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The Resilient Path Podcast with Kyle Draper features powerful, honest conversations with people who have faced life's toughest challenges and found the strength to keep moving forward.
From trauma, loss and addiction to mental health struggles, setbacks and unexpected life-changing moments, each episode explores not only what people have been through, but how they found their way through it.
Through raw stories, hard-earned lessons and inspiring journeys, The Resilient Path reminds us that resilience isn't about avoiding adversity, it's about discovering the strength to rise, rebuild and keep going.
Everyone faces adversity. The question is: How will you respond?
How could it happen twice, man?
Imran:How much fucking bad luck can I have? I lost my mom. I lost my dad. I grew up on myself. I had cancer already once.
Imran:I'm not even 40. I get a second time. What the hell is going on?
Kyle:Hello everybody, welcome to this episode of the Resilient Path Podcast. I'm Kyle Draper. This week I'm joined by Imran Poladi, entrepreneur, father, husband, owner of True Sports Cards in Rockland, California. Imran, thanks for coming on.
Imran:Hey man, this is a great setup. I've been watching all the episodes that they've been coming out, very inspired, and happy to be part of this version of Resilient Path.
Kyle:You know, I got to give people the backstory. You and I have a relationship where I would say we're friends. I don't know how you want to characterize
Imran:it. Yes, we're friends.
Kyle:But you're also the employer for my son. Like, you're my son's boss also. Yeah. So I'm gonna take it easy on you here in this episode,
Imran:He's if that's the one that's gonna feel it, not you. So just go at it. We're good.
Kyle:Well, the first question he wanted me to ask you is, can he have a raise?
Imran:The answer is probably not. You know, bring more to the table and get more at your table. I love Nick. He's great. You know, it's interesting because we've known each other for years now and watching your son grow up to be a young man versus a young teen.
Kyle:Yeah.
Imran:He's really growing, so you should be proud.
Kyle:He has that Draper work ethic, is what I say, you know? Mom's side. Right, mom's side. Hey man, you know, let's get into it because this podcast is really all about not only trauma and things that people have been through, it's how you were able to navigate that and lead a happy and successful life. So I'll start with just as a kid, man, you grew up in Stockton, California.
Kyle:Explain what was that like?
Imran:Well, I watched one of your other podcasts with Kevin John, a guy that I admire. I think he's great. What a great guest to have as your opening guest for your pod. Growing up in Stockton, 209, was a kid in school in the eighties and nineties. When I was in sixth grade, we actually had the Cleveland school shooting there when that happened.
Imran:I don't know if you know that. You weren't in the area. There was a school shooting back then and and Michael Jackson came out to to honor the kids that had passed away. So we we come from what tends to be a violent city. It's one of the more violent cities in the in The United States, not just California.
Imran:And there's a lot of potential pitfalls in this city. And growing up in that city, you're navigating as a young man, as a young child, to try to figure out what's the path that I need to be on. And unfortunately, I lost my parents when I was young. My mom passed of cancer, colon cancer, when she was 40. I was five.
Imran:And my dad passed of AIDS. He got it through a blood transfusion back when he was going through some liver issues. Back then, they didn't really screen for HIV. So my father passed away at the age of 11. I was 11 and my dad was 44.
Imran:So I kind of grew up without parents, not kind of, I did grow up without parents and then eventually became an emancipated minor at 16, knowing that there wasn't somebody there to care for me. Now I had family members, but their circumstances didn't allow them to be able to care for me. So being 16 in an emancipated minor is a unique situation, especially when you don't have a backup plan. Right. A lot of people will rely on family members financially or emotionally or spiritually or whatever it be.
Imran:I just didn't have that. So that began my self awareness journey. And I'm actually somewhat just reflecting kind of surprised that I ended up where I'm at versus where I could have been.
Kyle:Yeah. And that's that's why I wanted to have you on the podcast. Your story is tremendous. Let's start with your mom. Do you have any memories or recollections of her?
Kyle:Because you were five. Yeah. When she passed away.
Imran:No, I think about this, too. And we'll talk about my son Beckett, who is four years old now. And I talked to my wife, Jessica. You'll hear about her throughout. I think about like, when did I remember things as a young man?
Imran:I mean, when did you start remembering? Do you remember the age Probably
Kyle:like six or seven ago.
Imran:Like when you roll back, it's like, when do you when you remember So I think my age was like four or five that I can remember as far back. So it was right before mom passed. And so I only know a few items that I still honor to this day. My mom used to make Rice Krispie treats as a little boy for me and make Ovaltine. You ever
Kyle:drink Ovaltine? The commercials too.
Imran:Yes. Everybody makes up the Ovaltine, but we drink cold Ovaltine, not So, hot you know, and I remember things like, I used to cry. Think I had colic or something as a child, very like icky. So my mom would lay in the bed with me and she would try to put me to sleep and I'd cry and I'd cry and I'd cry. And then she would turn over of exhaustion and I'd be reaching for her crying.
