am I really going back to school at 37
years old I mean really 37 years old I
haven’t done the school thing since 1996
and I was never really good at it but
yes I went to Harvard for three weeks
lived on campus homework classroom all
these other things that we had to do but
at the same time it has to obviously
figure out a way to go away and have
some fun as well so we did for watched a
Red Sox game which was a blast we ended
up going and watching the Patriots play
which was kind of cool and then we snuck
when I went to the New York for a few
days and had a good time up there ran
into a ton of different fans of value
teaming both in Boston and in New York
which was great but this is my Harvard
Business School experience you know life
can be funny sometimes you could be at a
point in your life when you’re asking
yourself why the hell am I going through
this but you may not have an answer to
that five 10 15 20 years later because
if I look at my life I was born and
raised in Iran I lived there for ten
years
six weeks after Khomeini dies in 1989 we
escaped and we’ll go to Germany which I
lived at a refugee camp for a couple
years there and it came to the States
Glendale California I lived it for six
years and right after high school I
joined the army I went to the hundred
first Airborne Division Air Assault for
a few years and had a great time there
and after the military I get out with
the plans of being the next Middle
Eastern Arnold Schwarzenegger I was
gonna be a bodybuilder win several
mistral amperes then I was going to go
into Hollywood be an actor and then
possibly marry a Kennedy and then one
day run for governor but life doesn’t
work the way you plan it to all the time
so then I started working at Morgan
Stanley Dean Witter a day before 9/11
which is not a day you want to start
your career day before 9/11 I ended up
getting my series seven became a
financial advisor then I left Morgan
Stanley went to Transamerica I was with
them for about seven and a half years
and in October of all nine we decided to
start our own company PHP agency’ out of
one office in Northbridge California and
today we have over 3,000 agents in 49
different states and it’s definitely
been a wild ride well the business has
grown the company is going everything’s
going well why go back to school and
take three weeks to go to Harvard so
three weeks away from the business I’m
thinking
here you’ve got this compelling
entrepreneur who is a sales driver he is
the vision he is the strategy and he’s
focus and to have him away for three
weeks I wasn’t as concerned about the
operational side because this is a
mature business that’s been growing at a
very rapid rate over five years and able
to support pretty much everything he
threw at it in terms of growth but to
have the growth driver the visionary and
the guy pushing sales away for three
weeks I was like okay we’re going to do
this huh I think as a CEO what I’m
looking at right now is looking at what
areas of the business we need an
executive tools so you got building
leaders you got strict strategy and
innovation you got operation you got
partner relations like carriers AIG you
know for distribution of whatever that’s
a relationship are what percentage of
your time goes in those four in one you
know the three weeks we were in Boston I
got to tell you I’ve never been to a
city that just is humming can tell
there’s a certain culture that’s been
established at Harvard from the history
from the people the social etiquette the
environment the initial feelings when we
got that was kind of weird because one
you know three weeks is three weeks it’s
a long time and it’s three weeks away
from running your business which is
definitely difficult the other part was
I mean when we got there we had the RV
we didn’t pull up with a car we pull up
with an RV which was very funny because
we had to tell the front gate keeper to
allow us in and the entire time I kept
saying hey my barracks my barracks and
Paul and Mario would correct and you
guys would say hey Pat its dorm it’s not
barracks but I was in the Army I never
did a college thing I mean it was almost
like he went to a playground that was me
for him and to see him go for me very
skeptical and not sure if this was gonna
be a good decision to go to Harvard for
the OPM program and then he went from
talking about his experience to helping
us start thinking differently and
thinking out of the box and challenging
us to get a little bit more a creative
one of the things that I like that I
think honestly sometimes people actually
don’t pay attention to and it’s so
simple sometimes people are so focused
on the salary their business is making
Mario sometimes people are so focused on
the salary their businesses
making so for instance someone was a
business all they’re thinking about is
how much your business profiting every
year
first is increasing the value of the
company that’s a big difference
you could tell that every day that he
was there something new was happening in
that room that affected him in a great
way
look if you know me well you know I’m
not a fan of our current educational
system in America I think the college
system is broken I think it’s absolutely
a big business I think it’s not
producing the results that it should be
producing and we need to make some
adjustments to it so for me I could
never ever stay in class for too long
because why am I taking a physics class
if I’m planning on being an entrepreneur
one day and even in this last
presidential election one of the things
we notice come up constantly is how many
students are stuck with a $200,000 debt
that they have to pay off and some of
the back was why don’t we figure out a
way to have the government pay for the
taxpayers pay for it no I think we need
to just completely change the system and
so I chose Harvard because for the
longest time I told myself if I’m ever
going back to school I will not go to
any other school but associate myself
