Ep409: Baret Lepejian – Never Go Into the Restaurant Business Alone

Andrew Stotz 00:02
Hello fellow risk takers and welcome to my worst investment ever stories of loss to keep you winning in our community. We know that to win in investing, you must take risks but to win big, you've got to reduce it. To join our community go to my worst investment ever.com and receive the following five free benefits first, you get the risk reduction checklists I've created from the lessons I've learned from all of my guests. Second, you get my weekly email to help you increase your investment return. Third, you get a 25% discount on all a Stotz Academy courses. Fourth, you get access to our Facebook community to get to know guests and fellow listeners. And finally you get my curated list of my favorite 10 episodes. Fellow risk takers, this is your worst podcast host Andrew Stotz, from Ace thoughts Academy and I'm here with featured guests. Barrett, the pagan Barrett, are you ready to rock? Yes, sir, I am. I am so excited to hear your story. And we've been talking about this for a while. So it's great to get you on the show. And I want to introduce you to the audience. And you know, it's a great story. And I know a little bit about your story, and so I'm really excited to bring it but Barrett the paging started his business career at 14 years old. Back when we didn't call it child labor. He was working in his mom and dad's family business that they started in 1971 called isco. The page in photo lab. Barrett was a black and white darkroom printer for photographers from many fields including rock and roll, celebrity bodybuilding, architecture, fashion, fine art, and much more. Of course, you were in Los Angeles, he and his brother Rick Vic expanded the business to nine locations, and 150 employees at its peak. In 2004, a Western saloon that Barrett frequented with family clients and employees became available just across the street from the Burbank headquarters of his ego. And that's how he got into the restaurant industry. From there, he ended up owning four restaurants from 2004. Until now, today, ladies and gentlemen, he will share with us his story about how he opened one of those four restaurants. It was called tin horn flat Hollywood, from scratch in 2013. Very take a minute and filling further tidbits about your life.

Baret Lepejian 02:33
Um, hi, Andrew, thanks for having me on. Yeah, you know, I was very blessed. I was involved with my mom and dad in a really a nurturing family business, you know, so I had never really had a normal job. You know, it was just a really great environment. And it was something that, you know, we grew. I mean, my father started from literally from scratch, and the business over, I think we had it for about 30 years, just kept growing and growing and grow. And you know, so and that's what my reality of running a business was, was growth and then and doing well.

Andrew Stotz 03:12
And where did your dad get this ability to run a business? I mean, was it just something that he had? Did he study it? Did he just develop it?

Baret Lepejian 03:22
That's a great question. He studied in Germany, he lived in Germany, I think for about 12 years, you know, as a 16 year old kid, he went to Germany for college, graduated there, and then got himself a job on a show a documentary style show very similar to 60 minutes, I think the German translation was mirrored to the world. And he found himself as a camera man on the show. And, you know, he went all around the world. interviewing people like Ed, I mean, you're gonna like, really interesting stuff. So, um, my mom wanted to my mom didn't like living in Germany. That's, you know, I was born in Germany, but Germany myself. So when they immigrated, legally immigrated to the United States. They ended up in Hollywood. And, you know, it was a very controlled thing. In LA, it was all unionized. So it's not like my, my dad was just able to come in and say, hey, look, you know, I've been doing this, and I'm great. And it just wasn't that kind of thing. And one of his friends, childhood friends who lived in LA, and just said, hey, look, you know, we got to get you a job here. And you don't you know, a thing or two about photography and custom printing. And my dad was, yeah, you know, I do, but I mean, just something I've done in school in college, I learned that well, you're about to try and do it professionally. That's how he got his first job. Custom printing, you know, was just a lab in Hollywood that needed a black and white technician.

Andrew Stotz 04:55
And then how did he have the guts to set that up as his own business and then really grow it?

Baret Lepejian 05:01
Well, um, so one of my uncle's was getting married my mom and dad, I'm Armenian. They were born in Georgia, in Amman, Jordan. And one of my uncle's was getting married. So we all went back from Los Angeles to Jordan for this wedding. And, you know, we're talking about this was probably like, the early 70s, I would imagine. Or not even like, yeah, like 7071. So he was late coming back, like a week. And you know, it's not like it was cell phones or computers. And, and, you know, in Jordan, it was very complicated, making a phone call. Anyways, when he got back, he was a week late to get back to his work. He basically said, Where were you? And he's like, Look, I tried calling 10 times and they fired him. No, they just said, No, you didn't show up, we got somebody else get by. And my dad just said, Look, you know, I'm a really, really, I'm a loyal guy, and I have a lot of integrity. But just understand, if you fire me, I have a family, I have two young boys, I'm gonna go open up my business, I'll never follow your clientele. But I'm just gonna open up, I'm gonna put a sign out with my name on it. And I'm going to do what I've been doing here very effectively, and profitably for you guys. And that's what he did. That's how he started.

