============================================================
TRANSCRIPTION WITH SPEAKERS
============================================================
[00:00] SPEAKER_01: It's VanCoovers Podcast on the Canada's Podcast Network.
[00:26] SPEAKER_02: Hello, this is Robert Smigel coming to today with a VanCoovers Podcast Network.ca, where we talk to the entrepreneurs.
[00:32] SPEAKER_02: We're making it happen here in British Columbia.
[00:35] SPEAKER_02: Pavel Bains is a CEO, Bluzel, the decentralized database for the new internet.
[00:41] SPEAKER_02: He is an expert in digital media, having worked with Disney, Microsoft, Warner Brothers, and DreamWorks.
[00:48] SPEAKER_02: Pavel is also a frequent contributor to Forbes, Huntington Post, and Fast Company, writing articles in the areas of finance and digital media.
[00:56] SPEAKER_02: In less than one year, he led Bluzel to doing projects with the world's biggest banks to be named Technology Pioneer by the World Economic Forum to becoming one of the most influential blockchain projects in the world.
[01:11] SPEAKER_02: Well Pavel, welcome to the show. Thanks for taking the time today to be here for all our listeners.
[01:16] SPEAKER_00: Hey, I'm glad to be here, Robert.
[01:18] SPEAKER_02: Great. I want you to tell us a little bit more about yourself, where you're from, and give us the details on your current business.
[01:26] SPEAKER_00: So, I am from Vancouver, born and raised. I spent one year in Los Angeles, where I went to UCLA, around on the track and field team over there.
[01:37] SPEAKER_00: And then moved back to Vancouver, finished up in SFU, and basically been there my whole life until two years ago when we decided to move in operations of our business to Singapore to target Asia.
[01:51] SPEAKER_02: Okay, and tell me a little bit more about what you guys do.
[01:56] SPEAKER_00: No, what Bluzel is the easiest way to describe it is with the next generation version of Oracle.
[02:04] SPEAKER_00: So, every knows Oracle from providing databases for companies to use, from small companies that usually enterprise level ones.
[02:12] SPEAKER_00: What we believe in is that blockchain technologies are going to influence the way the next generation of how the internet works.
[02:21] SPEAKER_00: And what we believe in it'll be a decentralized internet where it'll be more safer, more secure, more scalable.
[02:27] SPEAKER_00: And you don't have everything in the control of a few parties such as Amazon, Google, and Facebook.
[02:33] SPEAKER_00: And so when you're creating this new decentralized internet, you got to recreate the infrastructure.
[02:37] SPEAKER_00: And one of the parts is the database layer. When products are made, where should the data be stored and managed.
[02:44] SPEAKER_00: And what Bluzel's role is to be the next version, like I said, the next version of the Oracle, but for the decentralized internet.
[02:51] SPEAKER_02: Okay, now, did you need financing to start your company and how do you currently make money in your business now?
[02:56] SPEAKER_00: So we did a, when we first got going, we bootstrapped it for about a year and a half. My CTO and I, we just said, I don't want to raise any money him either until we said, we kind of figure out what we got going and we're in a good position.
[03:14] SPEAKER_00: And then when we set up the operation in Singapore, a CBC invested money in us, half a million dollars to get everything going.
[03:22] SPEAKER_00: And then last, that was in mid early 2016. And then in July 2017, we raised another one and a half million dollars from the same VC and another ones from China and Japan.
[03:39] SPEAKER_00: Some big ones. And then after that, we did what's called in the blockchain cryptocurrency world in ICO and it's a coin offering where it's basically Kickstarter for cryptocurrencies and we raised another 20 million dollars.
[03:52] SPEAKER_02: Okay, well, you're in Singapore right now. So this question is got a little different twists here, but what is the long term vision and what will your company look like in the future?
[04:02] SPEAKER_02: Do you see the company expanding into other areas and where beyond Vancouver, BC or even Canada? So you being in Singapore, obviously you've branched out there, but you still have offices in Vancouver.
[04:13] SPEAKER_00: Yes, we have our, we've got nine people working out of Vancouver, mainly our engineers and our tech technology team. So Vancouver's got great talent for that, always believed in it.
