038: Why Taking Risks Is the Smartest Strategy for Success

Join host Marc Thomas and special guest Raffi Jamgotchian as they explore the transformative power of risk as a strategy for success. This episode dives into Raffi’s inspiring family journey, from Armenian heritage and migration to a career shaped by technology and innovation. Hear how risk-taking became a cornerstone of personal and professional growth, paving the way for a family legacy in engineering and technology.

Discover the critical role of mentorship in business, including the balance between guidance and independence. Learn why too many advisors can lead to chaos and how strategic risk-taking drives leadership and innovation.

Marc and Raffi also delve into the role of IT and cybersecurity in today’s rapidly evolving digital landscape. From AI-driven strategies to cutting-edge tools, they share actionable insights for protecting and growing your business. Whether you're an entrepreneur, leader, or tech enthusiast, this episode offers a roadmap for turning risks into rewards and building a lasting legacy.

Raffi Jamgotchian - Cybersecurity for Investment Firms on LinkedIn
https://www.linkedin.com/in/raffijamgotchian

Triada Networks, LLC
https://triadanet.com

On Thin Ice Kindle Edition
https://a.co/d/25hHMYk

Chapters

• 0:07 Family Migration and Business Ownership
• 13:56 Mentorship and Business Development
• 18:56 Advanced IT and Cybersecurity Services

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:07

the step back. You mentioned something in there and we kind of blew by it, but you talked about at the age of three. At the age of three, tell me what happened to you oh.

Speaker 2: 0:18

So, uh, I was born in london. Uh, at the age of three we came to the united states. By then my uh grandparents had were here, and so my dad came into. You know, when he came to the states, we all came to the states. Uh, his first job was with uh, with abc, the, the uh, the tv company, uh as a uh, as a COBOL programmer, and so, um, on the weekends he would actually take me in and, you know, prop me up on uh while he was doing his work. He'd prop me up on one of his green screen terminals and they had a light pen. I don't know if you remember light pens, but it was kind of early.

Speaker 2: 0:58

Other than the keyboard. It was like there was no lights. This is the earlier. You would actually like poke at the screen and the light would read the screen and kind of identify where you were. And so I would play games with that, with that little thing. So that's kind of how that was my first. So I was exposed really early to this kind of stuff.

Speaker 1: 1:17

Yeah, so you said at the age of three, from London to the US. Was it the job that brought your family to the US? What was the push there?

Speaker 2: 1:28

Yeah, so where my parents were. So my parents were both born in Lebanon. We're Armenian. Through various migrations, through world events, Armenian genocide, my parents ended up born in Beirut. There's a large Armenian population in Beirut.

Speaker 2: 1:49

In the 70s Beirut became kind of a problem area. There were a lot of issues and it wasn't great for Christians to be there at the time, and so at that point my dad had left to go to college. My mom followed. They got married in London then while he was at school, and then that's when I came along. But meanwhile, during kind of this pre of this turmoil, my grandparents left Beirut and came to the States. My grandfather's brother was already here in Boston. My grandfather came in and settled in New Jersey where his daughter was, and because of that after college, since my parents didn't really have anybody to come back to in Beirut, my mom's side had family still there they decided to come to the States rather than go back to Lebanon or stay in London. So that was kind of the impotence of why we came to the US at that point.

Speaker 1: 2:52

Wonderful. So most of your immediate family was in the US at that time.

Speaker 2: 2:56

Yeah, most of my dad's side of the family were in the US at that time. My mom's side of the family came over a few years after that, so at that point almost our entire family on both sides were either in the new york new jersey area or in uh in canada okay, well, wonderful, I mean obviously at least relatively close, right, um, no one ended up on the west coast, yeah, no, we and we always so good.

Speaker 2: 3:25

It's funny because, like, there's a big armenian population in la, so we always expected that at some point we would, we would migrate out that way, but yeah, that never happened to us, thankfully I I like it here, I like it. I like the seasons. You know, other than fire and mud that they have on the west coast, we have snow and rain even though we might complain about the seasons when we're in that season.

Speaker 1: 3:46

But uh, yeah, it just kind of does have that variety yeah, so that's how we ended up here.

Speaker 2: 3:53

Um, you know, and uh, it's funny because like, uh, our means. But my dad, my old, my grandfather, was a tailor. Uh, you know, most of our family, most of our families, were like in the. You know, we had family in the rug business and this, and that Armenians tend to be like they were traditionally, like they come become mechanics or jewelers. That's kind of like the stereotype. We have so many computer guys and on my side of the family, especially on my dad's side of my dad, my dad's brother, his first cousin, myself, two of my cousins, like we like, kind of like it changed the trajectory of like where our family was going. But yeah, so very interesting.

Speaker 1: 4:34

Yeah, yeah, yeah, no doubt. And then you have children of your own, correct? And how many? Four boys, four boys, four, yeah, and you know what I guess in their life and in education, where, where are they headed? Are they following dad's footsteps in the technology world or are they they kind of go?

