#108: How Growing Up In Poverty Can Drive Entrepreneurship with Glen Bhimani

Guest Introduction (0:00)

Glen Bhimani:

Growing up, there were days where I would go to bed hungry because there wasn’t enough money to buy food. When you’re young, you really don’t know any different. You don’t know whether you’re poor or you’re rich until you’re older and you understand those things. One thing I’ve noticed, that those people that were better off in high school or middle school haven’t really done much with their life. Those that struggle more are doing a lot more with their lives today than they were able to do before.

Sean Weisbrot:

Welcome back to another episode of the We Live to Build podcast. I’m here today with Glenn Bhimani, the owner and CEO of BPS Security, which provides elite security officers as well as alarm systems and monitoring services. So, thank you for taking the time to talk with me, Glen. I appreciate it.

Get to know Glen (0:47)

Sean Weisbrot:

Today we’re going to be talking about the psychology of entrepreneurs, and we’re going to go a little bit into your background, which has poverty in it, and how that was a driving factor for you for starting your business, among other things. So why don’t you tell everyone a little bit more about BPS Security and a little bit of your background, and then we’ll go a little bit deeper.

Glen Bhimani:

So, my name is Glenn Bhimani. I am the owner of BPS Security, and we are the standard in the security guard industry. We started providing security services to small companies, and now we only provide services to large corporations. And we’re able to do that because we take very good care of our employees and we pay them well above living wages. And that’s what has allowed us to provide a very stable service that the clients are looking for.

Sean Weisbrot:

Okay. And I know you mentioned on the other interview we did, but I like you to mention here as well. What was it that actually caused you to start this company? Like, the thing that happened right

Glen Bhimani:

The reason I started this company me, was because I was passed up for promotion. And the company that passed me up for promotion told me to train the person that was going to take over that promotion. And I told them, well, if I’m not good enough for the position, then I’m not good enough to train your guy. And I put my two weeks’ notice, and I quit.

Sean Weisbrot:

Great. That’s a very classic case of being an entrepreneur, I would say. Kind of like, well, I want to do this thing, and you won’t let me, so screw it. I’m going to do it on my own. Actually, that’s how I started my first company. I was living in China, and I had applied to speak at TEDx, and I was rejected. And so, I said, screw it. I’m going to make my own TEDx. And I did. And it was an amazing experience. I did it for two years.

Growing up poor (2:43)

Sean Weisbrot:

So, let’s go back a little bit further. You had mentioned to me in our last conversation that you grew up poor. So why don’t we talk a little bit about what your childhood was like, and if we can, we can discuss the psychology of a bit of that.

Glen Bhimani:

So, growing up, there were days where I would go to bed hungry because there wasn’t enough money to buy food. Sometimes, we were warming up water on the stove because the water heater broke and we couldn’t afford to fix it right away. That’s kind of what I grew up with. When you’re young, that’s all you know; you really don’t know any different. You don’t know whether you’re poor or you’re rich until you’re older and you understand those things. And it took a while. Once I was a teenager, I realized those that had businesses were better off than those that didn’t, especially in my hometown. Since that time, that’s when I knew I wanted to own and operate my own business so I can get ahead in life.

Sean Weisbrot:

So, you were born into America, right?

Glen Bhimani:

Yes.

Sean Weisbrot:

And you believe you’re near Austin or Houston?

Glen Bhimani:

I’m in San Antonio right now.

Sean Weisbrot:

San Antonio? Were you born in San Antonio?

Glen Bhimani:

No. I was born in Laredo, Texas.

Sean Weisbrot:

Okay, so you said that when you were younger, you didn’t know that you were poor. But did you have any sort of an idea that the other people, I guess, at your school or in your neighborhood, were they all in a similar situation as you, or how did you…

Glen Bhimani:

No, they were not. It wasn’t until I got to the later stages of middle school and high school that I started to realize that they were more taken care of them, I was.

Sean Weisbrot:

What were some of the things that you noticed that told you that they were in this better situation than you?

Glen Bhimani:

The clothing. They had new clothes more often, as well as shoes, and they seem to be able to go out with their friends more often to the restaurants and stuff like that.

Sean Weisbrot:

Okay. So, I’ve heard that, and I’ve never been in this situation, so I’m not aware of it. But I’ve heard that poverty breeds necessity. Basically, you find ways to make things work. How do I say this? Let’s say 100 years ago, my grandfather or great grandfather would have maybe built a house by hand because you couldn’t afford to hire someone to do it, or you didn’t have the materials, you would cut the trees down yourself, these kinds of things. Would you say you kind of experienced something like that, where you had to learn to do things for yourself?

Glen Bhimani:

Yes. So, at an early age, I started selling livestock, primarily priced roosters. And I got them through friends and family as gifts. And then I started breeding my own and selling mixed roosters that were very colorful and stuff like that. So, I made quite a bit of money at a young age doing that. And then I also started selling registered pit bulls that I was able to adopt that were scheduled to be put down because they’re very aggressive.

