I don’t think we have met yet. I have figured now is a great time to introduce myself.
My name is Davit Gharibyan, I am an Armenian American entrepreneur and real estate investor.
So how did I end up here?
I have moved to the US, Minnesota to be exact in 2001 in pursuit of opportunity and better life. I have moved to the United States without knowing anyone and barely spoke English. At the time I did not have any relative or guidance in the US. I left my parents, friends and relatives behind in Armenia.
I had $100 to my name when I came to the USA. I started working different jobs to be able to survive. Gosh you name it I have done it. Anything from shoveling snow, working at fast food, doing painting, retail, collections and most recently banking.
While I was working I have graduated from Metropolitan State University in Saint Paul, MN. I was attending Yerevan State University of Economy in Armenia before my arrival to the US, but I have never graduated from it, and I had to start all over again.
Just like many people I was raised with the belief that in order to succeed in life I needed a college education to be able to get a good paying job, have a family, buy a house and a car. The “American Dream”, you know…
So I kept jumping from one job to other in hopes of finding that edge, the opportunity. But no matter what I did I kept struggling with money and was not getting ahead. It seamed that other people in my circle were more successful than I was, at least from the outside.
Years went by, I was working at a U.S. Bank at 3M corporate headquarters in Maplewood, Minnesota. From working at the bank you could see that people were making decent money at 3M, at least by the average standard. You know $100-150k per year; many would consider that successful. That’s what the entire middle class is built on: go to college, get a good paying job…
But you know what, people were still struggling with money and time. They were running from meeting to meeting, trying to shuffle money to put food on the table, provide for kids’ college. So even at those pay levels the money is still a problem.
Something in my gut waas saying this is not right, this whole thing is just a house of cards waiting to collapse.
Guess what…
The company’s sales did not meet investors’ forecast and the CEO decided to slash thousands of jobs. People were coming to our branch frustrated and feeling betrayed. They were not sure what’s going to happen to them, how were they going to pay for their mortgage, car payment, medical bills.
This was my aha moment. I realized that the entire middle class ideology is flawed. I concluded that I could not sell my time for money. This was my wake up call; I had to do something to dramatically change my situation.
I decided that I had to go into entrepreneurship full time and spreading the word out so more people wake up from the coma that is “middle class”.
People need to invest in assets that provide them with income, and not sell their time for money.
I hope this post shed some light on my back story, where I am coming from.
I will talk about where I am going to in future post.
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