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All right, welcome back to the podcast, everybody.

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On this episode, we have Danijel Velicki.

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Daniel is a Croatian entrepreneur who moved to the U.S.

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where he created and runs a successful company to help people achieve financial wellness.

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In this episode, we're going to hear some stories about life in Zagreb during the war,

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why he left and how he beat the odds and started a successful business in the U.S.

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Daniel, thanks for coming on the podcast.

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Hey, man. Thank you very much.

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Yeah, it's a pleasure to have you on.

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You know, I read that you you left Growy Show with 40 bucks in your pocket and a Walkman.

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That's a that's a little dated nowadays, but I definitely want to talk about that.

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But before we get there, you know, can you tell us a little bit about before you left,

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you know, what was sort of growing up like for you in Zagreb?

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Yeah. So and I really I got to tell you, man, I watched all your podcasts and,

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you know, the people that you had on here, I was like, I'm pretty honored to be here.

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And this is pretty great.

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Oh, yeah, definitely. It's some amazing people.

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Oh, this is this is fantastic.

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Yeah. I mean, I, you know, I was born in 77, so I'm 45.

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And obviously, I think I live like in the best years of Zagreb,

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which were, you know, the 80s and 90s.

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And, you know, we had awesome time.

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We had cool shit. We had best.

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We had all the all the best places to go.

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And things were pretty great.

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My dad was an auto electrician.

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My mom worked in consume.

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She kind of managed a couple of stores and stuff.

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So, you know, she came from from the village outside of Zagreb in Dubrava.

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So, you know, most of the summers I would be in my grandparents place

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with no running water, just a well and cows and pigs and all that.

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And a lot of soccer every day with the guys.

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And and then, you know, I went to I'm pretty much from like the center center of Zagreb.

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It takes me seven minutes walking from my apartment to the main square

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right in Blaschka.

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So, you know, I went to elementary school there and it was awesome.

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You know, we played handball and soccer and all the things.

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And then got into the the high school for tourism health management,

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which was kind of like the one of the top schools, obviously,

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because Croatia is awesome and tourism wise.

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And then, yeah, I got an opportunity to do a foreign exchange program.

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And that's when I went to the U.S.

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So that's kind of like the little the little time.

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You know, I was 18 when I left Croatia, so I lived for a bit of time, obviously.

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And Zagreb was part of Medecan for a couple of years with Sayan Bangura

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and Hamid and all those guys.

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And that was a that was a blast.

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So I had an interesting, interesting Zagreb life.

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It was it was pretty great.

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Well, I mean, you know, having such a life like that.

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And then, you know, going into 91, of course, with the war

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and everything happening there, was that something that sort of

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you know, jumpstarted your interest into going to the U.S.?

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Did you always plan on, you know, visiting or going to the U.S.?

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You know, it's funny and it's an interesting story.

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I didn't know.

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I didn't know I was going to obviously end up here, but

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I always did really great in in school.

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Me and my best friend, Sylvia, we would compete for grades and stuff,

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and we both spoke really good English.

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And like he was kind of like the guy that always pushed me to like beat him.

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And he would beat me. And it was it was pretty awesome having him as the best friend.

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And he's an attorney now in Zagreb, and he went to school in London.

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But I don't know, since I was a kid.

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In the village that I would go and spend time with my my grandparents every summer,

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there was another couple of families that had also grandkids, but they were from Australia.

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And when I was little, like seven, eight, nine, ten years old, we spent summers

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and I would tell them to speak to me in English.

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Because one day I would be in America when I was like seven.

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Like for some reason, it was always this thing that I wanted to do.

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And, you know, when I got married and my wife got to go back with me, you know, she's American.

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And we got to go back.

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She got to meet the girls, the Julie and Susie, they were friends.

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And they told her they were like, you know, that, you know, when we were little,

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like he would tell us to speak in English is because he was going to be in America one day.

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And somehow it happened, which is crazy.

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But I guess I always thought I was going to end up here for some reason.

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So, you know, whenever the opportunity came, I guess it just jumped on it.

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Were you like seeing things on TV and the media about the U.S. or how did you know?

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I know, but, you know, I never even I never thought about, you know, how it is back home.

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Right. It's a lot about connections and, you know, people that you know and stuff.

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And, you know, we were we were lower to middle class.