So, I rehabilitated those pit bulls and bred them, and I sold the puppies for quite a bit of money. They were blue pit bulls. They kind of look gray. They’re very nice beautiful dogs. Hard to get for that color. And that’s how it basically started. My entrepreneurship journey was selling animals, basically.

Sean Weisbrot:

How old were you when you first got involved? You got involved at the livestock first, you said yes. How old were you then?

Glen Bhimani:

I was 14 years old.

Sean Weisbrot:

What gave you the idea that you needed to make money?

Glen Bhimani:

I wanted to buy more things. I wanted to buy my own jewelry, my better clothes, stuff like that. Be able to afford to take care of my parents. And it went pretty well when I started selling those animals.

Sean Weisbrot:

So, do you think it was because you were seeing the people around you, your classmates have more than you, that you kind of said, I think I need to get involved in this thing?

Glen Bhimani:

I think it was more of the peace of mind that it buys you rather than what they had.

Sean Weisbrot:

What do you mean by the peace of mind?

Glen Bhimani:

So, like, for example, right now, if you own a business and you’re doing well, you don’t have to worry about whether you need to buy food or gas for your car. You have the peace of mind, you have money in your account, and you can get both plus more. And it’s that mentality at a young age that tell me, okay, well, if I’m bringing in more cash than I’m spending, then I don’t have to worry about eating tonight. I don’t have to worry about being able to afford gas or other things that I may want down the road.

Sean Weisbrot:

At 14?

Glen Bhimani:

I was always ahead, and I was always thinking about the future and not the now.

Sean Weisbrot:

Man, I didn’t think like that when I was 14. Maybe because I was comfortable, I didn’t need to.

Glen Bhimani:

I was planning to be retired by the age of 30. I’m a little behind.

Sean Weisbrot:

Well, you could afford retire now, but I understand we spoke about it before. It’s not about I think maybe when you are younger, you’re like, oh yeah, this idea of retiring is great, but then when you get to that point, you’re like, actually like, what’s the point of retiring? I enjoy what I do. There’s no reason to stop.

Glen Bhimani:

Pretty much.

Sean Weisbrot:

Yeah. I remember, I guess our parents’ generation, they talk about it and they’re like, yeah, we’re going to retire at 65. Like our parents. My grandma retired at 65. My dad’s 65 now, and he can’t retire now. Not even close. And he’s a freaking dentist and he can’t afford to retire.

My grandmother sold clothing at JCPenney’s and Birdin’s, Macy’s, she sold for like several decades. And she was able to retire and very comfortably. My dad can’t afford to do it. So, I think for our generation, it’s slightly different.

Glen Bhimani:

It does change. And part of it. One thing I’ve noticed that those people that were better off in high school or middle school, haven’t really done much with their life. Those that struggle more are doing a lot more with their lives than they were able to do before.

Financial status and perspective (9:45)

Sean Weisbrot:

I’m going to start thinking about that when I talk to other guests because I’ve never really gotten into the financial situation of the other guests going back to their childhood. I always think about from when they start their business until now or when they’ve started their first business until now. Because some of them are like you, where they started businesses at 10,12, 15, 17,18, but I also see some of them that they had a job and then they left and they didn’t start until they were like 25, 30, 35, some 40, 45.

So, I think some of them were already in a better financial situation, even if they may have been poor as kids. But we never really got into that because it never really occurred to me until now about that. Again, because when I was younger, I had anything I needed. I was never spoiled, but I never wanted anything.

So, I was very fortunate for that. But it wasn’t until I left, like when I went to college and then to Asia, that I started to experience people who had a life experience very different than I did when started to go, wow, actually, like, I am lucky as shit. That I had what I had, and I had the parents that I had. I mean, they’re still alive.

Glen Bhimani:

Yeah. It’s like my daughter. We were watching Peter Dragon. Not sure if you watch that movie.

Sean Weisbrot:

No.

Glen Bhimani:

There’s a scene where they’re robbing the bank, and she’s like, mom and daddy, why are they robbing the bank? Everybody has money. And I’m like, no, not everybody has money. Some people have no money. Some have very little money. I told them, you’re fortunate that you don’t see that with us. But at one point, we didn’t have any money. You’re just looking at the benefits that our company has provided since you were born. Didn’t see that beforehand. And she’s six years old right now, and she’s in the process of opening her own business already.

Sean Weisbrot:

Interesting.

Passing down wealth-generation knowledge (11:56)

Glen Bhimani:

A lot of that. It’s part of passing on what I learned the hard way, teaching her how to do it better, quicker, so she’ll be even ahead more than what I am now when she’s my age, because she already has all that long. It’s taught to her. She knows how to leverage employees, finances and businesses to where she can make an income for herself. Even now, at a young age of six years old.

Sean Weisbrot:

She’ll be a billionaire by the time she’s your age.

Glen Bhimani:

I hope so.

Sean Weisbrot:

I mean, especially with the way inflation is going, maybe trillionaire.

