Who is Azard Hosein?
By Charlotte Morgan
London UK – June 2007
Whilst attending a business conference in London I was most fortunate to have the opportunity to catch up with Azard about his background experiences, and gain an insight in to this remarkable mans’ goals for the future.
Azard David Tennant Hosein was born 20th February 1981 in Port of Spain - Trinidad. When he was two years old he was moved to England (UK) to begin his education and grew up in Leeds UK - which as Azard puts:
"Leeds became home, however I think Trinidad will always remain in my heart as my true home".
About his childhood Azard says:
"To be honest my childhood was like that of any other young kid. My Father was a Senior Airline Captain with BWIA and my Mother was pursuing her career in Law. My sister Soraya & I learned from an early age to become independent and we thoroughly enjoyed inventing new games to play and exploring as kids do!"
When Azard was seven his family welcomed another addition, his sister "Sophia" which Azard comments:
"When Sophia came online it was a good chance for me to learn about responsibility. As my Father was based overseas I was the man-of-the-house and looking after my little sister taught me a lot at an early age about taking care of people and looking out for their best interests."
As Azard entered his teenage years he fell seriously ill and was forced to leave school and be bed/hospital bound for some years, Azard comments:
"Looking back, however strange it sounds, that experience, although painful to remember, made me a stronger person. I managed to focus on all the good things in life and what I would do when I had recovered. I think that's important to anyone, is the ability to focus on everything good in their life, because I firmly believe in the law of attraction and you get more of what you focus on.”
“I remember at one stage my mother crying because the doctors had asked her if my religion required me to have my last rights (they didn't think I was going to make it) - that was heavy for me to deal with, and I decided in my mind at that point that massive action was required. I wasn't going to see my Mother cry like that again and I began to focus intently on being better and walking around again and seeing my loved ones smile, rather than cry. It wasn't too long before the universe sent its' messenger and my recovery, much to the amazement of all the doctors, went from strength to strength."
After recovering fully from his illness Azard decided to go back to school and qualify himself in the things he had missed whist taken ill. He did this and went on, at the young age of 18, to start his own computer installation business which was very successful in a short period of time.
"I quickly learnt that people didn't want to know about bits and bytes or how an Intel compares to an AMD - I mean who cares anyway right? - What people wanted was a quick, straightforward service and that is exactly what I gave them. To be successful you must quickly identify what your customers needs are and cater for those needs. That was back then, when the internet was just building up momentum, now it's a totally different pace. In todays' internet world if you fail to investigate what your potential customers needs are then you are out of business, it’s as simple as that. The internet is a numbers game and without the traffic to your product, service etc you are going to fail to see the turnover and profit you had planned for, ultimately ending up out of business." remarks Azard.
Following the success of his computer business Azard then turned his attention to capturing a piece of the downloadable software market. Along with two of his old school friends Smart4Software.com was established in January 2000 and this was to turn out to be one of Azard's most valuable lessons in business.
"In 2000 the downloadable software market was really in its' infancy. The only big player was download.com and we learnt a lot from their success”
“Our direct competitor, at the time, was a company called beyond.com which we saw, with sadness, go into administration and then ultimately dissolve in to the .com bust era. In fact every now and again I type their domain name in to the address bar and am always saddened when I see that their domain is now used for something totally different. They were a good company but grew too large too quickly”
“Smart4Software.com challenged all three of us and we rose to those challenges and really did some ground breaking stuff within the industry.”
“At the time Overture had just been launched and was exploding with new business. The focus of internet business quickly shifted from having a bells and whistles website - to ranking on the first page of Google.”
“We had a downloadable software product inventory of over 250,000 products and yet no-one could see them in any search result - this was a problem for us and we had to fix it. To tackle this I created software which broke the mould on search engine friendly inventories and managed to place us in the first half of the first page for every individual product search.”
Azard laughs while recalling “In fact at one point I think we even ranked higher than Symantec when someone searched for 'Symantec Anti Virus" - I still laugh about that today - I don't think Symantec was too pleased at the time!"
Life seemed to be good for the successful entrepreneur until an event took the world by storm and changed things for the worse.
“September the 11th 2001 was probably one of the worst events in history ever seen. Not only regarding the loss of life but also the knock on effects it had on industry and business around the world”
“We had set ourselves up as a bulk distributor selling to, governments, educational institutions and public companies. We found that in the months after the 9/11 atrocity public sector organizations and large B2b businesses did not want to spend their money on software, because they didn’t actually know how much money they had – their stock had collapsed. This was devastating for us and eventually we had no option but to lock up and post the keys through the letter box – so to speak”
“I am still very proud of what we achieved with Smart4Software.com – we set the pace in the industry and really got ourselves noticed, which is what anyone should always aim to do in business.”
