Mohammed A. Siddiqui - Financial Advisor, Business Owner, World Traveler and Adventurer, Author

0:00 The topics and opinions expressed in the following show are solely those of the hosts and their guests, and not those of W FORCY Radio. It's employees are affiliates. We make no recommendations or endorsements for radio show, program, services, or products mentioned on air or on our web. No liability explicit or implies shall be extended to W FOURCY Radio. It's employees are affiliates. Any questions or comments should be directed to those show hosts. Thank you for choosing W FOURCY Radio. Churchill said, those who fail to learn from history are condemned to repeat it. Kevin Helenan believes that certainly applies to business. Welcome to Winning Business Radio here at W FOURCY Radio. That's W fourcy dot com and now your host, Kevin Helena. Thank you everyone for joining in today.

0:55 I'm Kevin Hallinan and welcome back to Winning Business TV and Radio on forcy dot com, streaming live on Talk for tv dot com. In addition to Facebook, We're on at Winning Business Radio, as well as available in podcast after the live show on tons of platforms including YouTube, iHeartRadio, Spotify, Apple, pretty much wherever you listen to your favorite podcasts. The mission of this show, what is this winning business radio and TV, as most regular listeners and viewers know, is to offer insights and advice to help people avoid the mistakes of others, to learn best practices, the how twos, the what twos, the what not toos, and to be challenged and certainly and hopefully to be inspired by the successes of others. But you know, if you heard me say, as You've heard me say many times, virtually every successful person that I've ever had a chance to talk to has had some form of failure in their lives and careers. So while we all have to get our knees skinned once in a while, I'm driven to keep those scrapes from needing major surgery. Let's endeavor to learn from history so we don't repeat it today. I guess is Mohammed Sadiki, wealth advisor, business owner, world traveler and adventurer, and a friend. Here's his bio. Mohammed has been a wealth advisor with Trilogy Financial since twenty twelve. He brings thirty five years of senior sales management and business development skills acquired in Corporate America, where he managed global sales organizations. He brings financial planning acumen to help his clients, both individuals and business. Mohammed practices what he preaches, which is that there's

2:27 a big difference between doing well and doing good. He's been on the board of several nonprofits that serve those needing a helping hand. He's also also the founder of Sales Solutions Sales Management that's a sales consulting organization. He holds a bachelor's degree in economics from Osmania University in India and an MBA from Babson College in Massachusetts, with a concentration in finance and financial management. As an avid outdoorsman, Mohammed has summited four peaks and his many continents and his trek deserts in Mongolia, Africa, and India. He's been to this probably has to be updated. Mohammed seventy four countries on business or adventure. He's an expert skier and a skilled skydiver. He's a dad to Raza and Laila, and he's a granddad to Gabriel and husband to the lovely Daisy and together they live in Natick, Massachusetts. Today, we're going to spend time getting to know him and talking about his new book, Footprints in Stone, a History of Immigration and Assimilation. Mohammed, welcome to the show, Thanks for being here.

3:29 Thank thank you very much. Kevin Wow after that, and I he's like you said, thank you though. What's the update on the number of countries? How many countries have you been to? I'm sorry, Kevin? What update four in that bio sent? Yeah, seventy five. Now I just came back from Adagascar, so yeah, I can claim to be, you know, having visited seventy five countries. So here's what I'm want to know. And I think what viewers and listeners are probably curious about. Where do you get the time? I know it's been many years, but where do you get the time during a year to go to a couple of countries?

4:12 How do you do that? How do you pull it off? Because you still work? You know, my wife, I still work, and it took me seven years to write the book. And I was complaining for my wife one day and she said, listen, twenty four hours in a day will be twenty four hours in a day. So you either get up a couple of hours earlier, go to bed a little bit later than you do. And Kevin, I have traveled off those seventy five countries. I've done a lot of business travel, yeah, but you know I've always taken the opportunity to take a few days afterwards and you know, do things that I want to do in a particular country. And you have to find the time. It is important to you then work, will you know, Kevin, nobody has has said the following on their deathbed. Oh I wish I went to that one last meeting. You know, we all I wanted to do things we want to do, and traveling is in my blood. So I do find the time. Well, I'm not going to read all seventy five, but these at least are highlights to me having gone through the book.

