How did you get to where you are today? I am a firm believer that hard work and having dreams that you strive to achieve will motivate and inspire people to achieve their potential. Working hard, dreaming, and making sure to take advantage of every opportunity is something I learned at a young age. I credit God and God’s grace firstly, but I know that success is a direct result of hard work. I tell my podcast subscribers and followers to continue setting goals, evolving, improving, and planning, and I practice what I preach. I am proud to have started my business in the fastest growing major city in the United States, and I attribute a lot of the success of Exclusive Furniture to the family culture we create in the best city — Houston’s diversity, philanthropy, and innovation have helped me achieve a lot of the milestones in the furniture business (and the “low prices”) you see today!

Whom do you credit? I credit my mom’s prayers. And, to his credit, in the words of Snoop Dog, “I want to thank me; For showing up every day with a plan. Me for caring about my employees. Me for caring about my customers; Me for caring about my community.”

I am truly thankful to have my siblings work with me. I surround myself with great people and therefore great things happen. I want to credit luck, hard work, dedication, good planning, prayers, and believing and having faith in the vision of Exclusive Furniture — “Where Low Prices Live!”

What lessons have you learned that might enlighten and inspire others? I am constantly learning. You should be learning something new every day as there are new lessons. Some more advice: Don’t take things lightly and don’t underestimate or overestimate people. Judge people on their performance. This includes employees, vendors, and contracted people. Make sure you do your due diligence. “You can only expect what you inspect, or something will fall through the cracks.” Don’t dwell on your setbacks, instead use your setbacks as a learning session so as not to repeat pitfalls again. And, don’t worry, you will always have setbacks to learn from; you will just have fewer if you learn from the past.

It seems to me that luck has a lot to do with success, and the harder I work the luckier I get.

What’s new in your life or work that you’re excited about? I am excited to open the new Exclusive Furniture Spring location in June! This will be my 8th location. Not bad for a guy who started out in 1998 with one 2,000-square-foot store. Proud to be where I am today. Now my smallest store is 12,000 square feet. Our 8th location is 61,000 square feet! I am excited about expanding into more Texas locations and continue the brand and culture of Exclusive Furniture.