Andrew Stotz 06:19
It's funny because my family came my father's I came from Germany in 1839. And then to America, and my great grandfather, basically, he didn't study architecture, he worked at some different firms as a draftsman and all that. But he heard, he heard about a school, a school board that had commissioned a building in Pittsburgh where he lived. And he could just see that it was a ripoff. I mean, it was like massively overpriced, there was corruption involved. And he came up with the plans to stick it to him and basically said, I can build this building for half the price and half the time. And amazingly, you know, he got the job. And he built it, and half the price in half the time. And that began his architectural firm business. So that basically had a family architectural firm business for about 100 years in our family. But the point is, is that a lot of times we are, it is the challenge of life, that pushes us into the situation that we find ourselves in, and then it's a question of, what are you going to do, you're going to bow down and crawl back and beg for your job or something, or you're going to stand up and say, I'm going to take this as an opportunity. And that's great to learn about your father. And I know, I know, you've got that in your blood, too. Thank you. Thank you. He taught me well. Yeah. And there's nothing wrong with standing up and standing up to a challenge and taking it on. So that's, and the other thing about maybe, maybe, just tell me about kind of what is your super skilled, like, what is it that you're good at, we look at your business career that things are obviously, you know, you know, about photography, and all that, but what are the things that you would say, you know, made you and your brother I guess, successful?

Baret Lepejian 08:13
Me personally, Andrew, I've always been sort of the front man, you know, I enjoy dealing with people I enjoy, contact, you know, I mean, as far as being a salesman goes, I, I couldn't sell a single thing to anybody. So but what I can do is if I have an amazing product, which I would never be involved in any business, unless it was what I felt was absolutely the best I could do. So I've always been involved in something that I was really proud of, that once I'm in that situation, I can just be that Ambassador to the product. And I mean, I'm just, genuinely I'm excited about what I'm doing. And that transcends to other people and, and, you know, I, that's how we get fat. My biggest skill, if I had to say, is I'm really good at connecting dots. And I think in business, that's one of the most critical things, you know, I mean, you can be a founder or you could be a manager, but if somehow you try and do too much if you can't connect dots, if you can't put people together if you can't develop relationships that work and that's how you can grow you know, whether it's multiple locations or or I mean, however, you're growing the business that is what I think is the most important thing.

Andrew Stotz 09:25
And you know, when I first met you I actually knew your brother first and he and I got to know each other because his his shop was nearby where I lived and so I talked to him often and but I would describe your brother as a little bit of a head down guy focused on you know, like, and and i would reach out sometimes, hey, let's go get a coffee or something and you know, send him a message and we would go but when I met you, it wasn't very much long time afterwards that you sent me a message and said, Hey, come and meet me, Vic and me for lunch at you know, at that time. But it was bullies that we went to and you know, want to talk to you about this or that. And I just thought, you know, that that shows, you know exactly what you're talking about is that willingness and desire, not willingness, its desire to reach out and connect. And I appreciate that. And I saw that inaction, you know, with you. Thank you. Yeah. So, anyways, now it's time to share your worst investment ever. And since no one ever goes into their worst investment thinking it will be. Tell us a bit about the circumstances leading up to it, then tell us your story.