5:11 Beijing, the country of Georgia, Japan, Venezuela, Australia, Northwest Territory, Iceland, Morocco, Mongolia and the Gobi Desert, South Korea, Turkey, Ireland, Chile, Dubai, Czech Republic, South Africa, Alaska, Bermuda, Argentina, Uruguay, Peru, Sri Lanka, Abu Dhabi Coast. I know you're getting bored. Costa Rica, Scotland, Germany, Poland, Denmark, Greenland. There are many others that's not seventy five. Those are just highlights from the book. It's incredible and that's why I wanted to for you to share about the book. But we're going to back up for a minute and talk about your upbringing just briefly in some of your professional career. But it's pretty amazing to me, and that's why I wanted you to get a chance to talk about it. So tell everybody where you were born and what that upbringing was like. Yeah, so, Kevin, I was born in India, and I actually have spent many, many more years in this country than I did in India. I was about twenty one twenty two when I immigrated and country, and well just a couple of years older than that. But but yes, I have been here a lot longer period in my life than in India. But you know, there's an old Jesuit saying that show that says, show me a boy of seven, and I'll show you the man. What you learn in your boyhood in uh, in your childhood as you're growing up from either your parents or your grandparents, stays with

6:43 you, you know, forever. In some of those things. As I get older, I come to realize how important those were in the books sort of captures some of those, uh, those thoughts and those feelings as well. Um, who made the decision to come to the US? Was it your family? You were you married yet? I just it was I have two older sisters and they and both were in this country. So my coming here was relatively easy. And it's not like these days when you apply for a you know, a visa or a green card to come over and you have to wait years and year plus person ago of my sister, it wasn't.

7:29 I was so fairly easy. And when you are that young, Kevin, you know you have an adventurous spirit. You want to see the rest of the world. And having spent twenty two years in India, I really wanted to get a taste of, you know, what other cultures were all about. But once you get a few hamburgers and French fries in your blood, you don't want to go back, trust me, you want to stay here forever. No people, some people are thinking, this was an Indian and he's probably Hindu and he's eating hamburgers. You're not your Muslim? What percentage of Indians are Hindu versus Muslim? Sure? I would say Kevin, seventy percent of the popular relation of India is Hindu. Ye, there's a significant Popularistians, Buddhists and Jains, and believe it or not, there's still a very small percentage of Jews that live on the east coast of India in a in a city called Ponda Cherry. So there's a variety of religions, but the majority, you're right, are Hindus in about fifteen percent of Muslims.

8:39 And I happen to be a Muslim. When you got to the US, where did you live? Initially? I was very lucky in that respect, you know. I mean obviously, when you come here, you've got to start working. And I was going to college and so forth. But it wasn't like I was going to sleep on the streets or you know, I had a home, my sister's home to go to. But then, of course, you know, what you want to do is get on your feet as quickly as possible. So once I got my masters, I was lucky enough to having gone to Babs and for my MBA, interviewed in college, got my first job and then you know, started working in sales. What else right right you can take? You can take you can take the boy out of says, but never says out of the boy, right, So I h So that's my history, Kevin. I stayed with my sister for almost a year. Uh uh. And then you know, my wife came over. But I was married at a very young age when I was in India, and then she followed me after I got my feet on the ground. So curiosity would cause the question would beg the question, was it arranged an arranged marriage? Uh? No? And and you know yes and no. I knew my wife and we sort of dated and we got to know each other. But you know, being a traditionalist, I and she agreed said, you know, let's go and seek the blessings of our parents.

10:05 So you know, I lost my father when he was very young, when I was very young, but I went to my mom and she went to her parents and we sort of had them talk and agree. So we knew each other, but we sat chose the old fashioned way, which is shoot it a little bit. But but you know that that's a fact. So talk us through just briefly. Your corporate career track started in sales, ended up in sales management work for some or at least one that I know of very large company, but work your way to that. Sure. So my first job right out of baths and was selling computers. Back then computers were yea, you know, these humongous boxes and before and it was for a company called Burrows which I think his nuss I mean through seven yeah, Burroughs Corporation. Um. And before you graduated selling computers, they had you had to sell what they call financial calculators, something in that can so easily be done on your cell phones. I was assigned the banking sector and I sold to the banking sector and I won an award, and you know, when you're in sales, you win so many awards. But that really got into me. And right then I decided was you know the applause you get when you come back. And we had a belt that you needed to bring if you want something. And then very quickly I graduated from selling financial calculators to computers. Worked with Burrows for a couple of years. I saw a better opportunity in Honeywell. Worked there a couple of years and then truth be

11:39 told, I was shown the door. And you know, when you're in sales, you have your highs and you have your lows and you can't say, well, the economy was not good and this and that. You don't meet your numbers, you're shown the door. So I was lucky enough to have a door open for Major Equipment corporation where I stay ken and I just went up the ranks and proud that I won. They had all these digital and had deck. We had these awards. If you you know, there was one hundred and sixty thousand people at its peak, a fair majority i'd say about thirty thousand with salespeople. And if you were in the top one hundred in sales, then you were given an award. Again, I want two of those. The third year I didn't make it, and then I was given a pick up behind you know that sales. But I did progress.