with Harvard Business School because
everyone says this is the best so if it
is the best I want to find out for
myself is it really the best you know my
expectations of going into Harvard was
having extremely cocky arrogant snobby
teachers teaching us stuff that they
think they know more than we do and if
that was going to be the case I’d
already told myself I would leave within
a week of being there but that was
actually not the case you know the
teachers were very receptive they
actually said you’re here because we
want to learn from you and we’re going
to collaborate here together and I love
their approach on the way they handle
the teaching you know when I was younger
history meant nothing to as I age and I
went through life and I started seeing
things history started meaning a lot to
me and one of the things about Harvard
is its deep history that it has whether
they’ve been around for 400 years or the
fact that Teddy Roosevelt when here’s
Sam Adams or Michelle Obama Barack Obama
George Bush Bill Gates Zuckerberg I mean
these are great men and women who have
walked the campus of Harvard so many
times you’d be walking there just kind
of feeling the greatness of it how many
Nobel Prize winners have gone here
obviously they have one of the biggest
endowments in America I think that 37
billion dollars give or take and within
the vicinity of Boston and Harvard you
have MIT you have Harvard you have
Boston College there’s a lot of pride to
that school to that area itself so you
definitely feel it when you’re there in
Boston and Harvard so obviously I did
not go to traditional Harvard University
so let me make that very clear I did not
go to Harvard Law School or Harvard
College to get my four-year undergrad so
they have a program for entrepreneurs
and CEOs like us called the OPM program
owner president management program which
is requirement to go there you need to
do minimum of 10 million dollars per
year or more and you need to be the
majority owner or the CEO if you are
then you’re invited to go to that
program and I thought it was a very good
program for me to be part of because I
can’t go for three years there’s no way
in the world I have the time to go for
three years but I could for three weeks
even though it’s somewhat of a stretch
so one of my reservations was when I was
there is what if something started
happening with the company thank God my
wife wasn’t pregnant this time the baby
was already born and my daughter was I
think four or five weeks but outside of
that what if something happens with the
company no matter how well you prepare
for anything something will always
happen when you’re gone and you least
expect it during the time I was in
Harvard we did have a couple cases where
we have to terminate a couple of our
folks and the first thing that I did is
I made it a mentoring opportunity for
the people that work with Pat and I said
you need to ask yourself a question what
would Pat do I don’t come from the
school of thought of you know just tell
me the positive news I want to hear the
negative news the bad news that we have
to fix because if we don’t do that then
I don’t want to delayed timebomb that’s
going to take place six twelve months
from now I really forced them to put
themselves into his shoes so that at the
very last possible moment we call him
and we briefed him I didn’t want to give
his people the luxury of calling him at
the first moment for me it’s very simple
I think one of the biggest liars to
business’s success you could be making
tens of millions of dollars per unit you
think you’re doing so well but it’s
lying to you
you have to figure out ways to improve
so the simplest outcome for me of going
to Harvard was to pick up one or two
things that I can apply immediately to
my business to help us grow and take it
to the next level if you travel with me
you will learn very quickly that I love
food and one type of food I can eat a
lot of I’m talking literally I can
overdose on this type of food is oysters
I can have oysters all day long and I’ll
be happy so while we’re in Boston you
know this is a place where they’re known
for their oysters and I asked rum what’s
the best oyster place to go to and
everyone told us you got to go to Island
Creek oyster so we go to the oyster bar
and let me just give you a word of
advice if you ever see a six-foot
something tall Iranian guy that looks
like he’s a whole Savai’i team and
coming to your restaurant please host
him quick and please get him a table
please have him sit in the corner away
from everybody where he gets to see
everything that’s what he likes and the
service was terrible terrible with the
hostess horrible service with the
hostess and we just got up we left and
when I left I ended up doing a video on
it on YouTube I think it’s called how to
lose 400 our restaurant lost $400 in
less than three minutes that always the
restaurant Island Creek whatever that’s
called just lost the phone on a dollar
bill tonight tonight I’m still upset
about that so the toughest part about
being gone for three weeks is not
getting a chance to wrestle with my
four-year-old son Tico
aka Patric Gabriel bid David and Dylan
James the David my three-year-old as
well as my newborn Senna Rose the David
and and Odyssey my white paper you wanna
know something funny
what’s that every time I start cooking
something you call it’s so funny why do
you think it is I’m missing the food I
think it’s because you’re always like
thank you we have any food and I don’t
know what it is every time you just want
me to leave and come home just for the
cooking you’re trying to like persuade
me but it’s great to have a support
system my wife’s very good with the kids
and Melva there’s a phenomenal job at
the house even though my two sons right
now are giving their mother a bit of a
why not you be mean to come but I would
say that was probably toughest in being
away from family in my blood so look if