Baret Lepejian 10:30
Okay, so you know, like, like, I was saying, Andrew, you know, I, I don't know if it's a good thing or a bad thing. But, but I came from a place of success. And when I say success, it was ground up, you know, it was my mom and dad that started the business thing, then they got an employee to help. But as I grew older, I started working there, and I loved it. But what I saw as a young man was growth, and, and business and success. So to be honest, in some ways, as wonderful as that was, that was also not a good thing. Because that's all I saw, I thought that that's just how it worked. I thought, you know, if you work hard, and you go to work, work, and you love what you do, and you go to battle, every day, success is automatic, there's no chance that that's not going to happen. Well, you know, as some of us know, that's not necessarily the case, because there's a lot of things that are completely beyond, you know, our powers sometimes. So it was 2012. We sold, you know, the photo lab business, it started decreasing, just with digital, you know, with digital cameras. And then of course, the phones and, you know, people just weren't making photos, the way they used to a big part of our business was also Hollywood headshots. I mean, we printed millions of what used to be the black and white, glossy eight by 10. And then we actually, our business was responsible for making it the color eight by 10. But anyway, long story short, that was going away, many things were going away. And it became less and less interesting to be in the photo lab business, it became more of a commodity, instead of people coming in and paying whatever it was for the highest quality. Now all of a sudden, the conversation changed to well, how much is it per square foot? And then you know, I'm not a carpet or wallpaper salesman, I, I just said, you know, I'm not going to do that. So, I already had the one restaurant and it was doing well. And so we sold one of the buildings in Hollywood that we had is you know, it was the photo lab. And, and there was a good profit from it. And instead of taking it and just investing it, of course, that's why we're here right now, as I should have. I didn't want to do that. I wanted to double down and I really felt like hey, you know, my one restaurants doing good. My photo lab, you know, we reached the highest levels of any photo lab in the country. I'm going to hit a second restaurant. Back in that day in the Hollywood area I was on every realtor's list about you know, had a lot of realtors there the high end realtors were my friends. So they would send me what the latest real estate was, whether it was for rent or for sale, I came across this one listing that was wonderful. It really was just it was pride, right across the street from the Grom and Chinese Theater and all the tourist attractions. I mean, I was right there, but yet half a block away, but still on a main street. He was perfect. So I went I looked at it and I was just like, oh my god, this is it. This is where I want to put my new restaurant was a little too big. But I figured you know, I can feel this, you know, no problem. And other thing that I felt encouraged was most of the competition, you know, I started studying Who am I going to go up against, and it was all large chains. And it was hard drugs. And it was we have something in the states called Dave and Busters. And it's basically like kind of like an adult Chucky cheese like it's like an adult playground video games, that kind of thing really loud, but they serve alcohol and they have a like a comfort eat burgers, fries, that kind of stuff. So that's what I did. I took a lot of money. I completely It was a shell of a building. I put a ton of money into this building. You know, it's not like I went out and bought someone else's thing. Which by the way, that is one of the secrets that I can talk about later. You never want to do what I did never go in and build your own Disneyland. Not a good idea in the restaurant is well I did that I made it absolutely to my vision and took about a year and a lot of hoops and alcohol licenses. And I mean it was a nightmare. I if I had known what I was getting into Just in a construction point of it, I probably wouldn't have done it. But anyway, you know, as you get into something, it just you get deeper and deeper and you're excited. So, so fast forward to a year I opened, you know, I opened with my own menu, super wonderful quality and reasonable prices, I didn't have the overhead of a lot of the chains did. And that's how I started. You know, and

Andrew Stotz 15:26
don't feel how did it feel when you opened those doors for the first time after a year of preparing?

Baret Lepejian 15:32
Very exciting. Yeah, to be honest, very exciting. And the reception was really, really good. You know, it's not like, you know, I opened the doors and like, Oh, where's everybody wasn't like that, you know, because because I was in Hollywood, I was part of the community. I knew a lot of people. So there was an anticipation for me opening this place. And it actually started off really well. One of the things which I hadn't shared with you either, is I had hired the chef. At this point, I had four restaurants, but this one was by far the largest one. Okay, the other three were very close to my house. One was a music venue was more of a nightclub. And those were all doing pretty good. You know, some were doing great, but everything was covering costs. Well, I hired an executive chef, just because it was seeming like it was overwhelming, you know, trying to deal with all the different cooks. So this guy, my deal with him was he was going to take care of all four kitchens overlook, you know, make a menu adjustment, whatever needed to happen and sort of report back to me. About three or four months in Andrew, all of a sudden, all my credit cards started declining. And I had 25 American Express credit cards for all the businesses, that includes the photo lab, that includes employee cards. In one day, everything stopped. Okay. So I'm like, That's impossible. I mean, I've never been late, ever in my life. I'll spare you. You know, the long version of it. This guy had gone out, he had a catering business. And he put like, $120,000 on the cards in one month, in a split. Okay, so, so here I am, and you know how American Express works. You either pay that bill, or you don't and you're cut off, but my whole existence, all the companies, all the restaurants, including my family business was on that car. So that was the first sort of strike that I had to deal with. Yeah, you know, I had to get past that. And then, you know, now I'm dealing with my family and my brother, everybody's like, What is going on? And, um, you know, like, we don't care, like, you got to fix this right now. Yeah. So that was like it, it was like, the second or third month, you know, so that's, that's how it started? No. Um, the other thing about it was across the street, for me was what was called Hollywood and Highland. Well, I started taking away some of their big parties