Glen Bhimani:

So, she’s pretty smart. She might be a little bit smarter than I am. She has a high IQ. But as far as poverty and success, part of it is wanting to get ahead, get that peace of mind. But it’s also taught by the parents. And when you’re in an impoverished family that’s been like that for a while, they don’t have any knowledge to pass on to you as the child on how to get ahead. Someone has to break that cycle and really study hard or work hard to gain all that knowledge.

Sean Weisbrot:

I’ve heard that there’s this concept where the first generation makes the wealth, the second generation enjoys the wealth, the third generation destroys the wealth.

Glen Bhimani:

Unless you’re pretty good about managing, like, the Rockefellers work.

Sean Weisbrot:

So, I’ve been afraid of that. Obviously, I don’t have the second generation yet, but I’ve been worried about how to manage that. I know my parents were never millionaires. My great grandparents like, no one in my family, as far as I know. I had a group of four uncles and they had a shop together in Coney Island, in New York. And they sold it in the 1940s, I think, for, like, 4 million. I think they each walked away with a million. It’s all gone. They squandered it all in one generation. I don’t know how you squander a million dollars in a single lifetime. Starting from the 1940s, like when things were, like, a penny. I have a picture of their shop. They were selling egg cream for five cents. I don’t know how you spend a million dollars, but whatever. So, they didn’t even get to a second generation to squander. Actually. Have you ever been to Miami?

Glen Bhimani:

Yes.

Sean Weisbrot:

Have you heard of the fountain blue?

Glen Bhimani:

No.

Finding opportunities and creating business around it (14:38)

Sean Weisbrot:

The Fountain Blue is a gorgeous hotel. It’s a massive amount of land. They charge crap tons of money to stay there. My great uncle had a chance to buy that land for a few thousand dollars and it was swampland still at the time because Miami hadn’t really been developed that far north. So, he said, no, I’m not going to buy this land. Well, he could have owned like a huge chunk of what’s now Miami, but he didn’t. So, it goes to show you the opportunities that people waste because they can’t see too far ahead.

As you were saying before, you try to think further ahead. And again, I’m speaking from an outsider’s point of view, I think using psychology, thinking about Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, when someone is poor, they are stuck thinking about maybe what, you know, can I afford to eat today? And if you’re in that mentality, it’s impossible to think about the future, and so, it’s impossible to learn the skills you need to be able to change your situation so then you can teach your kids how to get out of that situation. Would you agree?

Glen Bhimani:

Yes. And I experienced that first hand with, I went to Tanzania, and I was helping a group of females that are single mothers. They’re widows, and they have their small businesses and the nonprofit that was there helping them. And I was there as, like, I wouldn’t say special guest. I was just there just to observe and stuff like that. And they were talking about SWAT analysis and all this stuff. First of all, companies do. And I’m like, well, I told the lady to the site. I’m like, SWAT analysis all fine and dandy, but that’s the old school. That shit doesn’t work anymore.

One, they’re worried about if they’re going to eat today or tomorrow. They’re not worried about making more money and making changes to their business so they can make more money. That’s not what they’re thinking. You need to give them quick, dirty advice that will get them ahead tomorrow. So, after 1 hour of them talking, I spoke for five minutes to this group, and one lady said, why sell fresh milk? But everybody sells fresh milk. So, there’s no difference between the product. I’m like, why don’t you sell flavored milk? What are some good flavors that people like here? And she’s like strawberry, mango, vanilla. And I’m like, okay, we’ll start making your own flavored milk. Bye. And practice with natural juices. Practice with syrup. You can buy the syrups or powders and mix it together. It’s just like, what if somebody steals it to me? I’m like, make a little logo. Doesn’t have to be perfect. Make a logo like Coca Cola or Pepsi. She’s like, which one do you prefer? Coca Cola. Why? Because I like Coca-Cola. Are you going to go make your own and try to compete with Coca Cola? They’re like, no. They’re like, I see your point. And they started asking a lot more questions just for me, talking about for a couple of minutes.

Because now, they realize I can brand my own product pretty easily, whether it’s with their little initials on the bottle or something, create some flavors and ask me, what if they steal my flavors? And I’m like, well, they really can’t steal your flavors because you have the recipe. They can try to mimic it, but it’s going to be back like Coca-Cola and Pepsi. They’re almost the same, but they’re not the same. Some people prefer one and others the other one. And she’s like, okay, we’re going to try that. And they left. They very happy knowing they had a solution so they can compete without people trying to copy their products.

Sean Weisbrot:

It’s really cool. I like that you did that. When was this?

Glen Bhimani:

This was back in 2020 November.

Sean Weisbrot:

Wow. So, you like when in the middle of COVID.

Glen Bhimani:

I was still traveling.

Sean Weisbrot:

Yeah. I was stuck in Vietnam because I knew if I tried to leave, I couldn’t come back. And I was living there. So, I was like, I’m just going to stay here and kind of wait. But that’s cool that you guys in Tanzania. Have you done anything else like that?