you ever visit Boston Boston has got so
much history some may even say that
Boston has more history in America than
any other city period that we have in
America including DC so while while in
Boston obviously will win a visit at the
Boston Commons the Boston Massacre the
granary burial grounds were Sam Adams
was buried with Paul Revere was buried
where John Hancock we’re talking John
Hancock
but John Hancock is known for his
signature that went to JFK Museum and if
you know anything about JFK JFK was
loved by people from all over the world
if you’ve never been to the JFK
Presidential Library or the museum I
highly recommended there was a lot of
good things to learn about him how he
was raised as an underdog and him as the
underdog ended up becoming the president
who was the least expected to become a
president as a Kennedy and ended up
become one the most loved presidents of
all time one of the days we had to go
watch Patriots game I made the mistake
of allowing Paul to pick the seeds
honestly I felt like I got closer to God
and I was touching the clouds I have
conversations with angels I was so close
to heaven so look sometimes in life you
gotta be spontaneous you really even if
you ask my wife and friends they’ll tell
you on any given day I could just say
we’re going to such and such place and
then we’re just making a decision I said
look guys let’s just go to New York so
we got a rental car we headed out to New
York on the way to New York
we bought cigars and we got there and we
ended up going to the most ridiculous
restaurants we had great time with food
we met with our buddy John was an
attorney from New York and a few other
guys that was great so for the most part
it was business as usual ones going to
class with it you know case studies and
all these other things but one day Linda
who was the head of the OPM program she
got up and said one of you from each
group each group had eight students one
of you from each group
is going to be able to pitch a business
to everybody and this could be an
existing business or it could be a
future business that you’re planning on
having and all your classmates can
decide whether they would invest into it
or not and you’re literally going to be
presenting this in front of a hundred
and fifty other entrepreneur CEOs so out
of our group after everybody talking
about their ideas my idea was chosen to
pitch in front of everybody so that’s
when things started getting very
exciting I think that’s a great idea
I think it’s a phenomenally good idea
because you get feedback from people
that have walked the same path that you
did with PHP and probably have other
thoughts that they’re working on their
own so I thought it was a great idea so
the idea is very simple for me I told
you earlier I’m not a fan of our current
educational system that we have an
American on Value table we have
entrepreneurs who follow this content
from 190 different countries I don’t
like the fact that most people if you
wanted to go to Harvard Business School
and experience this OPM program you need
to spend forty to forty five thousand
dollars to go to this the average person
doesn’t have forty-five thousand dollars
to go to this so where is the average
person who wants to become an
entrepreneur from all over the world
going to go to to have access to other
entrepreneurs and instructors that can
teach them about how to run a business
there isn’t a place like that Pat has a
number of things that he’ll think about
this guy is really a visionary and this
guy is also a very creative thinker so
he’s always seeing solutions and and
thoughts out there that won’t just be
products but could be companies I wanted
to create a one place one-stop shop
where you go to where you’ll learn every
single aspect of entrepreneurship based
on whatever subject you want to learn on
this one website except you’re not
spending $45,000 the courses could range
from $20 from $50 from $100 from two
three four hundred dollars and you get
to learn all those things from your
computer from your iPad from your
smartphone and still learn how to
advance your business to the next level
whether you’re a startup entrepreneur
whether you’re an aspiring entrepreneur
or even establish entrepreneurs so one
of the reasons why I’m very very excited
about this idea is because I truly
believe that 100% of all of the world’s
problems will be solved by entrepreneurs
first person I came to mind was I had to
call mr. Tom biz doc Ellsworth this is
the smartest man I’ve ever met in my
life he’s a guy that took jam that
public with six of his partners and they
sold it to EA Sports for six hundred and
eighty million dollars it was a part of
that there’s a former CEO of go TV he
started premiered digital publishing who
sold that recently and now he’s the
president and the chief operating
officer PHP so I said Tom
guess what he says what is the time I’m
asked to pitch this idea in front of
everybody and a lot of people are
pitching a established business I’m
pitching a possibility of a future
business I need your help
so Tom and I spoken and we put the whole
PowerPoint together one of them was very
funny because he runs the biggest
lingerie company in New Zealand and
Australia he actually brought Harvard
initially told him not to do it he’s
still won and that he got two models he
hired from Boston and he had him wear
the lingerie they walk up and fronted
copy yeah you got armored covering up
the girls that we wouldn’t see it but
he’s presenting his presentation and on
one side it’s a few best ten million
dollars here you returns will be this
much money while he’s presenting the
image right next to is a half naked girl
model and guys couldn’t focus on
anything but it was an interesting pitch
I didn’t have the models on the pitch I
was making but it was great to see that
all these are the guys that were
presenting this could this invalidates
why Billy 100 percent of world’s
problems will be solved by entrepreneurs
there was a guy that pitched how to
solve the water drought in Africa which
was unbelievable how much water this
machine creates and was 100 million
dollar plant another one was about
cancer
there was an idea about having to do
with earthquakes it was phenomenal
hearing all these different
entrepreneurs who are figuring out ways
to solve problems that are affecting
people’s lives you’re hopeful to know
that the future looks bright so it’s the
morning of and I get up hit the gym come
back have breakfast everything’s good we
do another preparation and any time
you’re given a talk like this you’ve got
a fully drink and hydrate yourself so I
had a bottle of Jack Daniels which was
great obviously I didn’t have a bottle
of Jack Daniels but I had to be
preferred for
yeah Ocoee is mad Scali feels today
10,000 presentations wouldn’t see this
wound
yes pretty good matter now does come at
4:30 and I’ll give you jump on a call
with them just checking the new autumn
Aria before we get up we got like an
hour but more than morning today’s a big
game let’s input excited about the
presentation I am I am very except our
affiliation you know it’s amazing you’re
saying how I feel about I mean I’ve
given many different talks but I think
this is a different top because how
often do you speak front of an audience
at Harvard top entrepreneurs around the
world who know how to read through every
single pitch every single thing I’m
looking forward to that I’m nervous
am i nervous so I’ll tell you there’s a
part of me that is curious to know how
I’m going to be on this stage with these
guys that’s what I’m most curious about
too that there’s a part of me that’s
going to be very curious to know how I’m
going to be I’m not nervous right now
because I’ve given many but I’m curious
and I want to respond the Q&A session
comes up that’s what I’m looking for
it’s a self inspection self
introspection self awareness type of
opportunity or for me I we find should
get going to see understood you have
about is enough so we go into this
auditorium which is a big one that they
have and I’m told by Linda you’re the
first one to present and I get up and
I’m presenting you better over a younger
we all have certain heroes celebrities
people
right some of us wanted to be the next
president the next great athlete
baseball player singular Hollywood actor
today those celebrities have changed
today kids want to grow up to be the
next great entrepreneur I want to be the
next great loss Elon Musk next Jack mom
an X Mark Zuckerberg it even yes the
afterwards we go through all these great
questions and you always know in the
audience with who asked the technical
questions who does and so it was great
to get the series of questions and then
coming back down and you know talking to
the team it was it was it was definitely
a definitely unique experience that we
have I passionately more this would tell
us about what’s really presenting side
here a little presenting the idea
unbelievable OPM why does OPM idle in
front of a hunter phone for other ideas
I don’t it was it was excellent is that
one one of the great things is knowing
no matter how many times you please in
you pitch you’ve always got to figure
out a way how to fine-tune your
presentations and whatever you do right
afterward a feedback that I could have
done this better I could have done that
better but for the most part I was
excited about the reaction we found was
very good I was a question sore see
anything I think it was good questions
that help us find out a little bit more
about all product and how to mark your
places and view us great questions made
me think more about areas that we can do
business with was the experience like
you thought it would be and you were
talking about yesterday yes I mean you
got an even figure these are hundred
forty-four the smartest business people
in the world you know offering
opportunities that are ranging from 100
million to 10 billion dollars to you
know from every part of the world
60 different countries so brightest
minds in business so they’re going to
need pic in a way that you won’t be able
you’re not going to get a chance because
that’s unlike this elsewhere at Harvard
OPM so great experience for not mostly
was it worth going that I learn a lot
100% was it helpful to be around that
association 100% was there a great
feeling of being on Harvard campus and
building those relationships 100% will I
go again to the next class I don’t know
you
we’ll know more as it gets closer
whether I’ll do that or not but but but
I think the most important question to
answer here is you know why do I go to
school backwards I’m a fan of going to
school backwards and what I mean by that
is a lot of times we are pressured to go
to college right after graduate from
high school you’re 18 years or go to
college and still on the other side so I
think sometimes it’s best to go
schooling backwards because when you’re
undecided you need experiences which you
need so for me I highly recommend the
entrepreneur who’s wanting to be an
entrepreneur who wants to be an
entrepreneur you don’t necessarily need
to go to school to become an
entrepreneur if you want to be an
entrepreneur go work with somebody learn
with somebody shadow under somebody
mimic this entrepreneur the CEO who’s
doing the things right things with
you’re wrong things you can learn from
and then maybe you can move up within
the company and if not you’re going to
start your own company or become an
entrepreneur then later on in life go
back and go to an executive program like
this that’s offered in many different
schools but I chose to go through
Harvard go make your millions first then
go to school backwards at your leisure
at your discretion
when you want to go to it and you decide
what subjects what topics you want to
learn my position hasn’t changed at all
my position has not changed at all but I
will tell you I am very glad I did go to
Harvard Business School [Music]
