Episode 92: Educational and Galactical Profitability with Dr. Zarik Boghossian

Silence on the set, people. Silence.

Don't they do that on a set?

They do. They do.

Silence on the set.

Silence.

We don't always do it here, though, because this is the Profit first podcast, episode 92. Yes.

Ouch. Silence.

Silence.

It's too much noise. Silence.

That's right. Grunting on beat hey, you can follow along at home. You can grunt along with us. Come on.

Some people do.

Welcome, everyone, to the Profit first podcast. My name is Chris Curran. I'm the founder of Fractal Recording.

And I'm Mike Michalowicz, the author of Profit first and the brand new released book surge, available Amazon.com right now. I'm joined in studio by Christina, who's jamming out Bulldog. Hi. And you are listening to the Profit first podcast, where you discover all the angles of profitability. We said it last episode. Revenue is vanity, profit is sanity. And there's many ways to get there. This episode will be no different.

That's right. We have another great guest. And then we're all three of us give our takeaways what we learned from the guest afterwards. But this show is available everywhere. You hear podcasts in itunes and Stitcher and Tunein Radio and now Google Play and of course, the website profitfirstpodcast.com and this show, again, we focus on profit because the number of employees, the amount of revenue you bring in, everything about your business is fine and dandy, but the bottom line is profit. So revenue is poet and prophet is prophetic.

Prophetic. Not pathetic. Prophetic.

Unbelievable.

Wow. Poetic. Prophetic, is it? Or prophetic.

I would say prophetic.

Prophetic.

Prof.

It's not pathetic.

I know, right? Oh. Or prophetic.

The fact we're discussing now ruins. Now it's getting now it's pretty pathetic. So listen, Chris, I'm sitting here while we're going. Christina's doing stuff, you know, business, always going. I got my iPhone on, my wife. Wife texts. Down. She goes, I miss you. And I haven't. Yeah, well, she was out. I haven't seen her much at all. And I'm heading away for a month of travel starting next week. That's why we're doing all these recordings like we're doing back to back to back to back. Because I'm heading out of town for literally a full month of travel.

Wow.

And so she's like, we should do something together. I'm like, well, my. My high school has an alumni lacrosse game. I got invited to watch her. Not a championship game that they're doing. They invited the alumni. So I'M like, you want to go to the lacrosse game? And as I click on send, I'm like, that's the worst thing to send to your wife.

She wants to hear.

Yeah, when your wife says, I miss you and you say, hey, you want to go to a lacrosse game?

At least you realize it after you sent it.

I know. I haven't remedied it yet. I'm an idiot. I'm an absolute pathetic idiot.

She's upstairs, pacing.

Yeah. Chris, what have you been up to?

You know, I've been reading this book by James Allen. It's called Above Life's Turmoil. And James Allen was alive in the late 1800s and I think he passed away in 1912. He wrote about 16 or 17 books. The most famous one is As a Man Thinketh. Right. Yes, everyone knows that one. But our pause your life organization, we republished his book called Byways of Blessedness. And now this book, Above Life's Turmoil. Just awesome. It's like part of the new thought movement sort of thing, but it's just so powerful. Like these guys who can just break it down into the simplest form and, and make it usable for us in our lives. It's like, you know, and it's not all like airy fairy, like, oh, feel good and, and you know, whatever. I mean that stuff has its place too. But at some point you got to go to the core of your being and in a way it's analogous to profit first. You're going to the core of your business. Profit. Hello.

Yeah, yeah, right there's coming now this, you know, one thing that's cool by now I consider myself a health, a hybrid author. I used to be a self published author. Then I went with Penguin for Pumpkin Plan. And I'm like, no, I'm going to be self publishing. And now I'm going back with Penguin. They're reproducing profit first. So I consider myself a hybrid. I got some self published, some, you know, mainstream traditional publisher. But I will tell you one of the great benefits of going the traditional publisher. I went out to New York last week, met with my editor and the team over there and I leave and I come back here with a bag full of books. You literally can get an unlimited free supply of books. And I love to read. So I now have about 30 books piled up. It's actually in the storage room over there piled up that I have to read.

That's nice.

That's a nice benefit.

That's awesome.

Isn't that nice?

I feel like I say that word a Lot. But it is.

Yeah, I use Awesome. I over. I abuse awesome. His name is. Oh. Oh. Before I say his name, I want to talk about our sponsors, our corporate partners.