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You know, we didn't really have that much connection to things.

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You know, I was studied hard, so I got into a good school and everything.

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But when the war started in 91, you know, that was obviously tough.

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Right. Living through that when I was 14, 15, 16, you know, going to school.

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And I remember, you know, my mom worked in Savitsa, this one little park.

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And like there were snipers that, you know, she had to run.

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To work between cars and stuff like that was just reality.

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But a year before I even thought about the foreign exchange program, I had friends,

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two people that did it for an exchange student, one ended up in Maine and I think one ended up in Michigan and did it a year.

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And we, you know, before email and all that stuff, we wrote letters.

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It was the old school way of communication, but they just had a great experience.

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And that was the first time that I actually thought this was possible.

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And, you know, I talked to my parents and I was like, hey, there's this, you know, two friends from my friend group are in foreign exchange in America,

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and they're having a great experience and time and everything else.

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So that's whenever we looked into it. I think I was sophomore in high school, so second year.

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And then, yeah, we contacted the organization, the agency that was doing that, and we applied.

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And I know it was a good bit of money for us, you know, back in, that was like middle of the war, you know, I think, 94, whenever we applied, I ended up going to 95.

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Right at the, it was funny because that wasn't funny, but the war ended when I woke up.

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August 5th was kind of good, the signing everything, my birthday, August 6th, I woke up and all the Croatian, like, great songs, you know, patriotic songs were playing and it was the kind of the end of the war.

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My birthday, which I was like, yay. And then August 11th, I was on a plane to America, like right after the war was over.

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So I was like, lived through all that stuff and then then went to one year in high school here.

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Huh, was it a.

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I mean, obviously you had to get into the program and stuff and you were waiting so that day was already set to leave on the 11th.

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Yeah, yeah, just, you know, I had to buy tickets and stuff, talk to the organization, talk to the host parents and everything and and then just kind of everything was done all the paperwork is done and I came and to little, little town in West Virginia, which was

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a blessing in disguise. It wasn't, it was nothing that I ever saw on TV. Let's just put it that way. It was like a little, little tiny place and I was like, you know, I lived in Zagreb and we went to all over the place and I was like,

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I lived in Zagreb and we went to all over the place and we went out to you know 56 o'clock in the morning, and then you go into this tiny little town in West Virginia I was like 3000 people like nothing, you know, it was just like, dude, it was such a huge culture shock

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it was crazy. That's not what you expected when you thought you were going to the US.

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You know, there's Schwarzenegger there, you know, cool people in California or Florida or whatever so yeah of course it wasn't what I expected. But was it hard for you at first.

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Yes, extremely man it was, and it was, again, like, it was such a crazy experience I landed in Pittsburgh and this family picks me up and they were just, you know, interesting people.

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I fall asleep in a car and I wake up, and there's this, if you know what a double wide or single wide is in America, it's like pretty much on wheels, and it's like tiny little built, not even built thing.

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And it's just was different man I mean you know, I woke up in the morning and I called my parents I called the organization I called my host family like everybody I was like, I want to go home, like this is awful I want to go home like I had.

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I think I cried the first, you know, first day man it was it was awful but then things happen I got to meet some people and decided that I was going to stay, and it turned out to be really a blessing disguise because there was a thing that happened that

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allowed me to stay here and get a job and all kinds of stuff otherwise I'm not sure that that would have happened anywhere else.

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Oh yeah what exactly happened if you don't mind going into.

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Yeah, absolutely that's that's the reason I'm here and that's. So I, you know, I did foreign exchange so I did senior year in high school and in order to, you know, most foreign exchange students they have to come back and finish school in Croatia to get a real

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American diploma because we don't get enough credits in America to get a real American diploma. So, because of the high school that I went to we had a whole bunch of English and German and you know, French and everything but then I also trend sent transcripts

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of grades in 17th grade because we had biology we had chemistry we have physics like their high school level we were learning in 17th grade so I get, I got credit for that. So I had to take extra English class and American history, and I got a real American diploma.

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And I got all the credits I had enough to graduate which I was the only one out of 14 foreign exchange students that were in a program in our high school. So then I took my ACTs SATs did really well and applied for colleges

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and got in got accepted to multiple schools, because of the grades that I had in Croatia and then how I did here. But of course I didn't have any money, you know, my parents were Croatian auto mechanic auto electrician and a retail worker.