[04:27] SPEAKER_00: You know, as well educated, the people, you know, like I said, they're just very talented from the companies they've worked with from Vancouver, from the video game companies to Microsoft, even some of the homegrown Vancouver technology companies.
[04:40] SPEAKER_00: So that's really good. We see ourselves opening up offices actually globally because I can say very hard.
[04:48] SPEAKER_00: The products decentralized the how the world's moving and the technology people working on this, they all work in different areas. So we are targeting other parts of Asia to look at open offices, potentially type A.
[05:02] SPEAKER_00: That could be that's a good talent pool there. We've been there a couple times and then, you know, potentially maybe even in Europe, such as like Berlin is trying to come up as a nice hub as well.
[05:12] SPEAKER_02: Okay, so let's talk a little bit. We've learned a little bit about you and we've learned a lot about your company, but we want to talk a little bit more about Vancouver now.
[05:20] SPEAKER_02: What are the biggest benefits for you and being an entrepreneur in Vancouver, BC? I want you to give us some of their good points about starting a company here, but I also want you to give us some of the tough things or challenges for our listeners.
[05:30] SPEAKER_02: So they can keep it out for them.
[05:34] SPEAKER_00: I think that one of the good things is like I said, the talent level is really good in Vancouver. Our universities educate people really well if you go there, whether you go to, you know, SFU, UBC, Queens, they're all top notch universities.
[05:50] SPEAKER_00: And I can say this because I went to one of the top notch universities in the US, UCLA, which is just under Ivy League. So we got that talent pool, which is good.
[05:59] SPEAKER_00: I think just a little spin, but with that, we have that high talent pool, but I don't think people aim high enough in Vancouver given the level of brain power and talent.
[06:10] SPEAKER_00: And so, you know, that's kind of, I think people with that kind of smarts, they could be bigger visionaries on a global scale.
[06:19] SPEAKER_00: So talent is one, I think lifestyle is good that you can, like if you're an entrepreneur and, you know, you, and you work in different hours or you're building a new company, you know, people have the ability to take off during the day to do something more, you know, exercise, get a workout in, go for a walk and a nice here and then come back to the office.
[06:41] SPEAKER_00: And so I think it gives that nice kind of vibe for a company to have some of that flexibility and freedom. And I think in general, the Vancouver, some of the people you meet, very positive energies that you can connect to people good, you know, they're willing to open up doors and introduce you to others and you put yourself out there Vancouver, like the PC tech association.
[07:06] SPEAKER_00: They did really good for us like when we were starting this company, Bill Tam, he said, hey, you know, there's a trip, he found out that there's a group going out to Canada sending a trade mission out to Singapore and Malaysia for Asia.
[07:18] SPEAKER_00: We were, he suggested us to go, we're the only startup selected in the eight companies went and this is just like six months after we were starting.
[07:25] SPEAKER_00: And he helped us get into that and that allowed us exposure to Asia and everywhere else and God is really going.
[07:30] SPEAKER_00: So I think if you get into the right community and people, people are willing to really help you out and, you know, get you off on the right track.
[07:39] SPEAKER_02: Now the tough things.
[07:41] SPEAKER_00: The tough things, like I said, it would be that if you are a visionary and you want to something big, it's not really fostered or people don't really believe in it in Vancouver as much as when you compare to other cities where people just go all in and go for it.
[07:57] SPEAKER_00: That's why Silicon Valley, Silicon Valley, that's why China went as hard as they went over the last 20 years and the rest of the H.A.S.
[08:06] SPEAKER_00: You have to have some of that cowboy mentality and just go all out.
[08:10] SPEAKER_00: Vancouver heavily lacks that. That's why you're getting some of the brain brain, brain, you know, brain completion, where people are leaving.
[08:18] SPEAKER_00: Yeah, the brain brain, sorry. That would be, then that leads to because of that's not there, then it has, you know, you don't have that access to capital.
[08:26] SPEAKER_00: As much as these other cities such as in Asia and, you know, the U.S.
[08:33] SPEAKER_00: And then I think the other one is the other tough one would be is I think the exposure to bigger companies on a global scale because we don't have as many big companies in Canada anymore.
