12. Hospitality entrepreneur Nilo Quiroz on resilience and perseverance in the face of setbacks, industry crisis and personal tragedy

Hello, Bonjour, Nihau and salut. Welcome back to the Impact around the World podcast. I'm Cassandra Pittman, ETX country manager for the UK and Ireland and host of the show. Joining me this week is one of our many entrepreneurial alums, Nilo Quieroz. Nilo graduated with an MBA in 2018, taking the leadership track to study in both Lille and Singapore. A former professional swimmer representing Mexico, Mexico internationally, Nilo went on to have a successful career as an electrical engineer with one of the world's largest oil field services companies, Schlumberger. Then the global oil crisis hit and finding himself out of a job like so many others, Nilo took the leap and found his way to becoming a globe trotting hospitality entrepreneur. First in Houston, then in Asia, two companies and a pandemic later. And Nilo's career is the definition of resilience and persever in the face of setbacks, industry crisis and personal tragedy. I'm so pleased he's here to share his story with us now. So enough from me, please enjoy my conversation with Nilo Quieroz.

Nilo, thank you so much for being here.

No, thank you very much for having me, Cassandra. I am pleased to be here and happy to help in any ways the community and everybody else that just want to do something.

Nilo, when we had an email exchange, I love this way you described yourself. You said you're a Mexican enthusiast who is trying to find his place in this life. Can you tell us a little bit about your journey to where you are now?

Sure. Well, I always like to say that I'm Mexican because, I mean, that's not a lot of people out of Mexico that do a lot of stuff. And people, you know, I don't know, I think still Latins are not all over everywhere. Soon maybe they will be because we're growing stronger. So I always try to say that I'm an enthusiast because I really try to see positive things on everything. We're in the middle of a pandemic and I try to see what can I take out of this positive, you know, so I'm a person that likes to, you know, experiment, say that I did the most I could in this short life we have. And I think traveling, meeting people and doing stuff, it's what that drives me. And these are things that I think that everybody can do. People are always in motion. So when we touch each other live, I think that's what matters. So I don't know, that's why you can see the positivism Here, right?

Yeah. That's amazing. So let's go back to the beginning. How did a professional swimmer or a competitive swimmer become an engineer?

Well, I was born and raised in Mexico and my dad was an engineer. He worked for one of the biggest companies in Mexico, actually the biggest in the oil and gas. So he was there. But he always like, I mean my, I own everything to my family, my dad and my mom, everybody, right? So they, they did grow me, I think in the way of you have to persevere, you have to try. And if you fell down, you go up and you try again and you have to keep doing that, right? So I'm very short. I'm sorry, I didn't. I mean, maybe you cannot notice, but I'm like 160 something. So of course I try a lot of sports. Karate, I hate it, they hit me. Football, I'm really bad at it. Soccer wise. Basketball, I'm short. So I, I don't know, I give it a shot to swimming, right? And I was good, but I didn't think I was good because it's nature, you know, I develop it. I started when I was five years old, you know, like to try to do it, you know, not pro, but to, to really get into it. And when I was 15, I was good, you know, I was, I was very good, you know, so it's perseverance, you know, I tried, but at some point in my life I was training two, three times a day. So I was really into it, you know, so that showed me, hey, if you try something and you really are at it, because I had no social life, I had no girlfriends, you know, I was really dedicated to it. I was not like every kid that arrives home, I don't know, do their homework and just watch tv. I was like, I arrive home, eat, do the homework, go to swim or go to do some, you know, some exercise to pre work, like to preheat. So I don't know, that's what my parents told me to do. I think also it's because they wanted to get me out of the streets, you know, of Mexico. Streets in Mexico can be dangerous, you know, I mean, nothing dangerous in the sense of you're gonna get kidnapped and stuff like that maybe, but more dangerous of what can the impact they make into your life, right? So they keep me safe by putting me into something. So I love swimming. I was good at it. I was very proud, of course, when I represented my country. First bus, the state, then the country, I was breaking records, I was doing my thing and thanks to that, I got good education. I mean, here is like in the USA model in Mexico, right? You are very good at some sport. The best universities called you and tell you we have a scholarship for you. Do you want to study? Right? So that's how I got into college, to be honest with you. Now back to your question. Because I went into the woods, my dad, of course, told me, you know, swimming is nice. He was, by the way, a professional soccer player. I mean, he did actually place in the. In the. In the league of Mexico in the number one, you know, like. Yeah, so he did play only two games because you know how it is. You're new and you're always in the bench. But my dad made it to the Mexican league, you know, like the one that goes in the team. So he, at some point he got an injured and he quit and he became an engineer. So he told me that maybe I have to be engineer like him, right? Now you're a kid, you're, I don't know, 18 years. It was my best point in swimming. I was getting paid by the state to swim. I was traveling because of it. I was going again to school because of it, right? So I had to decide my career. So I just went for it. Now, electronics was something I always liked. So I always liked, like opening stuff, not fixing it, but seeing what's inside, how to do, how does it work. And electronic was a big thing. So I said, why not? So I did it. But to be honest with me, you, I think, I mean, back in the day, I should have gone for business or something like that, or marketing or. I really don't know. But that's how I changed. I mean, and I know many people are in the same bottle. Like many people feel in this box that you study something. You're not really sure. But I like to tell them, hey, you can change always, all right? It's not set. It's never set.

