When Sharran Srivatsaa moved to the US as a young person, he most likely by no means imagined that he would someday lead a multi-million greenback firm. He was, in spite of everything, informed repeatedly that his thick Indian accent made him unemployable. To make ends meet as a younger scholar, he labored as a janitor.
Srivatsaa, at present the CEO of Acquisition.com, recounted how he overcame the problem of a “thick accent” and located success in the US.
“He had such a thick accent”
A video of Acquisition.com founder Alex Hormozi talking with American motivational speaker Tony Robbins prompted Sharran Srivatsaa to recall his early days within the US.
In the course of the course of the dialog, Hormozi revealed that the CEO of his firm, Sharran Srivatsaa, labored as a janitor when he got here to the US from India twenty years in the past. Srivatsaa improved his accent by listening to Tony Robbins’ tapes, Hormozi mentioned.
“There was an Indian man who got here right here to the US 20-something years in the past and he was working as a janitor. And he had such a thick accent that they mentioned, ‘you’ll by no means get employed wherever, it’s a must to discover ways to communicate.’
“And he tried to get ‘The best way to Get Rid of An Indian Accent’ tapes and people did not actually exist,” mentioned Hormozi. As an alternative, Srivatsaa was informed he may try Tony Robbins tapes.
“And so, he is mopping the flooring and he is doing it. And that man then began a software program firm, scaled that, offered it, began one other firm, offered that for 3.4 billion. And I met him proper round that point and he is my accomplice at Acquisition.com,” mentioned the founding father of Acquisition.com.
“I got here to the US with a thick Indian accent”
Sharran Srivatsaa himself vouched for the authenticity of this story as he responded to the video on X.
“I am the Indian man Alex Hormozi and Tony Robbins are speaking about. I got here to the US with a thick Indian accent and was informed I would by no means get employed wherever if I couldn’t discover ways to communicate,” he wrote.
In an earlier LinkedIn publish, Srivatsaa had revealed that he got here to the US in 1997 as a freshman and labored as a janitor to assist himself.
“Freshman yr of school I had simply arrived from India with a brilliant thick accent. I used to be working as a custodian, scrubbing flooring and cleansing bogs to pay my manner by means of faculty. The pinnacle custodian informed me to get English tapes from the library to enhance my accent. They did not have any. The librarian handed me Tony Robbins’ “Private Energy” as a substitute,” he had recalled.
“I taught myself how you can communicate correctly”
In his current X publish, the Indian-American CEO mentioned he taught himself to talk correctly by listening to the tapes, and referred to as it a lesson in dedication.
“I checked out Tony Robbins tapes from the general public library and listened to them each evening as I mopped flooring,” Sharran Srivatsaa mentioned as he suggested his followers to by no means surrender.
“That is why I reside by the saying that not giving up is probably the most heroic factor you are able to do. I may’ve listened to the employers and stayed as a janitor. However your place to begin will not be your story… it is simply the primary chapter of it,” he suggested.
(Additionally learn: A take a look at 9 Indian-origin CEOs of world corporations)
Sharran Srivatsaa’s rise and rise
Born in India, Srivatsaa moved to the US as a young person to pursue his schooling.
After finishing his schooling, Srivatsaa constructed a profession in finance. He earned a bachelor’s diploma in Pc Science from Luther School and later accomplished an MBA with honours from Vanderbilt College.
He labored as a banker at Goldman Sachs and Credit score Suisse earlier than transferring into entrepreneurship.
In 2011, Srivatsaa left Wall Road and took over as president of Teles Properties, a Beverly Hills-based luxurious actual property firm. When he joined, the corporate was already producing a whole lot of tens of millions of {dollars} in gross sales however was not rising as anticipated. Over 5 years, he helped scale the corporate considerably, rising its gross sales quantity and ultimately serving to it attain a valuation of round $3.4 billion earlier than it was acquired by Douglas Elliman.
After Teles Properties, Srivatsaa grew to become concerned in the actual property expertise and funding house. He was president of Actual Brokerage, the place he helped construct the corporate into one of many fastest-growing publicly traded actual property brokerages.
He later moved into investing and enterprise teaching. He serves as Chairman of Highland Prime, which invests in service-based companies, and is concerned with ARC Multifamily Group, centered on multifamily actual property investments. He has additionally labored as a enterprise capitalist and advisor to entrepreneurs.
Immediately, Srivatsaa is the CEO of Acquisition.com. He’s additionally a TEDx speaker, podcast host, entrepreneur, investor and enterprise coach.
