On this week’s episode of Be On Air we interview founder and CEO of Rastegar Property, Ari Rastegar. We dive into some huge topics including the importance of positive mindset, masculinity in today’s world, gentrification, the power of imagination and much more!
Born and raised in Austin, Texas, Ari has grown with the city and seen what it takes to make the lasting, sustainable changes to help create collaboration, unity, harmony, and peace within its communities. Ari’s down-to-earth, authenticity-driven mindset has earned him a reputation as a thought leader in real estate with his innovative technology driven investment strategies.
Rastegar specializes in recession, resilient, real assets, and multi-family real estate developments, building portfolios designed to reduce risk and maximize capital appreciation potential. Being released this June is The Gift of Failure, Ari’s new book which discusses how a mindset congruent to your inner self is the key to achieving success. Check out the links below to learn more about Ari Rastegar!
IG | @rastegar
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00:00 – Introduction
01:21 – Growing up in Austin
03:58 – Gentrification & Ari’s Background
10:38 – Scaling and Growing a Company
13:58 – Optimism for the Future
19:13 – Be you, listen to your inner dialogue
21:50 – “Everything you can imagine is real”
25:46 – Rapid fire questions & Doing it for family
K.Lee Marks : [00:00:29] Hey, Hey, Hey, welcome back episode of beyond air. I’m your host K.Lee marks. And today we have Ari Rastegar joining us. He is founder and CEO of Rastegar property, and he has earned a reputation as a thought leader in real estate with his innovative technology driven investment strategies. I’ve had the honor of getting to work with him on a couple of projects and, and this, this gentleman is making some serious moves, especially here in Austin, in the, in the real estate.
Uh, Uh, space and he specializes in recession, resilient, real assets, and multi-family real estate developments, building portfolios designed to reduce risk and maximize capital appreciation potential. Ari, thank you so much for making time, minutes. Great to have you here.
Ari Rastegar: [00:01:11] Hey, thanks for having me, man. What’s going on?
K.Lee Marks : [00:01:14] Yes. Yeah. So much, so much. And we’re talking, we were talking a little bit before we started recording about some amazing stuff that you’re working on and how busy it’s been for you. But I wanted to start with. Where you grew up and I know the answer, but for my listeners, maybe you could talk a little bit about Austin and what it was like and how much it’s changed.
Ari Rastegar: [00:01:34] Yeah. And I mean, I’m, I’m born and raised here. I mean, this is, I was born at Seton hospital, you know, in Austin and it, this is, um, this is home. I mean, I, I went to middle school to high school in Dallas with the law school down in San Antonio. Um, With Texas A and M undergrad after two, going to a couple of community colleges.
Um, but growing up in Austin, I mean, this is a hippie music town, right? I mean, this is not the Austin. Of course, you know, we didn’t have much money growing up. We didn’t have much of anything growing up, you know, but watching Austin go from being a. Um, a little sleepy kind of town with a music festival called South by Southwest, where once a year musicians would come and you’re talking, dive bar type, you know, vibes to being the new Silicon Valley.
I mean, so this is a, you know, a transcendent change in Austin is not a city. It’s a town. Right. I mean, so you can’t, you look at Houston or Dallas or New York or San Francisco. Those are major metropolitan cities that were designed to be major, major metropolitan cities. Austin is a town on steroids. Like this was never anticipated that this is what Austin would become.
If that makes sense.
K.Lee Marks : [00:02:54] It totally makes sense. And then you, you phrase that perfectly.
Ari Rastegar: [00:02:58] And so, and so I’m pleasantly surprised at how well it’s been executed and that’s a Testament to the city council people and local governments and the mayor, and even, even the governor and just the way that. They, you know, made zoning very difficult, still producting the trees.
You know, we have more than 200 public parks, which is more than any top 10 city in the United States. Cities built around lakes and Hill country. It’s a beautiful right. You know, but they’ve done it in a way, um, that I’m seeing that community enhancement versus that dirty word gentrification, which nobody really wants to hear.