Speaker 2: 4:53

yeah, yeah, some of them are uh, one one is for firmly, he's working for it in an it role at a at an investment firm. Uh, another is working as a software engineer in an it role at a at an investment firm. Uh, another is working as a software engineer and an investment firm. Um, the uh. Third is a mechanical engineer, so not quite, but still in the engineering field and and a lot. And my youngest is currently studying financial technology in college. So, um, I would say definitely more technical, uh, uh, certainly definitely technical, um types of uh, uh jobs and and careers, um, not, you know, probably other than my oldest, which is probably closest Leo line to to what I've done.

Speaker 2: 5:39

Um, you know that's been, uh, that's been the thing. You know they grew up in a, in a house that this is what you know dad talked about and did. And you know I started Triada in 2000,. You know they, they grew up with it just like I did. We always had stuff in the house that they they play with. You know, my, there's a picture of my, my oldest, in my at the office in Invesco, this giant compact computer sitting on my desk. You know, typing in, typing away, when I was, you know building computer at home. You know he's gotten his fingers in there. They've been around for so long. When I started Triada in 2008, my oldest was 12. They were all young and they saw us build this up since then.

Speaker 1: 6:30

And is that, I guess, for you, um, is that the kind of path that you would hope for your children, or is that, uh, you'd hope for other things for them? You know?

Speaker 2: 6:41

um, so my wife came from a family of business owners. You know I came from a family of business owners. I came from a family of business owners. My dad was a freelance computer consultant since we came to the country and he's been there since. He still works. My dad still works for an investment firm as a COBOL programmer, believe it or not. My mom was a business owner too.

Speaker 2: 7:13

I didn't know that that would have been business ownership would have been in my path but it kind of naturally became that way and my wife and I both knew that. You know, that's kind of like the. There's a couple ways to be successful in America. There's a couple of ways to be successful in America and it's really through ownership, whether that's ownership of homes or it's ownership of businesses, whether that's through, say, stock market or direct ownership of small businesses. We felt that that was the kind of that was our path. So take the skill that you have and build a business around. It was the kind of that was our path.

Speaker 2: 7:50

So take the skill that you have and build a business around it, with the idea that, because to potentially turn something into multi-generational that, whether it becomes that or not, you know we didn't want to necessarily say, hey, you have to join the family business, but that we, you know we're not like the Corleone's that way, but we, we wanted to give them the opportunity that if they wanted to step into the family business they could.

Speaker 2: 8:18

Or or if they wanted to, um, if, if you know, at the end of my years this asset became something that they could turn around and sell and do something with that they can build off of, that would also be okay. So those are the things that we wanted to build something that actually had that kind of longevity as opposed to and I'm not knocking it If you went to, if I continue down the corporate ladder, you know one, I probably would have had better income along the way. But you know, when you leave, you know other than what you've socked away for your retirement. You know that's all you, that's all you have, and that's kind of that was, that was the. You know, part of that is like all right. So I'm giving up that, maybe some of the salary, but I'm gaining a certain amount of freedom and be building some sort of asset that can have some value at the end of the day.

Speaker 1: 9:24

Sure, I would say we could go into those few statements quite deep. Actually, I don't know if we'll touch on that at the moment, but yeah, just thinking about those things going, yes, I understand, you know we all can, as business owners, consider to go, hey, like maybe I'd be farther ahead if I were to stick with a corporate job or whatever, right, like going. You know there's a little bit of a gamble there. Obviously, being an entrepreneur is not a, I say for the faint of heart, there's a little bit of a gamble there. Obviously, being an entrepreneur is, is not a, um, I say for the faint of heart, um, there's risks involved in those. We, we know that we choose and take those, um, and I know that myself, you know, as often reflect and go wow is whether was that the right thing? You know, once again, same mentality. You know, like I believe you're, you're creating this asset right, building the build is building the business, building it up, and um, someday, you know, you make that exit.

Speaker 2: 10:18

So, yeah, you have your days, you know, um, certainly, and you know, and you know I've had my days, uh, thinking of like, what to do with what we're planning on, uh, and we decided to, um, uh, you know, looking back now it's you know at some point, at some point that you kind of have like a point of no return, right. So you're saying like, all right, do I still have. We were, my wife and I were talking about this the other day. You know, if you, if the, if the boys took over and you stepped away, you know what would you do and could you go and get a job.

Speaker 2: 10:51

And I'm like maybe I don't know, like there's some places that probably would hire me, like within our own kind of world, but going I the corp, that corporate leadership or that corporate job that I don't know if that door is is still open to us. We probably have some marketable skills that could that we could bring to the table for that kind of place. But if somebody was trying to like hire me as, like a high-end engineer or or or practitioner for in an enterprise, like I've been, I've been out of the enterprise world for, uh, almost 20 years, so it's, it'll be that's kind of a that's a harder sell. I think, uh, when, when you're looking at it, um, but maybe who?