All right, so you became an engineer. And then what was the light bulb that went off that said, actually, I want to work in hospitality?

The first mission I was assigned was in Russia. So I know no Russian. My English was not that good at that point. But they send you there, and that's where I like because they send you in many places, many, many different countries. And I met my now business partner, all right? So that's how I got into this. So I met my business partner in this company, and then he told me, you know, what, oil and gas. Because you see the trends, right? He's older than Me. So he told me, oil and gas is not going to last forever. Is a good industry to be right now, but it's not gonna. Not gonna last. So my wife is studying hospitality in the United States and she wants to open a hospitality business. But she's the one that knows hospitality, right? And he told me, maybe you want to be a part of that. In the back of my head, just for you to know. Since I was a kid, I always wanted to own McDonald's. Why, I do not know is a food I like or comfort food. So I said, I mean, it's not McDonald's what I'm getting into, but still it's food. And I think I have a passion for food now. I know, but I said, okay, I mean, let's try it, right? I. I always think also, if you don't take a couple of risks in this life, I mean, I think it. First a couple of risks make it, you know, like, spicy. So it makes it like. Yeah, it's fun, right? So I said, let's try it. I mean, I could, at this point, I was. I could invest some money. We went for it. And I mean, a couple of not years, months passed and I'm out of work. I'm out of work. I mean, I'm not gonna lie to you. And it was hard and I couldn't. I didn't know what I was gonna do with my life. So I was lost. I was lost. I'm an engineer. The only thing I know I'm good for, I mean, become us in there. I don't know if I'm good, but I'm doing that for a living, right? And when you are doing something so specific, like oil and gas, and oil and gas is down, I mean, what are you gonna do, right? I mean, you cannot get a job. I applied for a lot of jobs. Nobody will hire me or contact me. That's just the problem. I guess it's kind of like what's going on right now, right? The people that are getting laid off. I mean, this crisis or crisis like this makes changes in people. It makes you change your life. But I mean, now I know. I mean, just to tell you, I know. To share with everybody that what do they need to do? I think in the world we're living, you need to adapt. It's just the way it is. I mean, like Darwin said, we just need to adapt. That's what I did. So I adapted.

And at what point in that journey did you decide you were going to come to edX?

Okay, so when I was, we started in the United States in Houston, Texas. Business was doing bad, to be honest with you. First two years was horrible. So there's video over there. You can go and check it out. I'm not gonna make it a long story, but in the middle of going bad in a business, I almost have like, I had like a pre heart attack. I was in hospitals. I mean, this is stress. You all right? When you get into something and it doesn't work, you get stressed because you see your bank account going down and everything going down.