Is there some areas that are gentrifying absolutely. Are certain people getting priced out of the markets? Yes. Um, but so much of it has been done well, Um, to cater to the growth in a sustainable way. That’s still true to the integrity, um, or the ethos of what’s made Austin, Austin.
K.Lee Marks : [00:03:59] I really appreciate you bringing that up. And I would be curious what your perspective is on, on gentrification in our city, but in, in, in the United States. And what are some things that real estate investors and developers could be considering to be more aware of the populations and communities that that might be priced out by developments?
Ari Rastegar: [00:04:19] How about having compassion? How about having some heart value, you know, Like, this is not just numbers on a spreadsheet. And we said this for years, you know, it’s, um, you know, As you build. And obviously we’re, you know, you know, we have seven properties we’re breaking ground on this year. Right? Most companies don’t break ground on probably one, every three or four years.
We’re had seven this year, we’re building 4,000 homes across the Austin MSA, not milling off, you know, office building 600,000 square feet of industrial next to Tesla. That’s not even scratching the surface. Right? Condos and Phoenix, 1899 McKinney in Dallas. Not to mention our acquisition platform. We’re looking to do about 5 billion in acquisitions over the next 24 months.
Um, you know, and I started this company with a $3,000 loan when I was at law school. You know,
K.Lee Marks : [00:05:13] maybe you could share a little bit about that at some point, just briefly. Interesting.
Ari Rastegar: [00:05:18] Yeah. Um, I was in law school. I’d got a and M I was an English major, you know, I didn’t come from a traditional finance, business background. If you ask me what I do for a living is I manage risk. I manage risk for a living, but in my heart, I’m an artist. You know. And so when we, we have in-house architecture, in-house design in this office. So we are designing these buildings. Yes. We’re bringing in architects and record and other, you know, you know, strategic architecture, design firms, but we’re designing these projects and what we’re doing in Kyle Texas, which is 320 acres and building what we’re calling futuristic, suburban ism, we designed it in house.
Like we built this stuff, you know? And so for me, um, it’s never been about the money, like money and, you know, look, profit creates jobs, profit drives the world forward, you know, and to me, that’s not a, that’s a dirty word, but there’s a way to be conscious about doing that stuff and respecting the past as you build the future.
Okay. And, you know, respecting the land that you’re building on respecting the environment. And if you look at great artists of any generation of any genre, you know, painters, they’re respecting they’re, they’re exemplifying and personifying and creating ways to express the environment that they’re in.
And so you can’t read Charles Dickens and not understand what was going on, you know, in Europe during that time, like properly. You can’t understand. Picasso’s certain areas, whether it’s as blue era cubism, if you’re not understanding the, you know, the sociopolitical issues of Diego Rivera or any of these other great artists, you know, unless you know, what’s happening.
And so, you know, we’re at the, we’re at a moment of precipice and inflection point, whatever word you want to use of the largest transfer of wealth in the history of mankind. When the baby boomers pass along their money to the millennials and the gen Z. And I’m a millennial actually. Um, the core values are different and gen Z think in this Tik TOK, YouTube, Instagram, Facebook era, just to whatever I wrote an article for Forbes the other day about the Instagrammable moment.
Create an experiential, you know, things is, that’s what they want. They changed jobs where we change jobs more frequently than any other generation. And not because, you know, we don’t have the bread it’s because the core values are different, you know, care about community care about carbon footprints, you know, care about community.
And that’s very, very important moving forward. And so gentrification bothers me in a. In a very visceral way in a very deep way. That word bothers me because we have to find a way to end. This is something that the private sector has to solve. This is, you know, we put this stuff on the public sector or the government or whatever, and that’s just the wrong action.
Should there be a healthy dialogue between the two sides? Absolutely. But this is something that the private sector needs to have because the public sector, the government side is way too inefficient, um, to do it, there needs to be dialogue, right? But, you know, but developers needs to find ways to find those solutions, whether it’s relocating people, you know, finding other, you know, cost savings mechanisms going, you know, whether that’s through tax credits, whether, I mean, there’s a whole other way to look at this, but, um, it’s something that we’re very, very sensitive to.