Glen Bhimani:

We went to Ecuador to teach English to people in the Amazon Forest, Area Dena. My wife went to Russia, Korea, to do that as well. I think there’s one more location we went to. I just don’t remember.

Sean Weisbrot:

I love it. I would like to do that stuff. I’m just not there at the moment. I learned something from my first business where I went broke doing it. You have to help yourself first before you can help others. I’ve met a lot of people that try to help others as they’re trying to help themselves, and they struggle to do both.

So, it’s cool that you’re spending the time, the energy to do that. And I assume you basically take it like a holiday where you’re not working. You just leave the company to have it be run.

Glen Bhimani:

I was still working in Africa. Even in the middle of the Serengeti, there’s no cell phone reception.

I took my satellite phone, and the workers there were looking at me like, how is he making phone calls out here? Because there’s no cell phone service there, right? And I was closing deals with clients, increasing the revenue for the company while I was still there. My staff ran all the operations, but I was still closing large deals. There was one where I closed the deal with the client, and it brought in an extra over $300,000 in profit, just profit alone for the year, because I already negotiated the contract.

So, those kinds of things, I was still working even though I was over there. And then I would work around usually 7:00 P.m. Because of the time difference, it really never stopped as an entrepreneur.

Sean Weisbrot:

I know. I understand. I used to work nights and weekends. I’d work until I would go to sleep and I would face my wife’s wrath.

Glen Bhimani:

Same here.

Sean Weisbrot:

So, when you were talking to these people in Ecuador and in Tanzania and these other places, did you get a sense from them that they had the ability to kind of break out of that cycle?

Glen Bhimani:

So, in Tanzania, they felt more helpless. And I think it’s a cultural thing. One thing I noticed in Tanzania was that they expect people to handle money because they’re poor, and they really don’t want to work too hard to get ahead. As far as the general population goes.

In Ecuador, they’re very proud people, and they don’t want charity. They don’t want things the easy way. They want to work hard to get ahead.

There was one gentleman that I met. They started their own store selling eggs and beer and stuff like that out of their house, which is normal in Ecuador to do. But then he was also working during the day as a contractor building houses and stuff. And he wouldn’t come home till night, and he’ll be gone by 06:00 a.m. in the morning. So, he was really trying to get ahead by working harder. I talk to them how they can do it easier and not having to kill yourself working manual labor like that. And he did see that it is possible for them to do. They just needed guidance on how to do it.

Sean Weisbrot:

Yeah. Oftentimes, these people don’t know that they’re so busy selling their own time for a pittance that they know their craft so well. They could just find some other people to do, and then they could hire, they could find work for them, and then they take a cut.

Glen Bhimani:

And a lot of times, too. What I’ve noticed with small business owners is that they’re afraid to train other people because they think they’re going to steal business from them or leave them and start their own company. And I tell people, like, you can can’t think that way. If they leave, they leave. That’s fine. That’s just how the world is. But at least I’ll help you grow your business in the meantime. And you have more people in the pipeline to train and continue the cycle.

Sean Weisbrot:

Exactly.

Glen’s family and their history (23:24)

Sean Weisbrot:

So, I want to go a little bit back to when you were younger with your first businesses. You knew that there was something different. Did you try to communicate with your family, like, hey, why are these kids, like, having new clothes? Do you have those conversations? Or was that not possible?

Glen Bhimani:

No, we never had those conversations.

Sean Weisbrot:

Why do you think that was?

Glen Bhimani:

It was just something that in my family, you just didn’t talk about money. The conversation I actually came up a couple of months ago with my mom about it, how we grew up. And it was just one of those things. You knew there was something wrong, but you didn’t talk about it.

Sean Weisbrot:

Now, your parents were also born in America, right?

Glen Bhimani:

Yes. So, we’ve been here since the 1800s.

Sean Weisbrot:

Okay. And before you guys came over, where were you from?

Glen Bhimani:

Spain.

Sean Weisbrot:

Okay. So, do you know if your parents grew up poor and their parents grew up poor? Like, is this a thing that happened since they came from Spain?

Glen Bhimani:

So, we settled in before Mexico was Mexico. During the Mexican Spanish War, my family, at that point, they had Vias, they had a lot of money. When Spain lost the war with Mexico, my family fled, and they lost all their belongings, all their money, all their land in Mexico, because they were pro Spain. So, they chose the wrong side, per se. They lost everything. And we came to Texas setting here, and we have to start all over again. And that’s when the poverty started in our family.

Sean Weisbrot:

So, like 100 plus years, basically?

Glen Bhimani:

Yes.

Sean Weisbrot:

Do you have any sense of the wealth they had before all this happened when they were in Mexico?

Glen Bhimani:

They were very wealthy to where they have to work. They had servants, they had had a lot of land and the workers took care of everything.

Sean Weisbrot:

Is there no way to go back and kind of reclaim that?

Glen Bhimani:

No, because it was basically falls of war. You lost it. Just like any new country is formed. Whoever was there and got kicked out, you just lose everything.

Sean Weisbrot:

Have you ever thought of going back to Mexico or Spain and living with servants and not working?