[08:50] SPEAKER_00: They all kind of moved out. Vancouver has just become kind of a lifestyle place, virtual companies are in Toronto.
[08:56] SPEAKER_00: So you don't have some of that inspirational, aspirational things to look at and have people around that. Okay.
[09:02] SPEAKER_00: I want to be like those guys like if you go to other cities, even in Singapore, you know, Google's got a big office, even now linked in Uber and then that spawns other ones.
[09:11] SPEAKER_00: So you just have a better, it just builds that better kind of entrepreneurial spirit of next level thinking.
[09:17] SPEAKER_02: Now we do some of our best work outside the office. Is there a place in the lower mainland when you're there close to where you live or work?
[09:25] SPEAKER_02: We like to go recharge or get inspired to just think about your business. And does it change with the season considering all the rain we get here?
[09:34] SPEAKER_00: I would, so I used to live in New West and we still have a place there is I would go to the new S key.
[09:40] SPEAKER_00: Right by the water. I like the feel of New West specifically by that water because it looks like it's outside of gas town.
[09:48] SPEAKER_00: That's the only place that looks like that that has that old Vancouver feel, which is really nice. And because you're right on the Fraser River and they reated the new S key that you can sit there, relax, do some work. So that's always that's where I go to.
[10:01] SPEAKER_00: For me, I think the rain can beat on you when it's you know when it's just dark and gray all the time. But if you find the right spot, like right near the water, big windows, it's still still nice to go up there and recharge a bit.
[10:17] SPEAKER_00: So it didn't make much difference. I would still go there even if it's really wet and raining outside.
[10:22] SPEAKER_02: Okay, we have a lot of international listeners. So this next question I want you to speak to them. If you were to start all over again and you just moved here to Vancouver, we see, but this time you don't know anyone knowing what you know now, what would you do and how would you go about starting all over again as an entrepreneur?
[10:41] SPEAKER_00: Well, I don't count on to my self as an entrepreneur in the sense of entrepreneurism is my career.
[10:49] SPEAKER_00: I just do things that I'm passionate about. So my thing would be is something with Vancouver, whatever they're passionate about, I guess I'd whether it's graphic design, automotive or high technology, I would get I would probably just go find out from the city.
[11:08] SPEAKER_00: Which kind of groups are out there or associations that can foster that, like I said, in the technology one, you had the BC technology, Institute.
[11:17] SPEAKER_00: And then or BC TIA. Yeah. So if you go to them, meet the president and they all a lot of them have the open doors and you can tell them what you're doing, they can start getting you connected. So I think that would be definitely step one.
[11:27] SPEAKER_00: Step two is something of philosophy I have really anywhere is that I believe anybody's reachable.
[11:37] SPEAKER_00: And if you're just passionate and you throw a nice kind of line to somebody and ask some of these entrepreneurs are out there.
[11:44] SPEAKER_00: They'll respond. I remember, I mean, you've interviewed him. I remember when we're doing our digital media company back in 2012, 2011, 2012 story panda.
[11:54] SPEAKER_00: And I reached out to Terry McBride from network records because he was one of the bigger media people in Vancouver, a lightest philosophy at Red Step on them emailed them message him and he said, yeah, let's grab a coffee.
[12:06] SPEAKER_00: And you know, we met a few times and he gave me some tips and that was really helpful. So I think that's that's one of the things is find out who some of the leaders are in your space there and just drop them aligned and just really casual type of thing.
[12:20] SPEAKER_02: Yeah, he was great. He came onto the show and was a fabulous guest and looking forward to having him again sometime.
[12:27] SPEAKER_02: Okay, let's talk about you routine. What does the first hour look like for you when you get up in the morning? Do you have a specific routine or a ritual that helps you get motivated start your day?
[12:38] SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so totally. The first thing is wake up and make my bed.
[12:46] SPEAKER_00: It was something that Tim Ferris had written about start by winning the day and he was like, even the simplest thing you don't have to make the bed perfect.
[12:54] SPEAKER_00: But you can get up and just put your pills down, put the bed over it so it looks nice. You won the day already because you started off on a good track.