Um, and, um, There’s enough room for everybody, man. There’s enough room for everybody. Yes. You know, and then that’s, and you have to keep that in mind, as you grow that,
K.Lee Marks : [00:09:05] you know, that kind of brings to mind a little bit about what Rastagar has as a, as a. Uh, co co uh, company structure, because you have a lot of your own family working with you. And that’s what I’m hearing is you, you kind of see your community, you, you have this larger family and you’re doing things in the Austin area with those deeper values. So maybe you could talk a little bit about how-
Ari Rastegar: [00:09:29] this is my home. This is my home. You know, this is my home. I mean, you know, and. You know, we’ve always treated this as, as, as a family, you know, and whether actual direct family members involved in part, certain facets of the business.
Absolutely. I have a family member in basically every vertical of this business, you know, which is great, you know, but they’re here on the merits, you know, they’re not here because it’s, you know, it’s just family and it’s nepotism. They’re all. Smart extremely capable and I’d hire them. They were my family, if that makes sense.
Right? Like, so you have to make it on the merit. So they all know that. And they know if you don’t, if you don’t cut it, you ain’t going to work here. I don’t care. You know? Who you are related that doesn’t, you know, and that doesn’t create the right culture either. You know, you don’t want to show nepotism and culture.
Anyway, we have a beautiful corporate culture. Everybody that works here is here because they want to be here. Um, they’re excited. They have their own lanes. They have the, they have the ability to grow. And I always tell everybody to buy like, um, kind of like middle management, you’re all future CEOs. And if you don’t become CEOs, whether it’s under our, you know, global umbrella or in your own realm, I failed.
K.Lee Marks : [00:10:40] Will you talk to me about scaling? Will you talk to me about how you, how you can save of growing a company?
Ari Rastegar: [00:10:47] Um, growing a company is about the three PS people process, right. You know, more, more than anything. So they call it a three-piece that’s the thing, whatever. But, but ultimately, you know, People to me is the crux.
I, I focus more on the human element than any that anything else? Okay. That is the whole thing for me. And if the team and the people are not cohesive, don’t share core values. Don’t have a tribal sense. It’s not going to work. In the way that I needed to work. And remember, I’m an artist, I’m an English major.
I’m a lawyer, I’m an attorney by trade, right? These, this is a law. I come from that liberal arts background. I’ve always been one of two, the math in my head, anybody that knows me, knows that I can do the math in my head. That’s fine. We got way smarter analysts and stuff. They can do do the math. This is to me about that vision standpoint of what that means, but it’s all about.
You know, we joke, like we have a ton of athletes and celebrities and invest with us, but our investors, as you know, are mostly public pension funds, family offices, insurance companies, you name it. That’s the bulk of our money. We’re highly institutional, but we also have some of the biggest entertainers on earth that invest with us, literally like literally, and I won’t say their names out of respect, but if I named three of them, They have number one hits right now on the billboard charts, top 10 on the top 10 charts, right at this exact moment, multiple of them.
Right. And so when I sit and have those conversations, we share core values. We see the world same way, and I, and we need people that, that, that wants to move the world forward. They want to find ways to enhance community and the way that you scale. Is bringing in those types of people, um, that share your same vision that shared a unified vision because I’m not looking to be an MVP dude.
I’m a regular guy, man. You know, I’m right now. I have my, you know, I have my Yeezys on, you know, here on the thing where my rest, the guard thing, you know, like I’m a regular dude. I don’t got a Rolex on or, you know, I don’t drive Ferrari’s I don’t, I do this because I love it. Like I do this because I love the process.
I love the, um, I love the street, just being involved in what that’s going to, you know, the, the entire thing soup to nuts and, and it’s all about having the right people. It just it’s just, so, and that goes down to industrial relations. How you talk to your investors, how they feel about you, um, the people that live in your apartment buildings, the tenants that live in your, like, those are people.
And that’s the difference between our ethos than a lot of other investment companies per se, is that we’re people driven.
K.Lee Marks : [00:13:41] Yeah. And you can feel that when you, when I walked into your office for the first time, just to feel that warmth, um, the warmth of your community, that you’ve built and getting to meet some of the people in your company, it’s clear that, that that’s a value that you have there.