Speaker 1: 11:36

knows, maybe I, I kind of believe that I don't know that yeah, um, I could be hired. I don't know, I think I don't, I think I'm past that phase, right like going on now to do so, I would do something else. I don't think I would get there right, right Like going I know how to do something else. I don't think I would get there right Like it. Just unless it's saying you know, welcome to Walmart. I don't know that there's much else that I no, no, no, no, you know, but once again, you know we've been doing that, we've been at this long enough that I, you know, I truly believe that, yeah, I wouldn't be a good employee at that point anymore.

Speaker 2: 12:10

There's just, and I don't know, you know, and I I would say that, but I also think that somebody, if somebody was to look at us at that at that point, that's probably the kind of person that they want. They probably want the person that is not going to be quote, unquote a good employee. They're going to be one that's going to say you're like I guess I look back and maybe this is a bad example, bring it when. And you know I'm going to because I'm kind of a political junkie. I'll use a political example.

Speaker 2: 12:50

When George W Bush was running about to run for president, he was looked at as kind of like this they thought that he wasn't, he didn't have, he didn't, we didn't have that kind of like foundation and, for better or for worse, he. That's why he brought on Dick Cheney. They give him, they use the word gravitas a lot. I just remember that that word kept being said over and over again when he was running and that's what he brought to the table, right. So, and I think folks like us, the gray beards of the world, there's even a place for us there, when you know, maybe in an advisory capacity, whatever it is that when the young guys are, you know and we know technology is partly a young man's game.

Speaker 2: 13:56

That, as these guys start up, you know I wish I had that kind of person that I could have leveraged off of. I knew, lord knows. When I started in 2008, I had the exposure of my parents as business owners, but not really in the sense that, like I was in their books and understood kind of how money flow, flow flow through the business versus, or my mom's business, which was a hair salon, where the money flowing through a hair salon completely different than what we do. And so, with very basic financial knowledge that I gained when I went for my MBA while I was in corporate, that was basically what I went on was in corporate, um, that was basically what I went on, and I learned business kind of that way. Um, and probably if I had that kind of mentor, advisor, something like that at that time, I probably would have been further along, quicker, uh, than than I was. I don't know how you feel.

Speaker 1: 15:12

No, I think now you made me think about that. Yeah, I think in the sense that you're right. I think that bring value to the table with that alone and shortcut you know cause, as we talk about even with you know I've got some coaches in my life and there's a reason for that right now, and do I have things that are broken, they need fixed, but there's also things that they can provide me, um, that I don't have to learn the hard way, right, it takes time yeah, I mean you think about, yeah, if you think about the like when, when, uh, when I, when I, when I started out, when we started out, our companies, um, it's, it's.

Speaker 2: 15:50

They say it's like youth, right, you, youth is like wasted on the young. Um, when you're young, uh, and you're a new business owner, you can't afford to have all these coaches and and and folks. So you kind of have to muddle through it for a while until you can get some traction. Then. Then you can afford the coaches to take you to the next level and I think my mistake was waiting too long for that to happen before I can, like I would expose myself to pundits and groups and things like that.

Speaker 1: 16:23

But I don't think I exposed myself to really good, solid, one-on-one coaching until much, much later, uh, in my, in my business, uh, than I, than I should have yeah, no, and and so for you, and since we kind of went there with the, the coaching aspect and introducing that and introducing people that um been there, done that and give outside views and opinions, um, what today do you think has made the biggest impact for you and what element were you is there is, what were you lacking, that you feel that, uh, an individual coming in in a coaching role has helped you with the most?

Speaker 2: 17:05

so I, I'm gonna, I'm gonna actually take that in a different direction.

Speaker 2: 17:10

What happened was which I have a tendency to do I made the pendulum swing too far and I had too many of these voices in my ear at one point, and so because of that, I think we went from not really knowing what to do to a whole bunch of people telling what we should be ideas.

Speaker 2: 17:35

But I'm going to, uh, I'm going to pick one the the parts that I that resonate with me and move with it. I don't know if that was a great idea, but at least allowed me to kind of quiet the noise in my head a little bit until I can narrow it and I'm I'm still on that process that journey still hasn't finished and narrowing and narrowing the voices in my head and I think, finally, where the the biggest, my, the biggest, wherever I made, my biggest impact in my companies, my company, along the way, has always been through through, I think, peers, but guided peers, so the peer relationship, but with some additional structure and guidance, where I think the just sitting in a room with a bunch of peers wasn't cutting it, but when we had some structure around that, that definitely did.

Speaker 1: 18:56

Hi, I'm Mark Thomas, founder and CEO of Current Tech Solutions and CyberGuardians. If you or somebody you know could benefit from our cutting edge IT and cybersecurity services, we'd love to help. Our expertise in securing your business with AI precision ensures that you're protected and empowered to thrive. Reach out to us today to learn how we can secure and elevate your business. Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh.