When Abdul Muhammad II picks up a microphone or steps into a boardroom, he brings with him a life story that stretches from the streets of Harlem to the upper echelons of business leadership and a bold mission to change not just businesses but culture itself.
As a socialpreneur and the founder of MDM Ventures, Muhammad doesn’t just coach businesses on strategy or marketing. He guides them in solving human problems, the deep, systematic issues that traditional business models often overlook. It’s a journey that he describes as moving beyond the ‘hustle and grind’ culture that has dominated American business thinking for decades.
“Culture is what changes things,” Muhammad says. “Not government, not policy. Culture. And if we want to heal communities, we have to change the culture first.”
Despite being born into a socioeconomically challenging environment, Muhammad realized early that empowerment could come from knowledge. Guided by his father’s insistence on self-education and critical thinking and African American mentors (and heavily influenced by self-help books like Think and Grow Rich: A Black Choice by Dennis Kimbro and Napoleon Hill), Muhammad learned that access to wisdom could transcend circumstance. “In Harlem, I was born into circumstances I didn’t control,” he says. “But when you seek knowledge, when you operate from an empowered way of being, nobody can take that away from you.”
Due to this, Muhammad’s entrepreneurial fire was lit from a very young age, only to be deepened in a very unlikely place: a college telemarketing job. As a sociology and business double major, he spent hours cold-calling veterinarians and doctors’ offices, selling fluorescent lighting. “I started realizing that I’m making this company earn income. That was my entrepreneurial lightbulb moment. I saw freedom, the chance to create my own path,” he recalls.
In 1998, Muhammad founded Anitron Media Technologies, a web development company ahead of its time. As an African-American entrepreneur in the 1990s tech world, a rarity in itself, he built high-end, innovative real estate websites, even being one of the pioneers, using webcams to drive property sales in Florida.
But despite the financial success, something felt hollow. “I was making money, but I wasn’t fulfilled. The culture was toxic: unconscious, extractive, transactional,” Muhammad explains. “I knew there had to be a better way.”
The 2008 financial crash gave him the opportunity and the push to pivot. After selling his division to a large advertising company, Muhammad dove deep into corporate America, rising to leadership levels few could reach at that time. Yet the deeper he went, the more convinced he became: businesses needed more than profit strategies. They needed conscious leadership.
Out of this, MDM Ventures was born. At the heart of this socialpreneur’s work is a philosophy he calls Lifestyle Synthesis. It’s a methodology grounded in nine attributes, the “9 Seeds,” which empower individuals to transcend societal programming, reconnect with their true nature, and live in alignment with their values. “Lifestyle Synthesis is about freeing yourself from the culture that traps you,” Muhammad says. “The ‘hustle till you die’ culture, the separation culture, the consumerist culture that leaves even billionaires miserable.”
Through MDM’s Mastermind course and self-discovery workshops, Muhammad teaches that success isn’t about chasing external markers. It’s to cultivate internal wisdom and alignment. Breathwork certification, meditation, martial arts, yoga, tai chi, all these practices have shaped his vision of a fulfilled, integrated life. “When you operate your business from a place of unconsciousness, you will suffer,” he warns. “Peace, love, and happiness are the things everyone is trying to buy. But they can’t be bought. They must be lived.”
For Muhammad, the racial element of his story is central. But he insists that victimhood isn’t the only narrative available. His story is a call to action for anyone, particularly those from marginalized communities, who seek freedom. “You were programmed to believe you must grind endlessly, that wealth is your worth, that separation is natural. But it’s a lie,” Muhammad says. “Real success comes from living in truth, in balance. And that’s how we change culture. We don’t have to replicate the old systems; we just need to embody a new way of being.”
Today, Muhammad stands as a chief growth strategist, bringing together expertise as a digital innovator, executive leadership coach, and mindful practitioner. But more importantly, he is a living example of what’s possible when one refuses to let culture define one’s limits. “The opportunity is here,” he says. “Not to hustle harder, but to live wiser. To heal. To lead with heart. To create an impact that starts within and ripples out into the world.” And if culture is the battlefield, Abdul Muhammad II is determined to win—not with force, but with wisdom.