[13:02] SPEAKER_00: And so that's something I've actually instilled in my kids and told them to start off by winning the day.
[13:07] SPEAKER_00: From there, I've got to I've got to go to the gym right in the morning. I'm an early if I'm not one of the ones I'd like to go into the day.
[13:14] SPEAKER_00: I'll probably usually talk myself out of it if I don't do it right in the morning. So I got to go in the morning and it's less about being fit.
[13:22] SPEAKER_00: It's more for just a level of balance for the rest of the day because I've tried yoga. I've tried meditating. I just just doesn't work for me.
[13:31] SPEAKER_00: But if I go to the gym for an hour and get it all out, listen to some music. At the gym, I'm not the type that I want people coming up to talk to me. It's not out of rudeness or anything.
[13:40] SPEAKER_00: The gym people want to ask how you're doing. I was like, just leave me alone for the next hour. So I can kind of be alone, have my headphones on, get that in.
[13:47] SPEAKER_00: And then I'm ready for the rest of the day. So that's how my mornings usually are.
[13:51] SPEAKER_02: Do you think entrepreneurs have to be weird or unique in a positive way or wired differently?
[14:00] SPEAKER_00: Depends on the death, the degree of entrepreneur. So, you know, if you're an entrepreneur that, hey, I just want to start, you know, kind of like a coffee shop, have fun, or have fun.
[14:10] SPEAKER_00: Or a small lifestyle business that's kind of can get going and enjoy it. I don't think you need to. You can just replace your job like, and you can have a good way.
[14:20] SPEAKER_00: I think if you're the type of entrepreneur who's trying to build scalable business, hit some really big goals or personal achievement. Yeah, you have to be, you have to be wired a different way.
[14:32] SPEAKER_00: It's just nothing else. It's illogical. It's sadistic to a point. You know, it beats you down. It's a grind. So you just have to basically be the type that's willing to suffer and keep going through that and have 100% believe that you're going to be right compared to any logical thing that anybody says to you.
[14:51] SPEAKER_00: So, if you are, you know, when people talk about, they all want to be Elon Musk or, you know, Steve Jobs and, you know, these great entrepreneurs at the here are great leaders.
[15:04] SPEAKER_00: They don't realize the grind and the taxing effort it takes in these guys mentality to get to that level. So the only way you can do it is to be just wired in a sick way almost.
[15:16] SPEAKER_02: It'd be almost like, yeah, it's a good way to put it out. Exactly. Yeah, it's funny because that's where that question kind of stems from because I was reading an article one time in Elon Musk's mother said he was always a little weird.
[15:28] SPEAKER_00: So that's where that's come from. I think that's, I think what you said there is correct. It's like, you've just got accepted at one point. And that's what I did was just on different of can explain it to people can explain to the family.
[15:42] SPEAKER_00: Not that and I just started saying I'm just accept this is how I am and who I am and if you guys don't understand that's not my problem or issue. I have to do this.
[15:51] SPEAKER_02: And it's going to work. Okay. What books are you reading now and why are even audio books and can you recommend any books for listeners who are also aspiring entrepreneurs?
[16:02] SPEAKER_00: It's a lot like to do a mix of books and podcasts. So and my books usually I don't I don't usually do business books. I just find that there's just way too much business material out there in the media that you can just get these quick hits that everybody says, you know, if you read fast company.
[16:20] SPEAKER_00: You know, ventured me things like that and they're always having these tips. So I try to read more roundabout type of books to the one that's actually personally that helped a lot was a combo of books from Peter de Mendez.
[16:33] SPEAKER_00: It was called abundance and bold. So Peter de Mendez is the one to create the express. And his two book combo of abundance is bold is all about these ventures of going 10X.
[16:43] SPEAKER_00: Like, you know, reaching for the basically reaching for the moon and walking to technologies and where the world's going where you can do this work and be really beneficial.
[16:54] SPEAKER_00: Like, you know, whether they're doing space mining or have virtual reality and how you can solve some problems around the world with certain technologies where it's going.
[17:02] SPEAKER_00: So that I recommend that it's good combo. Me personally, I'm into just different types of things like one book I read was the mathematical universe, which really breaks down physics and how math controls the entire universe and, you know, starts playing the things of, do we actually have free will or freedom of choice or not because of physics.
