Exclusive Interview with Sunny Reddy: Tackling Education, Cultural Values, and the American Dream

I'm Kevin Reinke and I'd like to welcome you to beyond the Echo. I ran for governor in Michigan. After losing that election, my desire to look at issues that are important to the state or the country grew. There is so much static, there are so many opinions. Our news stations have gotten to the point where we don't know what news is anymore. Where do you go to get real facts? This is about real perspective for you. Beyond the Echo will cut through all the smoke, all the opinions. It's not about Republicans, it's not about Democrats. It's about the issues and what are real. Welcome to another episode of beyond the Echo. It is my pleasure today to have Sonny Reddy, who is running for Wayne State Board of Governance in Michigan. And Sonny's an interesting guy. Over the last 14 months, I have grown to know Sonny, consider him a friend. Respect. Sonny and I want to talk about what I think is so unique about the man that we're about to have a conversation with is. Sonny is from India and he is a immigrant who has been exposed to the American dream. And he understands the value of faith, family, community. He understands the value of hard work. And he's at a point in his life where he is interested more in serving the people of Michigan, in serving his community, his family, and I believe indirectly his faith.

That's right.

Than he is in making money. And when I ran for governor, I often said that there was a time to learn, a time to earn, a time to serve and a time to sacrifice. And maybe it's the fact that Sonny and I have reached the serve and sacrifice point at the same time that warms me to Sonny. But on that note, I'd like to introduce Sonny Reddy. And thank you for being here, Sonny.

Thank you.

You are my friend and I'm voting for you. I would encourage everyone to vote for Sonny, but don't listen to me, listen to Sonny and make your own decision. And I think you will recognize the value in his intent and what the outcome is. So Sonny, if you would tell the audience a bit about who you are in your history.

Thank you. Appreciate it. First of all, thank you very much for having me here. Kevin, you are a good friend of mine. So a little bit about myself. I landed in this country, 1990, January as a 20 year old kid and never seen snow in my life. It's the first time came to Michigan.

And never seen snow.

Never seen snow. Never seen snow. And 20 year old my dad gave me first semester, he paid the tuition and gave me a thousand dollars.

So you came to go to college?

I came to Wayne State University as a student. Oh, okay. All right.

20 year old student at Wayne.

20 year old student came for a master's.

So what were you studying?

Chemical engineering. Master's in chemical engineering. Within one year I lost my mom. Coming to America was my mom's dream. My mom heard what a such a great country America is from my elder cousins. So she told me one thing. No matter what, don't come back as a failure. Kid, I want you to succeed. I want to see you succeed. And today she's not here, but I'm sure she's watching me.

Oh, I'm sure she's watching as well. So what a great inspiration.

Yeah.

So you were here studying your masters and the first year you're here, mom dies. I'm curious, how did you end up picking Wayne State? The United States is a big place, right?

So actually I came to New York Institute of Technology. Stayed there just one semester. Dr. Ralph Kumler was the chairman of chemical. The engineering actually. So I met him in one of the conference in D.C. and as a casual, I was having a financial struggle and I. When I was talking to him, he said, come over, we'll do something. So he really helped me. He's also no more, but Dr. Kumler, without Dr. Kumler, I don't think I would have been here.

So we helped you get a scholarship and that brought you to Metro Detroit.

Metro Detroit?

Wayne Street.

Metro Detroit. Yes. Partial scholarship. But you know, being an international student, no matter how long you are in here, you always pay out of state fee. That is almost what, five, six times more than the state.

I don't know what the ratio is. I know it's dramatically.

Yeah, out of state is more expensive and so the thousand dollars, I worked so hard during the summer and then I return thousand dollars to my dad back done with it. So I built my life after that, every penny. And graduated in 1994. That was a very tough to get the jobs in chemical engineering. So some of my friends told me, you know what, why don't you take a couple of classes in technology. It you can find a job faster. That's what I did. Never worked in the industry, but I've been always in a technology industry. So thank God, thanks to Wayne State.

Did you study software or hardware?

Oh, software, Software. Software. Okay. I. In fact actually I ended up teaching about 15 years for the software programming languages.

Did you teach at Wayne State?