years old I mean really 37 years old I
haven’t done the school thing since 1996
and I was never really good at it but
yes I went to Harvard for three weeks
lived on campus homework classroom all
these other things that we had to do but
at the same time it has to obviously
figure out a way to go away and have
some fun as well so we did for watched a
Red Sox game which was a blast we ended
up going and watching the Patriots play
which was kind of cool and then we snuck
when I went to the New York for a few
days and had a good time up there ran
into a ton of different fans of value
teaming both in Boston and in New York
which was great but this is my Harvard
Business School experience you know life
can be funny sometimes you could be at a
point in your life when you’re asking
yourself why the hell am I going through
this but you may not have an answer to
that five 10 15 20 years later because
if I look at my life I was born and
raised in Iran I lived there for ten
years
six weeks after Khomeini dies in 1989 we
escaped and we’ll go to Germany which I
lived at a refugee camp for a couple
years there and it came to the States
Glendale California I lived it for six
years and right after high school I
joined the army I went to the hundred
first Airborne Division Air Assault for
a few years and had a great time there
and after the military I get out with
the plans of being the next Middle
Eastern Arnold Schwarzenegger I was
gonna be a bodybuilder win several
mistral amperes then I was going to go
into Hollywood be an actor and then
possibly marry a Kennedy and then one
day run for governor but life doesn’t
work the way you plan it to all the time
so then I started working at Morgan
Stanley Dean Witter a day before 9/11
which is not a day you want to start
your career day before 9/11 I ended up
getting my series seven became a
financial advisor then I left Morgan
Stanley went to Transamerica I was with
them for about seven and a half years
and in October of all nine we decided to
start our own company PHP agency’ out of
one office in Northbridge California and
today we have over 3,000 agents in 49
different states and it’s definitely
been a wild ride well the business has
grown the company is going everything’s
going well why go back to school and
take three weeks to go to Harvard so
three weeks away from the business I’m
thinking
here you’ve got this compelling
entrepreneur who is a sales driver he is
the vision he is the strategy and he’s
focus and to have him away for three
weeks I wasn’t as concerned about the
operational side because this is a
mature business that’s been growing at a
very rapid rate over five years and able
to support pretty much everything he
threw at it in terms of growth but to
have the growth driver the visionary and
the guy pushing sales away for three
weeks I was like okay we’re going to do
this huh I think as a CEO what I’m
looking at right now is looking at what
areas of the business we need an
executive tools so you got building
leaders you got strict strategy and
innovation you got operation you got
partner relations like carriers AIG you
know for distribution of whatever that’s
a relationship are what percentage of
your time goes in those four in one you
know the three weeks we were in Boston I
got to tell you I’ve never been to a
city that just is humming can tell
there’s a certain culture that’s been
established at Harvard from the history
from the people the social etiquette the
environment the initial feelings when we
got that was kind of weird because one
you know three weeks is three weeks it’s
a long time and it’s three weeks away
from running your business which is
definitely difficult the other part was
I mean when we got there we had the RV
we didn’t pull up with a car we pull up
with an RV which was very funny because
we had to tell the front gate keeper to
allow us in and the entire time I kept
saying hey my barracks my barracks and
Paul and Mario would correct and you
guys would say hey Pat its dorm it’s not
barracks but I was in the Army I never
did a college thing I mean it was almost
like he went to a playground that was me
for him and to see him go for me very
skeptical and not sure if this was gonna
be a good decision to go to Harvard for
the OPM program and then he went from
talking about his experience to helping
us start thinking differently and
thinking out of the box and challenging
us to get a little bit more a creative
one of the things that I like that I
think honestly sometimes people actually
don’t pay attention to and it’s so
simple sometimes people are so focused
on the salary their business is making
Mario sometimes people are so focused on
the salary their businesses
making so for instance someone was a
business all they’re thinking about is
how much your business profiting every
year
first is increasing the value of the
company that’s a big difference
you could tell that every day that he
was there something new was happening in
that room that affected him in a great
way
look if you know me well you know I’m
not a fan of our current educational
system in America I think the college
system is broken I think it’s absolutely
a big business I think it’s not
producing the results that it should be
producing and we need to make some
adjustments to it so for me I could
never ever stay in class for too long
because why am I taking a physics class
if I’m planning on being an entrepreneur
one day and even in this last
presidential election one of the things
we notice come up constantly is how many
students are stuck with a $200,000 debt
that they have to pay off and some of
the back was why don’t we figure out a
way to have the government pay for the
taxpayers pay for it no I think we need
to just completely change the system and
so I chose Harvard because for the
longest time I told myself if I’m ever
going back to school I will not go to
any other school but associate myself
with Harvard Business School because