And, you know, so you’re also a father and I was talking to
Ari Rastegar: [00:13:59] A father of three,
K.Lee Marks : [00:14:01] you’re a father of three, what to speak of being. A leader in your company and, and in the Austin area. So I’m curious because you’re, you’re definitely forward thinking and you you’re innovating. How do you see this next generation? Like what advice, what tips, what guidance do you try and impart on them as they’re coming up in this bizarre, very new, environment?
Ari Rastegar: [00:14:25] well, look, I first, I want to say I’m highly optimistic about the future and that’s based on data.
So my book comes out in June called the gift of failure. Okay. So I would, you know, so I hand a lot of this stuff down and ripped my soul out, really wrote down the worst things that ever happened to me and, you know, tools and mechanisms that I’ve used to help do that you won’t really hear about anything of the success that we’ve had per se.
It’s about the, you know, those blistering haunting failures and bringing that vulnerability to light. But, you know, I’ve been very reluctant to give advice at this point in my life, because my only advice is listening to your inner voice. Like we all have something truly, and I don’t mean that in a cheesy way.
Like you have a voice, whether it’s been silenced, whether you’ve tried to shut it down. When do you listen to other people? Like, I want this generation to listen to themselves, listen to your voice and be like, Nike. Just do it, just go do it, just go do it. And you know, if you, if you know the what and the why, like what you want to do and why you’re doing it, and the why is comprised of contribution and growth.
For your end user consumer, whatever that is like, you’re actually creating some sort of convenience or you’re creating a better mousetrap or whatever it is you’re doing. And in your, why is not egocentric it’s consumer base, it’s taking that Bezos Amazonian approach of being obsessed with your consumer, because that’s really what he did, right.
Like up until about a year ago, he still took customer service calls once a month. Like he would spend a whole day. And really like, if you’re returning your freaking mouse for $4, he was on the phone. He wanted to hear firsthand. And that was part of his genius was understanding his consumer and in Michael did it very well, you know, passed away recently to CEO’s appose.
Um, I mean, Tony, I mean, Tony Shay, you know, he, he did it really well. And it’s really why Amazon bought Zappos was being under understanding corporate culture. Um, you know, but just go do it, man. We need thinkers like this generation. They, they, they have hearts, they have minds. We have more startups right now than we’ve ever had in the history of mankind.
And we need innovation. We have, we have not innovated since, since world war II. And we had to add a necessity. Tony Robbins says, you know, when you change, you change for one of two reasons, inspiration or desperation. And we are at a place where there’s a lot of desperation. That’s why this vaccine came out so quickly, the world United to put that together.
This is the fastest made vaccine ever. And actually, you know, look, I don’t want to give it to any of the politics or any of that stuff of why to do it or not do it or any of that stuff. But I’m saying they did it. Right. And the world United to do it. Several companies, big companies that are major competitors information for the world’s benefit, whether you take it or you don’t or whatever your opinions are, that’s none of my business, but that’s innovation.
And so I want, I want you to listen to your inner voice and I want you to go do it and forget about how like people are way too bogus on how am I going to do that? That’s none of your business. What and why, what are you going to do? Why are you going to do it? And just go, yeah, just go. Like wherever you are.
Like wherever you’re flipping. I was worked at Johnny rockets in high school, bro, flipping burgers and delivered pizzas in high school,
but I knew what I wanted to do and why. And my, why was not about me?
K.Lee Marks : [00:18:32] Outside of ourself
Ari Rastegar: [00:18:33] and it pulls you. Why pulls you? Why pulls you to something?
K.Lee Marks : [00:18:40] So why is it the purpose? Right. And do you feel that if the purpose, if we’re truly listening to our inner voice and we truly honor purpose that the profit will come?
Ari Rastegar: [00:18:49] It’s authenticity? Absolutely. Well, yes, if you’re on your purpose, the profit, the profit is a by-product of creating value. You have to create value, and if you’re on your purpose and you’re authentic, And it’s congruent. That’s the thing. You have to have congruency of what your talents are. You need to know what you are.
