This entrepreneur went from begging for jobs to building businesses grossing $40m

A photo of Pejman Ghadimi.

This article is part of Tech in Asia’s partnership with The Jay Kim Show where we publish the revised transcripts from the show’s podcast interviews with top entrepreneurs. This is heavily revised from the original show transcripts. For the full interview, go here.

Pejman Ghadimi is a self-made entrepreneur. He was born in the middle of the Iranian Revolution, so he spent most of his childhood in France and only moved to the US in 1997. Raised by a single mother with limited resources, he begged McDonald’s to clean toilets, washed cars in their neighborhood, and did telemarketing at age 14 to make ends meet.

Ghadimi eventually worked his way into a lucrative banking job but left it to discover the entrepreneur in him. He leveraged his resources to end up building three businesses which have collectively grossed over US$40 million in annual revenue.

Here’s his story.

Who are you and what do you do for a living?

I’m the founder of Secret Entourage and other businesses. I am known for having authored Third Circle Theory and Radius.

I became a bank manager at the age of 18, which was very crazy for not having a degree and just having graduated from high school. And then, I became an executive vice president for a Fortune 500 company at 23 only to end up fired at 25.

I established the world’s first investment fund in exotic cars known as VIP Motoring. It allowed people to turn their liabilities into investment assets, such as exotic cars and watches.

From there, I made my mark on the online world having established Secret Entourage, Exotic Car Hacks, and Watch Conspiracy, following through with this path of education in finance, and mixing the two but bringing it all online.

How was the experience moving to the US?

When we first migrated to the US, I was a child. My family and I didn’t have green cards and Social Security. I was well past 14 and still didn’t have the ability to work or do anything.

At that point, my mom had already gone through multiple attempts at making us survive. Unfortunately, time and time again, failure after failure in business, we ended up just functioning. She was a cashier at a restaurant, despite having a high-ranking title in our country back in the day. Then, I was going to school while we lived in a basement.

It got to a point where I said, “Enough is enough. I’ve got to help somehow.” So, I went looking for a job, but without papers, I was very limited on what I could do. I started by washing cars in our neighborhood. And then, I got very fortunate to sneak my way into a company as a telemarketer at the age of 14. I took that job seriously because, for me, it was the only job I could have. For someone that couldn’t have a job, who begged McDonald’s for a job to clean toilets and was declined multiple times, I felt that it was a big blessing. I had to do well, and I did.

I spent four years being a telemarketer and slowly moved up in the same company. At 18, I was the director of that company. I not only found a lot of success both in sales and management but also gained a lot of experience in service and everything that came with managing people.

So, I decided to broaden my horizons. I had to figure out a way to push myself even further. I wasn’t entrepreneurial. I was just a normal kid that just wanted to make money to help his family.

How did you become an entrepreneur?

How did your other businesses do?

What’s one key takeaway you can give to aspiring entrepreneurs?