Oh.

So thank you to Fundera, Tsheets, Receipt, bank, nextiva, and Fundbox. This is all done from memory, by the way. I want the world to know that all those corporations have supported those us. And when I say corporations, they're small businesses, too. They're no different than us. They just do different services. We'll give you more details on who they are and what they do and why. You may want to consider them for yourself or someone you know at the end of the show. But thank you for to them for making the show possible.

We really love our corporate partners. And Christina, do we have any feedback this episode?

Oh, the shout outs.

What shout outs you got there? I do. Thank you for remembering. This shout out is from Michael.

From myself. Did I send it to.

No, this is Michael. Actually, it is a Mike.

M. Is it Mike?

Oh, my God.

Give the first two letters in his last name, then when you get to it. Is it Mick? Michael.

Mick.

That's mine.

No, mc. Like not.

Oh, he's mc. I'm in my C. Okay.

He's talking about the prop first book. And he says, I was leery to buy this book because it sounds like a get rich quick scheme, but it's not. It is a get paid smart plan that understands human nature and looks to maximize your profit potential at first with small changes and gradually making bigger changes. I'm definitely implementing this and would recommend everyone else at least read this book once.

Wow. Thanks, Michael. Mick. Thanks.

Michael. Mick.

Mick. Which I sound like. I'm thanking myself.

McVeigh.

McVeigh. Okay. Oh, we said his name there. That's his name.

Sorry. That's okay.

Michael McVeigh, everyone.

Sorry.

There's probably a million Michael and Vase out there. He's not gonna get stalked. All right, so Zarek Bohosian. I'll tell you, Christine, you hear me call one guy every time on the phone. Like, hey, my brother's my brother from another mother.

Yeah, this is the guy.

This is the guy.

That's awesome.

I met Zarek. And maybe Zark will remember. I. I met him five, eight, ten, maybe eight or nine years ago. I think I met him at Pepperdine University. I don't even recall. I'm pretty sure it was my book. The Toy Paper Entrepreneur came out. I was invited to speak at an entrepreneurial group, and this professor walks in. Zara. We hit it off. I fall in love with him. I mean literally love him. We get to know each other, we go to a lunch or dinner together and he starts telling me a story and it's mind blowing. Zharkvahosian grew up in Iran. He's of Armenian lineage, so his family's from Armenia. They had a flee Armenia to go to Iran. He's born in Tehran, Iran. He then comes to the United States as a teenager. I think he's like 18 or 19. Comes to the United States, has to learn English. He's going to North Texas now. He has to learn the culture and he has to make a living. He comes here with nothing. He gets spit. He starts working. He's working three jobs, he's going to school. He gets spit on at a restaurant because of his accent, because he ain't deep where these redneck guys were that wanted to teach him a lesson.

And we love the rednecks too, by the way.

You're right. If you're redneck. If you're a redneck, I don't mean to offend you. If you're an a hole redneck, I do mean to offend you. I mean, these guys were just a holes, right?

Totally.

And Zark just whatever, he's like, this is the path I'm blazing. Fast forward. This guy developed the software, I am not kidding. The software that manages the entire International space station's orbit. That thing that's up above our head right now, that's orbiting around, that people are landing on and taking off of for decades.

Are you serious?

Zarek is the guy who wrote the code to do it.

Nice.

Now if he was like me, I'd be so pissed at those a hole redneck guys. I would put some like nasty code in there that made their space shuttle fall on them somehow or I don't know, I would feel vindictive. He turned it the other way. He's launched multiple companies, he's an investor in multiple companies. He's an adjunct professor at Pepperdine University. The most liked professor in the business school at the university. Perhaps partly because he now teaches my books there and wrote the code for the space shuttle. I mean, if there's any guests that I've been so pumped to talk with, it's Zarek himself. Zarek, welcome to the show.

Thank you, my brother. Thank you. Wow, what an introduction. I appreciate it.

Yeah, we basically killed the entire show. I killed the entire show introducing you. So we're basically done. But Zark, you were spit on. I mean, the anger, the desire for revenge. What was that, like.

Yeah. So. Well, I had two choices. Either I had to take revenge, which was not a good choice, and the other one, to move on and carry on with my life and learn from a bunch of idiots that I had to come across with at the time. And perhaps I had no choice but to do that. I think, as you mentioned, I came to this country when I was 18 years old. I actually left the country a month before revolution. I actually had registered to be drafted to the army at the time.

