[00:00:00 – 00:00:08] Nitin Bajaj

Everyone. Welcome to the industry show. I’m your host, Nitin Bajaj. And joining me today is Parag Amin. Parag, welcome on the show.

[00:00:08 – 00:00:09] Parag Amin

Thank you, Nitin.

[00:00:10 – 00:00:13] Nitin Bajaj

Great to have you here. Let’s start with who is Parag?

[00:00:14 – 00:00:32] Parag Amin

Who is Parag? Broad question. I’m a father. I’m a lawyer. I’m a businessman. I’m somebody who believes in the capabilities of the human spirit. I’m somebody who believes that people are capable of incredible things if they just put their minds to it.

[00:00:33 – 00:00:42] Nitin Bajaj

Love that. Short and sweet and a little deep. We’d love to get to know you a little bit more. Let’s start with what do you do for a living?

[00:00:43 – 00:01:13] Parag Amin

I help business owners solve the types of problems that could destroy their business. So for example, we help business owners in breach of contract related issues or employment related issues. So for example, somebody has a contract with someone else where somebody didn’t do what they were supposed to do or a business owner has a problem or a claim from an employee relating to their employment or wages, we help business owners with those things.

[00:01:13 – 00:01:31] Nitin Bajaj

Very helpful. Thank you for serving the community. Of course, it’s not a nonprofit. You do get paid for it. But I would imagine this comes with its own challenges, stress, and maybe some drama. So my question is, why do this?

[00:01:32 – 00:04:15] Parag Amin

Yeah. Because I think everybody needs to have something that they’re deeply passionate about and something that they believe makes a difference and helps society. So for me, my parents immigrated to the United States from India, and my dad’s dream was to have his own business 1 day that he wanted to be an entrepreneur. And so he took his life savings and he moved my whole family from New York where I was born down to Florida. And he and my mom were working 80, 90 hours a week. I was about 3 and a half years old back then. And I still remember, I hardly see my parents from time to time. I got to go to this store, but it was a time when people could still smoke  indoors, and people would smoke indoors, and my dad didn’t want me around that. And so during that time, I stayed with my grandmother, my dad’s mother. And so he and my mom are working all of these hours. And after about a year of doing this, the taxing authority comes knocking, and they tell my dad that he owes over $200,000 in unpaid sales taxes. Wow. And my dad says, look. There’s gotta be some kind of mistake. I’ve paid my sales taxes. Here’s my receipts. And the taxing authority says, no. There is no mistake. You owe this money. So what my dad didn’t know is that when he bought the entity, meaning the company that owned the store from the person before him, he had bought all of these unpaid tax liabilities with it. So the former owner didn’t tell him about this. And so when my dad bought it, he unfortunately had bought all these liabilities and the taxing authority gave him the ultimatum of either, look, you, 1, pay it, or 2, you shut it down. And so my dad made the tough choice of shutting it down and he lost his life savings. And then after that, he was bouncing around for a little bit trying to figure out what he would do to get back on his feet. He had a young family to support. And so, ultimately, he went and got a W2 job. He went back to the same company that he was working at before he left to go pursue his entrepreneurial dreams. And, ultimately, it was a factory job, a blue collar job, and it took a toll on him. And, ultimately, unfortunately, because of that incident, he lost that entrepreneurial dream. And so I made a decision at a pretty early age that I wouldn’t let that happen to my family again or to somebody else I cared about again, and that I would do what I could to prevent that from happening to others and to help others in this arena. And that’s why I went on to law school, and that’s why I work with business owners today.

[00:04:17 – 00:05:09] Nitin Bajaj

Wow. Such a passionate and deeply touching story. Again, sorry to hear what happened to your family. And I believe this is where the resilience of the immigrant community comes into play. Yes. They face this unfortunate event, but then in you, we come back stronger. And now you’re making sure that this does not happen to anybody else. So really kudos to you and your family’s resilience for staying strong through these challenges. I can only imagine what the family must have gone through in facing such hardship despite doing all the right things. Now having come across and taken your position and becoming who you are today, I’d love to hear what’s the 1 big challenge you’re facing.

[00:05:10 – 00:07:06] Parag Amin

If I did you pick just 1? I would say attracting and keeping the best team members. So meaning, we’ve got a great team already, but we’re growing very rapidly. And especially on the legal side of things, hiring extremely capable, smart lawyers. We’ve got, again, a good team. I’ve got a few lawyers I work with already, but we’re constantly growing, and that need and desire for lawyers who are deeply connected to and care about what they’re doing can be hard. Because, unfortunately, I think what happens is a lot of people come out of law school and they start practicing in big law and working in big law like I did.  And a lot of times what happens is they’re working for huge companies or insurance companies, and they don’t feel the same type of connection that I do with my clients. And so, unfortunately, by the time they get to be 5, 7, 9 years plus down into the legal practice, many of them have ended up moving on and they’re no longer practicing law, and that is really unfortunate. And that’s the challenge. We’ve hired younger attorneys previously, but there’s a training aspect that takes a lot of time. And so I strongly believe in mentorship and providing guidance, but there’s different levels of it. And so it can be very challenging when somebody is just starting out from law school to be able to give them that support and guidance they need because a lot of law school is teaching you how to think, but it doesn’t teach you how to practice law. And so maybe ironically, even after 3 years of law school, the vast majority of students, including me, end up paying a private test company to help them prepare for the bar exam so they can take and pass the bar exam so they can be practicing law.

