Ziad K. Abdelnour is a Lebanese American Financier, Dealmaker, Powerbroker, and Activist.
He is the Founder, President & CEO of Blackhawk Partners, Inc., a private “family office” in the business of originating, structuring & acting as an equity investor in strategic corporate investments.
Founder and chairman of the Board of the Financial Policy Council, a 501 (c) (3) non-profit organization designed to give its select group of supporters the opportunity to have a direct face-to-face dialogue with the nation’s quintessential power brokers and policymakers
Chairman of the Advisory Board of Hawkstorm Global – a business specializing in providing a wide array of elite services ranging from Emergency Response and Asset Protection to Security Consulting and Risk Assessments by former members of Navy Seals, CIA, DOJ, Blackwater, FBI, State Department, and DEA Agents.
Author of the best-sellers “Economic Warfare: Secrets of Wealth Creation in the Age of Welfare Politics” and ” Startup Saboteurs: How Incompetence, Ego, and Small Thinking Prevent True Wealth Creation.”
Mr. Abdelnour has over 30 years of experience on Wall Street, backing over 125 companies & serial entrepreneurs worth in aggregate over 20 billion dollars in the private equity, high-yield bond, and distressed debt markets.
He holds an MBA in Finance Summa Cum Laude from the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania & BS in Economics, Summa Cum Laude, from the American University of Beirut.
Today, Mr. Abdelnour continues to be featured in hundreds of media channels and publications every year and is widely seen as one of the top business leaders by millions around the world.
You can follow him at Freedomforall at https://www.freedomforall.io/ along with his YouTube Channel at https://www.youtube.com/c/ZiadKAbdelnour/featured, TWO platforms which will constantly keep you posted on all details including but not limited to his TV, radio, book signing events, public venues, and other worldwide appearances.
Mr. Abdelnour was just recently featured as one of the 500 Most Influential CEOs in the World and among the most famous 300 American financiers in US history https://www.famousfix.com/list/american-financiers
For more details, visit their website here.
Here we sit down with Ziad to know a bit more about his journey as an entrepreneur.
Q. Tell us a little more about your journey as an entrepreneur – how did you get started? What inspired you?
Ziad: I started 30 years ago, after a decade on Wall Street. Started advising companies, financing companies, sitting on the board of companies, etc…. And as time went by, the deals became bigger and bigger. Now, we transact billion-dollar deals, including but not limited to project finance, real estate finance, infrastructure finance, and corporate finance, for all kinds of situations anywhere on the planet. Our minimum funding is $100 million with no limit on the upside.
What inspired me is the greatest robber barons and financiers this great country has created. From JP Morgan to the Rockefellers, Carnegie, etc… to the modern-day ones such as Michael Milken and the likes, all dubbed as the most famous 300 American financiers in US history https://www.famousfix.com/list/american-financiers which I am happy to be part of today.
Q. What are your long-term goals in business? Paint a vision for the future
Ziad: Well, for me. Success is about empowering people. I don’t look at it as making money. I look at it as betting on the right horses and on the right people who can execute flawlessly. It’s all about execution. It’s not about generating ideas. Ideas are a dime a dozen. But the people who can execute those ideas are the people who succeed, while people with oversized egos and attitudes fail.
Make no mistake about it: money is, first and foremost, about freedom. It is not about acquiring things or flaunting them in front of family and friends. It is all about freedom. Freedom to do whatever you want, whenever you want. Freedom to tell your boss or whoever is running your life to take a hike. The only boss I want to have in my life is money. All the rest is for the birds. This is the key reason I immigrated to the United States back in 1982. To find freedom and make it big time. This is the reason I created Blackhawk Partners.
You should read my last book on Amazon, It’s called “Startup Saboteurs. How ego incompetence and small thinking prevent wealth creation.” It’s all about wealth creation and how you achieve it. That is both an art and a science. Talks in detail about my vision for the future in intimate detail.
Q. What motivates you?
Ziad: A lot of things motivate me, but at the end of the day, it’s making a difference. Remember Niccolo Machiavell? “One of the most challenging things in the world is to change the order of things.” I am a disruptor, and I like to change the order of things for a smarter and better world.
The problem today is that people focus too much on jobs, jobs, jobs. We’ve created X jobs, and we lost Y jobs. That’s not the way to look at things. Governments should focus more on creating an environment that’s conducive to wealth creation, not on creating a factory of jobs employing robots.
Once again, success, after all, is empowering people, not clipping their wings and controlling them with endless government propaganda.
Q. What business-related book has inspired you the most, or what is your favorite book?
Ziad: The 2 books I have actually written after endless analysis and research. “Economic Warfare: Secrets of Wealth Creation in the Age of Welfare Politics” and “Startup Saboteurs: How Ego, incompetence and small thinking prevent wealth creation,” which you can find both on Amazon.
Q. What strategies do you use to optimize your performance or mindset?
Ziad: Once again, it’s all about surrounding yourself with the right people. You know, at the end of the day, you become the average of the six people closest to you. So if you surround yourself with six killer billionaire sharks, entrepreneurs, and game-changers, you will most likely become one. If you surround yourself with six losers, your fate is sealed.
Q. If you were to write a book about yourself, what would you name it?
Ziad: I will not write a book about myself. Somebody is going to write a book about me one day. You know what they say. The best bragging is when people brag about you, Not when you brag about yourself.
Q. What is one of the best or most worthwhile investments you’ve ever made?
Ziad: I made a lot of investments over my career. So it’s difficult to tell you which one is the best. They were different, small and big. My strongest recommendations:
1. Invest in companies you believe in.
2. Price and value aren’t always the same: Don’t pay too much.
3. Reputation is everything.
4. Be skeptical. If something looks too good to be true, it most likely isn’t true…
5. Don’t invest in something you don’t understand.
6. Don’t make a deal with someone you don’t trust.
7. Don’t buy into a company unless you think it’s undervalued.
8. Price dips are an opportunity to increase your positions.
9. It’s during hard times that the winners — and losers — get exposed.
10. Read and think A LOT.
11. It doesn’t take a high IQ to be successful in business — knowledge is more valuable.
12. You’re your own best asset.
Q. Where do you see the future in your niche/industry 3-5 years from now?
Ziad: I see a bright future no matter what the economy is. I make money whether the market is up or down. Why? Because it’s not about the industry but about the people executing in that industry. I believe in the human spirit. I believe in human potential as long as you learn from your mistakes. It is a fact that you never learn from your successes. You learn from your failures.
At the end of the day, it’s not how smart you are. There are a lot of smart people out there. It’s not how rich you are or how big your balance sheet is. There are a lot of companies like that, too. It is how you gather intelligence and act upon it. Remember: Business is war. It is neither a hobby nor a 9 to 5 job.
Q. What is your ‘one-sentence’ piece of advice you’d like to give to someone who wants to become an entrepreneur, coach, or business owner?
Ziad:
- Be relentless because you’re gonna find a lot of obstacles, and 99% of the people will give up.
- Be patient. Overnight success is 15 years.
- Stay healthy.
- Know how to manage stress.
- Seize an opportunity while you can.
To keep up to date with Ziad and his journey, connect with him on Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, Twitter, and Instagram.