Throughout our lives, we’ve watched people work the way up from the pits of hell - but only on screens. The biggest celebrities and influencers always seem to have a tragic backstory to their blinding successes, it began to be so repetitive to the point where it felt fake; these were all people so far from us, after all. Well, we happened to stumble across one of the most moving and heartwarming-but-also-wrenching stories of success, told (and lived) by Anas Hefny, a fellow middle-eastern millennial, like you and me.
Anas, unlike many others, actually had a pretty smooth start: he lived in Dubai, with his family, with food on the table and designer clothes in his closet - until his father went out of business, and Anas and his family had to move to the conservative community of Saudi Arabia, where Anas was deprived of his right to even attend high school. This, of course, is quite heartbreaking - but our hero managed to find the silver lining to this situation.
With a lot of free time on his hands, he delved further into Hip-Hop culture - a culture he was already a huge fan of, ever since he was very young - and began to hang out with a different crowd, one that consists mostly of black finessers and hustlers. Before long, Anas’s mannerisms began to become more similar to those of his new friends, to the point where he even started rapping out of boredom, writing songs and producing his own songs.
Watching his family have an empty fridge and deteriorating living conditions made Anas sick to his stomach, so he set aside his music hobby and began to seek employment. Anas began to collect business management experience, along with some coin, by getting employed at a multitude of businesses; but, not long after, he decided to ditch them to start his own business, where he sold highly-sought-for vape liquid, which was, at the time, illegal in Saudi.
When that phase of his life was over, he split the money he earned equally between his family and himself, and moved back to Egypt to pursue his academic career; everything was finally going to plan - until Anas fell in love.
Like most love stories, the beginning was beautiful: the world was blossoming, and that sweet, silky feeling wrapped itself around those two so tightly that they decided to start planning their marriage. Love-drunk, Anas spent all his money to give this girl the life she desired; apartment loans, gifts, rings, everything that could only lead a man to bankruptcy - but it was worth it, he was with the girl he loved, right?
Well, he was, until she left him for the same reason she almost married him for: money. The presence of it attracted her, and its absence (even if she was the reason it was absent) drove her away. Quite rightfully, Anas sank into a phase of immense depression for about six long months; then, when it was pitch-black, Anas decided to reawaken his faith, and get closer to God, and began to inch his way upwards from the bottom once again. He picked up his music hobby and made it a career, and began to earn money once again.
Around this time was when Anas got the idea for VVS; he noticed the absence of Hip-Hop clothing in Egypt, and was aware that this was because of the unavailability of well-priced, stylish Hip-Hop clothing stores in Egypt. This encouraged him to partner with Hip-Hop brands worldwide, and export internationally manufactured accessories for Very Very Slight prices; and, more importantly, to start their own clothing line, Very Very Slightly, which sells unique hip-hop clothing for exceptionally low prices (hence therm Very Very Slight), enabling people of all financial backgrounds to dress the way they want to.
Now, to wrap up this article, I won’t be telling you to learn from Anas’s story, or to believe everything’s possible & all that jizz - you’ve probably figured that out on your own already, but I will ask you to use his story as proof that everyone loses momentum, everyone gets knocked down, and falls down depressive rabbit holes, for different amounts of time; so, whether it is days, weeks or months, give yourself time to grow out of these phases in full-bloom, and see where that takes you.
Some of VVS's products!
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