I am very honored and proud to announce today’s guest who not by accident holds the same last name as myself. He happens to be my dear cousin and someone I admire for not only what he achieved in the past 20 years, but more importantly, how he has achieved it.

Whenever we look at successful people, we tend to see and judge them by what they have achieved and who they have become. What no one ever talks about is, how they achieved their success. The struggles and adversities they had to overcome. The painful sacrifices they had to make. Sometimes, you can’t make a rational decision and have to follow your intuition and simply trust the process and have faith in your abilities.

Hamid is the perfect example of how his passion and perseverance to achieve his long-term goals, also called “grit”, led him to his success today at the very young age of 45 years. The best part is that this is just the beginning of his career.

In this podcast interview with me, he gives us an up-close and personal view into his life leading to his success today. Many times facing almost impossible hurdles and hitting brick walls right after a successful run, losing it all, and starting up from scratch. It’s not how you fall, it’s about how you get up and make a comeback! To me, that’s simply “grit”. It’s not having a plan B and not taking failure as an option. What is most inspiring to me is that he did all of it his way. When he went to college his parents expected him to become a doctor, a stereotype exception and almost demand of parents of certain cultures. Anything less, would not be acceptable or “good enough”. Despite all the pressure of his parent's expectations, Hamid chose to follow his own passion, which was finance and business. Knowing that he was now on his own, while in college, he started his entrepreneurial journey by selling vacuum cleaners door to door and soon enough realized that he is a natural salesman and was making thousands of dollars a month in only a very short period of time. To him, it was this very experience that gave him the self-confidence to continue his personal path to success.

Today, Hamid Hamrah is the Senior Vice President of the Midwest Region with New American Funding which is one of the largest privately-owned direct mortgage lending companies in the nation.

As the Senior VP of 21 offices, Hamid's region has out originated several other mortgage companies in MO, IL, KS, IA, IN, AR, NE, OH, and OK. From starting out closing around a 40million dollars of business when he started, last year he surpassed 1.6 billion dollars in only his 3rd ear with the company. After starting his first branch with only 2 people, Hamid now has a staff of over 180 employees.

Like all of his success wasn’t already enough, and when many others would now relax and rest on their laurels, last year his entrepreneurial aspirations and a strong sense of business opportunity led him to venture out and starting up his cannabis business named “Root66” in St. Lois, MO area and is now opening up his third store in Missouri already.

So for all of you who think success comes easy and has to do with luck, please listen to his story, and maybe you will have a better appreciation of what it takes to rise to the top. What I can tell you though is, it sure doesn’t happen overnight!

Tweet me @realdrhamrah