12:35 I went up to the corporate level and I was managing salespeople in seven countries. Actually when when I left and you know, went to a supply chain company. So this is a big question. This will take us to our first break. We got about a minute. What are some key takeaways from being from having spent a career in the corporate space. Kevin, you said it yourself, always keep your ears open, learn and it doesn't matter who you learn from. That's number one. And the second thing is always hire people that know more than you on a s aspect. That's good, right, Yeah, you really want to have people compliment you, and I've tried to do that consistently throughout my career. So there, I'm proud to say I still have good friends that have that I've worked for and people that I've worked for me. I think because of that reason, learn from everybody, just like you know. I've been proud to be a member of this show. This is my second time or second time from Kevin. I learned from you. I keep my ears open. That's polite, that's very very kind. Well, we're going to take our first break. We'll be back in just about a minute with Mohammed Sudiki, Wealth advisor, business owner, world traveler and adventurer. Come right back. You're listening to Winning Business Radio with Kevin Helena on Double four cy Radio. That's W fourcy dot com.

14:03 Don't go away. More helpful information is coming right up right here on Winning Business Radio. All right, this is Rocker mcgwinn and you're listening to Fury Radio. Have you ever dreamt of being on the Radio. Well, now it's your chance be a radio show guest on the number one ranked internet radio station and promote you and your business for free. Yes you heard it, free business advertising right here on W fourcy dot com. Call five six one five zero six four zero three one now to get booked on one of our shows. That's five six one five zero six four zero three one. Get your free advertising now. And now back to winning Business Radio with Kevin Helena, presenting exciting topics and expert guests with one goal in mind to help you succeed in business. Here once again is Kevin Helena. Thanks for sticking around.

15:22 We are back with Mohammed A Sadiki. He'll tell you the significance of that a little later. So I want to ask this. So you've done business travel bent to probably a bunch of countries, having managed that group in at least seven countries, How though, did you become a world traveler and adventurer? I mean it must be in your blood by now, it is, Kevin, and I remember when I was very young, my dad, who passed away when I was about eight maybe nine years old. He had gone to Nepal. Obviously he hadn't taken me and my siblings. But he came back from Nepal and he brought these stones that had been polished round stones by wind and weather over the centuries. I held one of those, and I think that was the start of a point. I want to go to Nepal. I want to go here. And then I had the good well they put me in a boarding school and I met people from you know, I mean there were people from outside of India, most significantly from the eastern coast of Africa. And hearing names like Tanganika in Rhodesia, those countries obviously are independent now and you know, it triggered something in me. And I'm lucky enough. You know, a lot of people have a lot of dreams, and I consistently make an effort if I have an opportunity. I truck and I have I'm going through nie salary. But I did not let that stop me from going to Madagascar. The doctor says, I can give you a quartos own shot. I says, do it, as long as I can go and do the things that need to get fantastic. So that's what

16:53 really inspired me. All right, one more thing before we get to the book. You're also a very accomplished skydiver former skydiver instructure only because you said your knees won't take it anymore. But it's not a skill thing. It's more of a physical thing. How many jumps have you doing? How did you get into skydiving again? It's called me adventures or call me crazy. Most people would choose to call me crazy, Kevin. It's one of those things that I've always wanted to do. And uh, you know, I said, you know you can, you can want, you can think, you can read books, just pull the trigger and do it. So I went locally here to Pepper you know, border of Massachusetts and in New Hampshire, right, and I did my four skydive there many years ago, and you know, I just loved it and just just continued. And then subsequently my daughter I started to skydive as well. The one rule we had was we never jump out of the same plane. Incidentally, here's a very interesting factoid. Most accidents don't happen to individuals. Yes, skydivers due diet.

