In January, Sha opened a big warehouse in Las Vegas, and I added office work to my resume. We quickly expanded to two warehouses due to our success. Many kids my age and older were having trouble showing up three days in a row, but I was happy working six. I never called off and always showed up ready to go. One month I was putting stamps on an envelope to ship something and the next month I was running a warehouse shipping 1,000 orders or more daily.
Sha and I continued to grow together both in business and personally. We became best friends. Then came late March 2020 and COVID. Las Vegas shut down and all my UNLV classes moved online. Our office remained open and I moved from working 5 hours, 6 days a week to working 8 hours, 6 times a week. Business continued growing and I decided to drop my full time 5 course per semester school schedule to 2-3 courses a semester to finish my International Business degree. I am taking my final 3 courses this semester, live and in person.
Sha offered me a partnership in a cannabis company being created in January of 2021 and since then, I have worked myself into a partner position in the entire business, including ownership of all companies, totaling over 4,000 products.
Carol: Really good to hear your perspective of that day and time since. Life can be amazing. Sometimes it is situations such as you described when we end up in a place we didn’t expect and it ends up being life changing.
As I think of all you have achieved and mastered thus far in life Ari, your grandfather comes to mind. I wonder if, in some way, his accomplishments haven’t predisposed you to your inborn success and entrepreneurial spirit.
Ari: Yes, my grandfather who is 92 owned the only CPA firm in the early days when Las Vegas was being founded and built. I can’t tell you half the stories I heard growing up. They say the truth is stranger than fiction and when it comes to early Vegas, that is a fact.
Carol: Does entrepreneurship exist in other areas of your family line as well?
Ari: Absolutely. Aside from my grandpa – his daughter, my mom, owned her own retail bakery in the San Francisco Bay area and later a wholesale French pastry bakery servicing the casinos in Vegas.
Carol: How wonderful! Did you acquire those baking skills as well ?
Ari: Not at all. I hardly can cook a quesadilla.
Carol: This also makes me wonder if you had a desire to become an entrepreneur or did life events lead you to your current position and status?
Ari: I would have to say both of those are true! Despite my grandpa’s business success, I always saw him as an entertainer and comedian. He was as good as many of the comedic Vegas legends who he represented. My mom, a true chef if there ever was one, her true love was teaching art to kids. It’s funny to think back. My dad is a professional too – a well respected civic engineer and landscape architect, here in town. Entrepreneurship was central to my life growing up, as my mother encouraged me to start my own business before I was 10, selling earrings made from funny shaped and colorful paperclips. I even used to pretend as a child that I created my own town, with many businesses and stores. I simply created that town by hanging descriptive pieces of paper along the walls. As I have grown older, I have found that founding, managing and growing a business is not easy. It’s more of a contact sport than football. I mean that sincerely and I can completely understand why anyone, my own parents included, would be happier leaving their work on their desks when the day’s final bell rings. Oddly, that just is not how I am built, at least today. I just hope that I can make my family proud for the time, love and energy they have put and continue to put into me, my education and my life.
Carol: I am certain your parents are immensely proud of the person you have become.
With so much of your life involved around your business, do you have any hobbies that may counteract the many responsibilities and stressors of your professional life?
Ari: I have not really kept up on archery although my bow goes with me every new move I make. It seems many of what I would consider hobbies seem to turn into businesses. Today they include fashion and jewelry design and manufacturing, digital design and graphic art creation. I also love bioprospecting nature and growing cannabis. Then thinking also about France, I am compelled to add appreciation of fine art to my hobbies, as I grew up frequently visiting the only small fine art gallery in Vegas at the Bellagio with my mother.
Carol: Would you share what bioprospecting nature is?
Ari: Bioprospecting is like what the Gold Miners in Alaska did, or the Silver Miners here in Nevada. For me, I look for interesting plant phytonutrients, especially ones that interact with cannabis compounds. Specifically, looking at the entire body of scientific research regarding cannabis two things pop out. First, cannabinoids, terpenes and cannaflavins are fundamental to good health and second, cannabis is a universal plant of biologic synergy.