Not Wayne State, but outside. I started my company back in 1996 as an information Data Systems as a technology company. I started as a teaching. I used to get the kids, train them. No matter what background they have, I used to train them in the programming languages and place them. So that's how I started my IT company.

So I'm aging myself because my IT classes. When I was at Michigan State, we would show up at the computer center and we had the cards that we had to load into the. So in 1996, I think you were a little bit past the card.

I was a little bit past, actually. I do remember those days. We used to have a sticker on the keyboard to remember the shortcuts. Control C, control B to make it bold. So it used to be Word Star, actually. And Max just was coming up. That was a great invention. We can use the mouse with the Max.

Yep, I remember it well.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So yeah, that's what it is. I mean, you know, what kind of.

Software did you guys create? What did it do for people?

I worked for, say, Chrysler Call Center. Okay. And their customer service management software. I was one of the person who programmed it, actually.

Okay.

And I ended up working with, you know, for some reason, God put me onto the telecom side. Whatever the jobs, I did it, including Chrysler and then the several telecom companies. I ended up working for telecom companies. That's how I started my current company called Vivo IP Office Wipe Office, which is basically what I do is I provide the. I compete with the one agent, RingCentral, if you are familiar with. My company is a telecom company, we provide the telecom. I'm familiar with it. Okay. So in a nutshell. In a nutshell, what I do is I call myself as a insourcing. What I do is all these big corporations, they outsourcing, they're opening office in India, China, everywhere. Right. What I do is I take the US Telecom, sell it to them, let them pay here. So if not for me, they buy the service from the foreign companies. So I'm bringing the dollars back into the United States. Into the United States. That's my job.

Very, very interesting. There's so many opportunities in Michigan for improvement and employment in technology that. That have been either not explored or not maximized. And I don't understand because we have a lot of engineers here in Michigan that graduate from different schools. Let's go on Sunny and talk a little bit about.

Can I add a little bit to that, please? So you're right. Michigan has a lot of jobs. The schools are not teaching. In my view, these colleges should stop indoctrinating, start teaching for the Kids what they need for tomorrow. Jobs. I'll tell you, being in a technology business, we are not finding the people in Michigan. We are bringing from out of state while we losing kids to the other states. Every kid I talk to, they said they don't have jobs. But we do have STEM education is one of the thing I want to do at Wayne State. I want to, I want to focus on STEM education. We can keep the kids in Michigan. We do have jobs. There's no question about it.

I don't know if it's current, but I know within the last 12 months, Michigan had the proud position of having the lowest retention of college students.

That's right.

In America.

In America. Right, right.

You come to school in Michigan, you get a great education, and the first thing you want to do is get out of Michigan.

Get out of Michigan.

Because we don't provide opportunity or the environment for people to be successful in, which is really sad.

We're losing, it's called brain drain. Basically, we're losing young kids to the other states. Not only that, actually, because of the immigration rules. Also, while we welcoming the illegal immigrants and at the same time difficult for legal immigrants. Exactly. We are putting so much difficulties for the legal immigrants. Our neighbor Canada. Canada says, hey, come over. If you guys can't get the green cards in us, come over. We'll, we'll have a job for you. So what we are doing is we are training them, sending them to the Canada.

It's crazy. And I'm going on record right now because they often talk about people not wanting to be in Michigan because of the weather.

No, no, that's not true.

And I want my viewers to look at Sunny Ready and say, if a guy can come from India and never see snow and love Michigan and want to have a business here and see the opportunity, that weather is an excuse. Isn't this a great state, sonny?

Michigan is the most beautiful state I ever seen in United States. People don't know about Michigan. If, if you go to the up north, that's, I, I always tell them, you know what? This is heaven. If you go to up north and see it's a, it's in heaven.

I, I, I feel the same way. Yeah, it, it has wonderful geographics and it has wonderful people.

Exactly.

So you've been a businessman, you've moved your family and friends. You've encouraged to come to Michigan. The Indian community in the metro Detroit area is significant. And what I like about those people is it is a community. They understand the value of a community. They Understand the value of their faith and hard work. And I was really impressed when you had a Indian based form at the turnout, the interest, the intellect of the people in the audience and how they asked questions and interacted. And I'm going to be honest, Sonny, I didn't realize how significant the Indian community was in Michigan until I ran for governor and then was at your event. And really, really, medical, engineering, technology, all of the businesses of tomorrow, they're high paying jobs, they're great opportunity jobs, they're high tax paying jobs. And that's all good for Michigan. What has compelled you to want to get into Wayne State as a board of governance member?