18:07
in Hollywood in

Baret Lepejian 18:08
Ireland is sort of like one big group. The same owners very incestual. It's the same owners, same partners. You know, it's one property owner that leased huge businesses, whether it was the Hard Rock, or Dave and Busters, all well known names, but it was all the same sort of click. Well, they didn't like me being there. This, this little guy that was starting to take significant business from them, parties and so on, because across the street was a Loews hotel also. And all of a sudden, they started losing very big parties to me, because I could do it at half the price and twice as good. Yeah. So believe it or not, there was an actual effort, an organized effort against me, the little guy, where basically they said, you can never recommend to North lads. It just recommend anyone you want, but don't recommend that. And the only way I found that out is because I'd have like, no parties, but sort of like buttering up the sales Gods at the lowest so till they are 10 sales, people that sold the room sold conventions as a convention hall. And one of them pulled me aside, he says, Look, you're really generous, you're kind, but this is what's up, you know, we've been instructed to never deal with tinhorn flat. So that was like a strike to it. And then, you know, it was just too much to be honest with you, if I had to say, what's the one thing you know, I didn't want to have any partners. So I went in, like, you know, like, the lone cowboy here and you know, guns blazing, you know, paid everything off myself. And then at some point, you know, you sort of hit a wall and say, Wow, okay, this is really getting actually kind of scary here. There's not no there's no real safety net to fall on. You know, And it just started mounting debt started mounting, you know what my accountants couldn't really handle it anymore. You know, I had four restaurants and I had the photo lab still going, and it just became a matter of being overextended. It really did. And then, and, you know, my rent was 26,000 a month, dollars, you know, and just my payroll was astronomical, just because it was a huge place just just to open a place up, you know. And then lastly, I would say, you know, a very difficult part about that location, as great as it could be or is bad. It was a feast or famine. The Hollywood Bowl was the close, I was the closest restaurant in the Hollywood Bowl. If there was a big show at the bowl. It doesn't matter if I had 100 staff, there's just no way we could keep up with that, you know, I mean, we did the best we could and people were happy. But then the next night, you'd literally not make enough money, you know, it could be raining or whatever is going on, you don't even make enough money at that location to cover the stack. Yeah, so these are sort of the obstacles that I came across.

Andrew Stotz 21:09
And when, when was it that you kind of realized that this is not going to work? I was about four years into it.

Baret Lepejian 21:17
You know, I think I built it in 2012. I opened it in 2013. And I'm looking at my notes. It was I think it was August or September of august of 2017. Right. And there came a point where, you know, my girlfriend at the time was working with me, she's that she was my chef, you know, doing a great job. But she came to me, she said, Look, you know, it's not like we're not doing things, right. We still have the best food we still have, you know, it's because we're busy. But it's just, we it's one step forward three steps back for real. And you know, you and I had been putting a lot of personal money, you know, oh, no, no, you know, let's just get over this hump. Okay, here's 50 grand, you know, I liquidated my 401k no penalties, the whole thing. You know, my biggest problem, Andrew, is, and this is a horrible thing is I go down with the ship. Okay, sometimes you got to pull that lever, and parachute out, you know, don't you know, whether it's the ship or the airplane? You know, I just, I'm like, We're going No, we're gonna make this work. And you know that stubbornness. I mean, you know, if not, if, if somebody's listening to me the one thing if they could take away, look, I'm really proud. I have great parents wonderful business. But you can't let one thing fully consumed. And that's what I allowed to happen within one flat Hollywood. If I could just say, I found somebody to take it over. Literally, I handed them this million dollar business, right? Just gave it to him. We had a deal. If it worked out, he was gonna give me a couple 100,000 on the backend. Now, of course, never even came to that. Within two months, this guy destroyed the restaurant. Okay, he was from Chicago. So he's flying back and forth. He didn't pay the staff. Okay. And the health department actually came in, close it down to like cockroach infestation. Just there was nobody watching it under my clock. I'm a huge help in cleanliness, above all else is in the restaurant business. It's all about cleanliness, man. It doesn't matter how great your product is your quality, if it's not clean. You're not opening that that's just like it within two months, this guy was closed down. And then after that, you know, he never reopened. And I think two months after that the place exploded. So I guess it was some kind of a and he got evicted anyway. Right. And while the eviction is going on tinhorn flats, hollywood went out literally with a big bag. You know, it was on the news and everything. Major gas explosion. Luckily, no one was walking past because it was glass out all over the street. And I mean, it was a nightmare. Of course, you know, I got the blame for a lot of this, because people didn't know, you know, they just didn't tend to run flats. They knew Barrett LePage, and he owns it. For sure. It's this an insurance scam, you know that I had to hear that for a long time. You know, the health violation. That was embarrassing to me, even though I had nothing to do with it. I hadn't stepped into the restaurant in a month month. But it reflected me. Yeah. And anyway, so yeah, just a really bad experience.

Andrew Stotz 24:38
And how would you summarize the lessons you learn from that?

