#Clockedin with Jordan Edwards

#225 - Unlocking Opportunities in a Connected World

• Jordan Edwards • Season 5 • Episode 225

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Ever wondered how globalization is reshaping our world? Kerim Kfuri, a global entrepreneur and supply chain guru, joins us to unveil the intricacies of this transformation. From his financial governance roots to founding the pioneering Atlas Network, Kerim shares insights on navigating the complex web of global supply chains. Discover how technology bridges gaps and unlocks opportunities, influencing everything from business interactions to our daily lives.


Writing is more than just words on a page; it's a journey of personal growth and creative expression. We highlight the timeless value of pen and paper, even in a digital age, and discuss finding harmony between life's routines and passions. Whether through music or other interests, identifying what truly matters at different life stages can prevent our passions from being overshadowed, leading to a more fulfilled and balanced life.

Our conversation takes you around the globe, exploring how cultural awareness and personal connections enrich our experiences. Through Kerim's travels and personal stories, we explore how stepping out of comfort zones can recalibrate our values and priorities. Embrace the courage to change paths that no longer bring joy, and find fulfillment in new experiences that resonate with your core. From extended travels to the flexibility of technology, learn how global opportunities can foster personal growth and a deeper understanding of what truly makes us happy.

How to reach Kerim:

Website:   KerimKfuri.com 

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kerimkfuri

To Reach Jordan:

Email: Jordan@Edwards.Consulting

Youtube:https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC9ejFXH1_BjdnxG4J8u93Zw

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jordan.edwards.7503

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jordanfedwards/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jordanedwards5/



Hope you find value in this. If so please provide a 5-star and drop a review.

Complimentary Edwards Consulting Session: https://calendly.com/jordan-555/intro-call

Speaker 1:

Hey, what's going on, guys? We've got a special guest here today. We have Kareem Kharfouri. He's a global entrepreneur and he's a supply chain specialist. He's the CEO of the Atlas Network, author of Supply Chain's Ups and Downs and the co-host of the Supply and Demand Show podcast. We're excited to have you here, kareem. Welcome to the Hashtag Clocked In podcast. So the first question I was thinking about is because you're a supply chain expert.

Speaker 2:

Well, first of all. First of all, thank you for having me, Absolutely. And then we get started Go ahead.

Speaker 1:

Absolutely, absolutely. I appreciate that, yeah. So what I was going to ask you was how did you see globalization occur? Because there's so much of us that's like we just lived in America, we just did our thing, but you really, because of your experience, you've had so much exposure to it.

Speaker 2:

I mean globalization has many parts to it.

Speaker 2:

You know we think about globalization in terms of the world and the way that we experience the world. We think about it in terms of business and economics. You know there's many facets to that idea of globalization, but more than anything else, I would tell you that I think that it is primarily due to technology. Technology has made the world smaller. We have the ability to reach the far corners of the earth with a touch of a button, to be able to communicate with people, share cultures, do business, transact and engage with business, people, communities, families that are spread out throughout the world. So I really do believe that globalization, especially in the last let's call it decade to two decades, has accelerated at a monumental pace, not because of so much travel and so forth I mean travel is still important and being able to go to distant places and see them with your own two eyes but more so, the technology side of it is just enhanced in a way that we can really engage with the world and understand the world and have it come to our fingertips.

Speaker 1:

Absolutely. I completely understand that, because I'll have some days where I'll have a phone call with someone in Pakistan and you're like, how did that happen? And then you'll have a phone call with three different people all over the world at the same time and you're like this never would have been possible before that. So for you, where in your journey did you start getting involved with supply chain? Because it's such an interesting area. Some people like it, some people, most people don't know about it, but it's impacting you every single day.

Speaker 2:

Absolutely. It's impacting us every single day. That's part of the reason why I'm on this podcast with you and why I do a lot of podcasts these days is because there isn't enough kind of relatable material or relatable voice to explain to people about the supply chain industry what it is, why it's important, why it impacts the cost of goods, the availability of products when you go into the supermarket or the mall, why things may be changing in the future here with tariffs and duties and so forth. It's very, very critical to our everyday lives and our economy and the way that we transact and do business. But how did I sort of come to it? I came to it because, like most entrepreneurs, we're always seeking to find solutions to problems, and this goes back almost more than decades ago for me.