So first of all, first of all, as you said, again, serving, I'm at the serving stage. I want to do something for the community. When I look back, I said, you know what? We are losing. First of all, thanks to Wayne State. Thanks to great state of Michigan for whatever I have. I owe it to the state, I owe it to the school. And so I said, when I look at it, I said, you know, what's going on with the kids? Kids are losing. Every time when we have a gathering, we talk about it. None of our friends, kids are in Michigan. I said, why not do something about it? Why not? Why can't we keep the kids with us in Michigan in our own state? I said, you know what? The only way I can do it is when I look at the schools. Schools become not educational centers. Schools become indoctrination centers. I want to change that. I want to teach these kids, I want to keep these kids.

What do you mean by indoctrination? Because it means different things to different people at different levels of education. Help me understand it. Wayne State. How does Wayne State indoctrinate?

Wayne State is basically focusing on, you know, I'm a conservative. I believe in a God created a man and woman. And I don't have a problem with who you are. I respect that. But I don't like the fact that you need to have special privileges. And the schools, especially the, the schools they're teaching kids, you know, you pretty much, you don't have to tell your parents you could do whatever you want to do.

You're talking about that woke agenda.

That woke agenda.

People are. Yeah, it's interesting. I don't know what that has to do with education. You know, it's a, it's a personal agenda.

It's a personal. Exactly, exactly.

And that's not what people are paying for, right?

No, no, exactly, exactly. I mean, you know, I have my Own daughter. I raised her as a conservative. Good for you.

I raised my three kids as conservatives.

Right, right, right. Hopefully one day they realized what we did for them. But schools. My daughter went to Yale. She graduated last year, and she did wonderful job. I'm so proud of her. But at the same time, there are certain things I'm concerned about it.

Sure.

With the schools, the way schools. On doing it.

One thing I want to clarify before we go ahead, because, Sunny, I think it's an interesting point. I raise my kids conservatives. That doesn't mean they have to be Republicans.

No, no, that's true. I agree with you.

Because their values, their moral pathway, their view of serving others is part of that conservative mantra. It's not. When you say conservative, saying, oh, you have to be a Republican and drink Republican kool Aid. Or if you are a liberal, that you are a Democrat necessarily and drink Democratic Kool Aid.

Right, right.

You know, you did the role that you were supposed to do as a parent.

Right.

And I did the role in my. And by the way, our wives, I, I want to give credit to our wives 100% did the roles to raise our kids conservatively because that means that they respect other people, that they work hard, that they understand service in community. That's what conservatism is, in my view.

You agree? 100%.

So at Yale, how did your daughter. Because Yale's known to be a really liberal.

Liberal place. Right.

One of our top institutions. How did your daughter change going to Yale as a conservative and then graduating? What do you see as a dad?

I don't know whether she's a conservative. Still a conservative.

She still is.

I don't think so.

You don't think so?

I don't think so. I'm working with her. I'm working with her. She's going to come. She's going to come. I want to give her a time. I want to give her a time. I mean, she will one day. She will, but she, she knows that how hard I worked, and she realizes that and she, she respects the parents. She's very smart girl. And she was the first geography be champion from Michigan.

Wow.

2013 geography be champion.

So that's fabulous.

She has a. Yeah. I'm proud of her. She's the only kid I have. I'm proud of her.

You don't love her any less because Yale.

No, no.

You know, and I want to go on record as parents.

Exactly.

I don't care if you're liberal or conservative. You love your kids, but it doesn't mean that you have to endorse your.

Kids actions exactly 100%.

You did in today's society that there's too many parents.

Right.

And, and their kids. You know, if your kid thinks that they're a cat and you start referring to him as kitty as a parent, that's messed up.

Yeah. Yeah.

And you know, I, I, I, There is a nuance. And, and it, it's worth discussing. You don't love your kid less because they think they're a cat, but you want to help them realize that they're not a cat.