Baret Lepejian 24:43
You know, to be exact for the restaurant business, you know, if somebody is watching this, and they're considering a restaurant, you know, I'm not a partner guy. I really like doing things. Okay, now I don't want to subject someone else to how stubborn I am and you know that my dad and my parents were amazing, but they taught me a certain way. I'm a perfectionist, and I like I don't cut corners and, and in the restaurant business, unfortunately, he kind of have to cut corners, but I can't. So the one thing I learned is don't go into the restaurant business alone. Really, ideally, my biggest advice would be one person like me, the front man that believes in a product that like shaking hands with the customers and, and you know, is I love talking to people and you need that guy. But then you really, really need two people in the back end accountant and a lawyer, you know, they could be smaller partner partners in the back silent partners. But not you don't want to hire those two, you want them invested interest, right? In that. And then you know, a chef, or a cook doesn't have to be a chef doesn't have to be a high end, quote on blue or Michelin star. Really, that's not necessary. But someone that understands that commercial kitchen, those four people together, there could be some agreement, you know, good contracts, good understanding for each person's position. I think that's the way to do it. That way, one person isn't trying to wear all those hats than trying to, and trying to organize all of these, these challenges.

Andrew Stotz 26:23
And maybe I'll share a couple things that I take away. I mean, one of the things when I look at restaurant, I mean, I'm a financial analyst, so I analyze things and try to think about it. I one of the things that people come to me and they say I want to set up a restaurant, and I just say to them, okay, how many tables Do you think you're gonna have? And they said, let's just say 10. Okay, and what do you think people will pay on average per table for a meal? And let's say you know, 100 bucks, whatever that is. Okay. So now let's imagine that your full capacity, you got 10 tables, you get 100 bucks. So now you got 1000 bucks, how many times you think you're going to turn those tables throughout a day? Well, let's say best case, three, three times. Right. Okay. So now you got $3,000. All right. And so now, that's your maximum capacity. Right? And once you look at a restaurant, that way, you realize it's a really constrained business? And they say, but no, no, I'm gonna make it really great. And then I'm gonna have other restaurants. And I say, Well, wait a minute, okay, that's a different business, right? wanting to be in a business and passionate about it and driving that restaurant to be amazing. But the minute you set up a second restaurant, you need to hold different skills, which is, how do you run to because you can't be in two places at the same time. Right. So for a lot of people, they see a lot of excitement about going into the restaurant business. And what I see is just a trap. Because the best case you're going to be able to do is make one restaurant really successful. But chances are, it's, that's already hard. But the revenue possibility is very limited. And if you dare to make a second one, you really need to set up 10 more, not one more, because you're gonna have all kinds of infrastructure to manage that. And therefore, it's just, it's such a tough business. And then you know, that there's also other things like health department and all kinds of other different, you know, government regulations that you can apply with this, what do you think about my analysis of the restaurant business,

Baret Lepejian 28:22
I think you're spot on, you know, especially the part about the second one, because once you get out of if you have a successful first one, as I did, the second one, you can actually throw your first one off, because now your attention is, you know, all over the place you're dealing with, you know, you're going to need two managers now. I'm sorry. You need two managers. Now, if they're not cooperating together, it's just it becomes a, it becomes a complex puzzle, once you get the second and you're right. When you have the second, you might as well have the third and the fourth, because the dynamics of the second is, makes everything much more complicated.

Andrew Stotz 29:06
Yeah. So based upon what you learn from this story, and what you continue to learn, I want you to think about a young man or woman out there, not necessarily your kids, but could be, but they're looking at the idea of Oh, I'm going to do a restaurant and what one action would you recommend that our listeners take to avoid suffering the same fate?

Baret Lepejian 29:27
I would say the most important thing is I mean, if that's what really interests you, is a restaurant business and you know, there's plenty of horror stories, there's TV shows about restaurants, but if someone that's what they want, I would say don't put everything you have into it. Treat it like any other investment. You know, usually when someone buys a stock, you know, or, or really any kind of investment, you don't take everything you have and put it in that one stock. You diversify, you know, and I didn't really do that. I was so common. confident that this was going to do well, because, you know, my track record was I was batting 1000. You know, I literally I was batting 1000. So don't do that, he did have one more investment and go in there with key people in place. See, I didn't really do that I had my I had this guy, the chef. And then I had a few other people, I had a manager and so on. But at the end of the day, it was it. To be honest, it ruined five years of my life. Yeah, really. You know, it's very stressful, very, very, a loss of sleep. You know? And, and really, you know, what I found in restaurant business, what I'm not interested in Andrew, is a peaks and valleys. Now, I don't want you know, in one day, my biggest poll in the restaurant business was $50,000. Over like, $52,000 Okay, I'll never forget the very next day for restaurants did less than like, seven. Okay, so I mean, you get like 50 to 53,000. And then you get seven for four places. I don't need that. Yeah, I'd rather make less money but secure, you know, get some kind of a small percentage on my money, but be able to sleep at night and not be stressed that that's run right now.