everyone says this is the best so if it
is the best I want to find out for
myself is it really the best you know my
expectations of going into Harvard was
having extremely cocky arrogant snobby
teachers teaching us stuff that they
think they know more than we do and if
that was going to be the case I’d
already told myself I would leave within
a week of being there but that was
actually not the case you know the
teachers were very receptive they
actually said you’re here because we
want to learn from you and we’re going
to collaborate here together and I love
their approach on the way they handle
the teaching you know when I was younger
history meant nothing to as I age and I
went through life and I started seeing
things history started meaning a lot to
me and one of the things about Harvard
is its deep history that it has whether
they’ve been around for 400 years or the
fact that Teddy Roosevelt when here’s
Sam Adams or Michelle Obama Barack Obama
George Bush Bill Gates Zuckerberg I mean
these are great men and women who have
walked the campus of Harvard so many
times you’d be walking there just kind
of feeling the greatness of it how many
Nobel Prize winners have gone here
obviously they have one of the biggest
endowments in America I think that 37
billion dollars give or take and within
the vicinity of Boston and Harvard you
have MIT you have Harvard you have
Boston College there’s a lot of pride to
that school to that area itself so you
definitely feel it when you’re there in
Boston and Harvard so obviously I did
not go to traditional Harvard University
so let me make that very clear I did not
go to Harvard Law School or Harvard
College to get my four-year undergrad so
they have a program for entrepreneurs
and CEOs like us called the OPM program
owner president management program which
is requirement to go there you need to
do minimum of 10 million dollars per
year or more and you need to be the
majority owner or the CEO if you are
then you’re invited to go to that
program and I thought it was a very good
program for me to be part of because I
can’t go for three years there’s no way
in the world I have the time to go for
three years but I could for three weeks
even though it’s somewhat of a stretch
so one of my reservations was when I was
there is what if something started
happening with the company thank God my
wife wasn’t pregnant this time the baby
was already born and my daughter was I
think four or five weeks but outside of
that what if something happens with the
company no matter how well you prepare
for anything something will always
happen when you’re gone and you least
expect it during the time I was in
Harvard we did have a couple cases where
we have to terminate a couple of our
folks and the first thing that I did is
I made it a mentoring opportunity for
the people that work with Pat and I said
you need to ask yourself a question what
would Pat do I don’t come from the
school of thought of you know just tell
me the positive news I want to hear the
negative news the bad news that we have
to fix because if we don’t do that then
I don’t want to delayed timebomb that’s
going to take place six twelve months
from now I really forced them to put
themselves into his shoes so that at the
very last possible moment we call him
and we briefed him I didn’t want to give
his people the luxury of calling him at
the first moment for me it’s very simple
I think one of the biggest liars to
business’s success you could be making
tens of millions of dollars per unit you
think you’re doing so well but it’s
lying to you
you have to figure out ways to improve
so the simplest outcome for me of going
to Harvard was to pick up one or two
things that I can apply immediately to
my business to help us grow and take it
to the next level if you travel with me
you will learn very quickly that I love
food and one type of food I can eat a
lot of I’m talking literally I can
overdose on this type of food is oysters
I can have oysters all day long and I’ll
be happy so while we’re in Boston you
know this is a place where they’re known
for their oysters and I asked rum what’s
the best oyster place to go to and
everyone told us you got to go to Island
Creek oyster so we go to the oyster bar
and let me just give you a word of
advice if you ever see a six-foot
something tall Iranian guy that looks
like he’s a whole Savai’i team and
coming to your restaurant please host
him quick and please get him a table
please have him sit in the corner away
from everybody where he gets to see
everything that’s what he likes and the
service was terrible terrible with the
hostess horrible service with the
hostess and we just got up we left and
when I left I ended up doing a video on
it on YouTube I think it’s called how to
lose 400 our restaurant lost $400 in
less than three minutes that always the
restaurant Island Creek whatever that’s
called just lost the phone on a dollar
bill tonight tonight I’m still upset
about that so the toughest part about
being gone for three weeks is not
getting a chance to wrestle with my
four-year-old son Tico
aka Patric Gabriel bid David and Dylan
James the David my three-year-old as
well as my newborn Senna Rose the David
and and Odyssey my white paper you wanna
know something funny
what’s that every time I start cooking
something you call it’s so funny why do
you think it is I’m missing the food I
think it’s because you’re always like
thank you we have any food and I don’t
know what it is every time you just want
me to leave and come home just for the
cooking you’re trying to like persuade
me but it’s great to have a support
system my wife’s very good with the kids
and Melva there’s a phenomenal job at
the house even though my two sons right
now are giving their mother a bit of a
why not you be mean to come but I would
say that was probably toughest in being
away from family in my blood so look if
you ever visit Boston Boston has got so
much history some may even say that