Like. I tell people all the time it’s in the book,I say I know all my demons by their first name.
K.Lee Marks : [00:19:16] Well, let’s go into this for a second, because this is your, you’re a really valuable resource on this. you’ve done a lot in your life. And, right now I believe that we need more male role models. We need more men talking about that, you know, the demons that we need to name. And so, like, what is the role of masculinity for you moving into this next? era that we’re in?
Ari Rastegar: [00:19:38] You know look this is a different age, right. You know, we’re in a stage of evolution and, you know, look, I’m half Iranian, half German, we have a highly diverse team of all, you know, different races, religions, which I’m very, very proud of, you know, and this is an age of womanism.
You know, this is an age of where people can choose whatever pronouns they want. To express themselves. And to me that’s beautiful. I mean I want expression. I want authenticity. That is what I’m after. I don’t, I have no judgment on the content of what you were producing. If it’s authentic and congruent to who you are be, you, that’s what I want to see.
And that’s the, only advice that I would give my younger self is that I wish I listened. To myself earlier, not in a narcissistic way, but in a, loving way to myself of saying, no, I’m good enough. Like my thoughts come from a place that are, you know, they’re mine and they’re good and they’re okay.
And I’m gonna fail along the way. And I might screw up, but I want to listen to my inner voice versus trying to fit in with this crowd or fit in with that crowd and wear this hat, because everybody’s wearing whatever and like, Like I w I wish I could go back to myself and say, Hey, it’s cool. If you like that.
T-shirt and these people don’t like, do you.
K.Lee Marks : [00:21:11] Yeah,
Ari Rastegar: [00:21:11] Be you
K.Lee Marks : [00:21:13] It’s like the most important thing is our self-talk. As I get older, I realize how detrimental it is. Inner dialogue,
Ari Rastegar: [00:21:19] I’ve worked with my life coach Lauren Zander. Who’s a genius for 12 years about this. And so I track my inner dialogue and write it down. And I have this, these moments where I have my higher self speak to my, to that negative dialogue and tell it to shut the fuck up.
Literally like breaking the pattern, like finding yourself in that negative loop that we all do. It’s the human condition. And being able to have a moment to say you shut up, this is what we’re doing.
K.Lee Marks : [00:21:53] Yep.
Yep. So this is the first time I ever saw your. Your Mark, the Mark behind you was on a, you have these billboards around town at the properties. Maybe some of the properties are just lots at this point, and it has a Pablo Picasso quote on it. And I was hoping that you could share, uh, you know, w where as we wind down here, I was hoping that you could share, uh, sort of the, the, the reasoning behind how that came about. So everything you can imagine is real.
And I think that’s such a powerful quote. So like, why did you choose that for your, for your brand message and what does it mean to you?
Ari Rastegar: [00:22:30] What would it mean? It means something highly visceral. Um, you know, it’s, it’s, it’s an emotional things. If you look at a lot that we’re developing, you know, everything you can imagine is real.
And I want people to see that and for their own their themselves, like I put it there. For myself and for the firm to think about whatever thoughts that they have, whatever their imaginations are. Thoughts are things like how we think about things, our mindset. Um, I don’t want to go down the rabbit hole of personal development and those things, which I’m a freak about.
Like whether it’s seven habits of highly effective people, Tony Robbins, Dale, Carnegie, you name it. That I’m a, I’m a nerd in that, in that world. Gold setting vision boards. I believe in all of that. All of that stuff, put it down, write it down, set a goal. Because if you don’t know where you’re going, you’re never going to get there.
It’s a GPS system, right? If you don’t type in the right address into Apple maps or ways or whatever it is, you’re not getting there and the best car, the best tires, whatever you want, you don’t have the right address. You’re never getting there. And so we made the, everything you can imagine as real sign, the biggest one we’ve ever made on East eighth.
Directly in front of one of the largest homeless shelter, like homeless camps in Austin. And if you stand under that bridge and you look up, you have hundreds of homeless people generally like that word either. Cause it’s really not homeless. It’s actually houseless. Homeless is, is the wrong word actually.
Um, that’s another discussion, but I wanted them to see that.