[17:25] SPEAKER_00: And the other one is, I mean, I was the other book recently read was Return of the King, which was the LeBron James coming back to Cleveland and that season that they won a championship.
[17:41] SPEAKER_00: And you learn about, you know, how to manage different eagles when they come into different places, how from different coach came from a different country. He was American, but spent like 15 years in Israel and Europe coaching him back to the US.
[17:55] SPEAKER_00: And his ego wasn't really managing what everybody else was expecting and just learn kind of the teamwork and the struggles that whether so, you know, so I try to take like lessons from different types of book of whether it sports or a scientist and what they learn about life and how that can play to my own.
[18:11] SPEAKER_02: What online or offline tools to use on a daily basis.
[18:18] SPEAKER_00: Myself is to keep everything in control, a lot of messenger apps. So the one of the things that's really big and especially when you start doing business in Asia is email sometimes too slow.
[18:34] SPEAKER_00: It's easier to just do a whole conversation and get something done just through whether we're using.
[18:39] SPEAKER_00: We chat or WhatsApp or signal. So the three big messaging apps. That's a big one.
[18:46] SPEAKER_00: Internally with the company, we use Slack as a good communication tool. And then for myself, I'm a big user of ever know, just because you can quickly write down these notes and ideas or.
[19:01] SPEAKER_00: Trot down things, take pictures that you need for later on and that easily accessible.
[19:06] SPEAKER_02: Okay. Now how do you balance work and how do you relax and not even think about work and what are your favorite activities to do in BC? Do you ski? Do you bite kayak golf hike or simply go for a drive?
[19:16] SPEAKER_00: So the balancing is now that you know, we've raised enough capital that we can see through this project that we're doing for the next few years.
[19:29] SPEAKER_00: That takes a lot of the stress off. So then you do have some of that more time to actually sit there and relax.
[19:34] SPEAKER_00: So for me, I do snowboard. You know, that's one of the best things about Vancouver that you know, you go around the world and it's.
[19:42] SPEAKER_00: You know, people talk about going these long distances to ski and snowboard and.
[19:47] SPEAKER_00: You know, Whistler, Blackcomb is still probably one of the top three resorts in the entire world. And it's literally what an hour and 20 minutes drive now from.
[19:54] SPEAKER_00: From where I lived in the west. So that's really helpful for me is also like to play some sports, you know, some basketball with some friends.
[20:02] SPEAKER_00: And then the other relaxing thing is with my kids. I've got three. We always on Sundays. We always like to do something in the core part of the city.
[20:11] SPEAKER_00: So that was whether it was going to Grenfell Island, going to the art gallery, going to science world.
[20:17] SPEAKER_00: Something where we can all a relaxing environment, we can all kind of learn something at the same time.
[20:23] SPEAKER_00: And those are great places to hang out.
[20:26] SPEAKER_02: Okay.
[20:26] SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
[20:27] SPEAKER_00: On Sundays.
[20:28] SPEAKER_02: Yeah. There's a lot of things you can do in the city. And it isn't necessarily to be spectacular weather.
[20:33] SPEAKER_02: So you just got to find out what you want to do, especially with the kids. I mean, there's a lot of things to do in Grenfell Island.
[20:39] SPEAKER_02: Yeah. Okay. If you weren't doing what you do now, what would you like to do for a profession?
[20:45] SPEAKER_00: For myself, it would be.
[20:48] SPEAKER_00: I'd like to do a creative design studio. So that be, you know, whether you're designing graphics or some ideas around businesses, you know, clothing.
[21:00] SPEAKER_00: So a design studio is great because it just gives you such flexibility to do some really cool things.
[21:05] SPEAKER_00: And you've seen some designers who might have come from just traditional graphic design venture into so many new things, specifically street artists.
[21:12] SPEAKER_00: Like if you look at somebody like Shepherd Fairy, who's doing, you know, graphics and logos and t-shirts, you know, started a t-shirt company.
[21:19] SPEAKER_00: Now he's designing, you know, political statements and art galleries.