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So I walked to a restaurant that that it was the best Italian restaurant in all of pretty much West Virginia, it was about 10 minutes south from Morgantown which is WVU West Virginia University. And I walked in and I asked for the owner and I wonder was rock or Muriel,

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his dad came from Italy on a boat and started this little tiny restaurant. And I said hey Mr Rocco, you know you don't know me I'm from Croatia my name is Daniel we just finished the war.

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And he was like, all right, so I went to his office and I said listen, you know, I want to stay in America. I don't have any money.

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I don't have a green card, I don't work permit, I don't have anything.

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But I'm the hardest worker you'll ever meet. And here's all my transcripts here's my acceptance letters to family and state university to WVU to a couple other schools.

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And I would love for you to consider to give me a job under the table. I'll cook clean weight, like, do whatever you need me to do for as many hours you need me to, and pay for my school, and I'll pay you back with the work that I do and whatever

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cash I make.

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And the guy looked at me and said, Okay.

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That's just

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just the fact that somebody would do that for somebody.

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That always gets me man because, you know, he didn't have to do that, and he gave me the job did all the paperwork and everything, and

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I worked for him for four and a half years, 60 plus hours a week, every summer and everybody went back home I went one time when my grandpa grandpa passed away, and graduated with double major with zero debt paid everything in cash every summer that he paid for school.

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And I was there with my family and my wife there, and it was just, you know, I'm not sure that anywhere else that would have happened. So like I owe my life to that guy to that man, it's been, you know, it's.

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That was, that was the reason I'm here.

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Yeah, it sounds like that was really you know the catalyst for everything else.

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I wouldn't have been able to I don't think I would have been able to stay. And, you know, the hardest thing that happened.

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I mean, everybody has kind of like a point in their life where they wonder like what what kind of decision they made and whatever it was but I went back home that summer. And since I was little, my parents always said hey, you got to get out of here, you know, post, again, post war economy all that stuff.

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I actually thought about going to Vienna University.

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They have an American program there.

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And I came home and I said mom dad, I did it like they told me like figure out a way to stay and I was like, I figured out freaking, you know, one in a million way to stay in America and somebody's paying for my school and I got a place and all this stuff.

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And I came back and I said, we missed you wouldn't want you to go we want you to stay in Croatia.

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And it was, man, it was the hardest thing I, I didn't know what to say I had a friend that lived in Vienna in Austria, I went to visit her for three days, walked around the streets of Vienna by myself and just thought about like what to do when I came back to Zagreb.

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And I told my parents I was like, I love you guys but I can't, I can't live with what if, like, what if I go what if I do something what if you know, I wouldn't forgive myself.

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So, I told them that I had to go. So I did.

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It was tough, as you know how I mean you know how our families are right like we are extremely tight, everybody's close we, we, you know, so it was a hard thing to say, really was, but I, you know, it just I think it was the right thing for me.

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Well yeah I want to talk about, you know what developed from that and you know the business that you started which is Squire. But before you know I asked about that I just want to bring up, you know, when you were talking about.

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That's a very old school way you know to go up and ask for a job, you know, kids don't do that, people don't do that so much anymore. One term that sort of came to, came to my mind.

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As you were talking about that is immigrant mentality, because I know about you know Croatian American fighter, that's where I first heard the term.

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You know he's got that immigrant mentality they said and that's sort of what came to mind when you were talking about, you know how you asked for the job working 60 hour weeks, you know, paying your own way things like that.

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Yeah. Yeah, my wife and I ended up living together our last year in school and, you know, she can attest to, like, I would work five days a week.

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I took 25 and 26 hours of college credits, which is a boatload my last two semesters. And, like, I would work till 3 o'clock in the morning on papers and everything and then wake up and go to class at 8 and all day and then go to work until midnight

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because I have to close and then back to school. And it was just, you know, there was no other options and I wasn't going to quit. I mean, that's not an option ever.

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And that really kind of transported into my grownup life because, you know, I just I never ever quit.

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You know, measure of a man or a woman is what it takes to stop it. And I still haven't found something that stops me.

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So, you know, when I I'm a big believer, I read a book about a lot and I'm a big believer in mentorship and coaching and everything.

