Meet Artem Ustayev

Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Artem Ustayev. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Hi Artem, appreciate you sitting with us today to share your wisdom with our readers. So, let’s start with resilience – where do you get your resilience from?

My resilience came from watching my father and mother struggle greatly to provide my sisters and I a wonderful life in a foreign country. We immigrated here from the former USSR when I was 6 years old. My father was 35 at the time with 3 small children, no grasp of the English language, and completely broke.

I watched as my father and mother tried to find jobs and put a roof over our head. They enrolled us in school and helped us with our homework, even after coming from late at night. They worked multiple jobs and saved every penny. No matter how hard life got, my parents never broke and never gave up on their duties. They learned the language over time and got better jobs. Eventually, my father decided to start his own business and continued to open new businesses over the coming years.

He spent a lot of time with us and tried to teach us as many valuable lessons as he could. No matter how many problems my parents faced, they always dealt with them and kept the family together. When I look at their struggles and their lack of options, I realize that I’ve got is extremely easy. Nothing in my life can compare to the hardships they had to deal with, so if they managed to give us so much with so little, then I should be able to do that and more!

Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?

My main focus is business. I enjoy creating new companies and watching them grow. I like to try things that others haven’t. I love taking risks and reaping the rewards. My current focus is within the nightlife entertainment industry. I want to make nightclubs fun and safe again. I want my guests to love coming here and feeling welcome. I want them to enjoy the venue and the staff. I treat my staff with the utmost respect and have high expectations of them. I want my hospitality group to expand my vision into other major cities and compete with the biggest venues out there. I strongly believe Midnight & The Wicked has the position to be inside the best hotels and casinos.

Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?

Patience, dedication, and self accountability are the 3 most important qualities for my success. I didn’t think anything would come easy and never worried when overnight success didn’t happen. I was patient and put all my energy and hard work into my projects. I set my goal and stayed dedicated to the end results. I didn’t drop one idea and run off to start another idea. I kept perfecting the idea until I reached the point where success was inevitable. Throughout all of my business ventures, I made sure to keep my self humble and accountable. I knew when I was to blame for my failures and shortcomings and I never let my brain look for an excuse. Many people find that pointing a finger at someone else as a way to cope with their failures but you can’t change other people, you can only change yourself and how you react to situations. I pointed the finger back at myself and told myself why I failed, and what I need to do better in the future. I never ran from my own mistakes, I embraced them, learned from them, and tried my best to never repeat them.

Any advice for folks feeling overwhelmed?

It’s so important to never let your brain lead you down a dark path. Always understand where you stand. Always know what’s behind you, in front of you, to your left and to your right. Always be ready to take a beating in life, because nothing, if ever, comes easy.

When I take on huge projects, I remind myself daily that I’m skilled enough to do this, and that others have done it before me and managed somehow. I always look at those who are doing better than me and ask myself ‘What do they have that I don’t? How did they get to that point in life? What can I learn from their journey and how can I put that to use in mine?’

In my darkest moments, when I was completely out of money, millions in debt, bills piled to the ceiling and creditors calling, I gave myself a pep talk every single day. I’d wash up in the morning, mentally exhausted, look in the mirror and say ‘You got this. You don’t need to worry about tomorrow, you only need to worry about today. There’s no point in thinking about tomorrow if you’re not going to get past today. Focus on today, worry about tomorrow tomorrow.

I’d take 1 day at a time. I refused to let the stress of next week bother me today. The concept is simple, what good is worrying about a bill that’s due at the end of the month if you can’t even pay the bill that’s due today? Each can be just as vital and detrimental to your business. Each can make or break you. All I did was focus all of my strength onto the current issues directly in front of my face.

Day by day, my problems began to be resolved. Day by day I inched forward, beaten and bruised, but still alive. Day by day I reminded myself that today is today and I got through yesterday. If I managed to get through yesterday, I should be able to handle today as well.

If anxiety every tried to creep up, I’d tell it to shut up and remind myself that my parents dealt with way more than this and I have no right to feel sorry for myself. As the problems began to wind down, I started to feel the weight lessen on my shoulders. Day by day I was able to increase my stride. Eventually I was able to focus on today and tomorrow. Then I was able to plan a week in advance, then a month. I felt my confidence return and the same thought has stayed with me, I handled yesterday, so that means I can handle today.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.MidnightAndTheWicked.com
• Instagram: @midnightandthewicked_
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/midnight-and-the-wicked-philadelphia

Image Credits

Credits to Meta Photography