18:00 It's an extreme sport. But the planes are old and if they go like this, the whole plane collapses. It's the ground before you before you have a chance to pull your parison. It's like in World War two the Sullivan rule right where they had five brothers or four brothers serving in the same they said, no, you can't serve together. Yeah exactly, And you know, so we'd come back and we enjoyed, and then of course, you know, she got married, got pregnant. But I continued, and you know, every skydive will have hard landings. I've had my share. I've done you know, mobile skiing, I've done climb mountains like you suggested. So now it's time to pay the piper. But I will say this, Kevin, I've had I've had a good time doing it, and I would not change anything. Fantastic. All right, tell us about the book.

18:48 It's called Footprints in Stone, a History of Immigration and Assimilation. First of all, why did you decide to write the book? You know, basically to prison my culture in civilization to a certain extent. As I said earlier, you know, you get to a certain age, you want to build a legacy. I have a grandson, Gabriel, and his father is Croatian. His mother obviously has Indian heritage, but she was born in this country. So I don't want Gabriel to get to my age and somebody ask him, well, what is your heritage, and he says, I don't know. My one grandfather came from Croatia, the other from India. That's all I know. So it's part of legacy. But it's really for me to not just refresh my memory, but also explain to people some of those cultural cultural heritages that I have inside of me. Kevin, I'll go on to say, a similation and I love you know, I mean, why do I and so many immigrants, why do we live here? You know, because of the fact that this is the best country in the world. I will say that one more time, the best country in the world. Right.

19:55 So as similation does have its advantages, we financially do well, but at what cost we lose cultural identity. I don't know if you know many Irish people, I'm not picking on you, Kevin. Italians. Do they speak Italian? I would venture to say very few do. I have tried to make sure that both my kids know our language, which is Urdu, but you know they don't they can't read, they can certainly speak and understand, so you know, it's inevitable assimilation will bring about English will be the dominant language. So I've tried to pick as much of my culture as possible. It'll be difficult for Gabriel to speak three languages, let alone two.

20:40 So there's going to be some loss there one way or the other. Right, And there already is His mother initially tried to teach him a little bit Ord and he does understand a few words. And his father is very cognizant of teaching his language, so he does understand. But now he goes to school now at the age of three and a half, and you know, he speaks English. So you're right there, there is that, there is that transition that will happen. And one other thing, Kevin, there's a lot of experiences that people like me have and some of them are really hilarious now that I think about it, Uh, can I give an example or do you want to be We have plenty of time. So one of the examples that I write in the book and when this happened wasn't funny is I'll give you two examples. My wife when she came over was a teller in Dorchester, very Irish down back then. Yeah, and you know she's very you know she's there's a lot of cultural aspects that she's still trying to get used to. Two young kids on a Friday afternoon show up and give her a couple of checks, right, and she says, well, who's Robert, who's Richard? And their response was I'm Bob, I'm Dick, right, and she's more confused. So, you know, it's these little things.

21:49 Right after nine to eleven, I was on a plane in our business travel and the pilot there's nobody on the plane, maybe six people. The pilot comes on says, hey, guys, I know you're all nervous. Ties here in Boston just opened, but here's a way to relax. Introduce yourself to your left, to the person on your left, the person and you're right, Well, there's nobody on my left. Five rows up. There's a lady. So I walk up to her as a gentlemanly thing, and I introduced and I put my hand out and she says, I am Joan, for instance, right right, and I grabbed a hand and I says high Joan, and I'm Mohammed. And just to look on her face, you know, this is a week after nine and left. Yeah, So so it's those kinds of things that you can laugh about now, but back then you know it's it's a serious thing. And so those are some of the experiences that I have included in my book. Well, you talk about losing culture, right, and in the book you quote that there were sixty seven languages that have been lost since two thousand and seven, since twenty twenty. That's that's almost unthinkable. It is phenomenal. And what goes when a language goes is you know, people say, well, there's so many things to culture. There's language is just one of them. There's dress, and there's dance, there's food. My feeling is if you lose your language, you've really lost a majority of your culture, you know, because if you speak a certain language, you think differently, you know, I certainly do. In One way to really test which is your dominant language is what

23:23 language do you dream in? And I'll be very earnest if in fifty percent of the time I dream in English and the other fifty especially if I have my parents my dreams, I dream in Urdu. Yeah, you know, yeah, And you know, very rarely do you get up and remember your dreams. But especially when when I see my parents who are both diseased now and I try to remember in in you and I remember that I've talked in my particular language, So languages disappear. A person asked me. He says, hey, if if you are so uh in so fixated on languages, how come you didn't write your book in your own language, which actually is a very good question. I speak and I write my language. But very honestly, who would read it? My children wouldn't, Kevin, I know you've been kind enough to buy a book yourself. You wouldn't read it.

