Success and a stress free life is what everyone want in their short life on earth. Yet, not very many jobs actually give that type of opportunity but there is one type of person that can have that stress free life: Entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurs are born, not made and I have been saying this to my followers and readers for a while now. Yes, the traits can be learned and adapted overtime but that core belief of rejecting the 9-5 lifestyle is something that you are born with because it is hard to do. It is hard to reject the traditional lifestyle, yet as my readers know, I am always on that quest to find the people that resemble this spirit. So, I had to go to Los Angeles for a supplier meeting with my startup and while I was in the city, I decided to try and link up with someone that people had been saying for a long time was the up and comer of entrepreneurship and was making some big waves in Hollywood. This is where I met Faisal Wardak, also known as Vice.
It is actually a coincidence how I met him; I had texted him earlier in the day, but he said he was swamped with meetings but said he might be able to fit me. We later met, at a local coffee shop and I got to learn more about what made Vice one of the most regarded entrepreneurs in the business.
Vice started out as the traditional college student, working to be an engineer, and hoping to land that 9-5 job. Yet, on the inside he was dissatisfied. He did not like his path in life, and he knew he had to make a change. The first thing that he did was work on his network. He started to surround himself with people that had connections and were already successful in entrepreneurship that he wanted to emulate. Yet, a lot of these people did not have the same helpful, open mindset that he had. A lot of these so called ‘friends’ turned down his business opportunities, stole his ideas, and tried to cast him aside. Yet, Vice knew that this was the path he wanted, as hard as it would get, and he kept persevering forward. This is where the true entrepreneur spirit and spirit of hard work came to fruition. Vice started with the basics: Instagram. He pushed and worked his ass off, building up a sizeable network and making a bunch of connections with people that wanted to help build him up. Once his network was built up and his connections solidified, he started to leverage his network with celebrities, companies, and basically anyone who would listen to him. He got heavily involved in celebrity giveaways, building up his connections even more, and increasing his capital. Once he started getting that solid foundation underneath him, he started to expand even more. Vice started flying out to events to personally network with companies and to pitch them to the point where they were begging for his business. Yet, when someone gets so much success, there will always be the doubters and haters.
People reject the idea of someone bootstrapping themselves and trying to make a name for themselves. With this type of wild success, enemies were sure to rear their ugly heads. Some people in Hollywood started to despise Vice because he actually was making a big splash in an otherwise calm and established industry. Yet, Vice is preserving and taking over the social media realm. I loved my chat with this budding entrepreneur and I loved his expertise and knowledge that he shared because he is someone that I look too due to his perseverance and dedication to a passion that he truly loves.