Glen Bhimani:

No. Mexico is the last place I would go to.

Sean Weisbrot:

Fair enough. I was just in Spain. I was in Valencia. Spain is very beautiful.

Glen Bhimani:

I might visit Spain, but if I moved somewhere, it would probably be South America. Like Costa Rica or Ecuador.

Sean Weisbrot:

Okay. I was in Costa Rica about nine years ago. Although that’s when I had my concussion. So, I didn’t really get to actually appreciate it. Panama is quite nice, actually.

Glen Bhimani:

Haven’t been there yet.

Sean Weisbrot:

Panama was beautiful until I got a concussion. Then it wasn’t so great anymore. So, you were saying that when you grew up, you kind of were instilled with some of these things. Why don’t you talk about some of the things that either, talk about the things that your parents, like, basically told you they kind of instilled in you through their words.

Glen Bhimani:

So, my dad told me I had to learn a lot of manual labor for example, construction. He had me working at my uncle’s construction company, learning how to do construction work, mixing concrete, stuff like that. He taught me some plumbing, taught me how to build structures with concrete at his house. My stepfather, because my parents were divorced, he taught me a lot of electrical work and mechanics for vehicles and how to fix, like, water heaters, how to fix electrical wirings, how to run wires.

He was a licensed HVAC technician. So, he taught me how to do AC work, having up in the attic with them, doing that kind of work in the summer, very hot. And one day, I told my stepfather, I’m like, yeah, I’m not changing the oil. When I’m older, I’ll make a lot of money. I just pay people today do it. And he told me in Spanish, but he basically told me, don’t be a dumbass. You got to learn. You don’t know whether you’re going to be rich or not down the road. That’s what he told me. But he told me because he wanted me to learn. And those were very successful skills. And also, it taught me how to work hard to get what I need to. But they also told me that education and knowledge was very important, to learn. They still push education, and they push skills as well.

Sean Weisbrot:

So, hearing you talk, it sounds to me like they give you a really good education.

Glen Bhimani:

Yes.

Sean Weisbrot:

So, what are the aspects of it that weren’t great.

Glen Bhimani:

From the education point?

Sean Weisbrot:

Just from all of it. Because like I mentioned earlier, 100 years or so ago, my great grandfather would have maybe built a house by hand. Your family essentially taught you how to build things and fix things with your own hands. I mean, if we were in a situation where all of a sudden there’s a nuclear war and all of the people that can fix shit are dead, and you’re the only one that can save anything and set up, you know, how to survive, they taught you some amazing skills that automatically I wish I had.

Glen Bhimani:

They taught us, like you said, you used the word survive. They taught me how to survive, but not to get ahead. And that’s where a lot of people in poverty struggle, is that they’re taught how to survive, but not how to get ahead in life and make future generations better. And that’s where the struggle really is.

Sean Weisbrot:

So, where do you think the survival ends? What was it about your lifestyle or how they talk to you or how they treated you that was that poverty factor that prevented you from understanding how to thrive.

Glen Bhimani:

They weren’t able to teach me anything in regards to how life really works and how the world really is, that it can be very cruel and if you don’t put your foot down, you’re going to get walked all over. It wasn’t until I was in the military that I saw that firsthand how the world really works.

Sean Weisbrot:

Interesting.

So, like, my father is a business owner, or he was for my entire life until I was, like, 26, 27. So, I saw him get walked all over as a business owner. So, I saw things from a different point of view, because I saw that he was a really good doctor. He cared very deeply about doing a really good job for his patients. But I also saw the insurance companies walk all over him. I saw the patients walk all over him. I saw his employees walk all over him. So, I learned from him that it’s important to have your own business. But I also saw how it’s important to not be weak in that regard.

So, he didn’t even have the sense to teach me to understand your value and to put your foot down, because he didn’t do that. So, I had to learn that stuff on my own. It took me until I was 26, or no. Okay, let me put it like this. I always knew that had value and that my mother taught me. She always taught me, you’re special, you’re smart, you’re gifted. You could do anything you want. That was my mom.

But it wasn’t until my late 20s that I learned from someone how to understand, how to monetize my value in a smart way. And that’s when my life changed. But my mom taught me this whole, you have value. My brother taught me, if you want to get ahead in life, you need to understand finance, you need to understand money. But it was my mentor that taught me how to connect value and money, because the others couldn’t teach me that. And that’s coming from an upper middle-class family.

So, I think maybe there’s a little bit more poverty in the mindset that I had. Although the interesting thing is, my parents got me a bank account when I was 13 and a checkbook. And they taught me, this is money you deposit money in, you write the check, you remove it from your ledger. Like, they taught me some of that basic stuff, and that was cool, but they didn’t teach me, like, now, this is how you go and make money.