Speaker 2:

I was working in the financial industry. I was in the realm of sort of corporate governance and risk mitigation. I worked at the Securities and Exchange Commission in the Office of International Affairs. I was at NASD, finra, managing a lot of compliance and risk mitigation type of work, and I traveled to Asia and I also had always been an entrepreneur too. That's important, and when I went there I said, oh my God, this is an amazing scenario of you know, kind of learning about how manufacturing was taking place in that part of the world and that ideas were turned into reality every single day, but with what levels of protection? You know what levels of recourse, when and if things could go wrong. And just immediately, me being an intuitive person and interested in sort of the background and how things are made I saw gaping holes as far as quality and timeline and pricings and deliverables and culture differences and so many different things that you could just immediately see that oftentimes were put to the side or not regulated appropriately, all for the sake of dollars.

Speaker 2:

You know, originally, when many businesses were looking to outsource their manufacturing overseas, the goal was costs, you know, and they were willing to take on the risks associated with, you know, severely highly, more highly profitable scenarios, they say. You know, the quality may not be perfect but it's, you know, 70% cheaper than anywhere else in the world. We'll figure out the difference. But the problem is is that that difference can absolutely disrupt or dismantle your supply chain. So I it was in this sort of Pandora's box of potential fraud and issues that exist in this industry that I got most interested to say let me create a company whose focus is on protecting the interests of entrepreneurs small, medium and large-sized businesses that want to take advantage of the global economy entrepreneurs small, medium and large-sized businesses that want to take advantage of the global economy but don't have the resources, capability, knowledge, skill sets and presence on the ground which you do need to do this effectively of their own. So instead of building an entire infrastructure, especially for smaller companies that don't have the wherewithal to do that, let's build a company that works to do that, and we built the Atlas Network, which is a network currently of almost 2000 suppliers globally.

Speaker 2:

We operate in commodities and textiles and innovation products. There's really no production area that we haven't touched in the past two decades, and our main focus and intention is mass production delivered safely. It's pretty much global supply chain solutions. That starts with disruptions, that starts with opportunities that people want to take advantage of in a global economy where they don't have the capabilities to do so, and that's what we help to do. And so it brought together these experiences that I'd had in risk mitigation and in sort of controls and objectives, in finance, and then in consulting and in some other industries that I'd had in risk mitigation and in sort of controls and objectives in finance, and then in consulting and in some other industries that I had worked within, and my entrepreneurial spirit and background all came together to create this service model that still is extremely exciting and extremely attractive. And we know that because even just a few years ago, with the pandemic, I was going to say pandemic, the supply chain was every single day.

Speaker 2:

Everyone was talking about it because you had very important products like PPE for healthcare workers, someone that people couldn't get. They couldn't get masks, they couldn't get gloves, they couldn't get things in the supermarket, whatever it may be, and it highlighted the importance of how our global economy really works and, uh, and all the ins and outs of that. So Absolutely.

Speaker 1:

I mean, we've had guests come on who run brands and I remember this one girl she was the co-founder of Levo, which is, um, basically these different products, uh, for the home, and she, she would go, I would fly to China every four days, like every two weeks. She's like I would fly for four days, come back for a week and a half, fly for four days. She was like it was brutal.

Speaker 2:

She's like I probably took 40 trips in a year just to get the product right and she's like it was such a mess, and the reality of that is is that, as small to mid-sized businesses or entrepreneurs, your greatest asset is your time, and when you're trying to break out a new product and bring it to market, you need to focus on sales and marketing strategies, strategic partnerships, all of those things not running back and forth on airplanes to the other side of the planet so that, essentially, you can ensure that every I is dotted and T is crossed.

Speaker 2:

Instead, you delegate that. You hire groups of professionals, like what we do, and it may cost you a fractional bit more because everybody has to sort of get paid to do what they do for work, but it is absolutely worth it because the time that you save and probably the efficiency and transparency you get, greatly, greatly overcome any kind of personal needs to sort of see the sausage being made Right and you know. But entrepreneurs God bless them, myself included Our first intention is rolling up our sleeves and let's get into it.

Speaker 1:

I was going to say for you, because you're someone who's very like, you have a corporate experience and then you have this entrepreneurial experience. How did you feel like going through both? Because it can always be a challenging start when you're making that leap and kind of going into something a little different.

Speaker 2:

You know, I think it's very important for for um, for entrepreneurs to have varying experiences and, you know, regardless of if it's in different industries or in different titles or different areas of work because those are all arrows that are in your quiver to be able to bring them out when you need them as an entrepreneur and as an entrepreneur, we go home every day with our successes and failures. We have bumps in the road, we have to pivot, we have to adapt with the shift, and what allows us to do that most effectively is our other experiences that we've had. So I would not be good at what I did if I didn't have my consulting experiences.

Speaker 2:

I wouldn't be good at what I do if I didn't have my consulting experiences, I wouldn't be good at what I do if I didn't have my financial background to understand dollars and cents and corporate infrastructure and negotiation. I wouldn't be good at what I do unless I had my education that I had in my undergraduate and then in my master's degrees and things of that nature. So all of these different things come together to really be able to create an adaptable mindset. That is what you really need more than anything else in entrepreneurship.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I think it's awesome how you explain that, because most people might feel like they're on the journey and be like none of the stuff I'm doing makes sense, but when you look backwards, it all makes sense. Sense, which is the most important thing for us to really understand what we're trying to accomplish yeah, without our past there is no present or future, and that's really that's, that's.

Speaker 2:

You know.

Speaker 2:

I'm working on a second book and the second book is a bunch of quotes that I've sort of you know, held dear or or written in the past several years.

Speaker 2:

I tend to like to write you know and ideas down, and a lot of it's real, practical knowledge, and that's what I mean by something like that Without your past there is no present or future. Because we're consistently building and we're building upon our past experiences, whether they were good or they were bad, the twists and turns in the road, those trials and tribulations that end up being the backbone of your success, those trials and tribulations that end up being the backbone of your success. You know that all of those things really really matter and are essential to making you a well-rounded entrepreneur, business person and just generally a human being. You know we have to learn from our mistakes and our failures and our successes, and all of that comes together in a way to make you actively prepared to take on whatever comes your way. And as an entrepreneur, we need to be able to do that. We need to be able to pivot and adapt.

Speaker 1:

Absolutely. And one of the things I found really fascinating about you, kareem, when I was reading your website you put out this book. Supply Chains Ups and Downs and you write this is the first of many books. So how does one go into a new project or a new arena and be like I'm confident about this, I'm going to keep pushing, no matter what, because I know so many people would dip their toe in and be like I might write a chapter, but now I'm not interested, like how do you go? I'm doing this Cause I know a lot of people are struggling with that.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, it's a good question. Um, I think that anything worth doing is worth doing right and worth doing, you know, with your passion and your heart in it. It's okay to have false starts, it's okay to try something and say, you know, that's really not for me, or and so on and so forth, but if you really believe in something, even if it's hard, you're going to have to stick to it and you're going to have to basically be able to understand the motivations as to why you're doing it. That's equally as important as the actual task. What is the reasons as to why you are exactly going down this path, this journey, climb up this mountain, and will it be worth it for you in the end? Well, sometimes the outcome isn't the reason why it's worth it. It's because the journey was worth it. Right, and that's how we have to look at some of these ventures as well.

Speaker 2:

There have been many, many entrepreneurial ventures in my life that it was the journey, not the outcome, in the end. That was the true measure of the success. That was the true measure of the success how much you learned, how much you grew, how much you struggled and learned new skill sets or whatever it may be in a way, and whether the outcome in the end was failure or success, it's always a success as long as you celebrate the approach and the journey and the process to it. As you said, you're staring down, writing like a book and you say to yourself this is going to be challenging, it's going to be hard. I'm going to learn a lot of tough conversations. Maybe you have to rewrite chapters, maybe you have to do different things, and all of that's part of that journey so that the next time you do it, or when you have a conversation with someone at a later date, like we're having here, you can explain these things and say that there's merit in what was done.

Speaker 1:

Absolutely, and I noticed you also mentioned that writing's been very important in your life. So for you, even with the quotes and everything, what do you use writing for? Like, what is it really for you? Because I literally the last podcast, I just had a guest and he's like dude. The only way to get better is to write. And I'm like what do you mean? And he's like dude. I write every day.

Speaker 2:

I'm like really, yeah, and you know it's a lost, it's a lost art form. You know, these days, you know even students in classes I've got two kids. You know they're typing away, you know they're not really writing as much, and so on and so forth, and they're using, you know, Chad, GPT and all these different assistance tools. And you lose something there. You lose the creativity, you lose the struggle. We just talked about the importance of the journey.

Speaker 2:

Well, part of that journey is struggling to find that word, struggling to find that phrase or how those ideas come together. I believe that it's through writing that we create a true synthesis of thought, that as we write and we put things down on paper, you say I didn't really mean it like that, I meant it more like this, and so on and so forth. So it's quite a strong exercise to help you to hone your ideologies, help you to, you know, strengthen your positions and thoughts. And it's a great gift. It's a great gift that we have to be able to write and it's becoming, unfortunately, more and more of a lost thing in our society.

Speaker 1:

Well, that's why I wanted to bring it up today, because I'm like it's not uncommon, like the majority of the time it's very. It's come up multiple times in a row and it's coming up multiple days in a row, so there has to be something here that's really interesting and really profound, because if people aren't going to do this, aren't going to take these actions, like and I'm bringing this up so that the audience realizes you can pause this podcast and you could take notes right now, you could write down your thoughts, you can kind of conjure up your ideas to make sure that you understand what's going on in your life, or if you're happy or not, because one thing we also talked about is that you have done a lot in your experience, but how were you able to balance this all? Because I know it can be a struggle and I know it can be challenging.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, it's a great. That's a really good question and an important one for us all to think about. I mean, it really starts with defining for yourself what's important, and for all of us that's going to be different, and sometimes what's important to you in your 20s is different than what's important in your 30s or your 40s. It's also a bit of a moving target, but you need to make determinations on at least what's important to you for now short term, medium term, longer term and you need to honor that. You need to respect the fact that you think that those things are important and make time for those important things.

Speaker 2:

There are so many scenarios in our lives where, let's say, music is important to you, or playing the guitar, whatever it may be, and you just get into this rut where you're working and you're, you know coming back and forth and you know commuting and you know you've got all these other things that are happening. But this is an important thing for you and you lose sight of it for months, maybe even a year or two, and that's a shame because for you, that's an important facet of your being. You know the way that you like to relax, the way that you like to think about things, or even celebrate or enjoy, I mean, and for all of us we have these different things. It could be something things, it could be something professional, it could be the time we spend with our family, it could be hobbies, it could be traveling or relaxation or meditation.

Speaker 2:

Whatever it is for you, you need to make time for those very, very important things, because as we get older, we understand that time is fleeting and that tomorrow is not promised, and so you want to make sure that you are celebrating those important things in your life. It's not a matter of being hedonistic or overly selfish. What it is is that you can't be the best you unless you celebrate the things that are important to you and you feel fulfilled. Because when you feel fulfilled and you feel like you're achieving what you would like to achieve whether it's dreams or fulfillment or purpose then you can be your best self for others, whether it's in your families or in your work or in your other environments, and that's very, very important.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, and it's funny going through high school, you're told what to do. Going through college, you're told what to do. Going through college, you're told what to do. You get a job and everyone's like go figure it out. And most people, by figuring it out, are just they do their job and then they go home, maybe work out, maybe read a little bit, probably watch TV, and then they go out with their friends and they never think long term, Like. One of the biggest examples I had was and I know it's.

Speaker 1:

It's a kind of interesting approach because I studied abroad, in Rome, when I was younger and when I studied there I ended up traveling most weekends, probably like every other weekend. My roommate did not leave Rome. He might have left Rome once or twice and he's like Jordan. How do you travel so much? And I'm like the biggest thing I realize is life comes down to planning and action. Majority of the time we forget to plan. So there's limited action Because you can buy a flight day of, but it's not as exciting because it's better to look forward to something, know the experience, know what you're going to do and look forward to that. But a lot of the time we don't spend that on it. So I always try to help people with understanding that you have to plan your life out, but you also have to take time to take action. It's not good to be planning middle of the day when you're like, wait, we should be in action mode. So it's these little components and these check-ins that I think are so valuable to prioritize what you want to prioritize.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I think that's important, but I do think at the same time, too, that it's not always fully planned in the idea that you just want to be in the place or in the environment where things could happen and if some you know random occurrences or some aha moments or chances of coincidence that could be monumental or could shift aspects of the way you think about things in your life or perceptions, you have to also be open to that idea too, Because what I notice is a little bit of the opposite of what you said, which is that some people tend to plan out too much and when they do that, they over-orchestrate their lives and they don't leave room for maybe being able to find what is their true sense of purpose or their true sense of happiness because they are just so focused on walking a very particular straight path and it just depends also on, like, who you are.

Speaker 2:

I mean, if I was to and entrepreneurs understand this, because most entrepreneurs have a very twisted turned path. That is a combination of situations of coincidence, good timing, chance, being in the right place at the right time, whatever you want to call it as well as seizing opportunities because they were in those places, they put themselves in those places, but it couldn't have been planned. It couldn't have been planned. It couldn't have been planned. If I look back on my life right now and what I do today and what I've done up to now, I never could have planned where I am today in any way. I could tell you I was always an international person. I was always interested in cultures and traveling and international business. I've always been an entrepreneur since a very young age. So ultimately, I guess, if I look at those precursors, it sort of comes together in a way, but the experiences in between is what created the Bible for being successful at doing things that I do. There has to be interest, but there also has to be a lot of follow through.

Speaker 1:

Yeah. So it's so funny because words are so limiting. You know what I mean. So when we talk about different plans, that doesn't mean plan out every detail that can be in plan, the big idea of like, hey, we're going to go on this trip to Asia, cool, where are we going to go? This city, this city, this city. But if we run into someone, something might change. But the biggest thing I think you said there is that you have to put yourself in this situation. You have to be open to opportunity, because you have those people that are super closed off to different environments, which makes things very, very challenging. So for you, what's been your biggest benefit throughout your working experience with the Atlas Group and the podcast and all of that where you kind of put yourself in that opportunity? Where have you seen that kind of come out in your life?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I mean it comes out in again taking advantage of the global economy as far as how we work, and what do I mean by that? I mean you know, we have multiple offices in China, you know, and traveling throughout the world for clients, meeting different people, different cultures, different ways to enjoy, celebrate, do work, transact. You get to be a global citizen in my work, and that is something that is a very, I think, overlooked and somehow a bit of a rare occurrence, unfortunately, for many people in the world, or in business too, where they just stick to what they know. They stick to their city, they stick to their state, maybe they stick to their country, and they either close themselves off to the idea that it's a much bigger planet than that or they just get overly comfortable with what they know.

Speaker 2:

Yes, that would be something that I wish I could do for many people to be able to take off these glasses and put them on others and be like this is how you could see the world, this is how you could see relationships with people throughout the planet, and I've been fortunate enough to travel to many, many countries and be in many, many environments and situations where you have to adapt, you have to kind of back to your Rome idea do do as the Romans do in Rome, and you have to basically be able to put yourself second. That's an important thing. When to put yourself second is an important factor when you're doing business in the global economy, because who should be first are the ones that you're transacting with and what you learn from them and how you are going to interact. So there's a real beauty and benefit to putting yourself second in the attempts of being the best kind of global citizen that you can be and learn the most that you can.

Speaker 1:

Absolutely, absolutely. So how could someone get involved in kind of like this global economy? Obviously, we talked about travel. I travel a good amount, but I mean, how do you think about that? Because I know that's something that a lot of people I mean I think it's over 50 percent of Americans don't even have passports.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, yeah, I mean really sad Well.

Speaker 1:

I live within five 10 miles of their own home.

Speaker 2:

Sure, sure, I mean. I think that how you do that if you can't or unwilling to get on an airplane and travel or get your passport although everybody should get their passport, um is again back to this idea that we talked about before this thing.

Speaker 1:

this allows us to transport.

Speaker 2:

You know, just like, uh, on Star Trek, where they'd have the little, the little transporters and they would, you know, push. Like on Star Trek, where they'd have the little transporters and they would, you know, push the buttons and then they'd show up in another place. I mean, we're almost there in many ways. We're not actually physically going to these places, but we are able to see the far corners of the earth, we're able to communicate with and talk to and be able to develop a global mindset, because the world is smaller and technology is the root cause of this. So that's how I think it should be done.

Speaker 2:

I think that I could pick this up and I could learn new languages. Right, I could pick this up and I could travel or do commerce with people in other parts of the world using platforms like Alibaba or whatever platforms you want to use. I can be able to get a good sense of the planet simply through, and then just, content from other parts of the planet, watch videos, read stories. I mean, whatever you want to say, it's at our fingertips. So that's a way to really develop that global mindset, I think, too.

Speaker 1:

I was going to say. That's been one of the most fascinating things to me is that, like sometimes you for me I'll be on tiktok sometimes and you're just going through and it will put you in a different location, like regarding the california fires, you, it will just put you around all these people that are experiencing that, or there's maybe an issue going on in china or japan, or and it's all of these people giving their live feedback of, like what they're experiencing. It becomes a very fascinating and the planet feels very, very small after that, yeah, I mean.

Speaker 2:

I mean even in just kind of fun like popular culture type of stuff. I think it was my son the other day who was, you know, singing some song, and none of the language he was saying made any sense to me and I'm like what, what is this song that you're singing? Oh, it's the most popular like song in Korea. Ok, All right, so that's exactly what.

Speaker 2:

I'm talking about Some super popular, viral TikTok dance song craze from Korea, that kids in the United States, who don't even know what they're saying, are singing Korean words and trying to do dances that are popular on the other side of the planet. That all happens because of this thing. You know it's a weird cultural exchange of a sort, but maybe the next time that you're in the company of people from Korea you can, you'll bring it up and then, and then you know there's a communication, you know bridge there. There's a, there's a bridge of of understanding and identity. That happened pretty much through watching your phone.