Andrew Stotz 31:20
And one last thing I wanted to mention is that, you know, some of the listeners out here that are listening, know you for another reason, they've been following, you know, a challenge that you've been facing with another restaurant. Maybe you can just tell us, you know what that is about and kind of where that's at.

Baret Lepejian 31:44
Okay, well, um, so the original Tinder one flat, which is the one I bought in 2004 still exists, you know, the other the other three restaurants I Oh, I opened I either sold them you know, this, this one ended the way but there was two other ones that actually did okay, you know, it successful, but I sold them for whatever reason. My original restaurant is tenore flats in Burbank. And you know it, owning a restaurant is difficult enough, but during COVID times hold other thing. Long story short, when the LA County Health Department kept changing its mind when you can open when you can close. You know, there was a thing where Okay, you got to close all indoor dining, but you can be open outdoor. Okay, now you got to close all outdoor dining, but you can only do to go with my two children. I have a son that's 20 and a daughter. That's 25. They were the ones that were dealing with that and I live in Thailand right now. And he and I were on the phone I was on redirect. Okay, do you this closed down due to COVID temperatures and, and then all of a sudden, one day, they said, okay, you can't be open inside. But you can be outside and to go fine. Next day, they're like, shut outside. Like what we just spent all this money and you know, in plastic and things and thermometers? Like why what? Show me a small bit of evidence, Andrew, that shows how COVID is getting people sick outside eating. You know what I decided I called up my son I said, You know what, kid? Open? He's like that there's 30,000 restaurants closed. Right? You know, excuse my language, I don't give a shit. We're opening, you know, and I did. You know, I did. It was I think it was December of last year. And I just, you know, now I kept all the protocol in place, as far as masking as far as not opening the inside. So it's not like I went totally robot. You know, I said, No, you know, I'm gonna I'll will distance outside a huge outdoor patio, right? No, I'm not going to lose something I've had for years and years. And, so we stayed open. And oh, it became a thing, you know, that the health department would come in every day inside us. You know, there was something like 60 sightings, and it was $50,000 in fines. And then, you know, they took away our health license only for that. There's no issues as far as, you know, real health issues as far as, like I said, I run a clean kitchen. And then and then the Burbank city council got involved, and they took away our conditional use permit because I didn't have a healthy place. Okay, didn't matter kept open. And you know, the popularity of the restaurants growing, because I'm the one guy saying, not gonna put up with this nonsense.

Andrew Stotz 34:45
And there were customers coming at that time and coming and sitting and more than ever.

Baret Lepejian 34:49
Yeah, more than ever. People were coming in, not for the food anymore. He was putting on flats became a political statement to be there and eat up. burger became an American thing. And really, you know, just like, you know what, let's government is trying to shut down your business. And by the way, under Burbank City Council, there's a guy named Constantine Ed, but he's a self proclaimed socialist, okay, he got his position. And he puts on social media, how he's anti capitalism. This kind of thing I'm dealing with, I'm literally dealing with the City Council that wants to destroy small business openly. Sounds like conspiracy stuff here, the guy talks about, you know, so we just kept going, finally, the city decided they were going to board us up the entrances, find a border this up, I told my son go get a saw, saw right through, we opened it. At the very end, they put literally into the ground in cement, a chain link fence around the full perimeter of the whole restaurant. And then it became, you know, protests. And I mean, you know, I've been on Fox News a couple times, I've done many interviews about it. You know, again, if this gets back to going down with the ship, you know, in business, I will still say, hunker down with the ship. In a situation like this, where I really believe this isn't about a business anymore. This has to do with American freedoms. I will go down ships. I mean, you know, I just so now it's a it's a it's in the court system.

Andrew Stotz 36:35
And what is how would you describe kind of the principle of what you're standing for?

