A lot of young students and professionals in Bangladesh harbour dreams that do not fit into the socially acceptable framework. Over time, they find themselves abandoning those aspirations and take one of the trodden traditional career paths. While these paths are very important for society and may present immense fulfillment down the line, there are some people who are unwavering when it comes to chasing their aspirations.
Nadeem A Salam, a 27-year-old UK citizen with Bangladeshi ancestry is a photographer, filmography expert, and tour management entrepreneur with experience in a vast array of roles. He is someone who made it big doing what he loves. He founded Skesh Entertainment, a tour management company with offices operating in 25 different cities in Asia. The company managed 150 international shows in 70 different cities in 2019 alone and worked with Red Hot Chilli Peppers, Megadeth, Whitesnake, Boys like Girls among others, and has connections with prolific bands like Yellowcard, Sum41, etc. He is also the manager of 'Red Jumpsuit Apparatus;' he is a creator, director and producer at 'The Platform Live' and co-owner of 'Atticus.' Furthermore, Nadeem is on the board of seven different companies proving his business acumen.
A young dreamer with a vision to tour the world and get paid for it, Nadeem started his tour management endeavour as a 17-year-old. "In the really early days, I'd often find myself losing money just to be able to keep staying on the road as there used to be a time where I wouldn't even charge smaller bands as long as they'd let me be part of their crew and come along for the networking and experience," mentioned Nadeem while remembering his early days. As a college dropout, he did not learn to navigate the business side of his craft until investors began to put forward offers for shares of his first company. It was then, that he hired a CEO and learnt everything he could. And that marked his transition from a tour manager to an entrepreneur.
With proven success in his ventures, Nadeem has a different mantra than getting to the top of his industry. He and his team always believed in doing things differently in order to create a whole new set of standards and take credit for transitioning the industry to be a better place. Changing the industry automatically puts Skesh at the top as a pioneer. Hence, Skesh Entertainment and Nadeem's other ventures have long-term goals aligned with improving the industry for all stakeholders, which he believes is vital to keep them on the right track to take necessary risks to ensure sustainability and growth.
"Luck also plays a big role for success, but I believe luck is when preparation meets opportunity. Being at the right place at the right time with the necessary assets can be a gamechanger, but if you do not have the right assets, you won't be able to take advantage of opportunities," argues Nadeem about doing big. He also reminds that staying at the top of the industry is more difficult than reaching there. It requires a sincere commitment, determination, and dedication to the art and talents.
Apart from working with international headlining artists, Nadeem has also managed and developed a number of new artists. "It goes without saying that I frequently take massive risks as an individual and with my companies that in no way negatively affect my artists/clients. It rather greatly benefits them in the short and long term, which allows for a partnership letting us go above and beyond for them to break expectations through the roof!"
Diversification was something that moulded Nadeem. He realised that only tour management was not enough to pull clients the way he hoped. This led him to develop more on the skills to make himself more marketable. Through the last decade, he worked in all possible roles for a band on the road, from directing and operating lights to taking pictures and videos both on and off stage. Being firmly against the phrase 'Jack of all trades master of none," he developed a diverse skill set that saw him excelling in fields outside tour management. For instance, he became the face of Avolites, the biggest lighting company in the world. Nadeem also toured solely as a photographer for globally acclaimed bands like Good Charlotte and We The Kings.
"I truly believe all the different skills I have compliment each other in ways that I can imagine. It's important not to have a divider between your work and life and make it all one and enjoyable by doing something you love for a living and that way you'll never really stop learning either," he said when asked how he was driven to pursue excellence in many capacities.
Nadeem firmly believes that he has started. Over the last decade, he developed the habit of exceeding the goals he set for himself. When asked about his next steps he said, "I don't have much to say for the goals I have set either due to confidentiality or just because they're just a bit too big and intimidating to talk about as ideas or targets before I find success with them." That's the ideal way-- keeping the foot on ground always and doing whatever needed to be done to achieve the ultimate goal.
The writer is a third-year student of BBA
programme at the Institute of Business Administration (IBA), University of Dhaka. He can be reached at
[email protected]