They would say, here’s your allowance. You’re eight years old. Here’s $8 a week. You’re nine years old. Here’s $9 a week. There was one thing my mom did that was interesting, where I was, I guess, seven, and I was biting my nails, and she said, if you don’t bite your nails, I’m going to give you an extra dollar per week. You better believe I had been biting my nails for years. You better believe I stopped biting my nails that day, and I got that extra dollar, and she would check every week. Did you bite your nails? No, I didn’t. Here’s her dollar. That was maybe a warped way of learning how to make money, because clearly the money wasn’t being earned by anyone, but earning it from my parents. Although they did have me do chores. Okay, well, you cleaned up after yourself. You cleaned this thing and all of that. It’s like, okay, you’ve earned your allowance this week. Kind of a deal. Not like, oh, you’re alive, so here’s $5. Did your family do anything like that at all, or no?

Glen Bhimani:

No. They told us we don’t get an allowance, that we should be grateful for being able to live in their house.

Sean Weisbrot:

Jeez. Okay. That’s interesting.

I’ve never had to pay for anything, although, as an adult, when I go back and I stay with them for, like, a month or two because I don’t live in America, so I’m not going to buy an apartment or buy a house nearby, then. It doesn’t make sense. I’m not there most of the year. I’ll pay for stuff. I’ll take them out for meals. I may go to the store, and I’ll buy $100 worth of stuff and, like, okay, here, you guys eat. But yeah, they never said, hey, you needed to pay rent or anything like that, or, you should be grateful. Not they never. I’ve heard of that.

Glen Bhimani:

But when I started making money, I actually had to contribute to the household to make it easier for my parents to pay the bills and stuff like that. So, they showed told me that we also have to be very responsible for ourselves and what our costs are to the household in regards to electricity, water, food, stuff like that. So, they instill within me a very good work ethic on there. Even to this day, I still pay for my mom’s stuff for her. She doesn’t ask me for it, but I still give her money every month so she doesn’t have to worry about it.

Sean Weisbrot:

This is a very common thing, especially in Asian cultures, where the kids will send money home every month, even to their own detriment. Then again, obviously in your situation, it’s different because you have a business. But for a lot of them, they work a job and they give them 10%, 20, 30% of their salary every month just so that the parents can live a little bit better. Especially because the kids can make a lot more. Like, my ex-wife would make $1,500 a month, but the dad was only making $175 a month, $175 a month in Vietnam. So, the parents were like, yeah, give us the money. Give us $200 a month. Make our lives easier.

Glen Bhimani:

See, and what I give my mom is not even 2% of what I make. So, it’s a lot for her. But for me, it’s like I spend it in a day or two. I’m not worried about it. So, she doesn’t have to feel bad about taking the money, because she does. Sometimes I tell her it’s there, it wants to be spent.

Training your children for the real world and business (36:07)

Glen Bhimani:

And like with my daughter, I’ve been pushing how life really is. I told her, if you do this, I’ll take you over here to the store and get your toy. She’ll do it. And then I’m like, you know what? I changed my mind. She’s like, but you said, I’m like, it’s not in writing. Where’s the contract? And she gets upset.

Sean Weisbrot:

You are going to destroy her.

Glen Bhimani:

And now she’s like, daddy got to write it down. Yes. Write it down. That’s the deal.

Sean Weisbrot:

That’s actually pretty good. That’s a pretty good skill, actually.

Glen Bhimani:

It’s because if you don’t, people will walk over you and they’ll take advantage of that. That it’s not in writing, or they change their mind. And it’s unfortunate, but that’s just how life is.

Sean Weisbrot:

I’m going to remember that for when I have kids. That’s a good one, actually.

Glen Bhimani:

And she’s learning about how employees are. She sat into strategy meetings with me, so she understands what businesses and she’s starting to understand that life can be very cruel if you let it be cruel to you.

Sean Weisbrot:

Yeah. It’s really important to break that cycle. What do your parents say about what you’re doing with your daughter?

Glen Bhimani:

They’re happy. They know that she’s going to be able to get way ahead than we were able to because she’s getting a pretty early start in business. She already has her own logo for her own company. She already has the name set up. We already have the vendors in place, so we can start sourcing all the materials. So, she’s almost ready, but she’s about a month away from opening her company.

Sean Weisbrot:

What is she focusing on?

Glen Bhimani:

She’s going to sell fruit flavored bubbles that are organic and edible.

Sean Weisbrot:

Fruit flavored bubbles? Like bubble tea?

Glen Bhimani:

No, like, bubble that you blow.

Sean Weisbrot:

Okay.

Glen Bhimani:

You know how you blow the bubbles?

Sean Weisbrot:

Yeah.

Glen Bhimani:

There’s none that are flavored that you can really taste that taste good. And we did the market research on it. There’s only two companies, one in the UK. And one in the US. But they cater to pets, not humans. So, everything we source, you can actually just drink the bottle. You’ll be fine.

Sean Weisbrot:

Okay. I mean, if I were a kid, I would probably try to drink the bottle, I guess. They’re always putting glue in their mouth and all sorts of crap.

Glen Bhimani:

Because we started this idea right when COVID hit, and a couple of months ago. She’s like, you’re taking too long. I need your help to start this company already. So, she keeps pushing me for it. And you can only teach that to a kid if you experienced it yourself and you’ve gone through the process.