But you know, I don't want to like roll. I mean, I think I just want to stay on this point just to pause for a minute because. All right, particularly for our younger alumni who might be listening to this, you know, I think that this time in our lives, this last year in our lives, all of us collectively, no matter how little or great we've been affected by the pandemic. We've all, I think, appreciated health in a way that maybe we hadn't, many of us had not before. And I think when you're younger it's. You think of stress as something unpleasant, but you maybe don't make the connection on how deeply, deeply, deeply unhealthy it is, how many things it can do to you. And we kind of, what I want to say, like we glorify ambition and overworking and 90 hour weeks and like, oh, you're working so hard. But you know, I think it's a really important lesson. It's a lesson I hope we take from this time in, in history as well.

It's very important to take care of yourself. And I know it happens to everybody. It happens when you're in a big company and they give you a lot of work and you is your number one priority or if you do it yourself, you need to take some breaks, minutes or whatever. I mean, I was in a bad shape. I got fat very. When I was, I was big because I was eating bad and in different times I was not doing sports. I was very stressed. Like you said, I was working long shift, I don't know, 6, 5 in the morning, going back, back at 9pm so that's a huge shift without doing anything, you know, just like, I mean in the kitchen, running and everything. But still I have to sail. So. But this is not healthy. And it made me took bad decisions, you know, not only me, but all of us, because maybe you can hire one more person to help you make your shift shorter. Of course you lose money, but in the long term, it's going to help you. But these things, unfortunately, I learned it the bad way and now I know.

First of all, I'm so glad that you survived and that you're here to teach us all. But I also think that for people who might not have as dramatic an impact, at least now, right, later on, we might see something. But that point that you make, that your decisions that you make when you're overtired, when you're overworked, when you're burnt out, they're not good decisions. Okay, so these first two years you're trying to get the business off the ground, It's. You're working like crazy, your business partner has to go, you have a heart attack, and then what?

So what happened was that we didn't probably knew how to manage success. Right? Or I mean, I want it. And again, my business partner, as an advisor, told me, maybe you should study some business and learn. Right? Doesn't hurt. I was still struggling with myself. I wanted to make sure of two things. Am I an entrepreneur? Am I going to do business? Is this my path? Or do I want to go back to corporate? Actually, I enter Eric with the idea of getting a degree and going back to corporate.

Did that seem like an easier life? Like after having this crazy, like, let me just get a paycheck.

Yeah. I mean, to be honest with you, that's the thing, right? You just get a paycheck and get over with. But thanks, thanks to me and thanks to Eric. I mean, I mean, like, I applied to many schools. You know how it is when you want to do an mba, you apply to many schools and you get accepted. And also a couple of schools in here. I mean, I was, I was blessed like that. Right. I got accepted in a couple of schools. I. I choose France because my wife is from there. So we wanted to be nearby the family. So that's why France. But also I had a very good reputation on MBA. So France has very good schools for MBAs, right? So I said, let's do it. And I wanted something very international. I didn't want it to. I mean, I was in an international company before. It's also a French company, international, you know, Schlumberger. So I said I wanted that kind of environment. And I mean, in my opinion, MBAs in the USA are more Americans than outsiders. Right. And I don't know, I wanted to try Europe.

When did you decide? Actually you don't need a regular paycheck. You want to go back to being.

An entrepreneur as part of the mba, you have to go to Singapore. And that's what everything, I mean, that's what changed everything. It sounds crazy, but I had the conscience of doing like a digital startup, of what I was doing the usa. So the business in USA is a brick and mortar business. We make food for corporations, it's catering for companies. Real simple. We just have a huge kitchen. It's no walk in, it's just like a huge kitchen and we prepare a lot of food for corporate entities. Why? So for people outside the usa, maybe there's not the same, you know, culture, especially in France, for example, people order food to have meetings. All right? To have a meeting in the usa, you have to have food. If you don't, it's kind of weird. If you have a training, you need food. If you have schedule something, you know, to talk to the people, you have to have some beverage, some drinks, some, you know, that's, I don't know, it's just the way it is. So that's what we do, we prepare food. That's it, we bring it. Now the opportunity in Singapore, it was like Netflix. You know, people order food from different places and in a couple of orders, after they do more and more orders, we could tell them, okay, based on your previous things, maybe you want to try something new, maybe you want to try this or you know, this is between your budget. So we took people like less than 15 minutes to make their mind up. So it was super quick. And also you solve a lot of problems of procurement. One invoice, one place where you have all your orders even though they're from different restaurants. So that was, I was solving in Singapore and it was well received. I mean, it was well received. I, I really enjoyed that part of my life.