This is the Iranian army, right?

Yeah, the Iranian army. Again, as a minority, Armenian minority. Being born in the country and the regime change, I would certainly. 99% for certainty I would be dead by now. Because after revolution, we went into a war with Iraqis. And, you know, long story short, the situation gotten worse. I decided to leave the country. I decided to come to this country to get education, to have a good life in the future and go back and help my family and start a family and my own business. I came here on November 23, 1978, on a Thanksgiving Day. So this is extremely important for me because I actually believe there was a reason for me to write to this country on a Thanksgiving Day, because I am actually thankful for the opportunity, even though I've gone through so many hardships in my life. But the lessons I've learned, the people I dealt with. As a matter of fact, people ask me, how did you become an entrepreneur? I actually believe my entrepreneurship skills were developed in 1978 at the International House of Pancakes, working a graveyard Shift from 11pm until 7am, working with a bunch of idiots who were drunk, who didn't like my accent, who made fun of me, who wanted to start a fight. But I kept my calm, I kept my sanity. That actually became motivation for me not to become somebody like they were at the time. So I think dealing with multiple characters, dealing with tough situations, dealing with people making fun of you and keeping you calm, by the way, that was one of four other jobs I was doing and I was going to school full time. And the other jobs, by the way, not any better. I was washing toilets, I was washing dishes. Of course, over time, I got promoted into becoming a waiter. And by the way, I was making a lot of tips because I was giving people free food because I didn't really care, you know, so. So I think the determination to make something out of my life and working hard through it, it became a normalcy for me. So to me, working four jobs, five jobs, going through school, not having money, helping your family back home and Being humble about it. That was at the beginning of my career, coming to the state. So. And as I speak to many students right now and to some speaking events, you know, hardship is at the core of entrepreneurship. And if you know how to manage yourself, if you always stay positive, if you work through the hardships and collaborate and bring the right people around you who believe in you and you can work well together, then that's at the core of entrepreneurship that I've been going through in my life for the, for the past 20, 38 years.

Is there a particular mindset or strategy? I mean, you face constant adversity. These customers that IHOP at 4 in the morning are coming in drunk and mocking you and, you know, just keep pushing you down. My sense is I just want to run away. I would want to quit my job in a heartbeat. They want to fight you. I mean, how do you stay above it? How do you keep motivating yourself when this is a regular routine?

Yeah. So, you know, to be honest with you at the time, I don't know how I survived through this, to be honest with you. So I'll be lying if I said, you know, I knew what I was doing at the time. What I knew was I have no choice but to prosper in life. I had no choice but to deal with a bunch of idiots that may come through my way. I had no choice but to work five jobs and get my education. And by the way, I think a major part of it is having a real nice imagination as to what do you see in your future. I always introduce myself as I'm an ordinary man with extraordinary imagination. I think what kept me going, just seeing the future, seeing the prosperity, seeing what I love to become part of. So my fascination with space didn't happen when I was 18. As a matter of fact, my fascination for space, it happened when I was at the age of 10. I watched the moon landing on July 20, 1969, and I became. I fell in love with space. I said, oh my goodness, there's something out there. And I wish I could go there, you know, as a child. And then the circumstances and my hard work and my choices in life as far as my education. I got a degree in computer science, which really over time, and my focus in life, took me to the International Space Station program. And then I had an opportunity not to go to space, but I worked on something that it was unique and only one system in the entire world that would orbit around the Earth for the last 10, 15 years now. So I think keeping that Imagination from a very young age. Staying focused and dealing with hardships and staying positive and determined as to the life will get better because it cannot get any worse. And stay true to yourself because if you take the right steps, which I did. So I worked hard, five jobs, simple jobs, difficult jobs. I got my education. I became really good at what I was trying to become. A great programmer, a great designer. I got engaged with the International Space Station program, as you said. I was in charge of developing and deploying the mission critical flight software for the electric power system of the entire station. And then my love for space never died. And what I'm trying to say by that is I still feel that I love space. I still feel there may be a day that I'll go to the space station that I built.

Nice.

And. And that's cool having that in mind. Years later, after so. So 40 years later or 45 years later, like last year, I meet Buzz Aldrin, the second guy who stepped on the surface of the moon.

Cool.