Boston has more history in America than
any other city period that we have in
America including DC so while while in
Boston obviously will win a visit at the
Boston Commons the Boston Massacre the
granary burial grounds were Sam Adams
was buried with Paul Revere was buried
where John Hancock we’re talking John
Hancock
but John Hancock is known for his
signature that went to JFK Museum and if
you know anything about JFK JFK was
loved by people from all over the world
if you’ve never been to the JFK
Presidential Library or the museum I
highly recommended there was a lot of
good things to learn about him how he
was raised as an underdog and him as the
underdog ended up becoming the president
who was the least expected to become a
president as a Kennedy and ended up
become one the most loved presidents of
all time one of the days we had to go
watch Patriots game I made the mistake
of allowing Paul to pick the seeds
honestly I felt like I got closer to God
and I was touching the clouds I have
conversations with angels I was so close
to heaven so look sometimes in life you
gotta be spontaneous you really even if
you ask my wife and friends they’ll tell
you on any given day I could just say
we’re going to such and such place and
then we’re just making a decision I said
look guys let’s just go to New York so
we got a rental car we headed out to New
York on the way to New York
we bought cigars and we got there and we
ended up going to the most ridiculous
restaurants we had great time with food
we met with our buddy John was an
attorney from New York and a few other
guys that was great so for the most part
it was business as usual ones going to
class with it you know case studies and
all these other things but one day Linda
who was the head of the OPM program she
got up and said one of you from each
group each group had eight students one
of you from each group
is going to be able to pitch a business
to everybody and this could be an
existing business or it could be a
future business that you’re planning on
having and all your classmates can
decide whether they would invest into it
or not and you’re literally going to be
presenting this in front of a hundred
and fifty other entrepreneur CEOs so out
of our group after everybody talking
about their ideas my idea was chosen to
pitch in front of everybody so that’s
when things started getting very
exciting I think that’s a great idea
I think it’s a phenomenally good idea
because you get feedback from people
that have walked the same path that you
did with PHP and probably have other
thoughts that they’re working on their
own so I thought it was a great idea so
the idea is very simple for me I told
you earlier I’m not a fan of our current
educational system that we have an
American on Value table we have
entrepreneurs who follow this content
from 190 different countries I don’t
like the fact that most people if you
wanted to go to Harvard Business School
and experience this OPM program you need
to spend forty to forty five thousand
dollars to go to this the average person
doesn’t have forty-five thousand dollars
to go to this so where is the average
person who wants to become an
entrepreneur from all over the world
going to go to to have access to other
entrepreneurs and instructors that can
teach them about how to run a business
there isn’t a place like that Pat has a
number of things that he’ll think about
this guy is really a visionary and this
guy is also a very creative thinker so
he’s always seeing solutions and and
thoughts out there that won’t just be
products but could be companies I wanted
to create a one place one-stop shop
where you go to where you’ll learn every
single aspect of entrepreneurship based
on whatever subject you want to learn on
this one website except you’re not
spending $45,000 the courses could range
from $20 from $50 from $100 from two
three four hundred dollars and you get
to learn all those things from your
computer from your iPad from your
smartphone and still learn how to
advance your business to the next level
whether you’re a startup entrepreneur
whether you’re an aspiring entrepreneur
or even establish entrepreneurs so one
of the reasons why I’m very very excited
about this idea is because I truly
believe that 100% of all of the world’s
problems will be solved by entrepreneurs
first person I came to mind was I had to
call mr. Tom biz doc Ellsworth this is
the smartest man I’ve ever met in my
life he’s a guy that took jam that
public with six of his partners and they
sold it to EA Sports for six hundred and
eighty million dollars it was a part of
that there’s a former CEO of go TV he
started premiered digital publishing who
sold that recently and now he’s the
president and the chief operating
officer PHP so I said Tom
guess what he says what is the time I’m
asked to pitch this idea in front of
everybody and a lot of people are
pitching a established business I’m
pitching a possibility of a future
business I need your help
so Tom and I spoken and we put the whole
PowerPoint together one of them was very
funny because he runs the biggest
lingerie company in New Zealand and
Australia he actually brought Harvard
initially told him not to do it he’s
still won and that he got two models he
hired from Boston and he had him wear
the lingerie they walk up and fronted
copy yeah you got armored covering up
the girls that we wouldn’t see it but
he’s presenting his presentation and on
one side it’s a few best ten million
dollars here you returns will be this
much money while he’s presenting the
image right next to is a half naked girl
model and guys couldn’t focus on
anything but it was an interesting pitch
I didn’t have the models on the pitch I
was making but it was great to see that
all these are the guys that were
presenting this could this invalidates
why Billy 100 percent of world’s
problems will be solved by entrepreneurs
there was a guy that pitched how to