[00:07:07 – 00:07:43] Nitin Bajaj

Very interesting. And, I would say challenging. As you talked about hiring and bringing on a bigger team, my thoughts stand to go into the direction of giving us a sense of the size and scale of your operations. And what I like to hear more about is the impact you’ve been able to create for the community in helping save business owners or save their businesses or their life savings. And I’m sure there is more color to it. So I would love to hear a little more about that.

[00:07:43 – 00:09:18] Parag Amin

Sure. Yes. Currently, in terms of the overall team, I’ve got 8 full time employees. We’ve also got a few part time people, including a few lawyers who are doing part time work because they are balancing their own life and things that they’ve got going on, so they don’t necessarily want a full time caseload. And that’s another thing is it can become very all encompassing in terms of the work, in terms of the amount of money at stake, because the types of cases that were taken on, they can be very high stakes cases and the vast majority of them are. So talking about 100 of 1,000 of dollars into 1,000,000 into we’ve got cases that exceed $100,000,000 at issue. So in terms of the amount of money, the amount of somebody’s financial future at stake, the stakes are very high. And so it takes a high level of discipline and commitment, including time commitment. And so that is the balance. In terms of the scale and the impact that we’ve been able to create to date in terms of funds recovered or saved for clients, it’s well in excess of $75,000,000 And in terms of that number, it continues to grow. And at this point, realistically, it would be over a 1000 business owners that we’ve helped in various ways. And that number also continues to increase.

[00:09:19 – 00:09:34] Nitin Bajaj

That’s really amazing. I applaud you and the team for all of the accomplishments and successes so far. And I know there is a lot more to come there. And with that, give us a sense of the 1 most exciting opportunity that’s ahead of you.

[00:09:35 – 00:11:34] Parag Amin

Yeah. So what we’re working on right now is we’re working on creating a solution for business owners who might want risk, risk control and advice or legal counsel on a regular basis to avoid the kinds of problems and issues that can destroy their business. So a lot of times what happens is on the litigation front, which is primarily what my office deals with is disputes. By the time it gets there, it can become very expensive. So for example, the average employment lawsuit in California will cost in excess of $160,000. So that’s a lot of money. And what happens a lot of times is these business owners just don’t know. Just like my dad didn’t know what he didn’t know. And because these laws are so strict and business owners can be held personally responsible despite having a company for things like unpaid wages, a lot of them don’t realize how problematic it is and how problematic it can become without the proper guidance. And so I decided that if I really wanted to help make this difference, if I really wanted to be true to my own commitment that I have to be able to help these business owners before these problems arise, not just fixing them once they do. Because, yes, we have solved many problems, and we’ve even pulled a few miracles in terms of helping clients avoid things that otherwise could have been seen as, like, direct violations of laws they didn’t even know about, but still having your lawyer pull a miracle is not a good strategy. The reality is the best thing you can do is to make sure you’re prepared and know what the laws are. So that’s what we’re working on is helping business owners understand what the laws are so they can not violate the laws and make sure that they’re fully compliant. So that’s something that I’m very excited to announce for business owners. And we’re gonna be rolling that out here within the next few months.

[00:11:35 – 00:12:05] Nitin Bajaj

Super exciting. And as always, prevention is better than cure. So that’s the right strategy to have. Now, as we look forward, I would love to pause and reflect and ask you to share 2 moments in your life and career where in 1 case, things didn’t work out as you’d expected, and there were failure lessons. And another where things exceeded your own expectation and became a success beyond your imagination. 