Sean Weisbrot:

So is she 100% owner or…

Glen Bhimani:

Yes.

Sean Weisbrot:

But a six-year-old can’t form a company, I imagine.

Glen Bhimani:

So, it would be formed under me, but then she has, she has me running it on paper so you can own it through a trust. But then, you have to have a manager managing the business under Texas LLC. There’s managing member. And I forgot what the other one was. You’re not the owner, but you’re the manager. Because the trust owns the company and trust belongs to her. Technically, she owns it 100%, even though she doesn’t have her name directly on the paperwork.

Sean Weisbrot:

Okay, so is she going to go through Amazon or she’s building her own social media profiles.

Glen Bhimani:

She’s going to create her own social media profiles and we are going to do sales in the parking at her school. So, I already got permission from her school so she can set up a little store at the school to make sales.

Sean Weisbrot:

Okay, and then what, she’s going to use the profit to build a website and try to distribute across the US?

Glen Bhimani:

Yes, that’s the plan. I’m going to guide her through and I’m going to be technically the IRS for her because she’s not going to make a whole lot the first year. So, I’m going to take taxes out.

Sean Weisbrot:

You don’t know that.

Glen Bhimani:

We’ll see.

Sean Weisbrot:

This could be, she could do 100 grand this first year.

Glen Bhimani:

She pushes his heart. She has a lot of school, though.

Employee path vs entrepreneurial path (40:32)

Sean Weisbrot:

Yeah, well, she’ll come to a point where she forgets school, I’m going to drop out. She’ll be like, twelve. She’s like, daddy can like millions of dollars a year. Why am I going to school? I know a lot of guys like that now. They’re like 15, 16, 17, and they’re like, I’m making 20-30k month, why am I going to school? They want to drop out.

Glen Bhimani:

Well, that’s the argument I had with my wife. And I told her education is not important. Formal education is not important. Knowledge is.

Sean Weisbrot:

Right.

Glen Bhimani:

You can go to it for your degree and still come out dumb as a rock. Or you can learn on Google or in YouTube. Like, I have, reading books and know everything you need to know to get ahead.

Sean Weisbrot:

I totally agree.

I advise them. What I had said to them was, I know you feel that way now, but just in case your plan falls apart and you go broke and you need a job at any point, if you don’t have a high school diploma, you’re probably not getting a job. So, like, just stick with it. Just please, for your own safety and your sanity, just do it. They’re like, uh.

But, like, I get it. I know. I hated school. I hated every minute of it. College was great. I loved it. But that’s just because I was studying psychology and it was so much fun. But I can understand where people are coming from with that, because I know people who didn’t get a college degree or a high school degree, and they regretted it 10-20 years later when they’re stuck not really being able to find really good work. They also don’t have an entrepreneurial mindset, though.

Glen Bhimani:

And that’s the thing. Some people were like, for example, my dad, he would never start his own business. He’s happy being a worker. He’s been in the same job for, like, 25 years, staying with my in-laws. There’s nothing wrong with that. Opening a business has its own stressors that are different from being an employee. And if you don’t have that drive to keep pushing forward when everything is about to fall apart, you won’t make it as a business owner, because we always have issues that are major that we get to deal with all the time.

Sean Weisbrot:

For sure. Totally.

Glen Bhimani:

Even if you take a company to 250,000, it’s one set of issues. Once you’re at a million-dollar points, you have different issues. You get to $10 million. Now you have different issues you have to worry about. It just never ends. You just switch from one issue to the next.

Trying to change the poverty mindset (43:10)

Sean Weisbrot:

So, I’m going to make an assumption here, correct me if I’m wrong. You hire people to be security guards. What percentage of them would you say have a poverty mindset?

Glen Bhimani:

About 70%.

Sean Weisbrot:

Do you do anything to help them to kind of tweak their own mindset, or is that not your issue as just as the owner of the company?

Glen Bhimani:

I’ve tried many times, and it has not worked out. So, there was one guard. This was a couple of years ago. He started at 17. He’s like, oh, 17 is not enough. I want to make more. And I’m like, I can pay you $30. I can pay $27. We can talk about it if you learn how to do trade work. I need really good technicians that can install security alarms, cameras, access control, all those kinds of low voltage products.

He’s like, well, I don’t like to be in the latter, and I don’t like to be in the attic. I’m, like, double your earnings if you learn this trade? It’s like no, I’m okay. I’ll stay where I’m at, because he doesn’t want to learn new skills, new trades. And I’ve had that issue many, many times.

There was one guard during COVID. He was making $16 with this company, and we offered him $20 an hour. And I told them, you’re missing one training, and that’s the baton training. It’s $70 plus the cost of your baton. You’re looking at $200 for that. So, I told them you’re looking at about $270, roughly, depending who you go with to get the certification. We’ll give you three months from the time you start working for us. So, you have that with you?

What do you think he told me?