K.Lee Marks : [00:24:10] Yeah, that’s really powerful. It’s really powerful.
Ari Rastegar: [00:24:13] It’s and, and that’s, that was for the people that are passing by is not for them to imagine what I’m going to do. That’s something that I’m thinking in my mind, what we could imagine of this place.
And we look at old buildings, we always say, how can we re-imagine this place not renovate it. We want to re-imagine the space.
K.Lee Marks : [00:24:34] I get your artist coming through with this, right?
Ari Rastegar: [00:24:36] Yeah, but that’s Einstein, Einstein says imagination, you know, is the future of what your life. I mean, he’s very clear that imagination is more important than strategy.
I mean, he makes the, you’re talking to a scientist a physicist, talking about imagination, being the most important element of anything. Like he, when he, when he really understood the theory of relativity, he talks about how he imagined himself on the front of a light beam, moving at the speed of light and put that in his head to figure out relativity.
And so I wanted all of our Passerbuys to have that question the back of their mind, if they had the thing of what they could imagine themselves to be, or they want to be in their own world and their own authenticity and their own congruency, to be real and do it.
K.Lee Marks : [00:25:30] Yeah. Yeah. It’s a huge point that,to not just get stuck in our head, waiting to make things perfect to do it.
Ari Rastegar: [00:25:37] You’re in your head, your dead bro, you’re in your head, your’re dead Perfect is not of this world. You’ll after excellence. Get away from perfect. Perfect is bullshit. Excellence and excellence is a habit.
K.Lee Marks : [00:25:48] So, you know, I want to be really respectful of your time here. I know we got to go soon, but I’d love to just ask you a couple of rapid fire questions. The first is what is one book that you want all the viewers to read? Awesome
Ari Rastegar: [00:26:00] thinking grow rich by Napoleon Hill. You haven’t read it. You can literally buy it for free on Amazon used and just pay the shipping, which is $3. Read it, study it. Thank me later.
K.Lee Marks : [00:26:14] Awesome. Awesome. And please name your book. That’s coming out.
Ari Rastegar: [00:26:17] The name of my book is called the gift of failure and it’ll be out in June.
K.Lee Marks : [00:26:22] Awesome. We’ll put links in the show notes and then one podcast that you enjoy listening to that you’d like the world to tune into as well.
Ari Rastegar: [00:26:30] Man, you know, not to be, not to be cliche. I like Joe Rogan. I liked Joe. I mean, I liked Joe and I liked him.
He’s here in Austin and he’s, he’s weird, you know, and I like Tim Ferriss too. Yeah. You know, I liked Tim. Um, you know, again, I don’t agree with all the content, but the reason I like Joe. Is just, cause he’s not scared to bring in just weird people. And I like weird, obscure, different thinking, different vantage points, strange points of view.
I mean, I use those words, you know, in a loving way, not in a condescending way, like, you know, talking about from aliens to this, to that, to like, and I just like to be exposed to different, cause I’m a curious person by nature. And so I’ll listen to though, you know, listen to Joe. Just to see what kind of bizarre perspective is going to be there today.
And I’m not going to listen. I don’t listen to the whole things ever. Like I’ll just jump in, listen to for 10 or 15 minutes here. A couple of things mine for the Juul is, and then, you know, and, and jump I’m a reader. I’m not, I’m not really a podcaster as much. Like I’m a reader. I’ve always been a reader. I like.
Books,I don’t read on Kindles. I like the dog ear pages and underline, maybe it’s the old school in me and lawyer English major, but I like books. So I’m more like that’s my, also my, my learning language. And that’s part about that authenticity. Some people are more auditory. Some people are more visual.
Some people are a combination of both, and I know how I learn best and absorb information and auditorily. Although I’m a music head when I’m like, I need.
K.Lee Marks : [00:28:07] Yeah. Yeah, that makes sense. And you know, so I, I love the book recommendation, love Joe Rogan love the clips that he puts out. What would you do this last phase?
