Asad Shah is an Amazon FBA, E-Commerce Entrepreneur, & aspiring stand-up comedian born in Pakistan. He moved to the United States when he was six years old, says his childhood was “sheltered and restricted.” He jokes that his parents were a little too religious (Muslim).
Now 29, Asad has been living in Los Angeles since college, which makes for great stories that he shares with great enthusiasm in this episode.
He’s also very active on Twitter—he has over 17k followers. Additionally, Asad gives advice via his newsletter on how to make money, escape mediocrity and free your mind.
In this episode, we discuss Asad’s stand-up comedy experience. He says sometimes you’ll walk out on stage and the audience looks like they’re mad at you for being there. But says even when you bomb in front of a crowd, you gain confidence. And for any aspiring comedian, he says having “stage presence” and comedic timing are more important than being funny.
Asad tells candid stories of going out with other social media “influencers” in L.A. and feeling “some type of way in his head.” Hanging out with other influencers with huge followings can make one feel inferior. But his friend quickly brought him back to reality when he was reminded that he’s doing much better than them financially. I love that sort of candor. Moreover, he tells candid stories of dating in L.A., being called a misogynist, and how easily someone can be labeled “rapey” in some circles.
Our modern dating conversation led to a discussion on the absence of masculinity in the West. I expected this to be an outstanding chat based on what I knew of Asad, but this episode far exceeded expectations. Please enjoy!
Other topics discussed:
- Moving to LA
- Wanting to be famous
- What happened to masculinity?
- Worsening of inter-gender dynamics
- Decline of face-to-face interaction
- Role of modern feminism
- Thoughts on #MeToo movement
- Girl accusing boyfriend of being “rapey”
- What L.A. was like when Kobe died
- Aziz Ansari is awkward & has no “game”
- What financial freedom means to Asad
- Brad’s Indian friends who don’t like Pakistanis
- How the partition of India & Pakistan went down
- Rampant homelessness & tribal warfare in Pakistan
Questions asked:
- How much time do you put into rehearsing before you go up on stage?
- What kind of things do you like to invest in?
- What do you think about Aziz Ansari getting swept up in the #MeToo movement?
- Where were you when you heard Kobe died?
- What does financial independence mean to you?
- Do you think ‘number of Twitter followers’ translates into money?
- Have you been back to Pakistan?
- How do you feel about Indians?
- Did your family make you aware of the history between India & Pakistan, and the partitioning that came after World War II?
- Are your parents religious?
- How were you able to avoid being susceptible to their [your parents’] religiosity?
Fun questions:
- Where were you the first time you logged on to the Internet and what did you do?
- If somebody gave you $100,000 and forced you to invest in Apple, Amazon, and Tesla, how would you allocate the money?
- If you were gifted to use a private jet for two vacations, and you could take these vacations at any time and at any age. And you can only take three people with you, where would you go and when [would you go]?
- Do you hope to marry someday? At what age?
- If you could wave a magic wand and pick how many Twitter followers you’d have, how many would you choose and why?
- What % chance do you think Donald Trump has of being reelected?
- Overrated/Underrated: Mike Cernovich, Dave Portnoy, Gavin Newsom, Jared Goff, Tim Ferriss, Ryan Holiday, Robert Greene
Listen here:
“The simplicity of genius is reps.” – Asad Shah
Books mentioned:
- Awareness by Anthony de Mello
- Outliers: The Story of Success by Malcolm Gladwell
Connect with Asad:
- Twitter: @Asaaadude
- Substack Newsletter: dreamstream.substack.com
