Just The Tips, with James P. Friel and Dean Holland

Alex moved from Iran with his family when he was 8 to escape fighting in the country, and moved into an apartment right next to one of the most prestigious high schools in the U.S. So right from the start, his parents valued and emphasized education and bettering yourself, a theme Alex would return to again and again. One of the funniest things that happened to him, though, was his first job straight out of college. He was hired and then fired by a major telecom company within one week. Of course Alex tells that story first, but we got him to tell the story about traveling 20 miles through the desert as his family smuggled him out of the country. As you can tell, Alex is a straight shooter, and this is just the beginning of his journey as an entrepreneur.

Like many entrepreneurs, Alex has had his ups and downs. But one down period in particular was rough for him. In 2008 when the financial crisis hit, he lost almost his entire net worth, and he and his wife got divorced. But his lawyer actually had some really great advice for him about how to turn his life around. So Alex started reading every book about entrepreneurship that he could get his hands on, and implementing every solid piece of advice he could grab. And that mindset is what allowed him to turn things around, and then begin to share what he learned with others. This is a really honest story on this week’s Just the Tips that you just have to hear.

Alex’s story is amazing, but we have him here on Just the Tips to provide one thing: Tips. And the first he serves up is a parable about a donkey that an entrepreneur once told Alex. We won’t try to recreate it here, but the thrust of it is that we all want to do everything, but we can’t. So we need to focus on one thing at a time and knock each of those out sequentially. This is truly a clinic in how to adopt a successful mindset, and one every entrepreneur needs to hear.

Read any book, ask any person, and you will get a billion different answers to the question: “How can you become happy?” Alex, though, breaks it down in a very simple and amazing idea: creation. Being able to wake up every morning and being able to create something that you really care about, whether it’s actually making something with your hands, or creating moments with your friends and family. Alex may be my partner in crime when it comes to pranking Dean, but he’s a seriously great guy, who has used all of his life experiences to really make an incredible life for himself. If you’re in a rut, you have to listen to Alex on this week’s episode of Just the Tips.

• [4:34] Alex’s incredible story
• [12:00] How perspective is important
• [14:25] How Alex’s gratitude helped him weather tough times
• [19:00] The donkey parable
• [24:58] How to be happy
• [34:42] My epiphany at the racetrack
• [42:02] Alex’s online entrepreneurial academy

• Success Hacks on Facebook
• Success Hack Nation on Instagram
• Online Entrepreneur Academy

Music for “Just The Tips” is titled, “Happy Happy Game Show” by Kevin MacLeod (http://incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License