24:15 You know, my book is doing fairly well, and I dare say everybody who's bought very few if any, would read it if I wrote it. An ordu. So we have to dip our head to what's happening in the world. English is being the dominant language, but it's killing languages left and right. Yeah, talk about, just for a minute, the kind of the business of the book. What was the process of writing it? You said it took seven years. Talk about how much time and commitment you put into it, how you structured the time to make sure you devoted enough time and energy to accomplish it, And talk about the publishing as well. Sure most Lycas Kevin. But I also and after my wife gave me a dressing down, I did make it an to get up a little bit early before I started my work there in research some of the things some chapters like, for instance, the historical chapters, I'd be very honest. Chapter one is history. Yeah there was a time you could tell there was a certain Yeah there was there was, but it was the easier part. Chapter two Israeli genealogy. Now that when I talk about legacy, that's very honestly. You've been a good friend to me, but why would you be interested in my genealogy? Right? Chapter two appeals to a different set the people, maybe some people in my grand my children, I will have rights, neither lot certain. Chapter two, which is you need a lot of research, and here why those books written by my ancestors. And I took only a certain

25:52 portion of those appealing And it's a fast read, so I only took certain portions. But to translate those and I'm lucky enough that I know the less language, so I translated, so that took a lot of time. Chapter three is different. Chapter eight is about today's world, a little bit about you know, a prediction and prognosis about what the future is going to be. That was fairly easy. But chapter two took a long time. Chapter six is about my adventures, my experiences, my trans That took a lot of time too, because every time I was ready to go to a publisher, I would say, why do I just wait six months? Because I might have leaded my trip to Greenland. Yeah, so I did have to put a stake in the ground. But those are the things that came in my way. Chapter four and five I talk about what in this country is known as the Greatest generation, my parents' generation. Now they weren't born in this country, they didn't even live here, right, but I talk about what they went through when they grew up, when they were born in the twenties, grew up in the thirties, forties, fifties, and World War so fourth so yes, I mean the World War impact a lot of the world, those ages or people want to be So you know how world were fact that there was you know, India was under the British Empire, so you had to too and contributed both financially as well as in terms of you know, men who went and fought soldiers in different countries Egypt and so forth.

27:14 So you know, they went through a lot. I've tried to capture some of the thoughts and processes that they went through. Some chapters took a lot, and just to very quickly conclude, I was lucky enough. Most people are doing self publication. I chose not to. I said, well, let me try, and I was lucky enough. Two publishers actually showed interest in my book. I was in a fairly difficult position to pick and choose, and I finally chose page publisher who ultimately published my book. And that was a lot of back and forth because you'd send them something they have you signed a contract and if you have to basically do the editorial work, and if you c R E instead of thhe I R it's on us not so you know, I had to read each any scripted this and then I selected them cover that you see, I had to it's intellectual property. I had to pay a lot of money to buy that, but I couldn't think of a better way to conceptualize immigration. You know that that cover is actually the Fossils of adult and a Child walking out of Africa, which is where we all started from. Right, we have the book right here carbon date.

28:30 For those that are watching or listening, If you want to go to go online and google footprints in Stone, you'll see that image. It's pretty pretty cool. Well, let's pause right there. We're gonna take our second break. We'll come back and we'll have good chunk of time for the conversation. But we will take a commercial break. We'll be back in one minute. You're listening to Winning Business Radio with Kevin Helena on W FOURCY Radio. That's W fourcy dot com. Don't go away. More helpful information is coming right up right here on Winning Business Radio. Hey, this is Elliott Lewis of Hall and Oates and you're listening to W four CY Radio. The yp dot com website is your local search engine. If you're looking for a good restaurant, it can help you find the right one nearby with ratings and reviews.

29:26 Or if your car breaks down, you can use the YP app to find the closest repair shop. Or maybe you're just looking for something to do on a Friday night. While it has great local coupons for all sorts of things in your area, no matter what, when or where. If you're looking for something, YP local search can help you find it, So go to yp dot com or download the app to search local, to find local and save local. And now back to Winning Business Radio with Kevin Helen in pre sending exciting topics and expert guests within one goal in mind to help you succeed in business. Here once again is Kevin Helena. We're back with Muhammad A. Sadiki, author of Footprints in Stone. Uh sorry, I want to get that correct where I put that subtitle A history of immigration. Beg your pardon yep um, all right, So there's significance in the title.