So what I'm saying is the imagination is key. And taking the right steps and getting involved on the right projects, bringing the right humble people just like yourself to the table, it gets you to the places that you really, really, really want to get to. I think it's just keep at it, stay focused, work hard at it, and always dream. I think that this. My imagination at the age of 10 to this date, actually still helping me. And that's how I achieve my life and the things I've done in my life.

Did those perceived weaknesses. You're at IHOP and these guys are picking on you because your accent. Did that ever become an advantage? Did. Do you think you got a leg up when. When you were being considered for the International Space Station, the software development, they're like, wow, this guy because of his accent must be extremely intelligent. I mean, did it ever play into your favor?

Yeah, I think. I think they did.

Again, which he is extremely intelligent, by the way. I just want that.

Well, let me give you another story. So I started on Space Station as a senior design and a chief architect for the software. And then the person who hired me, the manager who hired me, and of course for my qualifications as a technical guy. And he had to leave the company after a year. So he approached me, says, Zarek, I know you love this program. I know you would want to do this no matter what. I'll tell you, Mike, I didn't even negotiate my salary. I mean, I was dreaming about this thing and here I am, I'm working.

On this, I'll take it. I'll take it.

Yeah. And then this guy tells me, he says, zari, I know how much you love this, but if I leave, you don't know who else you're gonna get as your manager. So I have a recommendation for you. Why don't you apply for the management position? And this was a year and year and a half into my position. I was a technical guy. And I told him, I said, listen, I've never been a manager in my life. I really don't want to do that. I want to do this. And he goes, but I'm telling you, this is a tough project. It's gonna be like this for years. And if you get a guy that you don't like to work with, you may actually end up quitting your job. Then I said, you know what? I'm going to try, and I'm going to apply for this job. Mike. I had eight other managers applying for the job from NASA, from Rockwell International. And we sit on this executive type rooms. And people drilled me for my qualifications, and they knew exactly what I have done, where I came from, how I worked as a young guy. I got the job over eight other candidates who were much higher qualified than I from a career perspective. They trusted me that I can do a good job just because I'm so passionate about this and I am in love with this program. And I became a manager out of eight other candidates who had much better qualifications than I did. And that proved to me if you really love something, if you show your passion, if you're honest with yourself. By the way, there are a lot of questions, and I answered as, I really don't know, but you can be sure I'm gonna get this thing done because I love this thing. You know, I'm dreaming of this thing. I was dreaming about space when I was 10 years old. They chose me over eight others, much more qualified people. And here we are, many years later.

Well, look at your qualifications. You worked four jobs and went to school full time. I remember you telling me this story once. I think when you slept, you slept in the car, if you didn't even sleep. I mean, yeah.

So, yeah, this is 1978, and as a computer science graduate and a student, we didn't have iMacs, iBooks, iDis, and iPads. You know, we had this key, the cards, the key punch machines that I was programming. So the routine was I was, you know, writing my code, and then I had to submit my code with a bunch of cards that I Was using like a typewriter machine. And I would submit that to the computer lab and I would go and work in a gas station. Three hours later I would come and take my, the computer results, the output. I would review my code and see if it's working or not. If there was a bug, I had to submit again. Then I would go and work as a dishwasher. Then I would come back, go to my class. Then I would go and submit to the lab again. Then I would go to IHOP in the morning from 11 to 7am and I would come home like 7am and sleep for a couple of hours. Not home, of course, small apartment. And then go back to school. I had like 1820 hour days just through the school and the work. But you see, that's exactly the point I'm making. I think to me that became a normal life rather than working so hard. And why isn't it that others are not working? You see that to me. And part of it comes from our past, by the way. Armenians have always gone through hardships and all that. So I've seen my father work like that. I've seen my mother work like that. And to me, you know, basically became normal. Oh, of course I should do all this if I want to be successful, if I want to become somebody.

You know, there's one thing, one thing, Christina, that I've noticed with Zarek. And you see this around here, there's communities that form. You'll have maybe an Asian community or an Indian community. Well, Zarek's very steeped in the Armenian community. And Zarak, I came to your house, beautiful house, by the way, in California, beautiful hills in Glendale, California and wonderful family. I come in there and it was basically, we could have said a joke because you sat me down for dinner at your house. You put me at the head of the table and it was your friends there. It was basically 10 Armenians and one Polack. And it was like the start of a joke. It's like what happens when 10 Armenians and a Polack enter a room? Well, I'll tell you what happens. You have the best meal ever and you meet the warmest, most ingratiating community I've ever met. Zarek, do you feel that by finding your community, your home community back here in your new home in the United States. And I'll tell you, Zarek bleeds red, white and blue. Finding your community, has that been advantageous or has that been detrimental? What are the benefits, the pros and cons to finding your community?

