Ideas in the Wild: Author Hazem Mulhim On How To Go From Failure to Creating a Global Banking Business
When Hazem Mulhim was starting out in life, his father presented him with two brown envelopes: one bulging with money, the other flat with some dollar bills. Only one — and its contents — would be his. After a brief but memorable discussion, his father made the decision that would influence the rest of Hazem’s life.
Hazem’s new book Two Brown Envelopes offers a refreshingly candid account of the ups and the downs of building a business in the age of globalization. Hazem started out as a shop owner, opening the first computer store in Jordan in the 1980s. Since then, he has built a global business that provides anti-money-laundering and other technology solutions for almost 10 percent of the world’s banks.
Two Brown Envelopes reveals the humbling lows of defeat and the highs of winning, proving that what defines an entrepreneur’s future is how well they shrug off setbacks and bounce back from failure. I recently caught up with Hazem to learn more about why he wrote the book and the ideas he shares with readers.
Why did you write this book?
Failure is a touchy subject for many business leaders. It is seen as a sign of frailty, a mark of weakness. But in my view, failure is an occupational hazard of an entrepreneur’s life. If you haven’t failed, you haven’t lived — and you certainly can’t hope to succeed.
The big challenge is to learn from the setbacks. There are many books on entrepreneurship that preach the importance of resilience, perseverance, adaptability and the steely resolve to triumph against the odds. I will not disagree with them. But I have never found them particularly useful.
The books I have found most illuminating and truly inspiring are those that give a real sense of what it’s like to feel the highs of winning after enduring the humbling lows of defeat. The authors take the reader on their journey. They stand, as it were, on the authors’ shoulders, watching as authors take their decisions, suffer setbacks and enjoy their victories.
In Two Brown Envelopes, I want to share my journey. I’ve made millions of dollars — and lost millions of dollars too. I’ve been virtually bankrupt — and I’ve found a way to bounce back. It has been tough at times. It has been painful for me and for my family. No entrepreneur comes through unscathed. But I wouldn’t have it any other way. In fact, there really isn’t another way.
What’s an idea you share that really excites you?
Stay forward-looking. Never rest on your laurels. Never be completely satisfied, because this can quickly evolve into complacency — and complacency is the death rattle for any business. Necessarily, to be dynamic, you need to take risks, calculated risks. As Garry Kasparov, the great chess champion, once said, “If you don’t take risks, you don’t drink champagne.” In chess, of course, you have to move when it’s your turn. In his playing days, Kasparov was an advocate of seizing the initiative because “the attacker always has the advantage” and the resulting proactive position “puts positive pressure on you while challenging your competition.” In the language of business, this is translated as “first-mover advantage.”
Time and again, I have been ultraconscious of making a move — whether or not it is my turn. After the first Gulf War, I switched from selling computers to selling solutions such as phone banking, national ID cards and bank networking software for personal computers. Then I switched again to a partnership with SWIFT, which opened an extraordinarily wide range of new opportunities. And then, as I faced another crisis after failing to sell Eastnets to an Italian rival, I moved quickly to buy SIDE International, hurriedly raising the capital, arranging a bridging loan and convincing the owners to sell the business.
In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has accelerated the pace of technological change, the capacity to be dynamic, agile and ready to change direction at a moment’s notice will be more important than ever.
How will following your advice improve your readers’ lives?
Either you are an entrepreneur or you’re not. You can’t become one. Yes, you can pick up some entrepreneurial skills. But entrepreneurs are made long before they choose the life of an entrepreneur. From an early age, they see the world differently, they ask tricky questions, they push against convention, they draw connections between apparently unconnected things, they take absurd risks, they make mistakes, and they learn from them.
I was 29 years old when I founded what is now called Eastnets. Back then, I was full of optimism. Today, all these years later, I remain full of optimism. Everywhere, I see opportunities, not challenges. I see “blue oceans” of uncontested undiscovered markets. I see that the future is bright for those who are temperamentally suited, like those Japanese koinobori, to swim against the tide.
My story is — ultimately — a story of success, but it is also a story of the downs as well as the ups. If you are an entrepreneur, then you should recognize some of your own story in mine. If you are planning to start a business, then you should get a real sense of the roller coaster that will be your life.