Speaker 1:

Right, yes, exactly. Well, that's why I think it's so important, like you're saying, to view yourself as a global citizen, because a lot of us just want to be American, I'm Chinese, I'm anything, but when we're really open to the world, then there's no judgments, there's no. You live like this, you live like that because the entitlement's completely out the window. So how has this global citizen idea kind of helped you with the idea of leaders and being built or being born, because I know a lot of leader. You do a lot of stuff with leadership, you do a lot of stuff with mindset. How do you think about that?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I mean, I think that this is an important segue. So I mean, on the concept of born and built, it really comes back to that whole pathway idea that on the built side, you know, we're building in our lives towards leadership and and leading first and foremost with our own lives, and then moving outwards to trying to lead others through a process of intention. I want to try to work towards this, achieve these goals, achieve these dreams and so forth. But as we go through this process, we realize somewhere along the path, maybe it's in our 20s or 30s, 40s, 50s or even 70s, whatever it may be, that we may come across aha moments that really reveal our true purpose of what we feel as though we've been put on this planet to do, and it's in those moments that we have to be able to be willing to seize that as much as possible.

Speaker 2:

Now, how does that fit into global citizenship and so on? Well, the way it fits in is because the way that you get at realizing your own true goals and objectives and even leadership, is by exposure exposure to different environments, situations and cultures and you know other aspects of the world. And so how can you really know whether you're going in the right pathways or the wrong pathways if you have a very one-sided view. And so this is where you start to become to have more of a limitless mindset, right, and you start to have more of a global citizenship type of an ideology to say, hey, you know what, the way they do it in Italy is better, because I've been there or I've seen it and I know that, and so I've taken that inside and when I look around I realize that I don't have the benefits of what I saw somewhere else.

Speaker 2:

So I'm either going to choose to embrace those things or incorporate those things into my life to then be able to have other opportunities come to me that are fulfilling or make sense to me. But you would never have known that unless if you were open to the idea of experiencing that other culture or that travel or that international business or whatever it may be. So this is how I see you know those intersection points happening between kind of globalization, being a global citizen, and then the way that we choose to live our lives and the importance of that.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, it's so important. You made me think of my time when I did the Inca Trail in Peru and we hiked Machu Picchu and then we went to this small city of Ecuador. This was in 2021. Covid was still like going around and we're in Ecuador. It's a very, very small population. These people literally live in wood, like they literally pick up the mud and they start building their homes. Yeah, it's bizarre and like we would go out and we can get like. It was just a fascinating experience. But, like you said, you now have another perspective that many people don't have, because they're like I'm not going there, I'm not experiencing that. I, I know what I know and I, I do that. But it's important to have these other experiences so that you can see what else is out there, because yeah, it's, it's what else is out there.

Speaker 2:

But the other thing too is is to also recalibrate or rebalance your own thoughts and beliefs on what's important.

Speaker 2:

And I'll give you an example of that.

Speaker 2:

So I was in India not too long last year, around April time I was there with my kids and everyone else, and India I think it's like 40%, maybe 50% of the country lives in poverty. You know, it's just significant, significant poverty, and so much so that when you go out to like the outskirts, you see homes that are built out of, like, you know, basically, cow patties. They take you know the feces of you know cows and animals and they compress it with hay and they turn them into these bricks and they let them sit out in the sun and then that's their method of manufacturing bricks and they build houses out of this. I mean, there's no like smell or anything of that nature because of the fact that it's, you know, baked in the sun and all this kind of stuff. Or you go to these other places where you have, you know, slums, really slums, and people are walking around with no shoes, with like no clothes, you know shanty towns, things of that nature, but what do you see? The biggest smiles you've ever seen in your life.

Speaker 2:

Yes, it's not a joy and a happiness that you probably would have never even understood or would maybe ever experience in their life. And what else do you see there? You see a sense of community. Why? Because everybody relies on each other to help each other out a little bit so that they can have an existence that they can actually be able to provide for their kids or do whatever they need to do.

Speaker 2:

So my point being is that you got out of your comfort zone, you went to this other country. You see poverty, maybe like you've never seen before in some of these areas, and what do you take away with it? You take away with it the idea that happiness and joy and sense of being is not about material possessions, and it's more about the way that we choose to celebrate our lives, the way that we interact with others, the importance of family, the importance of sharing and community and all these other things, because you can see, in scenarios where that's all they have, how it can still bring joy. And so this is another one of those lessons where, when traveling and being a global citizen, you learn to recalibrate your value sets on what's very, very important too.

Speaker 1:

A hundred percent. A hundred percent Because the people around you affect you and honestly, that got me kind of thinking, because probably a month ago was my birthday and we ended up doing like a birthday dinner and we had this cool restaurant, it's like down the street and I sat there and I realized this was really nice. I got together with all these people. It was an easy dinner. Everyone I go why can't I do this again? So now we're actually setting it up for this Saturday and I just called it a friendship dinner and people are like a friendship dinner. I'm like, dude, we don't need a birthday, we don't need anything. I haven't seen a lot of you guys, so come together and we can all hang out together. It's not at my place, it's not at anyone else's place, so that burden's not on anyone, but it's just a nice way to hang out with people in a very relaxed environment Because, like you said, relationships are the key to everything. The better relationships you have, the more exciting life you're going to have.