Yeah, you know, Armenians by Nature are very family oriented.

Be careful. Oh, okay.

No, you know, I think generally we're kind people and nice people. I think, you know, we are very close community by nature. Again, it's because of our past, because of our history. We've gone through a lot of hardship. We've been always spread all over the world as a small nation. So when Armenians find one another, it becomes a natural duty as to, oh, my God, of course there's another Armenian, so let me invite him to my house, you know, so we go. One thing Armenians do, this is like a habit. Anytime they move to a new place, new country, they build a church and then that becomes the meeting place. Because if an Armenian comes to Glendale, the first place they go to is the Armenian church in Glendale, because then they can find friends or they can meet new friends and so on and so forth. So I think that sense of community actually was advantageous to me because that also established the sense of community that I'm developing in my organizations, in my startups. You know, I'm treating people the way I would like to be treated. I'm treating them as a friend, as a family member, rather than you're an employee of mine, you see. So I think all of those things that came to us through our culture has helped me to develop what I say, my leadership. I call myself leadership as a service whereby I treat people as a human being and I receive in response respect, loyalty and results, as literally, I don't have to do much but to respect people as human beings, to really achieve greater things in life. And that's been proven to me through International Space Station, through all the other ventures I've been part of, and all the startups I'm working through. And by the way, I teach the same thing at Pepperdine. I actually start my class by stressing the fact, at the end of the day, nothing matters unless you're a great human being, because that's what matters at the end. So I think that community really helped me develop. Not develop, actually to just pursue and enforce it, because those things were developing when we were born, basically.

I remember you and I were talking a couple years back, it was two years ago, and you told me, not bragging, I was just asking, how's things going, Pepperdine and stuff. You're like, oh, I'm so flattered. You were recognized by the students as the most popular professor on campus, right?

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

The most popular professor at Pepperdine. I want to know the insight here. You're seeing the next generation of entrepreneurs you run the entrepreneurial classes there. Are you optimistic for our future? Are you pessimistic? What do you see coming down the pike when it comes to entrepreneurship?

Yeah, I am, of course, an optimistic person by nature. If I weren't, I wouldn't be here today and talking to you, talking about, you know, being humble. You know, sometimes I pinch myself and I don't. I really don't. I really mean that when I consider myself as your friend or when you. You're talking to me or having me on your show right now. You know, I'm saying I came from nothing, being recognized as a nobody. And then now, a few years later, here I am talking to the public as well as my friends who are recognized people of their own. So the reason I am popular at Pepperdine is not because I'm a better professor, because I am a better mentor. And actually I'm a practical mentor. I consider myself as a mentor to these young adults who want to be the Zuckerbergs of the world for the future. And I teach them practice, I teach them what the real issues are. I actually take my startup ideas and issues that I deal with to the class and I let them know, this is what you're going to walk into. So be prepared, and it's going to be exciting, it's going to be fun, it's going to be rewarding. But you must have passion. You must really, really, really work hard, and you must believe in something that is gonna change the world. So by doing that, and by the way, I establish trust. I establish trust day one. Just like I do in my companies. I tell them, listen, guys, I have three advanced degrees. I have gone to school for many years. I've achieved a lot in the education, in my career, and I've heard all sorts of excuses and stories from students and adults and everything I said, if you don't want to come to my class because you have a headache or you have to go to Lady Gaga concert at Staples, or there's a Laker game, you want to go there because it's the last Kobe's game instead of Zarek's class, just tell me. So just don't lie or don't make up stories like I had a flat tire, this and that, because that's life. It's not the end of the world if you miss my class, but it's actually could be a bad habit if you end up lying to yourself and to the people that you're working with. So the reason I'm doing what I do is I teach them in real life. Things happen. I said, by the way, if you had a concert ticket, extra ticket for Lady Gaga, I probably would have gone with you and missed the class too.

You are a big Lady Gaga fan, we all know.

Well, no, I mean that was just an example because I had a student telling me, zarik, I don't know if you meant it, but I want to go to a concert, is that okay? And I kind of pulled her leg. I said, are you kidding me? You're gonna miss my class because of Lady Gaga? And she goes, I'm really sorry, I shouldn't have done. I said, no, I'm just kidding. Go and have fun.