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And when I was coming to America, I had this limited little card that I had made and I read Nietzsche and one of the things that stuck with me was the saying of he who wants to fly someday must first learn how to stay in the walk and one cannot fly into flying.

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So that was with me for quite a bit. But then since, you know, as I as I grew up in a business and as I grew up as a man, I have two things now. My wall is not here. I would pull it out.

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But number one is the I will never ever be at work. And number two is a measure of a man or woman is what it takes to stop them.

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Because, you know, I think everything is achievable. It's just the six inches between our ears is what either stops us or guides us through whatever we're dealing with.

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And a lot of time people tend to give up too soon, maybe like a day before something was to happen. And I just haven't found a give up yet when it comes to just about anything.

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And I try to teach that to my kids. So that's I think that's pretty important. You know, even even that first year in West Virginia and everything, it was easy to quit.

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It was easy to go back home. But I just was like, no, there's a reason I'm here. I'm just going to fight through it. I'm going to work through it. And it turned out to be, you know, absolutely worth it.

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But it took it took a lot. I'm sure. Yeah. Well, tell us what you achieved, you know, with that attitude. Talk about your business Squire a little bit. What is it? And why did you start it?

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So it's yeah, I mean, I so again, it just, you know, I was I was helped so much when I was in college. I mean, dude, I waited tables and, you know, as the semester would start, I would have people that would come in and, you know, I

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I remember people's names. I remember what they drink. I remember what they like to eat. So I was just, you know, very attentive and I think a great waiter and I think everybody should do waiting tables for a job. It's a great way to like learn about people and everything.

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But like, there were people that would just show up and be like, Hey, here's a couple of hundred bucks for books and here's a couple of hundred bucks for like they were just they were amazing. Like when I when people found out that I was moving out of this one place into the other and I had I had no bed.

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I had no table. I had no nothing on a Saturday morning for trucks of customers showed up. They found out where I was going. They called the cold Rocco and deliver the bed mattress table lamp chair freaking all kinds of stuff. And like, just because they knew I was working my butt off to pay for everything and they just wanted to help.

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People are amazing man if, if you know, I just, I just believe that people are good. So when I looked at what I wanted to do in my life, I wanted to give back I wanted to teach I want to help I want to empower.

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So I got into finance for 22 years now I've been doing personal finance, you know, my own company but then as I was sitting across from people, you know, America has certain systems and retirement and pensions and investments and insurance and all kinds of stuff.

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There's just no education whatsoever. So I'm talking to people that are well educated, intelligent successful but they just never got any, any information that they can make the right financial decisions for themselves.

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So I started writing curriculum and build Squire and Squire in medieval times was the guy that would prepare the night for battle so that's where the name comes from. So it's a financial wellness financial literacy online platform that we deploy as a employee benefit for organizations

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for their employees, we got lucky we have a contract with the United States Air Force so we are rebuilding and redoing all their financial wellness stuff, you know, little guy from Zagreb and my team or, you know, taking care of all of the United States Air Force which is amazing.

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So, it's really another passion project I just felt like, you know, if I live in my passion and I'm really excited about what I do and what I found to be like my kind of biggest value that I can bring.

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I just found that teaching and empowering people is what really excites me. So, I, that's, that's what Squire is and you know, again it goes to that immigrant mentality right, I launched the company November 11 of 2019.

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March 2020 the whole world shuts down.

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You know, everything goes to crap. So like oh my gosh like what the heck we had great like three months and it was awesome, and then like zero, man like just nothing.

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But again, I was just, you know, working hard and talking to everybody and I got lucky I met an amazing investor that saw the value and the benefit and the potential in the company and he invested and saved us and then since then just been working our butts off

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as a team and just growing and growing and making more impact and it's just been, it's been, it's been fun and awesome especially, you know, as an entrepreneur.

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You never know things are going to work and but I'm willing to try because, you know, I always tell people they're like you have like your risk is different.

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You have a perception of risk and I was like, listen, from 14 to 18, I ran from snipers and bombs and Serbian like now, nobody shooting at me, most of the time, right, hopefully not in the area and like, you know, what's the worst that could happen to me

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is I'm going to have to pay some money or something like it can always restart I can always get a job but like I'm willing to take my life in my own hands and have bring my own destiny, because nobody's going to work as hard as I am, and have as much passion about

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what I'm doing as I am and building somebody else's life and business and everything compared to building mine. So, you know, I've done the hard part, I left the country that I love I miss Croatia, I miss the argument I miss, you know,

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every day.