100.

You don't provide a litter box in catnip in a kitty bed for them to sleep on.

Right.

In my view. Now there are those that would provide the kitty bed and the catnip.

And can I add one more reason, please. So one of the reason is in India a system called reservations based on the caste. So if you apply for a school, your admission process is not based on what you know, it's based on what caste you belong to. We didn't realize until I was applying. My daughter was applying for schools. I didn't realize that the same, that's a system in India we faced. I didn't realize it's a similar system in this country too. It's called affirmative action. Ah, it's exactly the same.

What is your view on affirmative action and how that compares to the caste system?

It's exactly the same.

Really?

100% same. We call it as a caste system over there. Here we call it the race. That's the only difference. And I'm not sure. So Indian parents, I'll tell you, we are the most, Indian urgent kids are the most disadvantaged kids with affirmative action. They are the number one losers.

They use affirmative action.

No, they, they, it's affecting negatively.

Oh, I'm sorry. It is Indian.

It hurts. Indian. Indian urgent kids.

I gotta be honest with you.

Yeah.

When, when I was a kid, there was a couple Indian kids at my school and it bugged the daylights out of me, Sonny.

Yeah.

Because they were always smarter than me. Now at least that was my perception. And, and I want to clarify, they were smarter than me because they actually were more focused on education in, in the process than I was. You know, I, I was the athlete and I was the wild. You know, and I always looked at those kids. You know, back in the day we might have called them nerds or we might have called them some silly little names, but there was a degree of jealousy. And the jealousy was their ability to focus and to learn. And I'm happy to say that those kids were my friends because I liked the outliers that had the courage to be outliers. And my kids attended a school that had a significant Indian population in it.

Yeah.

And I know they experience the same things. And I used to say to them, you know, you guys should admire that focus that their parents are tough on them, that their parents restrict them from some of the things that other parents don't restrict their kids from.

So majority of the parents, I'll tell you, if the kid comes home with the 98%, the first thing they do is what happened to the 2%? How come you missed the 2%?

You mean they don't give them an award?

They do, but I'm saying I was just joking. Majority of the parents, they look at it. I said, what happened? How come you didn't miss that 2%?

Yeah. Well, we live in a society today where it seems like if you get a 50%, someone gives, gives you an award and they rub your back and say it's okay instead of what happened to the other 50%.

Other 50%. That's true too. That's true too. You know, I just want to let you know a little bit about the Indian community. The way they look at is, can I, can I give you tell you joke a little bit small one small.

One small short joke.

So one of the second generation Indian kid becomes a president of United States, right. Mom is sitting on the first row at the inauguration function and some one gentleman goes to her and asked her, you should be proud of your son, he's becoming a president of United States. Then immediately she says, you know, my other son is a doctor. You know, so community in community used to be very well across the board. They used to either engineer a doctor pretty much in the family. So that's how they look at it. Today somebody asked me other day, hey, how do I approach the Indian community for asking me to support? I said, talk about education. That's all you need to do. Yeah, talk about education, what you're going to do for schools, how are you going to help education?

There's nothing wrong with recognizing that some kids achieve at a higher level than others. And that doesn't mean that you forget the other kids.

Right.

But it also shouldn't mean that you forget the high achiever.

Right, right.

You know, I, I, Sonny, I don't get it. You know, it's fine. I'm competitive. I like to be competitive about everything. And you know, when kids got better grades than me, man, I wanted better grades. My first girlfriend in high school. Not a lot of people know this. I'm sharing something with you. She said she wouldn't kiss me unless I was on the honor roll.

Oh, wow. In my.

When we started going out, I wasn't on the honor roll. Yeah. And I spent a lot of money on popcorn and pop at the movies. No kissing. Let me tell you, I worked my fanny off to get on the honor roll.

Is that right?

She was a good kisser too. You know, kudos for her. But it's. There has to be incentive. There has to be drive. It isn't okay to be mediocre.

Right? Right.

And that's what I admire about the Indian community. They have that spirit, that drive. What's it like being a member of the Indian community here in Michigan?