No. And you're like, and I've got two front row tickets. And I don't know if you knew this Zarik, she's no longer wearing the meat suit that she's famous for. She's now wears a Nazuk suit. That's an Armenian treat, by the way. Oh my God. As us Armenians and poser Armenians like to joke about Zar, we have to run. Yeah, but I want everyone to know before we let you go where they can find out more information about you. So where can they go to learn about the. Listen, I mean you got augmentexture, a company you started that does augmented reality for the architectural industry. You've Driver Square, which is like an Uber for food delivery and other item delivery that you need in the moment. You've ride mates, you've started. Oh, and by the way, on the side you make international space stations fly around. And you also own Zima Enterprises. Can you tell us where can people go to just connect with you and maybe engage you for your services?

Yeah, absolutely. So I founded my company, Zima Enterprises. It's a software development company. We develop web applications and mobile applications, forward looking applications. I get engaged personally myself. I take responsibility. I am very selective about the projects we work on. So there. And also LinkedIn is a good source for people to come in look for me, Zarek Bogosian. I'm very receptive to helping people. I actually believe helping others make me feel good and I sleep well at night so they can reach out to me through Zima, LinkedIn and. And through you perhaps.

So yeah, yeah, no, we'll have it on the show Notes and for everyone listening. He's also keynoting at ucla, University of California, Los Angeles asked Zark to be keynoting out there, which is happening only a week from the day we're doing this recording. Zark, thanks so much. For joining us today.

Oh, my pleasure, guys. I really appreciate the opportunity and I love you guys.

Love you, brother.

Thank you, brother.

All right, have a good day.

You too. So, yeah, I wanted to do some Armenian jokes. I wanted to actually try to, but we didn't have time to pull up.

This story is too interesting.

Yeah. For me to go down my rabbit holes than I do. Oh, I think it was awesome. I want to learn what we learned in a moment, but first I want to thank our corporate partners. So, Fundbox, we love you. Fundbox is invoice financing. You need to collect your invoices a little faster. Check out Fundbox. TSheets is time tracking software receipt bank. You can finally scan those receipts you're keeping in your wallet or shoebox. Whatever scan it goes into, your accounting system is permanently and properly archived for your ability to pull it right back up. Who else am I missing? Did I say Fundera yet? I don't think so. Fundera is one loan. One stop shopping for loans. So if you need a loan for your business, you go reach out to Fundera, they shop it out for you and come back with your loan. And then nextiva. And nextiva is a voice over IP phone system. I actually tried to connect Zark, this is a few years ago, with nextiva. They were looking for a high end programmer and Zark was very gracious and was not interested at the time. But I'm going to call next to you and say, dudes, double, double the numbers. The guy makes space station fly, for God's sake.

Yes.

Have him do your software. So the next diva is an amazing voice over IP phone system. Love them. All right, Chris, you're up, bro. What'd you learn today, man?

Yes, by the way, really, thank you to our corporate partners. We love all the five companies. They're really nice to us.

Love them.

But it'd be nicer if they, you know, maybe sent me some nice chocolate in the mail or something.

Yeah, I haven't got chocolates either. It's true.

Really?

Love note.

Does Ron get anything like that?

Mike, we got a big thing of popcorn, but it wasn't from a corporate partner. Now sometimes they, you know, sometimes they try to grease the wheels with Ron. But you gotta know that Ron is into gardening. See Aaron, Aaron's head now, so. So Ron's in the gardening. If you want to grease his wheels, send him like seeds of some sort for some exotic fruit or vegetable that can grow in the northeast.

Right. There you go.

Yeah, that's how he greases wheels.

So What I learned from Dr. Zarek is he said, well, and I'm probably going to steal it from both your notes. Hardship is at the core of entrepreneurship. Right, but that's not my point. That's true. But here's the thing. When people were making fun of him for his accent, you know, drunk people being stupid, and you asked them, how'd you get through that? How do you keep positive and everything? Well, here's one thing you can. One thing he did, he looked at those people and said, man, those people are idiots. I really don't want to be like them.

Yeah. I don't want to be them.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So it's not. Sometimes it's not, oh, I have to be strong enough to rise above everybody. You can actually look at people and say, you know what? I don't want to be like you people.