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But I also am lucky enough and work hard enough that I can go back and just see my friends and see my family and spend as much time there as I can. And that's what I'm working on right now with my coach to, you know, our goal is to be at least month to two in the summertime

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and be on branch and bowl and you know the beach and working few hours a day and because you can do that these days you know doesn't matter do you do you grab I mean look where are you today.

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Yeah, well I'm exactly up now actually I'm in Virginia.

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Who cares where we are we can do all kinds of stuff. Yeah, so, you know, so Squire is definitely a passion project that I really want to help people learn what they need to learn better their lives.

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That's why I built it.

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Yeah, yeah, it sounds awesome what you've been able to accomplish.

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You mentioned, you know, Croatia and being able to go back and stuff have your kids been able to visit yet.

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Yeah, dude, come on, I can't wait.

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Oh, and so we we've been there but we go we go every year we I go twice usually I go in January, February just by myself to be a son, you know, so I can spend time with my, with my mom by myself I don't have to translate I don't have to, you know, be a tour guide and all that stuff.

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So, this year was the first year probably in 15 years that I wasn't there first of the years because I had a ACL surgery. You know now I'm 45 I forgot that I shouldn't be playing basketball or 20 year olds.

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So, my ACL and had surgery in February so I'm just out of like, you know, just doing PT and stuff but say this was the first year that I didn't go in January I usually come January February for about 10 days.

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And then summertime.

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Like I think I think I just bought tickets were coming on the second of August, and we're staying for three weeks, and you know we usually spend a little bit of time in Zagreb to see my mom and, and my nephew lives in Zagreb my aunt everybody, and then we usually go to the beach.

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My friend and a whole bunch of friends are in Bolambarach so we always go there for at least a week, and then either like rent the catamaran or go somewhere else because my wife, wife loves any place on the beach and she always wants to go somewhere new.

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So, like, we've never been north but never, I've never taken her to Easter now.

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I've never been to Porta Chorovina or something like that so I'm thinking, we might go up there this year. Yeah, I've actually never been either that's like one of the only one of the few parts that I have yet to visit but I've heard it's super underrated.

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It's, it's still funny man like people from side we go we go to the southern or she been a core you know the islands or whatever like we don't really go up to Easter, I don't know why it's like all my friends like everyone's like, why would you want to go to Easter.

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It's kind of cool. Yeah, I've heard it's like a hidden gem I've heard it's super nice and you know I definitely want to try this coming summer to go over there.

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Yeah, I've been to when me my wife got married we did a week, went to Dubrovnik and then drove up the coast and went to Porta Chorovina for three days and then went to Venice and then came back.

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I was like, you know, 20, 20, whatever years ago. It's, it's nice. It's really nice. It's just, I feel like the weather, like 97% of time is like sunny and awesome because of the mountains and stuff that protects that and split and all that, compared to

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like yours. Every time I'm in Croatia I look at the weather and I'm like, it's kind of crappy up north. It's amazing down here.

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It's like the long way weather. Yeah, yeah, definitely. Daniel as we're sort of winding down here to the end of the episode, I got a few more questions some quick question rapid fire to ask you but before we do that, I want to give you a chance to you know shout

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out, you know your website, where people can you know find a little bit more about you if they want to read the book that you released about you know your story, everything like that if you want to shout those out right now you can go right ahead.

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Yeah, the book, the book is, if you look at the just, and you know I just want to touch on the book is it's so dear near to my heart my my kids you know Saturday mornings I make pelachinko with Nutella, of course, and my kids were always like that, that, you know, how did you come to America,

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how did you do this and so one of my friends is a ghostwriter and I was like, Hey man, we need to, we need to write a book just for my kids to learn like where I'm from and how it is that's how the book became but I struggle with my, with the, with the title of the book,

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and my dad had a heart issue and he passed away in 2014, sadly but that summer I was able to take them, we came back to Croatia with the kids and everything and we went to Zada and got awesome apartment and just, you know, spent two weeks at the beach with them

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which was just a blessing. But he and I went and got, got some, you know, some beers and pizza and we were talking and he was like, you know, how are you doing how's everything like you're tired and stuff I was like yeah it's just a lot of work and he was like

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Daniel, you did something that one of a million could possibly do, and he was like, you know you made the impossible happen. So like, tomorrow you can wake up and do whatever you want, because like your life is a blank canvas, like, you've done the hardest work already.

