A successful figure in business and in life, Tony Hakim is giving back to the Sydney community as the patron of the Anti Depression Association of Australia, one of the nations peak bodies aimed at combating depression.

Every year hundreds of people succumb to the pressures of depression and stress. Unfortunately, while Australia views itself as the lucky country, there is a growing population of forgotten people who feel anything but. Luckily, several organisations have been campaigning hard to achieve recognition for those with depression. First and foremost are the pioneering team behind the Anti-depression Association of Australia, or ADAA.

In a move that will surely enhance the ability of this organisation to work towards solutions for depression sufferers everywhere, it’s recently been announced that successful business figure and entrepreneur Tony Hakim has been appointed as patron the ADAA, a role to which the Sydney identity seems well-suited.

Tony Hakim is well known for, amongst other things, his strong advocacy for the concept of ‘real world business’, a desire to instil an entrepreneurial mindset in young people and to give them the skills and tools they need to create and build their own businesses and projects. By creating a platform by which young people from all backgrounds can access Tony’s huge wealth of business experience, the website TonyHakim.com.au, many enthusiastic young people have found themselves in the lucky situation of mentoring with Tony Hakim.

“It wasn’t until a few years ago that I realised the education system was excellent for teaching technical business skills (such as law and accounting) and for teaching about business,” Tony comments on his website. “However, there was – and is – something missing: an actual understanding about how to set-up and run your own business.” In his own unique way, Tony wants to bridge the gap between the theoretical world of education and the business world, something which he refers to often as ‘real world business’.

Now, in the same way he’s developed his successful business career, Tony Hakim ADAA patron is looking to tackle depression; not by simply promoting awareness but by focusing on solutions and enabling those solutions in the real world. By bringing his substantial business acumen to bear on behalf of the cause, Tony is helping people all over the nation get a grip on the black dog, and the team at the ADAA couldn’t be happier for it.

The Tony Hakim known to the Sydney business community; the savvy, energetic entrepreneur is the exact same person who will now direct some of his boundless energy to assisting the fight against depression. Dividing his time between his business interests, mentoring commitments and now community work, Tony might be burning the candle at both ends and in the middle. Anyone who knows him, however, knows that this is just the way he likes it.

Mr. Hakim, a patron of the ADAA, knows that it won’t be easy, but easy isn’t something that often features in the energetic and varied life of Tony Hakim. Whether it’s teaching youth the amazing commercial ability that’s allowed his own career to flourish or assisting those in need with solutions and determination, it’s impossible to ignore the good work of Tony Hakim.

About Tony Hakim:

Tony Hakim is a successful Sydney business identity who has recently redirected his formidable energies to both assist entrepreneurial youth to develop real world business skills whilst also investing his time heavily in the community sector as patron of the Anti-depression Association of Australia, a peak non-for-profit body seeking to make life easier for those suffering from depression. For more information on the man and his works, visit http://www.tonyhakim.com.au

Depression is one of the worst afflictions. It creeps up and messes with your own mind, promoting panic, inaction, fear and passivity in people who are not naturally this way.
Unfortunately, when I think back on the colleagues of mine who have struggled with bouts of depression, I think of people who spent a lot of time being told that they had a problem, without much in the way of a solution.

One of the reasons I am a supporter of Wayne’s work – on this web site and in the Anti-Depression Association of Australia – is that the Fountainhead Method he promotes is concerned with using one’s own mind to take back control of oneself.

Sounds simplistic? Well, it’s not simple but it is highly effective for most people.
Just as there are many stages and types of disease, so there are different types and severity of depression. I have seen amazing results from Wayne’s work where sufferers take back control of their own lives.

Because of my business background, I’m always focused on what works and what doesn’t. That’s why I like the ADAA and this site. It’s focusing on practical solutions to this problem.

I have been in business more than 30 years and I have been involved in many ventures: telecoms, retail, building and contracting, to name a few.

During this time I’ve watched a curious trend develop: an epidemic of stress.

When I started my first business in the 1980s, workplace stress was reserved for a few small groups: executives, partners in professional services firms and business owners.
These people were the ones who worked too hard and stressed themselves.

Over the years things changed and now it seems the entire workforce is up to their necks in stress. People are working harder than ever, to pay for an ever increasingly expensive cost of living.

It has become a vicious and dangerous circle affecting our mental health.

One of the symptoms of this over-worked, over stressed society is the number of people who are depression. It doesn’t hit everyone the same way, in my experience: for some, it’s harder to get out of bed in the morning; for others, they have complete breakdowns and may never re-join the workforce again.

Sadly, many people who are suffering depression don’t know they have it and they don’t know the early signs; many more don’t know what to do when it strikes and others who know they are ill keep it hidden from family, employers and colleagues.

I have had people close to me who have been afflicted with this illness and it can strike people differently. I’ve also come to the conclusion that many people would respond to it faster and more proactively if they knew there was a practical way of dealing with depression: a method that made sense and that worked.

I believe the ADAA has that solution in the Fountainhead Method and I look forward to working with Wayne as he promotes practical action against this terrible affliction.