Baret Lepejian 36:42
government overreach. Completely, it's just government overreach. I mean, what, you know, these aren't laws, Andrew, what was passed, okay, their mandate. mandate mandates like, Why, what, you know, if someone, I'm a reasonable man, I really am, you know, I'm a reasonable businessman, I'm an entrepreneur, I understand, you know, there's, you know, there's times where for the greater good, if we got to close, we got to close, When, when, when this COVID thing first started, you know, no one knew what was going on, you know, we had no idea what the percentage of sick death, I did everything, you know, I was scared for my children, my children, or my customers, or my friends, you know, I've owned the restaurant for 1718 years, I wasn't out to hurt anybody or make anybody sick. So I went along with the plan. For me, once I started realizing that it's pretty much a scam, what they were doing. And there was no real logic. If you look into even just a year out, sometimes it takes five or 10 years to look back and see like, hey, yeah, that was a joke. No, in a year, you can see what a joke it really was, you know, they were out to destroy small businesses, and they did a great job. So that's it. I'm not I'm not gonna let Burbank Chamber of city council destroy me. I'm just not gonna do it. Some punk, you know, making rules and laws? No. So that's where I'm at, you know, it's just I've got a really high end attorney named Mark Geragos, you know, he's like a celebrity attorneys and everybody from Michael Jordan, Michael Jackson, you know, I had to get these the best of the best. And so it's really in his hands at this point.

Andrew Stotz 38:35
And how do you respond to all the other restaurants, let's say in Burbank or around the goal, we had to shut down? You know, like, they're, in some ways, cowering. And, you know, they're following the government's mandates. How do you respond to them?

Baret Lepejian 38:54
You know, that's kind of a complicated thing. And I'll tell you why. Because number one, there's two points of view to this. Number one, you know, I'm a stubborn guy, guy, I'm the nicest guy one on one, you know, you're my friend, you know. But on the other hand, if you push me, I can be a not a nice guy. I don't take well to bullies, you know, I'll step in and be a really mean guy to a bully. Someone that can get harassed, be allowed to be harassed. That being said, the problem with the people you know, that they're facing, isn't is number one, you know, they don't want to deal with it. But number two, they have a lot to lose. Okay, if they have a lot of, if they have a lot of money, and a lot of resources, the government can come after all of it. You know, you're not going to be able to do anything in any business. Unless you paid it was fine. For me, to be honest. I don't live in the US and, you know, I made a decision to come and try a new life. You know, just before COVID, it's an eight. Yeah. And I mean, I love living in Thailand, I love the freedoms that Thailand gives us. I look back at our amazing country, you and me as Americans. And it just said it, the least three countries with the Fourth of July coming up is our country at this point, you've got these loser governors, telling people what to do. I mean, you've got these mayors, that, you know, they literally don't know their ass from their elbow, and pushing these far left agendas. So I don't know, you know, the people that sort of had to go along with it. They lost everything anyway. Yeah, you know, you know, 1000s and 1000s of restaurants, they're never coming back. Exactly. The losses data. So everyone's got to sort of just measure with me, you know, I didn't have as much to lose, I mean, I'm losing my restaurant, it's gone, you know, I have lost the restaurant, it's just a matter of how much I'm going to sue them for. That's really what it's down to. But 10, or in flat, the probability of it ever reopening that same location? It's probably really low, I'm so stubborn, I'll still not concede it is there is a chance Yeah, but not looking so good. But you know, it's going to be a monetary fix at this point.

Andrew Stotz 41:21
So what I hear from you say about that other restaurants and other people is that, you know, it's just, it's too much of a risk for people to stand up sometimes against things and it takes a strong person, like yourself to do that. And, you know, one of the things that I remember about talking to my father about some things that have happened in in, in the US, and he said, you know, somebody, you know, it can't be that that happened, whether you know, Kennedy killed by CIA, or whatever that thing was, you can't be because somebody would have said something. And I always felt like that was one of the hardest arguments to fight against my dad to get him to look at something. And then I watched the documentary of Daniel Ellsberg, the most dangerous man in America, which is what he was called by Richard Nixon. And Ellsberg basically revealed the Pentagon Papers, which were internal documents within the Pentagon, where they accumulated all of the errors or lies, and everything about the Vietnam War, all in one document. He said, 1000 men and women knew what was in those documents, and not one of them spoke. And it was just hit me between the eyes that, you know, many people could be sitting by standing by and saying, I'm not gonna risk my job, and my family, and I'm gonna go along. And so, you know, I think that I appreciate people like yourself, who say, whatever it is, you know, it doesn't matter what it is that you believe in, but that you stand up for what you believe in, and it's going to be hard, and it's going to be a fight. But without people like that standing up. And what you saw, and what you describe is that people out there come to the support of someone who stands up for something that's right.