Speaker 2:

And that's true, and that's true. And it doesn't always have to be with an intention either. It could literally be about the fulfillment of just getting together with people. You know, I mean I have a similar thing with three or four guys that I've known since we were 12 and 13 years old and they live in the city and every month or two we sort of like figure out our schedules between what's going on with the kids and who's traveling to where and what.

Speaker 2:

And it's not easy. It's like sometimes trying to plan out like, uh, some kind of a national or a global treaty to try to figure out where we're going to have dinner and how we're going to have dinner. But when we do it and we do it because it's important and we make it a priority it's wonderful because it's old friends getting together to see each other through these different evolution parts of our lives and we laugh like we're 13 years old. You know we live in those ways, but you know we're not 13 years old, but we're enjoying those times and I think that's very, very important to celebrate those friendships and those relationships whatever you can and for no reason other than to just do that.

Speaker 1:

Exactly, and then you never know what's going to come of that. But at least you're maintaining those relationships, like another tidbit. And the reason I'm sharing this is because for the audience, if they're sitting there like, oh, how do I do this? Maybe something I said, or Kareem said this could be very easy tips to kind of make those things happen. But one of the other things I do is I send out voice notes Literally at the end of the year. I go through my phone, take six seconds and I sit there and I go. Is that person worth six seconds? Is this friendship worth six seconds? And these people, I send it to them and they're like, oh my God.

Speaker 1:

Some people say thanks, whatever. Some people don't respond. Some people are like, dude, you're going to have the best year ever or I'm going to have the best. I'm like cool man, I didn't expect you to write a paragraph, but I appreciate that because most of the time people aren't getting those texts. But what I've learned is that if you're the giver, it's like the giver's gain, like the one who gives receive. I, dude, I probably received 500 messages. Happy new year, because I probably sent out 2000. That. Does that make me feel bad or good, neither, or but. It's just more of this understanding that, like, the more you put out there and the more you give, the better you're going to get.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, absolutely, and I'm a huge proponent of that. You know, my name actually, in Arabic means generous, kareem means generous, and I've always lived that way. You know, before people were really even talking about that concept of givers and takers and all this kind of thing, and and I do believe that I mean my company we've been around, like I said, for more than two decades. For the first probably 15, even 17 years we never even advertised, not once. So how did we grow to be in a multi-million dollar organization that does lots of business and opportunities was all through doing a good job and going the extra mile when others wouldn't, and people speaking about that in a very positive manner with their communities and then saying you need this level of help or assistance. You know the Atlas Network and Kareem and his team could help you to achieve these things that they've done for us. And so it all starts with giving and that's what ends up coming back to pay off in spades many times over.

Speaker 1:

A hundred percent. So I know that we're running towards the end and I just wanted to ask you. I looked on your website. You obviously have quotes. One of the quotes was sometimes the path of least resistance is the new path. What do you mean by that? How does that make you feel? Because I know there's a lot of people coming into 2025 thinking maybe I'm on a new path, who knows and how should they feel about that.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, it's a great, I love that one. And I think it comes back to what we talked about before, about having that adaptive mindset and recognizing, especially as we get kind of further on in our careers, that time is fleeting and there is going to come a moment every now and again for us whether it's in our lives, our relationship, our business, our professional side of things where we're going to look at what we're doing and we're going to say this isn't really it, this really isn't it, and, as a matter of fact, it just seems like an unnecessary climb, it seems like something that just is a hell of a lot more pain than benefit. And when we look at it in that way, we have to say to ourselves you know, sometimes the path of least resistance is to take a new path, not to necessarily even look at the current path you're on and find a different way. It's an entirely new path. Um of us that comes easy and we know what we want to shift to or put our efforts into.

Speaker 2:

For others, we need to continue to sort of throw things at the wall until we really get to what it is that we decided we want to do. But it definitely starts with recognition, where you look around and you say I'm looking at what we're doing here, what I'm doing, and it just isn't getting it done for me anymore and I'm just not happy with that and so I need to make a change. A lot of us aren't brave enough to do so. We may have cushy jobs or been in a place for a long time or have expectations on us put by family or society or whatever else it is, and we feel as though it's too hard to change or to shift, and the only one that that creates a huge disservice for is yourself. And when you're sitting there looking in the mirror and thinking about where you are and what you're doing, you're going to recognize that these are things that just are not going to solve your happiness unless you start doing the things you really want to do and need to do.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, so what I'm hearing is that the goal for all of us is to learn about what we love and to go out there and try to prioritize that in our day-to-day lives, whether that's we plan it on the schedule, whether that's mean we change careers, whether we do whatever, but try enough things to figure out what you love, because if we don't do that, we're never going to be in that fully immersed happiness state that we're all striving to get to, not saying that it's always there for a moment, not saying it's there forever, but it might be there for a moment, but it's that feeling that we're constantly chasing, going through this. Yeah absolutely.