Sean Weisbrot:

No, thanks. I’m good.

Glen Bhimani:

He’s like, if you want me to have that training, you train me and you give me the equipment, because I don’t need it. That’s what he told me.

Sean Weisbrot:

And how much was he losing out on if he didn’t invest the $270?

Glen Bhimani:

Okay, I just did the math real quick. $8,320 pay rate. He gave up.

Sean Weisbrot:

Per year?

Glen Bhimani:

Per year.

Sean Weisbrot:

Because he didn’t want to spend 200.

Sean Weisbrot:

Did you tell him that?

Glen Bhimani:

Yeah, he said, yeah, I told him you’re making over $8,000 more per year if you do this, and you have three months from the time you start. So, just I told them from the time you quit the other job and you come work for us in two weeks, that it already paid for itself and we’re giving you three months to get it done. And he still refused.

Sean Weisbrot:

That’s crazy. If you told me I had to invest that, I’d be like, can I invest a thousand and you pay me an extra 20,000 a year?

Glen Bhimani:

And here’s the thing. He would have made it right off the bat from the increase he was going to get with us from $16-20 per hour. It’s not like he had to go and take the money he already made with the other company and spend that, because I know he was struggling. You’re already ahead. Just taking in a new job offer, right?

Sean Weisbrot:

So, beyond that, like, have you ever tried any sort of, like, explicit training with them about, like, how to manage their finances so they can save something?

Glen Bhimani:

Yeah. So, there was one female that I had. She was a very good worker as a security guard. And I saw a lot of potential for her to be our PR manager because it was a new position that had created last year. And she was very upset while I was having her trained by the marketing director that she wanted a lot more money, because she had the title, but she didn’t have the skills yet. We were trying to train her in financial responsibility for one, how to get clients, how to reach out to clients, how to talk to them. How to manage money was one of them, because she was going to be earning commission, and we were teaching her how the math works and commissions and how if she talks to a client that brought in so much money, then you get a percentage of this from the net profits.

So, we were starting the process, and she quit a month into her training because she felt, because of the title, that she was going to have, she’s entitled to a lot more money right away without having the skills. I told her, like, well, if you want that money, go get a four-year degree, come back to me, and I’ll pay you what you want. She wanted $27 an hour instead of $23. And she’s like, well, Mr. Glen, if that’s how you think that’s wrong, you should pay me $27 right away. I don’t need to go to school for four years when other people are making that. I’m like, those people went to school for four years to make that kind of money. We’re training you fast track, for six months to a year so you can start making that money next year. And she quit.

Sean Weisbrot:

And did you ever hear back what happened after she quit?

Glen Bhimani:

She went to work a job that was paying even less than what I was paying her.

Sean Weisbrot:

Sad, because she could have stayed with you and be making a lot more.

Glen Bhimani:

There’s very few people that I’m able to train. So, right now, I have three managers. No formal higher education from the university or colleges. They just have their high-speed diplomas. And those are the ones that have stuck with me. They’re hard workers. They all came from poverty, just like I did. And they’re doing very well with learning everything I’m teaching them about business, how taxes work, how the unemployment office, how managing the money for the business works, net profit versus gross profit versus cash flow.

So, I’m teaching them all that information so they can take over the company from me. And they’ve been doing very well. And I think the common denominator between all those three and compared to the other staff I tried teaching is that these three managers all came from poverty, the other ones didn’t.

Sean Weisbrot:

Interesting. Interesting. So, is there anything else we haven’t really touched upon that you’d want to mention?

Glen Bhimani:

Not that I can think of.

Follow up with Glen (49:58)

Sean Weisbrot:

Okay, well, is there any way that people can reach out to you?

Glen Bhimani:

Yes. If they call the company at 210 996-1686, extension 100, that one goes directly to me. If they hit something else, just let the manager know, or whoever answers how you found out about us or about me so they can transfer the call. If you say, I’ll call later, then they’re never going to bother transferring you to me.

Sean Weisbrot:

What was the number again?

Glen Bhimani:

210 996-1686, extension 100.

Sean Weisbrot:

All right, well, thank you very much, Glenn. I appreciate your time, your energy. And talking about poverty, it’s a very important topic that I think potentially may drive a lot more entrepreneurs than we think. Just like I’ve spoken with people about ADD, and I think that also drives a lot of entrepreneurs, especially myself.

So, if you know anyone that has a poverty mindset or may be struggling with their business or things like that, then definitely reach out to them and tell them about this episode so that they can learn from Glen, and hopefully they can learn from some of the things I may have said as an outsider to poverty. So, don’t forget to take care of yourself and your team, and thank you for listening. Thank you, Glenn.

Glen Bhimani:

Bye-bye.

Sean Weisbrot:

Thank you for staying with us until the end of this episode. We know that you’ll like the other two that are on the screen now. The one on the top right is the episode that we think you would benefit from by listening to next the most. And the one we’re these it is what YouTube believes is also a really good choice for you. So, thanks again for sticking with us, and we hope to see you on the next video.