He hopes to attend law school and become a practicing attorney.

Where did the idea of becoming an interview specialist come from?

I thought it would be a good fit because I wanted to be an attorney. Essentially, what an attorney does is communicate with people verbally and through writing, so I think this has helped sharpen my skills in those categories. I love working with people and this job lets me do that. There’s nothing more satisfying than helping someone get a job and seeing the optimism and relief once they’re hired.

What does your typical day look like and how do you make it productive?

I consider myself a morning person so I like to keep that time to myself. The first thing I do after waking up is head to the gym. I do my best to remain active on a daily basis. I typically try to study for the law school admission test once I’m done with work, but with such a busy schedule, it can be challenging to absorb all of the required material. On weekends or sometimes in the middle of the week, I’ll hang out with friends and see family.

How do you bring ideas to life?

I bring ideas to life by physically acting which is something that I think gets missed a lot. People have a lot of dreams, but the truth is you have to make physical movement to achieve those goals. I’m a firm believer that your thoughts create your reality, so visualizing what you want, why you want it, and how you would feel if you did not achieve it are good motivators that can push you to bring your ideas to life. Ultimately, it is a physical world, so if you want something in this physical world, you have to make physical moves.

What’s one trend that excites you?

I enjoy the men who have been coming out and publicly speaking to younger men like myself. I think that Dr. Jordan Peterson, Andrew Tate, and many others are filling a hole that exists within society. Jordan Peterson has talked about how human beings need very little encouragement, so he goes around the country and speaks those words of encouragement. He notices that men specifically feel bogged down and frustrated, and they just need a little push. I admire the fact that more and more men are coming out to men of my generation and telling us to get off our butts and fight for what we want.

What is one habit of yours that makes you more productive as an entrepreneur?

One habit that makes me more productive is working out. Going to the gym is one of those things that keeps me moving through the day because I’ve already taken the time to wake up, get my stuff together, put my shoes on, drive to the gym, work out, drive back home, get something to eat, and go to work. By the end of the day, I say to myself that I just have one more thing to do. Since I’ve already taken the time to do everything else, why not take the time to finish that last task?

What advice would you give your younger self?

Relax. You’ve got plenty of time to figure your life out.

Tell us something that’s true that almost nobody agrees with you on.

I’m a very spiritual person. I’ve always believed that life is very mystical and mysterious and none of us knows why we’re here, but there’s something that’s been debated for thousands of years about human existence called determinism which is the other side of free will. I’m a firm believer that everyone’s life was determined by whatever caused the Big Bang. Everything that dictates who we are, who our parents are, what our IQ is, all of that has never been in our control. Everything was set in place from the very beginning and we’re just walking the path that was set for us.

As an entrepreneur, what is the one thing you do over and over and recommend everyone else do?

Have faith in something beyond yourself. It can be God or your country or community or humanity but have a strong faith in something above you. A lot of people fight for themselves, which is completely natural, but it’s helped me to realize that I am a very small piece in a very big puzzle.

What is one strategy that has helped you grow your business?

Be willing to put in more than eight hours a day. If you want to be the best at something, I don’t think you can achieve that through an eight hour a day commitment. People want to put in a small fraction of time and still have the benefits of successful people who put in the full amount of time. I know that if I want to be a great lawyer, it’s going to take more than eight hours a day because that’s a very competitive world that’s going to require a lot of time. So, working hard and putting in the time has helped me grow the most.

What is one failure you had as an entrepreneur, and how did you overcome it?

I’ve been fired from a job before and when it first happens, it’s a little traumatizing. You feel like your whole world is crumbling around you. The way I recovered from it was realizing that it was a small mistake. Life comes with mistakes and you’re never going to be able to run from that. You just have to move on. Taking life one day at a time sometimes is what’s best.

What is one business idea that you’re willing to give away to our readers?

We live in one of the purest capitalist systems in the world and, if you read any book on capitalism, you know that you can create and market a product to be sold. What people don’t always know is that you can also create a service. Think about what you can physically do with a limited amount of resources that people would be willing to pay for, then figure out how to market that.

What is the best $100 you recently spent? What and why?

It was probably food. That’s always a good way to spend money.

What is one piece of software or a web service that helps you be productive?

I use Microsoft Word for pretty much everything from typing up reports to typing up schedules that I want to keep for the next week or two or even longer. I can’t ever imagine having a laptop without it because it’s such a vital part of why I use a laptop to begin with.

What is the one book that you recommend our community should read and why?

Jordan Peterson’s 12 Rules for Life: An Anecdote to Chaos. In that book, he tackles a lot of challenges that human beings go through, especially at a very early age. You’re questioning a lot and trying to figure out your purpose, so he dives into what we know human beings are for sure and uses that for a platform to explain how we’re capable of a lot more than we think. I’ve found that book and that lesson of being stronger than we think to be very helpful.

What is your favorite quote?

“Don’t sit down and wait for the opportunities to come. Get up and make them.” – Madam C.J. Walker

Key Learnings:

• Our natural gifts come from whatever created us and not from anything we did for ourselves.
• Human beings are not getting the encouragement that they need in today’s society.
• Physical wants and desires require physical action.