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So, just paint the masterpiece for the rest of your life.

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Sorry, I miss him a lot.

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So that's the, that's the title of the book.

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Yeah, I mean it was.

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Anyway, so that's what the, that's what the name of the book came from. And, but yeah, I mean Squire it's SQW IRE get squire.com is the website, and it's, it's, like I said, it's just a passion project.

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You can find me on LinkedIn, I think I'm the only Daniel with a J key on there.

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It's pretty easy to find when it comes to that there's not too many of me. So, if anybody wants to look me up I'm pretty simple to locate.

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Awesome. Well yeah you definitely have a story worth sharing a really, you know, inspiring, awesome story. Before we go, I got to just a couple of quick questions if you can answer them in, you know, a sentence or two, max.

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First, to non Croatian related questions, advice for young entrepreneurs.

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One to two sentences.

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Just take, take the step, most people have great ideas they have great, you know potential and stuff but they're just too afraid of the unknown.

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That's the exciting part, and you'll figure out everything and the number two piece of advice is, find somebody that's who you want to be later down the road they'll teach you they'll help you they'll they'll identify the problems and the solutions and everything.

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I find so many people don't look for mentors and coaches, that's probably the least utilized resource that's out there but people are afraid to ask.

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Good advice. Yeah.

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Favorite book.

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Favorite book.

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Oh man I read a boatload. I gotta tell you, Phil Knight, the shoe dog. That book was awesome, just to see somebody as great as the company is today how close they were to not existing and again that that persistence and grit and grind and just never failed

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that stuck with me.

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I enjoyed reading Elon Musk's book, and how he came to who he was.

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Those are probably the two of the latest that I read that have been amazing but I read like two or three a month so there's a bunch.

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I actually I read the Phil Knight I think shoe dog, it's called that.

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Great book. That's a good one. Yeah. Two more questions, or three more favorite food when you're in Croatia.

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Of course. My mom's sarduma, and then my wife like there's just people don't know how good our pizza is like pizza is like the best anywhere I've ever had it so I know that's not one.

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Shavapi is like the first right you have to, like, as soon as I get I'm like where are we getting Shavapi from.

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Yeah, definitely it's hard to pick only one for sure. I think this one I could probably guess but Dinamo or Hajduk.

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I almost wore my Dinamo shirt today. Yeah, I should have told you, you know you said before I started recording you didn't know where the checkers are.

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Right. And final question, what makes Croatia special?

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Yeah, it's the best place in the world man. And I love the fact that you know now these days, when people find out where I'm from, two word two things that come out of their mouth, either, oh my gosh, I've heard so many things I've seen so many things I can't wait to go or we've been and it's the most beautiful

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place I've ever been to. So it's, I try to explain this to people. Our culture, our, our, like, my wife, you know, took her a little bit to learn but like in Zagreb or the beach on a Tuesday afternoon you can be a little cafe, and somehow you're there

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and you're like, I'm going to go to work in the morning, and the doors are locked the music is playing and everybody's your best friend it's a party. Like, we're just such passionate nations such passionate people the music is a part of our soul, the Adriatic and so

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much. There's just so much love and connection and passion and the way that we live life that's hard to explain to people, and that's like, going back to Croatia going back home.

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I can't imagine not not going and touching our culture, every year, it's just something that my body and my soul misses, like, it's hard to explain to people, but we're just, we're different.

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Yeah, yeah, that's definitely something you have to be here you know to experience.

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You know I want to thank you again so much for coming here on the podcast and sharing your story. You know it was an honor to have you on. I was wondering if you said man, being one of the people on podcast is awesome considering like who else you had I'm like, nobody.

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You're up there you're up there now. No, you definitely that's some incredible things I appreciate you taking the time. I was wondering if, as we head out here if you could show your tattoo on your bicep, you know real quick.

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Yeah, Croatian quality and then like all its names of my kids Maya Noah and Ella.

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That's awesome. That's awesome with the old the old script.

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Awesome well Daniel.

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Great. Have a great weekend. Thank you as well.