Baret Lepejian 43:11
Andrew, just look into doctors, the doctors that are trying to put out information about COVID. I mean, who would have thought that in the United States of America, doctors would be getting censored, you know, deleted? You know, I mean, whether it's an opinion or not, I mean, let's face it, there is no facts. In the medical profession. Every human organism is a little different. Every disease is a little different, you know, no two people react to any medication the same way. So how is it that 1000s and 1000s of physicians are silenced? You know, this is what I was telling my brother, if this doesn't alarm people, that's our biggest problem. Yeah, because the government, I never trusted big government, you know, uh, you know, just let me simply say, I hate big government. big government is really the government is supposed to be there to protect us, you know, not to get in our way not to tell us when we can open when we can open at this point. I mean, you know, just look at these vaccination passports they want to do they basically want to control every single element of our life. And I'm sorry, this isn't gonna end well. I say it you know, I know a lot of people don't like it when I say this. But I posted on social media a lot. This is not going to end well for the far left. And it just depends on how far they're gonna push good Americans, but at some point, and it could be something much more insignificant than what they think something's gonna go wrong for them.

Andrew Stotz 44:51
And and I really

Baret Lepejian 44:52
hope and pray that we don't get to that point, but people aren't going to put up with this crap a whole lot longer.

Andrew Stotz 45:00
You know, after 30 years of being outside of the US, and looking back at the US, you just see that so many different things happen, that people want regulation, they want protection from government, whether that's 911, and then they want to be safe, or whatever it is, it just, you know, there's a fire in a particular thing, well, everybody's got to follow a new protocol. And there's this. So there's that the only direction that it can go is just more and more government regulation, it's very hard to stop. You know, what, remember, hearing the quote from someone says, what, there's nothing more permanent than a temporary government program. And, you know, the point is, is that, and then you bring it out into a bigger, wider world where I live, you know, out here outside of America, and you realize there is a massive war machine that is being financed by taxpayers in the US, that is bringing destruction around the world, either. Either, you know, outright destruction or behind the scenes destruction. And I really come to the conclusion that the only way, it's a little bit like cancer as an example, the only way you can stop cancer is stop feeding it. And that someday, if I was back in the US, what I would do is I would try to get a coalition of people pack taxpayers to say the military budget, let's just take as an example is maybe 20% of the total budget. And I would say that as a taxpayer is millions of people need to get together and say, We owe I owe each person individually owes, let's say, 100, in taxes that year, and we're going to hold back 20 of that 100 be a group of a million people that have bonded together to say, we reject big government, and we reject big government's war in the world, and we're not going to fund it. And that's the only way that I think you can now slow down the constant expansion. And over the last two years, the amount with COVID crisis, the amount of expansion of government has gone beyond anybody's wildest dreams. So if I was back in the US, I would start that petition. And for those listeners, I'd be knocking on your door to say, Let's stand up and say, we're not going to give more money to the government to do these things. So

Baret Lepejian 47:13
Andrew, my dad used to say something interesting, you know, like, I'd ask him sometimes, like, wait, why did we just do this? Or why did we just do that? And he used to say, son, when you build it, you gotta use it? That's it? Because there is no, you know, if the country spends the money on these weapons, do not think, you know, they're just gonna be sold, and it can be disposed up, you build it, you use it, that's just how it is. And really, the bottom line is, I mean, to a certain degree, you know, strength is a wonderful thing. It is, you know, being strong, I think, you know, the best defense is not, you know, but like you're saying there's a lot of waste that we go through, and it's just a we're in a very unfortunate situation in our in the United States right now.

Andrew Stotz 48:02
So last question, what's your number one goal for the next 12 months?

Baret Lepejian 48:06
You know, it's that's hard to say, Andrew with this COVID nonsense, you know, because, you know, really doesn't matter what kind of entrepreneur you are, it's, yeah. No matter who you are, there's not much you can do right now. You know, because we're so reliant on, on on these governments telling us, what is open, what isn't open, like, you know, right now, in Thailand, everything shut down, you know, and it's day to day and, you know, things, things change here, as you know, by the minute. So, you know, I just sort of, I'm just watching it, and waiting it out right now and not doing anything crazy. If I come across a wonderful opportunity, of course, I would do it. You know, I love the restaurant biz, you know, I would, that's what I would like to be involved with. No, but I'm just waiting and seeing right now.

Andrew Stotz 49:04
All right, listeners, there you have it another story of loss to keep you winning. My number one goal for the next 12 months is to help you my listeners, reduce risk and increase return in your life. To achieve this, I've created our community at my worst investment ever.com. And I look forward to seeing you there. As we conclude, Barrett, I want to thank you again for coming on the show. And on behalf of a Stotz Academy, I hereby award you alumni status for turning your worst investment ever into your best teaching moment. Do you have any parting words for the audience? No, I appreciate you having me on. Thank you, Andrew. I just want to say I thank you, and it's been great getting to know you and I appreciate anybody, and especially you who stands up for what they believe in, even though the consequences may not be pleasant. And that's a wrap on another great story to help us create, grow and protect our wealth. Fellow risk takers, this is your worst podcast hose Andrew Stotz saying. I'll see you on the upside.