So was it the pandemic that prompted your move away from Singapore?

Yes, yes. I mean everybody got affected by this. There's no way to lie, no way to really, I mean, it's hard. I was in Singapore, we were already like a year and a half, I think. So the cool thing about tech startup, the cool thing about this is tech startups are quite profitable. They're quite good. The numbers. So seven months and we broke even. So we were profitable in seven months. We were very, very, very grateful. My partner came to Singapore already checking where am I going to live? You know, this is the next thing, let's do it. But unfortunately March hit. I remember this, the, the COVID was around August in China. You know, when people start talking about it because we still got the Chinese New Year. First time I did Chinese New Year with, you know, with Chinese people that lives in Singapore. Amazing. Amazing celebration. Love this with the, you know, you do stuff. Amazing. So we were not worried because it was a China contention, you know, it was only in China, so we keep having a lot of orders. Chinese New Year in Singapore is the busiest part of the year. Super busy. We're getting a lot of orders, everything good. And when March came, suddenly 50% of my orders just like cancel. By the end of March, 90% of my orders canceled. So April, May, and then the restrictions came really strong in Singapore. One of the. Was one of the countries that closed the borders quickly. Yeah, business was 99% up. I even had to left the country because, you know, everything was happening so quickly. You don't know what's. Where is this going? I started to get worried about my own health, so I said, I have to go because I don't know if I'm going to be okay here. So I left. I left for France, by the way. And I started for a while thinking of what's next. And then I came to the USA for a couple of months and then I went to France, but it was like the pandemic was following me. I left Singapore when this was in the peak in Singapore, I came to the usa and then it was growing, growing. I went to France and in Europe, like, I arrived and then a week later, everything was crazy and going close. I remember that I. I came to UK and UK was normal. And then a week later, UK was closed. So it was. It was so unreal. And in Europe, you arrive into the airport, there's no people. So, wow. Like, I was in a walking day. I wasn't walking there. I was in the movie, you know, like in the. I was really like walking. There's nobody. And yeah, the pandemic killed us eventually. I mean, it was not quick, but eventually. Because unfortunately, when I do food, I mean, when my main business is bring food to an office, people is not going to the office. You don't exist.

So do you think that you will return to that idea when things return to normal? Hopefully in the next few months, a.

Year or so we have the product, but I mean, it's just maybe my personality, I get into new stuff. I cannot just wait. All right, so I'm into new stuff. I mean, we started touching something during the pandemic. Once I got back to work. Right, Once. That's also. That's. I mean, before we go there, pause real quick at some point when I was in Singapore and I also like at the end of Edit, when I decided to go for it, right, I said, I'm gonna be entrepreneur. I mean, it's just the way I am. It's very nice that when I finished the mba, it's very nice to say that I discovered myself and I accepted the person I am. And I decided that I'm gonna move forward. Even though it's a painful, you know, like a painful highway, because entrepreneurship is a marathon. That is painful. But I think it's very rewarding when you take a look back and you see, oh, I made that. That's amazing. You know, it's just like, you cannot believe it. I mean, and it's not me, it's a team. It's always a team. I always say that. Also, I want to tell everybody that wants to do their own business, get a business partner. First rule. And second one is not about one person. I mean, Steve Jobs was not. Was not Apple, right? It's a whole team. It's a lot of people that you can make stuff. You alone can do some stuff, but with more talented people, my God, you can make a lot of stuff. So I came back here, we're trying new projects, virtual kitchens. Our kitchen is huge in the usa. We have survived in the USA because to be honest with you, the government in the USA has helped a lot, and I mean a lot to the business compared to other countries like Singapore, here, the money has just been flowing so people don't lose jobs, so people stay on float. So business keep doing business, keep open. All right? So that's why we are still there. We have a nice huge. I mean, it's a kitchen that is big. So we started doing some virtual. Virtual kitchens. You have heard about this concept. It's. We launched new brands, like business to business is not doing business right now, right? So I'm not selling a lot of food to corporations. So we transform our kitchen in business to consumer. So people, it's in their homes, it's at their homes. So they order a lot of food for home, you know, so we created brands that you cannot walk in. You know, we only deliver and we only exist through the applications online. You know, DoorDash, Deliveroo, UberEats, all these things. So we have in our kitchen four brands. We started with four, and we are now two. The ones, the successful remain. They keep growing, and that's what we're doing.