[00:12:05 – 00:14:04] Parag Amin

So there would be 2 sides of the same coin. Amin, the biggest failure that I thought of at the time was that I had this dream of going to law school since I was young. And Harvard Law School is widely viewed as 1 of the best law schools in the country. When I was applying to law schools, I had an LSAT score and the LSAT is similar to the SATs, but it’s for law school. And so I had a score that could have let me get in potentially to Harvard Law School. Harvard Law School sent me a letter asking me to apply to Harvard Law School. So I applied to Harvard Law School, which Harvard Law School then promptly sent me a rejection letter. And that was very difficult for me because I thought I really had a shot of getting in, and they had invited me to apply. I thought, okay. That’s gotta mean something. I don’t think it meant what I thought it meant, and that was tough. But the reality is when I look back on it now, if I had gotten into the heart of law school, I wouldn’t probably be in Los Angeles. I wouldn’t have moved here because I went to USC for law school, another great amazing law school, and I’m really glad I went. And so things worked out. And, ultimately, my wife lives here, and so we started dating because I moved to Los Angeles. And now we have a beautiful daughter because I moved to Los Angeles. So all of this stuff, it seemed so serious and so heavy at the time of, oh my god. This means that I’m just not good enough. And I got rejected from the school that I thought I could potentially get into, and then they told me I wasn’t good enough. And that was a tough day and a tough few weeks after that. But in hindsight, it’s 1 of the best things that could have happened to me. And I love living in Los Angeles. I love my life here, and I don’t think any of that would happen had I not been rejected. So when looking back, I think the dots do line up. 

[00:14:04 – 00:14:05] Nitin Bajaj

And I’m excited to have you here.

[00:14:06 – 00:14:12] Parag Amin

Yeah. Thank you. Yeah. Though sometimes it’s hard to look forward. When you look back, you see how they all start to align.

[00:14:13 – 00:14:28] Nitin Bajaj

So true. Now that you’re here in Los Angeles, what do you like to do to kick back, de-stress, relax when you’re not dealing with everything that comes as part and parcel of what you do for the community?

[00:14:29 – 00:15:07] Parag Amin

Yeah. So these days, I like spending time with friends and family. We do travel a bit. We do enjoy traveling. And my daughter, she just turned 3 not too long ago, and she’s relatively well traveled. She’s been to a few countries already. And so I genuinely enjoy spending time with my family. We’ll go on hikes, we’ll go on trips, and we’ll either go to friends houses or from time to time, my wife and I will sneak out and even catch a music show or 2 with some friends while we’ve got a babysitter at home. So those are the things I enjoy doing these days.

[00:15:08 – 00:15:20] Nitin Bajaj

Wonderful. Everything that our beautiful nature has to offer, we should take advantage of. So any book or a podcast that you would like to share?

[00:15:21 – 00:16:19] Parag Amin

Yeah. Absolutely. There’s a few. I think Andrew Huberman’s podcast is very good. He’s a neuroscientist at Stanford, and he talks a lot about health and human conditioning. And I think that aspect of wellness and performance is overlooked many times, especially in the professional capacity. Because if your body isn’t fit and healthy, then your mind can suffer. And if your mind isn’t fit and healthy, then your body can suffer. So I really do think that they’re each wings to a bird and you need both of those wings to be able to fly. And so I really enjoy some of the insights he provides on his podcast. Lewis Howes and the School of Greatness, I enjoy his podcast. In terms of a book that I found was very transformative was the 10 x rule by Grant Cardone, which he’s a very polarizing figure,

[00:16:19 – 00:16:19] Nitin Bajaj

I know.

[00:16:19 – 00:17:23] Parag Amin

But in terms of his book, I found myself agreeing with him in terms of the amount of effort that it takes and that we tend to underestimate how difficult things are. And I think more so these days than any other days in history because things these days are so much more convenient. For example, if we want a meal, we don’t even have to drive anymore to go get fast food. We don’t have to make it. We don’t even have to drive to get fast food. Somebody can literally just deliver it to us at home. The same thing with dating, same thing with all kinds of information. If you wanna research something, if you wanna learn something, it’s at your fingertips, and you can many times just access it directly from your phone, which is with you pretty much every waking hour. So there’s a lot of conveniences in today’s modern life that make it easy to forget how difficult it was to get here and how difficult success can be and how much effort and time success demands.

[00:17:24 – 00:17:38] Nitin Bajaj

That’s a great reminder. And yes, I agree with you. He’s polarizing, but that book hit home, on many fronts. Now onto my favorite part of the show, Parag, I would love for you to share your life lessons with us.

[00:17:39 – 00:18:36] Parag Amin

Okay. So I think that success is rented, and the rent is due every day. I think you can learn something from everybody that you meet. You can learn at least 1 thing from everybody that you meet. I think being grateful for the opportunities that we get is critical because there is somebody out there right now who would kill to get the same opportunities that we’ve been given. And if someone can take all of their hardships and turn them into opportunities, if they can take their tragedies and find a way to find meaning in them, to help move them forward, that person cannot lose.

[00:18:39 – 00:19:14] Nitin Bajaj

Love that. Parag, thank you so much for taking the time to share your journey and story with us. And of course, your 1 line life lessons. We really appreciate it. Congratulations and kudos again for everything you do for the community, for helping save business owners, especially small businesses. As we know, small businesses are the life and heart of this country without which we would not continue to make the progress that we do. So thank you for being of service and looking forward to bringing you back on and sharing more of your success stories.

[00:19:15 – 00:19:16] Parag Amin

Thank you, Nitin