30:36 Talk about that. Uh yeah, Kevin. By the way, I can't see myself for you, but that's okay, I can hear you. The significance of the significance of the title comes from as I said, you know, I mean when the anthropologist uh Mary Leaky actually discovered this in Tanzania in the mid seventies and she had them car and dated and come to find out that this goes back some you know, three hundred and sixty thousand years. Those footprints are that all they're fossilized and to me, because we all agree to the fact that you know, we started in the region around Ethiopia thereabouts right and from their humankind has spread throughout the world. So my thought process was, well, this, these footprints belong to the earliest immigrants. And you know, there was no better way to conceptualize the book itself. So as I said, it's intellectual property. Ad to pay money. But that was fine. So that's where that title comes from. In again, these the adults and the child are seeking new horizons. They want to find out, whether it's to seek food or whatever. They want to go beyond the horizon. And then a few more miles and a few more miles, and it ends up in US being in populating all five, six seven continents.

31:52 So that's where the title comes from. Um, I don't know if I answer your question, but that there are forty two million roughly immigrants in the US. Correct, yes, yes, and you know they all have a story, trust me. And you don't even have to be an immigrant. Everybody has a story and you don't necessarily have to write a book. All I say to people is capture. So, Kevin, that's a very good point. I was presenting to the sons of Italy and this one gentleman said, well, you talk about preserving your language. And when my parents came over in the sixties, they actually forbid us to talk in Italian, and they actually they talked amongst themselves, but only to hide things from us and stuff like this. Right, so we lost our language. And I said, that's so interesting. Write an article so that your children know and realize why you don't speak Italian. Right. But you know, if you ask about, well, who is the target audience for Footprints in Stone, I would say, and I'm being facetious, but there are forty two million immigrants in the USA. That's more than the entire population of Canada. And those people, you know, can can certainly buy my book. We should make it the best seller of all time. But but that's that's a start.

33:10 And then people who are interested in history, such as yourself, you ask these very potent questions which tell me that you're a student of history. You want to know history beyond the local or the national history, beyond the boys of the US. So people like that are also somebody who would find my book interesting. I just find it. I'm just curious. And one of those curiosities is how do we so assimilation is valuable? I'll ask you in a moment about the pros and cons, right, but how do we maintain some of that culture while assimilating our new country. Yeah, so, Kevin, I make it a point, you know, if there's this is the month of Ramazan, and very quickly you know it's the is the full fasting month for the thirty days that Muslims go through. Right, But I have a surgery coming up, so my doctor gave me special dispensation. I'm not fasting, but you know what I try to do. So the end of the month of fasting, there is Muslims just have two festivals, so one comes at the end of the thirty days of fasting. I make it a point to wear my traditional clothes because otherwise I'd be in a pant and a shirt and I'd be like everybody else on the street. So I want to inculcate that sense of belonging to a certain identity. Not so much my children are, you know. I mean my daughter is going to turn forty this year and my son is even older. But for my grandson, so that

34:42 he at least understands. So that's a now at the same token, By the same time, at the same time, you have to make a living in this country, so you got to assimilate. You got to you know, in the business world, you got to make a separation in the business world where you have to be be like them, speak like them, behave like them. But in your private world you can certainly maintain some of your culture or some of the things you've learned as as a child. That's what you know, I've tried to do. So there's a balance there. Yeah, there is a balance and not it's easier said than done. A not Kevin. I know, after nine to eleven, a lot of people even change their name, you know, if it was Muhammad, they became Mike and all this. And I was insistent, you know, I said, no, that's not something that I'm going to walk away from. I am who I am, right right, So so there are things. It's a balance. It's easier said some people can achieve a balance. And I'm sure some people will look at me and say, well, he's he's too Americanized.

35:43 Well, you live in this country, you have to be. But you know, to me, I try to maintain a balance, which is easier said than done. But yes, it's all about maintaining a balance. Yeah, I wasn't aware that people were changing their names. Uh, you know some of those folks were born here. I mean you're man, I've been born here, but you're as American. I consider you as American as I am. You know you've been here for forever. Yes, almost not quite as old as the footprint stone in stone on the cover, but just twenty three, just twenty three years old, Kevin. That's incredible, that's incredible. Um, So let's talk about culture, right, some of the aspects you've you've kept her, You've kept some clothing, you certainly probably eat good food. Um, you've kept the language you and Daisy. What else have you or would you recommend other families do well? These days? I mean, the US is incredible in that it allows for people like myself to have their identities. So there's there's all kinds of clubs, right, there's a Croatian club. There's Croatian food. I mean you go to even something as Ancius as a market basket, they have a section on Bosnian food, on Croatian food, on Serbian food, so that is very helpful. And there are people, there are clubs. Actually, I mean I mentioned one as Sons of Italy so you got to sort of assimilate with these people.