solve the water drought in Africa which
was unbelievable how much water this
machine creates and was 100 million
dollar plant another one was about
cancer
there was an idea about having to do
with earthquakes it was phenomenal
hearing all these different
entrepreneurs who are figuring out ways
to solve problems that are affecting
people’s lives you’re hopeful to know
that the future looks bright so it’s the
morning of and I get up hit the gym come
back have breakfast everything’s good we
do another preparation and any time
you’re given a talk like this you’ve got
a fully drink and hydrate yourself so I
had a bottle of Jack Daniels which was
great obviously I didn’t have a bottle
of Jack Daniels but I had to be
preferred for
yeah Ocoee is mad Scali feels today
10,000 presentations wouldn’t see this
wound
yes pretty good matter now does come at
4:30 and I’ll give you jump on a call
with them just checking the new autumn
Aria before we get up we got like an
hour but more than morning today’s a big
game let’s input excited about the
presentation I am I am very except our
affiliation you know it’s amazing you’re
saying how I feel about I mean I’ve
given many different talks but I think
this is a different top because how
often do you speak front of an audience
at Harvard top entrepreneurs around the
world who know how to read through every
single pitch every single thing I’m
looking forward to that I’m nervous
am i nervous so I’ll tell you there’s a
part of me that is curious to know how
I’m going to be on this stage with these
guys that’s what I’m most curious about
too that there’s a part of me that’s
going to be very curious to know how I’m
going to be I’m not nervous right now
because I’ve given many but I’m curious
and I want to respond the Q&A session
comes up that’s what I’m looking for
it’s a self inspection self
introspection self awareness type of
opportunity or for me I we find should
get going to see understood you have
about is enough so we go into this
auditorium which is a big one that they
have and I’m told by Linda you’re the
first one to present and I get up and
I’m presenting you better over a younger
we all have certain heroes celebrities
people
right some of us wanted to be the next
president the next great athlete
baseball player singular Hollywood actor
today those celebrities have changed
today kids want to grow up to be the
next great entrepreneur I want to be the
next great loss Elon Musk next Jack mom
an X Mark Zuckerberg it even yes the
afterwards we go through all these great
questions and you always know in the
audience with who asked the technical
questions who does and so it was great
to get the series of questions and then
coming back down and you know talking to
the team it was it was it was definitely
a definitely unique experience that we
have I passionately more this would tell
us about what’s really presenting side
here a little presenting the idea
unbelievable OPM why does OPM idle in
front of a hunter phone for other ideas
I don’t it was it was excellent is that
one one of the great things is knowing
no matter how many times you please in
you pitch you’ve always got to figure
out a way how to fine-tune your
presentations and whatever you do right
afterward a feedback that I could have
done this better I could have done that
better but for the most part I was
excited about the reaction we found was
very good I was a question sore see
anything I think it was good questions
that help us find out a little bit more
about all product and how to mark your
places and view us great questions made
me think more about areas that we can do
business with was the experience like
you thought it would be and you were
talking about yesterday yes I mean you
got an even figure these are hundred
forty-four the smartest business people
in the world you know offering
opportunities that are ranging from 100
million to 10 billion dollars to you
know from every part of the world
60 different countries so brightest
minds in business so they’re going to
need pic in a way that you won’t be able
you’re not going to get a chance because
that’s unlike this elsewhere at Harvard
OPM so great experience for not mostly
was it worth going that I learn a lot
100% was it helpful to be around that
association 100% was there a great
feeling of being on Harvard campus and
building those relationships 100% will I
go again to the next class I don’t know
you
we’ll know more as it gets closer
whether I’ll do that or not but but but
I think the most important question to
answer here is you know why do I go to
school backwards I’m a fan of going to
school backwards and what I mean by that
is a lot of times we are pressured to go
to college right after graduate from
high school you’re 18 years or go to
college and still on the other side so I
think sometimes it’s best to go
schooling backwards because when you’re
undecided you need experiences which you
need so for me I highly recommend the
entrepreneur who’s wanting to be an
entrepreneur who wants to be an
entrepreneur you don’t necessarily need
to go to school to become an
entrepreneur if you want to be an
entrepreneur go work with somebody learn
with somebody shadow under somebody
mimic this entrepreneur the CEO who’s
doing the things right things with
you’re wrong things you can learn from
and then maybe you can move up within
the company and if not you’re going to
start your own company or become an
entrepreneur then later on in life go
back and go to an executive program like
this that’s offered in many different
schools but I chose to go through
Harvard go make your millions first then
go to school backwards at your leisure
at your discretion
when you want to go to it and you decide
what subjects what topics you want to
learn my position hasn’t changed at all
my position has not changed at all but I
will tell you I am very glad I did go to
Harvard Business School [Music]
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