Speaker 2:

That's absolutely true. We have to continue to search for our fulfillment, and because if we have that fulfillment, it will bring us joy like nothing else can and will, and so that is just an absolutely essential part of our being to work towards fulfillment. It doesn't necessarily mean that it's an achievement of dollars and cents or material wealth or whatever else it is. I mean, those could be objectives or goals that help you towards some levels of freedom, that then get you to levels of fulfillment like a way to get there, but in the end, we really have to strive towards our fulfillment. That's very important.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, and let's just dive into that really quick. How does someone even start that journey of looking for their fulfillment? How do they know if they're on the right path?

Speaker 2:

or if they're going in that direction. Well, it all starts with knowing what you don't want to be doing. That's important, because we try a lot of things and we can get a sense of why we don't like it. And as again, as we have more and more experiences and exposures to different scenarios, we start to get a sense of what we like the most. It doesn't always come to us like a thunderbolt out of the sky that we have no idea of. It. Could it could.

Speaker 2:

Maybe you have that scenario where somebody's a savant and they didn't even know they go to a basketball game. They're sitting there in the stands. They've never been to a basketball game before in their life. Somebody calls out a number for someone to throw the half court shot. It ends up being that person. They go down to the half court. They've never touched a basketball in their life. They throw it and they make a half court shot. Okay, what's that mean? What? What does that mean for their future, for their destiny? Maybe it's the most fulfilling thing ever. Maybe they have now a destiny that was supposed to always be, that they never even knew that they should do, and so we have to look for those kind of lightning in a bottle scenarios, too, when it comes to fulfillment, but generally speaking, it's about passion. It's about enjoying it and loving what that thing is and deciding to really go for it, for your own happiness.

Speaker 1:

Absolutely, and you got to. I think one of the biggest things, too, is to prioritize yourself and what you want to accomplish, because there will always be other jobs, there will always be other friends, there will always be other things, but there's only one existence for you. And one of the biggest things for me was last year. I ended up doing seven weeks in Europe, and the reason for that was because my fiance at the time we're now married, but my fiance at the time she'd been to Europe, but only for a brief period. So we ended up going there, working US hours while we were there, but we were able to travel to all these different places and I'm like, oh, you got your study abroad experience and she was like it was incredible, because you start to realize that going for a week is nice, but like, if we really enjoy it, why wouldn't we go for longer?

Speaker 1:

And then the cost of everything kind of goes down because you're not so jumpy and you're not so I have to be at the best hotel because I'm only here for a week, but it's more like, hey, we're going to be here for two months. Like, how do you want to break this down? How do you want to think about this and you know what the funny thing was, we each started doing much better in everything we were doing because we were giving ourselves that space to breathe, not from everything else going on, but from our friends, from our normal routine, from breaking things down that allow you to open up and become this new version of yourself, which I think is incredible and gives you perspective too, in a different environment, to really be able to see what's important and what you really enjoy and love, and technology makes that possible, as you saw, you know, you're able to promote or work from the other side of the planet.

Speaker 2:

These are some of the the beauties of being able to also be a global citizen by being able to travel and still be connected to the world, connected to the things that matter to you back home and family and relationships and everything else, and so it's not like you drop off the grid once and no one hears from you. You drop off the grid and you could talk to the people you care about every single day if you wanted to yeah, yeah, absolutely, absolutely, kareem.

Speaker 1:

This has been absolutely incredible. Where can people learn more about you, learn about your supply chain book? Where can people get more about you, learn about your supply chain book? Where can people get access to all this?

Speaker 2:

sure so for any of my sort of thought, leadership and speaking and consulting and all that kind of stuff. It's my first and last name, so kareem kafouricom. For any kind of global manufacturing or supply chain solutions, issues or challenges people may be facing entrepreneurs, small, medium, large size businesses it would be the Atlas networkcom, which is the name of my company. And finally, for the book uh, it is supply chain ups and downscom, or on Amazon at uh, supply chain ups and downs.

Speaker 1:

So I'll put all those in the share notes. Thank you Great.

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Jordan Edwards

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