Isn't that amazing?

Yeah.

It's the bully and bullies. They happen everywhere. They happen in high school, grade school. They happen in business, in the workplace. In the workplace. And I think there's a lot of relief saying, thank God I'm not that person, and I don't want to be like them. So I'm not going to emulate them. There's something there. Thanks, Chris.

By the way, I'm not saying it's easy to rise above it either. I'm just saying that that's. I really like his approach.

Well, Curry's tough. He worked at ihop. Who can do that? You got to be hardcore. Oh, yeah.

I like when he was talking about his relationship with his students and he was saying, listen, don't. Just don't lie. Because when you lie to others, and I know that can kind of be popular in the workplace. And, you know, if you want to call out sick, you can't just say, I'm sick. But, like, oh, my dog died. Or, you know, like, you feel like you have to justify it with some big reason. But if you're just honest with what's going on, I think people appreciate you more and, like, you respect. It's a respect thing. I think if you. If you're honest with them, they're like, wow, this person respects me enough to tell me the truth and to not have to lie about what's going on, I think that's kind of a big deal.

Yeah, it's a real big deal. We. So I had an employee, my first company, Allmec Systems, still run that company, still exists today. I sold that business, but we had a technical department. And one guy calls in and he says, My grandmother passed away. I cannot come to work tomorrow, the day after. And I'm gonna say his name. We're like, oh, we totally understand. We send flowers to the family, and then we get a phone call from one of our clients the next day and say, hey, I heard XYZ person down in the Bahamas. We said, how'd you know that? He said, well, we'll just make a radio station. KRP of Cincinnati just made an announcement to their winner that won and got free free flight and vacation for two days down in the Bahamas. Now, here's the crazy thing. If he simply said, I just won two tickets to the Bahamas for free. I gotta go tomorrow. Is that cool? I've been like, yes, right? And we've been celebrating. I have no idea why he had to lie about the passing of his grandmother. We get a note back from his family saying, we have no idea why you sent these memorial flowers. And we are saying, we're so sorry about the misunderstanding. We. We sent flowers his family, and they're like, why'd you do this? His family found out who's lying. When he came back, we said to him, we said, we know where you were, and you lied to us. We have to terminate you. And such a shame. And his family ultimately heard through the grapevine, was like, why would you ever do that? And we got flowers. It set this bizarre chain for him. There's no need to lie. No, there's no need to lie. I mean, sometimes you gotta tell a white lie because it's. You don't want to embarrass someone. Like, if I had a booger. How about my nose? You don't say, hey, Mike, you look f' n disgusting. You'll say, hey, Mike, why don't you go to the bathroom? You know? But to be truthful is empowering. And I think it was Gandhi who said, the reason I always tell the truth is I'll never have to remember all my lies. Yeah, you know, so that was a good one. And thank God I could ramble on for about two hours with my own personal story about your tip. Here's my tip I took from Zarek. When you find one another, he was talking about the Armenian community. When you find one another, there is a natural duty. You know, we all have our community. David Launderstein, who joined us last week, talked about the gay community. He found his community. There's a natural duty to support each other. There's the opera community. There's a natural duty to support each other. Yeah, there's friendly competition that's everywhere. But there's a natural duty and we feel compelled to support each other. This exists everywhere. Who's the community you want to be in because there's natural support? Just because you're speaking to that community. You speak the same language, so to speak.

There you go. Awesome stuff. Well, this has been great. I mean, I learned a lot. I actually had Another question for Dr. Zarek about pull him back on. Is he still on his extraordinary imagination? I think he's still here.

I'm on the mute.

Oh, you're on the mute, baby.

You're on the mute.

You talked about your extraordinary imagination and I am also like that. But, but a lot of our listeners are entrepreneurs. They have businesses. They really have to think in the real world, make wise, you know, make decisions that lead to profit so, so they can sustain their business. In, in your journey over the past 30, 40 years, how did you distinguish between, oh, I have this wild imagination, this great idea. How did you, you know, make decisions in the real world? Did you ever have to face a decision where you had this great idea, but you had to just keep, you know, keep your feet on the ground and keep working at a dumb job for a while just so you could survive kind of thing?