“I am also very proud of my two business partners at the time, John Barraclough & William Smart, although we have all gone on to be successful in other businesses I know we all still fondly remember our time ‘setting the pace’. Smart4Software.com, the website, still remains as a symbol of what we achieved and I pay my respects nearly every day. It’s important to do that in life, it shows how far you’ve come and how much you’ve achieved.”
After brushing the dust off his shoulder, and being totally broke, Azard took the first job that came along and joined Park Lane College in April 2003. Once there he did the only thing he knew how to do, succeed, and quickly became noticed as someone with potential.
“Within a few months I had established myself as someone who could contribute a lot to the college and was asked to design the computer software system to run a £13,000,000 department, for one of the largest colleges in the UK”
In response Azard created the STAR software system which went on to revolutionize the colleges £13,000,000 department, something which gained Azard commendations from the highest level, the utmost esteem and respect from his peers and established him firmly, yet again, as a leader and innovator.
However, the ball wasn’t rolling for long when Azard received a phone call on the morning of June 01st 2004 informing him that his Father had passed away in Trinidad suddenly at the age of 62. This was further followed, tragically, by the death of his Grandfather only five weeks later, at the age of 68.
Azard recalls, “I was totally and utterly devastated by the news. My Father & Grandfather were and still are my heroes’ and there was so much I wanted to do together with them before they passed away. They were very wise and I miss their wisdom and there isn’t a day that goes by that I don’t wish they were still here. But, as they say, C’est La Vie (that’s life) and I had to go on and make my Father & Grandfather proud. When things like this happen you never get over them, but your ability to deal with the grief becomes more and more enhanced every day that goes by.”
Dealing with his grief and in an effort to cope with it Azard immersed himself in work, projects and internet business. Whilst doing this Azard met his soul mate, Madeline, and it wasn’t long before rings began to sparkle and Azard & Madeline were engaged.
In February 2006, Azard left Park Lane College and went to pursue a professional career as an Airline Pilot. The end of 2006 turned out to be a very prosperous year for Azard and family, as he impressed the aviation industry by scoring some of the highest professional exam results in the UK, and his family celebrated the birth of ‘Baby Azard’, whom was born on the 5th December 2006.
Azard now turns his attention to helping others succeed on the internet through his website intellimarket.net, success programs like EDC Gold and through his mentorship and guidance.
“I have always loved helping people and it gives me great satisfaction to see people succeed and see people believe in themselves, which surprisingly doesn’t happen too often nowadays. I’m saddened by the amount of scams and false promises on the internet, which is why I guide people through the rough and help people to establish solid and successful online businesses”
When asked what the future holds Azard replies:
“Well I am only 26 and to be honest I am only just getting started. I have enough for a book at the moment so that’s one of the things on the horizon or maybe I’ll wait and write my ‘memoirs’ later on” he says in a playful fashion.
“I will absolutely complete my flight training this year and become an Airline Pilot – it has been a childhood dream to follow in my Fathers’ footsteps and fly aircraft for a living. Although, my goal is to be able to fly as an Airline Pilot, not for a living but because I love flying, I always have. I aim to reach lifelong financial security by the time I am thirty, and I am well on my way to accomplishing that.”
Azard adds:
“You only get one chance in life and you really have to make the most of it. My Father and Grandfathers’ death taught me that you can be fine one minute and dead the next, so you have to live every day as if it’s your last. I’m not talking about jumping out of aeroplanes with a parachute type of living, unless that makes you happy, but rather enjoying life and making the most of it so you can look back and say ‘I have no regrets – I made the most of it – I did what I came here to do.’ That way you can go happily and contently when it’s your time.”
Asked if there is anything else he would like to say about his internet interests Azard replies:
“The internet is a constantly changing forum for an ever changing and evolving marketplace, we are seeing some fundamental shifts in the way the web is structured and people need to be educated in how to move with the times, otherwise they will get left behind and will fail to catch up.”
“I will continue to help people succeed and help businesses grow, and of course on a personal level, Madeline and I will enjoy each other’s company and proudly watch as Baby Azard grows up to tell his own story in the future.”
I feel privileged to have met Azard again. He is a thoroughly charming, intelligent and captivating person. Well spoken, humble and a person of sincere integrity and impeccable manners. His visions for the future are inspiring and so is his background – Who is Azard Hosein?
Answer: Someone we should all know.
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