[21:23] SPEAKER_00: So that's really cool and creative. And you can still kind of balance entrepreneurism business creativity all in one.
[21:30] SPEAKER_00: Another one would be eventually want to do is, you know, a fund for impact ideas. So kind of like that Peter Demendus, Ray Kurzwar model of, you know, technology for good.
[21:42] SPEAKER_00: And socks and these world problems that we have.
[21:45] SPEAKER_02: What kind of a job would you not like to do? Couldn't do it.
[21:50] SPEAKER_00: You know what? I look at all the respect to my dad and I'm close to came. So, you know, my, my parents and my uncle's family moved here from, moved to Vancouver from India.
[22:01] SPEAKER_00: And when they had to work, they just had to do stuff that to get them jobs. And you know, they did their drove cabs.
[22:09] SPEAKER_00: You know, was my dad was a bus driver. And that, that type of look to me, everything after that is easy.
[22:16] SPEAKER_00: Like seeing that, you know, somebody wake up super early and do that same job every day. That grind of it and day in, day out for years and years.
[22:24] SPEAKER_00: And to me, that's the hardest thing in the world. So, out of seeing, you know, immigrants and my dad go through that, I'm like, I could never, ever do that.
[22:35] SPEAKER_00: That's just so much respect for the people who did that with basically little choice. And that was just something they had to do.
[22:42] SPEAKER_00: So I would never want to do that.
[22:44] SPEAKER_02: And business, what is your favorite word, quote, or sentence that you like to use?
[22:50] SPEAKER_00: For me, it's like it.
[22:55] SPEAKER_00: It would really go down to the, you know, if you're really locked, it's from the Alchemist.
[23:01] SPEAKER_00: And the whole thing is, if you're on your right path, the world's going to conspire in your favor.
[23:08] SPEAKER_00: So with that, it just makes you think about, okay, think positive, meet the right people.
[23:14] SPEAKER_00: And if you give that out, like I said, the world will conspire. Just like if you think the other will conspire against you.
[23:21] SPEAKER_00: But most often, if you do the right way, you'll conspire in your favor.
[23:24] SPEAKER_00: And I've seen that happen over and over again over the past couple of years that all these things led to where I wanted to go.
[23:31] SPEAKER_00: So drawn back to that first example of, we think about going to Asia, want to check it out in the North and build time.
[23:37] SPEAKER_00: Get us into the, you know, the trade mission of Canada to go on a trip to Singapore and Malaysia, which was the areas that we wanted to check out.
[23:45] SPEAKER_00: So that conspired in our favor.
[23:46] SPEAKER_00: So no matter what happens in, you know, when you have those down times, I just look at everything.
[23:51] SPEAKER_00: It's just a stress test on the system and see if I can get through that and see what will emerge out of that.
[23:58] SPEAKER_02: What is your least favorite word sentence, you know, like to hear?
[24:03] SPEAKER_00: Well, it's probably saying something that most entrepreneurs or in the, you know, high tech startups or something like that, don't like to hear is you can't do that.
[24:12] SPEAKER_00: Like it's not possible.
[24:14] SPEAKER_02: Okay. If you had to pick one or two words to describe yourself, what would it be and why?
[24:22] SPEAKER_00: I would say persistence because I just won't quit it.
[24:30] SPEAKER_00: I think it comes back from running track and field when I was a kid, all through my high school years and university where it's just a grind.
[24:39] SPEAKER_00: And, you know, you just got to get through it and persist to make sure it happens.
[24:44] SPEAKER_00: So that would be one.
[24:46] SPEAKER_00: And then the other one, I guess would be a sponge.
[24:51] SPEAKER_00: Because I just, I'll just take any topic and try to absorb it and read it and take what I can and apply in different ways.
[24:59] SPEAKER_00: Like so, for example, over the last few years, I just got into astrophysics just because it sounded fun and neat.
[25:06] SPEAKER_00: And so I've just kind of obsessed over it, listen to podcasts, recent books and just see what I could take from that.
[25:11] SPEAKER_00: So those would be the two.
[25:13] SPEAKER_02: What keeps you up at night if anything?
[25:19] SPEAKER_00: And now it is.