Yeah, that's always a tough, tough balance, I think. So naturally, initially, when I came to this country, my, my entire focus was to survive and then thrive. Right? So that's why I did all those jobs. I got my education, I got my experience as a designer and a programmer. But you. And then in life, like all human beings in the world, it's not always what you really want to do. There are circumstances, there are family issues, there are health issues. So I think you got to be realistic as to when is a good time to work on your ideas and when is a good time to balance and integrate your personal life with your ideas. Right? So it's an integration rather than keeping the balance between the two. So just, just be selective, just be realistic. You know, I am at the point in my career where I'm pursuing three, four startups right now, but I could not have done that 10 years ago because of some family issues and my wife was going through some situation, health situation, so I wouldn't abandon my wife's health over an entrepreneurship idea that I had 10 years ago. So to me, that was the priority in my life. So be selective. Especially for young entrepreneurs. They have so much time to pursue their dreams and oh, by the way, things are much better and faster and easier. I mean, the iPhones that we carry in our pockets right now, that computer, I call it a computer, it's much stronger than, much powerful than the computers on the space station. So you can launch a business within a few months rather than a few years. So you can really put some ideas together within a few weeks, you know, with some agile methodology. So you have time, but, you know, you have to prioritize. You have to kind of integrate your personal life with your career and always pursue for higher achievements in life. I think having that dream. So I'm telling you, you know, I never thought I would meet Buzz Aldrin. After 45 years, I still think about space. And by the way, I told my wife, if one of my startups work out well, the recent ones, and if I sell it for $100 million, I'm gonna give her 80 million and I'm gonna take 20 million and become a tourist to International Space Station, because that's how much it's gonna cost me to get there. So I still dream. I still think I can go to the space station that I built and be a tourist, you know, and that's awesome.

And I think. I think Ella's still gonna be pissed that you're ho.

She's gonna get 80 million, trust me.

Oh, I know. No.

Well, I really appreciate your answer. I appreciate what you said, especially. You said, first survive and then thrive. And I think that applies to profit first, Mike. You gotta make sure your business just survives. And you have to have the good business skills. And then once you have that down pat, then you can do other things, right?

Oh, my gosh. Yeah. You, you. That's exactly what you have to do, you know, and that's why we started Profit First Professionals. And thanks for that handoff. It's like the baton just was put in my hand. Love it. You know, I can. Zark, just real quick, you have accountants, right, for your businesses?

Of course.

Yes, of course. That's always the answer. Zark, I talk to countless entrepreneurs and I say, do you have an accountant? Of course, of course. Do you have bookkeepers? Of course, of course. Does your account or bookkeeper help you with your profit? Well, not so much.

I don't know.

I mean, do they meet with you once a month and say, here's specific things you can do, increase the profitability? No.

What you talking about, Willis? Yeah, exactly.

No. Well, guess what, Zarek? You can either whip your accounts into shape or you can go to profitfirstprofessionals.com right now. You go to that site, you click on the Find Button you type in some details on what your business does. We have a group of elite, the world's most elite providers of accounting and bookkeeping services who have mastered profit first. This methodology, of course. Yeah, there you go.

By the way, just. Just last second, I am actually teaching Mike's books in my Pepper diet classes. And, and most recently, I started using profit first. Very popular, very nice. And I love my brother and I can't thank you guys enough.

Wow.

Now that's.

That's how you step into a promo. You come in with I love my brother. Now I'm ready to cry. Zark, I love. I truly love you too, man. And we gotta throw back some Armenian food.

Yes.

I gotta get my ass back out there your way and, you know, and leech off you. All right, brother. Now get out of here so I can do my promo. We'll see you, Zark. So go you. If you're still listening, listener, go to profitfirstprofessionals.com, click on the find button and fill it out. You have to have an accountant. You have to have a bookkeeper. They will drive profit in your business and get you far ahead. And then you yourself will never have to work at IHOP and get spit on.

Oh, yeah, that's it. So thanks for listening, everybody. Thanks again. By the way, profit first professionals.com, that's the website. Thank you, Dr. Zarek. Thanks, Mike. Thanks, Christina, and really, thank you for listening. You don't understand how much this listening to this show helps you so much in the future. It's like the compounding effect, right, Mike?

Oh, my gosh. I mean, look at the hardships that you have to go through. I dark nailed it. Hardships is part of entrepreneurship, but it doesn't mean you have to potentially put yourself in the position of hardship.

Nope.

There's shortcuts, there's better ways, and that's.

What we give you on this show. So thank you for listening. We'll be with you next time. Peace out.

Peace out.

Bye.

Sam.