That's amazing. I want to just ask you one more question, Nilo. You're obviously somebody that has overcome a lot in your life from Having to pivot from, like you said, you're 18, you're being paid by the government to be a swimmer. And then you have to completely change a different life than you're faced with the oil and gas crisis. You can't find another job because it's so specialized. You start a business in Singapore that's on an upward trajectory and then boom, the pandemic hits. How has the resilience you've been able to find in your own life and the things you've had to overcome in your own life, how has that changed you or informed you as a leader of other people?

Well, it really changes you, but you have to always take a step back. And I think when you leave people, you have to be a good example. Maybe it's old school, I don't know, but I like to show that it can be there. You know, I like to say, yeah, yeah, we will do it. We will make it together. I also never say, he's not a show off. No, I don't like to do stuff because I can or whatever. So to show people. No, I try to teach people when I want to do something and I have a person of my team with some problems. I talk to them, you know, I talk to them, understand them, try to get into their mind and see, okay, how can I help this person to accomplish their things? Life has teach me, of course, a lot of, like you say, like from the things I passed and I, and I, and I have lived. It teaches you to take a step back. I mean, I was trying. I'm a person that you see, I jump from the window without thinking sometimes. Right. But it teaches me also to maybe before jumping, just. Let's just reconsider tiny bit. And then we go, we jump. All right, maybe I was forgetting the parachute. All right, like, this is the things that you learned, you know, like, like I told you about the health. I'm taking care of myself now. You know, I have to wait. It's not easy. I'm not saying it's easy. I have to wake up earlier now. But hey, I want to be healthy and I have to stay late. I mean, I have to also sleep early to be okay. Balance, right. Then I'll do. Do you have to sacrifice some Netflix? Yeah, but guess what? At some point in life, I'm gonna have time to go back to Game of Thrones. I never finished Game of Thrones. I'll do it some point. I mean, you know, do you want the pleasure now or later? You know, the classic marshmallow do you want to eat the marshmallow now or you can have a bag of marshmallows later? I'm not saying it's for everybody, but I'm saying this is what I learned in life. It takes sacrifice to achieve stuff. It takes also listening and understanding. Hey, maybe this is not the way. Hey, maybe we should try different, you know, or, oh, last time I jumped without the parachute, I hurt myself. Let me get the parachute, and if I can't have an extra one, why not? Then we jump. All right, so things like that, right? It's just. It's just the way I want to pass. When I pass to people, things, you know, when I. Like I told you I have younger people working with me, I always try to tell them, hey, I was like you, or let's do this, you know, I mean, or now I use coaching techniques because I learned it in the school. But don't tell people what to do, but tell them what has happened to you and let them figure out. So take a step back, I think. Take a step back and try to learn from what you already lived. You know, this famous thing that the persons. I mean, human beings are the only people that can fail with the same rock twice, right? My dad always told me, even a dog, a dog, you know, he sees something and it happens, he don't do it again. He learned. But human beings, human beings, they go again. So you need to maybe start paying attention to those things, right? That's what I learned. And like I told you, be part of a team and try to have a good mentor, somebody that left more, leap more than you. And tell you this is very important.

Nilo, this has been so much fun. I think that is the perfect note to end on. If people want to learn more about you, where should they go?

They should hit me up on LinkedIn, I think. I'm not a social media person, to be honest with you, so LinkedIn is the best way.

Impact around the World is an initiative of the pioneering EDEC Delegations team and edhec alumni. A huge thank you to my fellow country managers, Patricia in California, CC in China, Nilesh in India and Joyce in Singapore for making these interviews happen.

We are committed to building a community.

Beyond the classroom for you, our 46,000 alumni in over 125 different countries. Follow us on Twitter @EDech alumni or visit the alumni website at alumni edec. Edu to find out more about how you can connect with the EDH community close to you and around the world. Thanks for listening.