Excuse me, this last phase of the, of the interview of the episode. I always ask people, I have a motto, which is amplify what you love. Excuse me, which is amplify, what you love. And so this is a moment and a space for you to amplify what you love Ari. And this is just open air for you to broadcast, whatever it is that you would like for the, for the listeners and whoever listens to this in the future.
Ari Rastegar: [00:28:40] This is all for my kids, man. It’s all for my kids and for my, for, you know, for my family. And that goes for my extended family. That goes for. You know, my, my staff are like my, my global family. That’s what I love. And that’s what I want to amplify. That’s what I care about. I mean, right here sitting next to my podcast right here is a picture of him,
K.Lee Marks : [00:29:06] Yeah, love it! lovely family.
Ari Rastegar: [00:29:07] You know, and like in that family, like I said, like the people that work here, the people, whatever, like I want, I want the best for it. I want the, I want a better world for them. And that’s why I get up every day. You know, if I wanted to retire and just sell the portfolio today, I think I’d be okay. Yeah.
K.Lee Marks : [00:29:23] Yeah. You, you you’re, you’re choosing to continue on do this hard work
Ari Rastegar: [00:29:27] I’m choosing to continue on because it’s not about me. Yeah. Like I, if I wanted to walk away now today and by most people’s standards, I think I’d be okay. And I think you’re pretty aware of that. You, you know, you know, we own, you know, we have, um, but that’s not what it’s about for me. I’m not a money worshiper.
K.Lee Marks : [00:29:44] And the so interesting, right? How, how it, how it can work out when you’re not trying
Ari Rastegar: [00:29:48] this is a mission, we’re on a mission. We have a why we have a, why we have a purpose. Um, and, and we’ll get it done because it’s not about us. We want the right answer. You know, I don’t need to be right.
I want to be around believable people. I want the right answer. I don’t want to be the MVP. Like I’m not trying to just get the MVP award. I want rings. Or championships.
K.Lee Marks : [00:30:14] Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I’m hearing collaboration loud and clear in the, in the crux of that..
Ari Rastegar: [00:30:19] Collaboration, I need unity. I need diversity. I need harmony. Yeah. That’s what I need.
And if I have, and I need peace, I need peace. You know, and I’ve chose peace. I’m an attorney, right? My dad’s at my dad’s a litigator. Like it’s like the Mr. Miyagi. It’s not saying that he’s not going to kick your ass, but I’ll walk away from that. It’s not saying that I can’t fight. That makes sense? That’s the ethos of what we’re talking about.
No matter what we’re doing and trust me real estate is just the beginning.
K.Lee Marks : [00:30:54] Yeah, so this, this is a space. Everyone. I encourage you to go follow Ari, follow the @rastegar Instagram, they’re posting amazing content, amazing things all the time. They’re doing amazing things here in Austin and check out the book.
I’ll put all this info in the show notes and Ari I’m so grateful for your time. Thank you for coming on and sharing some gems with my audience..
Ari Rastegar: [00:31:13] Yeah, we’ll be in touch, man. And I really appreciate you having me. And, uh, we’ll be in good touch and, um, We’ll do it again.
K.Lee Marks : [00:31:20] Yeah. Sounds good. Everything you can imagine is real. Let’s do it.
Ari Rastegar: [00:31:23] Everything you can imagine really is really is real man. And if they don’t take anything away from that, other than anything, it just, I know that voice is in the back of your head of anybody that’s listening to this. Any person that hears this, whether it’s six people, two people or 10 million people, there is a voice in the back of your head.
You know, Jack Welch used to say, and I’ll leave you with this. Like, he’d walk around Jack Welch. He was a visionary of management. Some of the younger people might not know he’s the chairman and CEO of GE. A hero of mine. Um, he’d always ask what business am I in? What business should I be in? And whether that’s like, what job do I work at?
What job should I work at? Or what I want to what’s my dream. And my only hope is that you listened to that voice and you just go. Just go.
K.Lee Marks : [00:32:13] Snaps for you Ari King Ari. It was great to have you man. And, uh, we will be in touch. Thank you for sharing and have a beautiful, blessed rest of your day and you know, saludos to your family.
Ari Rastegar: [00:32:25] All right, bro. Take care.