37:13 Wednesday nights. There's a club in Boston. Now I don't go as often as physically go there, but I zoom in into those calls because they talk about what's happening in India today, right, I mean that the political climate and stuff like this. So people should should develop an interest. Don't walk away from you know, the country of probably your country or the country your parents were born in. Maintain that link and so that and it's easy, it's not that difficult. There are clubs that there are organizations that that help you keep in touch with your heritage. So I was fascinated. The part of the book that fascinated me, and I didn't read every detail, but I did look at the charts, etc. Is some of the genealogy, which you said would be less interesting to other people. Perhaps your family had been really a lot of people in very important times in history right in India.

38:15 Can you talk about a few of those? Sure? Both my grandfathers, so my father's father actually worked for the Nizam of Hitherabad. In nineteen twenty eight, Time magazine called this guy. Nizam is another word for king of the state of Hydrobiad, which in today's terms was as big geographically as the current country of Italy, right in the center of India. In Time magazine of nineteen twenty eight called him the richest man in the world. And my grandfather was certainly not royal blood, but was a high level administrator with the Nizam. And so there's a lot of pictures I've included because I talk about culture, right, those dresses, those languages, the way people dressed, the way they behaved in front of the king is gone forever, even though it's only a hundred years old. The same thing. My mother's father actually worked for the Nizam Ad I'm much lad there's a big age difference between the two of them. They never knew each other. But by this time India had taken over the state of Hydrobad it had become part of India.

39:14 And now my mother's father was walking a tight rope because he still had to have the Nizam has his boss. But actually the Nizam's boss was the Government of India, So you know, walking that tight rope and just managing the politics of that time, which must have been pretty daunting. But but he managed in you know, so in their children, which is my father and my mother probably saw that and assimilated that and adapted. So change happens to everybody, right, how you adapt to it is something you know that we all have to adapt to it. So there's a mix of there's a mix of you know, Indians English. There's a picture here where two people, I mean, I just lost the page. I'm just filling back to the great radio right, Aga Khan the third and his wife visit in his arm They're dressed in very western clothing of the time. It was nineteen eleven.

40:14 It looked like they're I would say they're British if I didn't read the caption. And you know, that's a very good example that you chose. He the Agra Khan was actually born in Karachi, Pakistan, but moved to France and you know, became the owner of race horses, very very very rich man and adopted the English, the British. He was married several times and always to European women. So that's what I mean, is like, no, I'm not saying he gave up his religion or something, but in that picture, except for him and his British wife, everybody is dressed in that tradition, in the traditional clothes, except for him in something very interesting when the Bosnia situation happened, the Bosnians, you know, the Muslims here helped Bosnia come over. They came over and they used to pray at the local mosque and all this. But it's so interesting. You know, right after the priss they'd all go outside in the black leather jackets and and you could tell where they were standing because they would all smoke and with you know, they were all standing under this little cloud of smoke. So you know, you and that's fine if that's how you wear a black leather jacket, at least maintain that. But yes, very pointed question about the other He obviously was more interested in the Western culture than his own. The name Khan, of course we hear I think of Genghis Khan. Is that a Is that a talk about that name? That that surname? So so Han is you

41:45 know it comes from um Han actually is uh. That's the best way to say this. It's it's a royal title. Han means somebody who's high up. But people have adopted the name, so you could be Kevin Hallen and but you know, you could adopt the name Kevin hahn In In a lot of Indian Bollywood actors you will notice have that last name. They were not all born Hans, right took that name on as as a prestigious title, if you will. Some of them are, especially the Patans of northwest India are Hans. Are the true Hans, the Patans, you know, that's a tribe in Pakistan. But outside of that very I'd say not too many people are born with that name, but they adopt those names. So it's pretty fascinating. Some nice, kind of cute pictures of you, one one touching one with your grandfather, Um where you were forced to wear the topi which is the hat right exactly in a scowl on my face says it all because I did not want to wear it. But I so clearly remember even at that age, he wanted a formal picture and he was probably the age that I'm at now, and he says, no, this is a formal picture and you will wear the topie. I wasn't too thrilled, but the scal in my fist says at all, but I had to wear it.