[25:23] SPEAKER_00: It would be I guess a word before you're always stressed a lot of the times when you're starting to get to that next level of your business.
[25:30] SPEAKER_00: So you're wondering about survival.
[25:32] SPEAKER_00: Now it's more about the excitement of, okay, what are we going to try next?
[25:37] SPEAKER_00: What kind of problem are we going to solve?
[25:39] SPEAKER_00: And then you're almost excited to get going the really the next day.
[25:44] SPEAKER_00: So sometimes it's kind of hard to would be to go to sleep around that because you got a bunch of ideas that you want to try out and want to keep moving things moving forward.
[25:53] SPEAKER_02: Okay, I want you to give us the top three things on your inspired lifeless.
[25:56] SPEAKER_02: This could be a bucket list of any sort.
[25:58] SPEAKER_02: Could be if you want to write a book, TEDx talk, you want to travel more philanthropy, anything like that?
[26:05] SPEAKER_00: One is and a lot of my friends here, they've said it because bring it up all the time.
[26:10] SPEAKER_00: I'm not really into materialistic things like cars or nothing.
[26:14] SPEAKER_00: I'm pretty much a minimalist of things I need, but my one is want to get a home in Barcelona.
[26:19] SPEAKER_00: Went there a couple years ago, thought it was a fantastic place and to be a hate, I'd be really cool to hang out there and just eat tapas and have nice weather and beaches all the time.
[26:28] SPEAKER_00: I look like a really cool of a lax environment.
[26:31] SPEAKER_00: Second one would be I'd love to have one of my kids actually finish at UCLA.
[26:35] SPEAKER_00: Like I said, I only went there for one year.
[26:37] SPEAKER_00: It became a cost issue because there's only a partial scholarship.
[26:41] SPEAKER_00: So it'd be really cool if one of my kids decide not go all into let's say entrepreneurism or something else who knows where the world's going.
[26:47] SPEAKER_00: If they go to university, one of them actually go to UCLA.
[26:50] SPEAKER_00: It's a fantastic school and they could just finish off what I started.
[26:53] SPEAKER_00: And then the third one is something I touched on earlier is what to start that social venture fund for much later on where as an entrepreneur, I'm sure you've heard this Robert.
[27:04] SPEAKER_00: Everybody's got all these ideas. They want to do all these things, but you can't.
[27:08] SPEAKER_00: So the best way to do is once you accomplish some of your personal entrepreneurial goals of a single business is to start a fund where you can do more of these impact adventures and things that and run with a lot of the ideas that you might have in your head.
[27:21] SPEAKER_00: And it's really good to do that once you're proving yourself out in one area.
[27:25] SPEAKER_02: Okay. Do you have any advice that you may have received that you can pass on to entrepreneurs throughout BC?
[27:33] SPEAKER_00: I think the best one is it was from Peter Bonner who was, he was one of the main categories, bigger restaurant entrepreneurs.
[27:44] SPEAKER_00: They're the ones who created milestones, boat house, bread garden.
[27:50] SPEAKER_00: And then all through the 70s, 80s, 90s. So I worked for him about 15 years ago right after university.
[27:57] SPEAKER_00: And even a couple years ago he told me he said, you're never, nothing's ever going to be the right time.
[28:04] SPEAKER_00: So you know when you talk to somebody and they're like, I want to start this business, but I'm just waiting for the right time.
[28:08] SPEAKER_00: He said, it's never going to exist. There's never going to be the perfect time to do anything.
[28:13] SPEAKER_00: And you may as well just go. And when I was thinking about moving out to Singapore and Asia and get this thing going, he was the one when I was talking to him.
[28:21] SPEAKER_00: And most people saying, why this and that, he never said why he said, you know what, get out of here. Just go.
[28:26] SPEAKER_00: Pack up, get your stuff, no excuses, just get over there. I'll work out.
[28:31] SPEAKER_00: So I kind of apply that there.
[28:33] SPEAKER_02: Great. Okay, Pavel, you ready to have some fun?
[28:36] SPEAKER_00: Yes, I am.
[28:37] SPEAKER_02: Great. Okay. As you know, entrepreneurs are very, very, very busy people like you traveling all the time.