Okay. I have mixed feelings. First of all, I am one of the very few people go out and explore outside the community. Indian community is, I call them as a nine to five families. They don't bother anybody. They go, go to the office at 9 o', clock, come back at 5 o' clock after that. Their family is their family. My message to the Indian community, you know what? If you keep doing it, your kids are going to suffer. You have to look at how the next generation is going to suffer. You need to worry about what's going on outside. You need to be part of it. And that's my message. I think Indian community is going to, hopefully is going to realize I am running for next generation. I want to put a pathway, I want to make sure that I had a American dream in this country. This is the greatest country on earth. There's no question about it. I had an American dream. I want to keep that dream for the next generation and next generation and so on.

You know, it's so interesting because, Sonny, when I ran for governor, I wasn't running because I needed to be governor. I was running for your kids. I was running for my kids. I was running for grandkids. I was interested in leaving the next generations an opportunity that was greater than the opportunity that, that I took advantage of leading them with the chance financially to make more money and live that American dream, hoping that the opportunity and the financial success would lead to them strengthening the community and understanding that you don't measure simply by economics. You measure by compassion. You measure by how you treat your neighbor. You measure by how you lend a helping hand. And you don't rely on government because it's not government's job.

Right.

It's our job. It's our way forward to make a better state.

100%.

I agree with you by understanding that there's responsibility and accountability. And it seems to me that there's a lot of folks out there that don't want our kids to know that their power is what drives this country, not government success. Government cannot provide financial security whatsoever. That's not government. Government's job.

That's right.

And I think it's a tribute. You are a leader in the Indian community and you recognize that every member of the community, which is a diverse community, can contribute for the greater good. We're all in this together. And when we act together to solve problems, there's not a heck of a lot that we can't solve.

Oh, yeah.

So issues like equality, There is a solution. Okay. It doesn't mean financial equality, but equality from the general sense, literacy, There is a solution. And what we have to do is we have to have leaders like you, Sonny, that recognize that we're being divided and that divided we fall, united we stand. And I can't thank you enough. I worked my fanny off when I ran for governor.

Sure.

Just under 80,000 miles in nine months. I never left the state. And I patted myself on the back and said I. I did a good job. I believe, Sonny, you've probably surpassed that 80,000 miles in the state. I have never seen a man more driven than you. You are everywhere. And I admire that. And I thank you for putting forth that effort.

I just want to let you know, I actually earned a lot more experience. I learned a lot about Michigan for the last 13, 14 months than my entire 35 years in this state.

That was my experience when I ran for governor. I learned more in that nine month period of time than I'd learned in my whole life.

Exactly. Yeah.

The makeup, the foundation of our society and our communities. It's fabulous.

There are beautiful, peace loving people across Michigan. I made so many great friends for the last 14 months. I wish I could have done that earlier. That's what I feel.

You know what?

Same thing.

You know, the people in Michigan are good. What they are lacking is qualified leaders that actually understand that come from them, that believe in the power of people versus the power of government.

Right.

You know, government isn't the solution.

That's right. That's right.

Putting people in government that understand that government shouldn't be the solution, interestingly enough, is the solution.

That's right.

Yeah.

That's right.

Well, Sonny, I wish you luck in this upcoming election.

Thank you.

Everywhere I go.

Thank you.

I encourage people to vote for you. And you are an inspiration to me. And the courage it takes to be a member of the Indian community and step out of that community and expose yourself and your family to all the people of Michigan is a tribute to you. You are truly in the arena and it is exhilarating and I wish you well.

Thank you. Thank you, Kevin. I really appreciate it. I really appreciate it. Thank you very much. Thank you very much.

Well, another episode of beyond the Echo. I encourage you to check out Sonny Reddy. He is what I believe makes Michigan great, makes America great. An immigrant who came here with a thousand bucks and has lived the American dream and wants to give back his private business experience is the type of experience that we should demand from all of our elected officials. I hope you enjoy listening to Sonny. I hope you enjoyed this episode of beyond the Echo. Until next time, we'll talk to you.

Thanks.

Thanks for tuning in to beyond the Echo. If you enjoyed today's episode, be sure to like, follow and subscribe so you never miss an update. We'd love to hear your thoughts, so drop us a comment and share the podcast us with your friends. Stay connected and keep the conversation going by following us on social media. Until next time, keep exploring beyond the Echo.