43:15 Looking back, you know he did the right thing. I mean I can look and say that, hey, that's how you dressed. We're supposed to dress and yes, various student, various student picking that one out. And then there are a couple of pictures from nineteen forty and nineteen fifty six. Two of your namesakes. You're their namesake, Mohammed Imad ud Dean and I'm at Udin Sadiki, very western clothing, yes, Kevin and u Ammad Udin is my dad and Imad is his older brother. And again, you know these people the British had left, so you had to be very British your orientation, right, not my grandfather's now I'm talking about my father and my uncles and so forth. Right, So you had to assimilate in and and you know, they pretty much gave up the sherwani, which is the traditional uh hyd their body dress if you will. Uh. And they had to adapt. And then soon thereafter when the British left in the Government of India took over. So you know, I mean they had to adopt and they had to adapt uh in where those those kind of clothes. Uh. And most people actually just walked away from from the traditional clothes and uh. And you're right, did those you know, my dad and uh and Um his older brother did. All right, a couple more questions here. The name Fatima or Fatima has a lot of significance. I know of a couple of

44:45 people actually with that first name. What is the significance of that first name? You you know you really went through that book? I did so so well. Well, you know, I mean the three monetistic religions, you know, Judaism Christianity in Islam come from one another, Judaism first, Christianity after that and about fifteen hundred years ago Islam and Jesus is mentioned in the Hohorran, Islam's holy book twenty eight times, where the prophet Muhammad is only mentioned twice and only as the messenger. So we take Jesus as a prophet for Muslims. Right, So Fatimah, which is you know, Mary's name.

45:28 There's a whole chapter by the way, on Mary in the Hurran. So Fatima is another name for mother Mary. And you know most girls are named like my mother's middle name was Fatima. And yes, you'll find a lot of those names again, you know, based on the religious aspects. All right, last question before we're done it. We're almost out of time, believe it or not. Is I want you to talk to people and this will it's gonna be hard to do in about a minute. But what was it like to climb Kilimanjaro? Cold in nothing but nothing but misery? And Kevin, this is only twenty thousand feet imagine doing. Somebody asked me, do you want to do Everest in? My answer was an emphatic no.

46:15 The difference between boys and men Kilimanjaro boys, Everest men. So that's my short answer. It was cold and miserable, but so glad to when you submit any of these mountains. The feeling you get, the fourier jumping out of a plane, they just, you know, just indescribable. So it was a lot of fun, a lot of preparation, and a lot of misery go along with it. Well, that's fascinating. I know I've talked to you about that before. I just wanted others to hear that we are sadly out of time, believe it or not. What is the best way for people to reach out to you if they've got questions or where can they find the book? Also, it's available on Amazon, on Bonds and Noble. They just have to, you know, use my name, or just go into the book title of the book type that also on Apple, iTunes, in Google Play, so you know, a hard copy, paperback e versions whatever you want on Amazon, in Bonds and Noble in those other places. Or call me. Okay, what's your phone number? What's your phone number? Sure five, should have put that in the crawl. Sorry my fault. No, that's fine, Kevin. I'll give it now.

47:29 Five zero eight six five four eight zero four four One more time five zero eight six five four eight zero four four. Well, this has been fun for me personally, hope it's been entertaining for listeners and viewers. Thank you so much for being here. I know you're super busy. Thanks for taking the time. Thank you, Kevin, take care you got it, and thank you everybody for watching and listening. This is a show often about business and business challenges. If you've got concerns about the growth of your company, feel free to reach out to me. You can find me on Facebook or LinkedIn at Winning Business Radio. You can drop me a note one of my money and easy email addresses Kevin at Winning Business Radio dot com. Our company's Winning Incorporated. We're part of Sandler Training. We developed sales teams into high achievers and sales leaders into true coaches and mentors. We're not a fit for everybody, but hey, maybe we should have a conversation. Thank you and well done to producer and engineer one for another great job. Be sure to join us next week that's Monday, April twenty fourth. My guests will be carried Garbs, founder and CEO of of Ovation Communication. That's four o'clock Eastern time. Be sure to join us. Until then, this is Kevin Helenan.

48:43 You've been listening to Winning Business Radio with your host, Kevin Helena. If you missed any part of this episode, the podcast is available on Talk for Podcasting and iHeartRadio. For more information and questions, go to Winning Business Radio dot com or check us out on social media. Tune in again next week and every Monday at four pm Eastern Time to listen live to Winning Business Radio on W fourcy radiowfourcy dot com. Until then, let's succeed where others have failed and win in business with Kevin Hallinan and Winning Business Radio