[28:43] SPEAKER_02: You've got clients, you've got people to report to, you got people reporting to you.
[28:47] SPEAKER_02: This is very, very busy. You're always connected. We're going to take you away from all that.
[28:51] SPEAKER_02: There's a small tropical island just off of Fiji that only has one phone booth there where there is no internet.
[28:57] SPEAKER_02: This place does exist. We're going to drop you out there.
[29:00] SPEAKER_02: You won't have a computer or a smartphone or tablet. You can use the phone booth located there anytime to call the boat.
[29:05] SPEAKER_02: We'll come pick you up. How long would you last before you made that call?
[29:10] SPEAKER_02: And what would you do while you were there?
[29:13] SPEAKER_00: So you can do that one call and they can come get you because they say, hey, come right now and grab me.
[29:20] SPEAKER_02: Well, you can use the phone booth whenever you want. I mean, it's just, you know, you can use it.
[29:24] SPEAKER_02: You know, there's not one call. It's really just, it's there. It's just so it's a safety net to use whenever you want.
[29:31] SPEAKER_00: Oh, so I can call it anywhere?
[29:33] SPEAKER_02: Yeah, he can call anywhere. Yeah. It's just a regular everyday phone booth.
[29:38] SPEAKER_00: I think personally, I could probably last a week.
[29:43] SPEAKER_00: I would like to probably, you know, explore, explore the island.
[29:49] SPEAKER_00: Different areas. See, see what it's all about.
[29:53] SPEAKER_00: Keep myself busy probably by, except just the exploration aspect of it all around.
[29:59] SPEAKER_00: But I'm the type that if I go on vacation and place a beach vacation, I could usually last only like tops is a week.
[30:10] SPEAKER_00: And that's even with a resort vacation on a beach.
[30:13] SPEAKER_00: I just love city life design and architecture. So I would take a week hanging out in Tokyo or Mumbai in a crazy place going on.
[30:25] SPEAKER_00: And you know, like it's a pandemonium and Mumbai over what I believe would be relaxing on a beach.
[30:32] SPEAKER_00: So I think it would be once that exploration part happened and kind of saw everything once and said, OK, this is neat.
[30:38] SPEAKER_00: Then I probably caught, jump on the phone and call the boat.
[30:41] SPEAKER_00: And so, OK, I got to go somewhere else now. OK.
[30:44] SPEAKER_02: How can I listen to get hold of you? Is there anything you'd like to add before you leave us today?
[30:50] SPEAKER_00: Best way to get hold of me is if people just want to talk and chat or just drop a line.
[30:56] SPEAKER_00: Hey, I'm my emails always open. So Pavl at bruisell.com, BOUZEL.com or Pavl Bames, PAV, B-A-I-N-S on Twitter is usually good.
[31:09] SPEAKER_00: And I think the biggest thing for listeners, specifically when Vancouver is think outside of Vancouver, lots of creative ideas in Vancouver, lots of brain power.
[31:21] SPEAKER_00: And I think that brain power can be exported on a global scale very rapidly.
[31:29] SPEAKER_00: And Vancouver is people in Vancouver and Canada are well respected throughout the world.
[31:34] SPEAKER_00: People have high regard for Canadians. And I think it's a time for people to start using that to think beyond the borders of Canada and Vancouver.
[31:43] SPEAKER_02: Great. OK, Pavl. Thanks for coming on the show. I've learned a lot about you and I'm sure listeners have as well.
[31:49] SPEAKER_00: Well, thanks Robert and I'm glad to be part of this and great job on putting these podcast series together.
[31:53] SPEAKER_02: Well, thank you very much. Great. OK, we'll see you next time.
[31:58] SPEAKER_02: See you.
[32:00] SPEAKER_01: Hey there. Thanks for taking the time today to listen to Vancouver's podcast on the Canada's podcast network.
[32:06] SPEAKER_01: We hope you enjoyed this show today. Make sure you sign up for our newsletters and write a review for us on iTunes.
[32:12] SPEAKER_01: Then connect with us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn at Canada's podcast.
[32:17] SPEAKER_01: You can also check out what other entrepreneurs are doing across the country. See you next time.