Imran:And I remember holding her ear. It's a weird story. I don't tell this very often. I remember holding her ear and there was just this comfort about it, like, Okay. So she was turned with her back towards me.
Imran:I was reaching for as a little boy. I hold her ear. I stop crying.
Kyle:So that was comforting for you.
Imran:Yeah. Yeah. It was kind of like my it was kind of like my woosa. Right. My woosa.
Kyle:Right.
Imran:And and that was a wonderful feeling. And so when my mom passed away, I actually when she had her seizure that led her to the hospital to where she finally passed away, she had already been going through chemotherapy. She had already been going through the radiation, as I've been told. I was a little boy. I heard the story second hand from my father later in my young life.
Imran:And I was the one that called 911 at five years old to have the ambulance come because she had a seizure. So that was traumatic in itself, watching your mother go through that. I didn't know what was happening. You know, she's having the seizure in front of me. And we call the ambulance and she whisks away and she never gets back to the house.
Imran:She she has recovery in the hospital and eventually passes away. So there's a there's a level of trauma there. And only recently, and we'll talk about that later. Only recently did I start doing some counseling, like within the last six months. So a lot of this trauma, a lot of this, these things that have happened in my life, I've just kind of sheltered in, which has helped me understand why I've grown up the way I've grown up because I'm not addressing these growing up.
Imran:And I'm so glad that you're doing a podcast that talks about mental health and some of the barriers and that the person that's listening to this or watching this is not alone Yeah. In this because there's far more people like us than is out there to believe. Yeah. So hopefully we inspire those to get the assistance that they need.
Kyle:Yeah. And that's the purpose of this conversation. You know, you bring up holding things in early trauma. And it's just been in the last few years for me where I've realized the trauma as a young kid, five, six, seven is still impacting When me did you become aware that, you know, whether it's the trauma of your mother, we'll talk about your father in a minute. Was it an adulthood thing where you're like, Man, this has really impacted me?
Kyle:Or did you recognize at a young age, like, I'm going through it right now and that trauma is changing me?
Imran:I did not recognize it. I think it's one of those things where it's like fight or flight survival mode. When you're just going through that, you're not quite sure what what's in front of you. You just like, okay, one foot in front of the other. But in reflection, going back as you mature, you're like, wait a minute, that makes sense to me.
Imran:So I went to a, I'm a big self development self help person. I like to read those books. I'm not a fiction reader, but I read a lot of like how to get better, how to improve. I'm into that. It's just kind of one of those things that feeds my soul.
Imran:And something that I went to, I went to a conference. It was actually a Tony Robbins event. And I went to it in my mid thirties and we they were talking about sleeping. And I don't know if it's true or not, but it sounds good to me. I'll use it as a placebo effect if it's the truth.
Imran:But like when we go to sleep, there's REM sleep, right? Rapid eye movement. It's moving and it's almost like a download to where it's saying, okay, it's going from short term memory to long term memory and you're downloading stuff. But when things are traumatic, it zaps back into short term memory. And that's what makes us triggered by something immediately.
Imran:I have a fear of snakes. I don't like snakes.
Kyle:Okay.
Imran:But because it's a triggering factor, it stays in my short term memory. I don't have to go and see a snake and go. Does that scare me?
Kyle:It's right there.
Imran:It does. Yeah.
Kyle:Right. You don't have to.
Imran:I know it right away. So I think that a lot of the things that traumatically bother us stay in our forefront of our mind, which then limits us to do things. You know, as a little boy, I remember being pushed into a pool before I knew how to swim. Maybe I was like seven or eight. And that affected me because I almost drowned.
Imran:You know, I was in a pool and then the lifeguard had to come get me and I almost drowned. And to this day, I mean, I'm not a strong swimmer. I can swim. But like in my twenties, I didn't know how to swim because I was so afraid of the water. And now, you know, as we think about the things that we go through, we don't realize why we are the way we are until we think back and go, wait a minute, I got thrown in the Yeah.
Imran:That's why I don't want to jump in the pool or learn how to swim or any of that kind of stuff. So I think we realize it as we get older, but not necessarily right when it's happening because when you're in it, you just don't know.
Kyle:Yeah. You know, you lose your mom at five. Would you consider yourself a mama's boy? Because I was a total mama's boy and I could imagine, you know, she's like my security blanket growing up. Was she were you a mama's boy?
Kyle:And did your father, I guess, have to take on that role of your security blanket after that?
Imran:Yeah, it's it's interesting. Mom's still with it? Your mom?
Kyle:Yep. Yep.
Imran:Great relationship. Yep.
Kyle:Great. Even stronger now. Of course.
Imran:Know, that I look back and realize, yes. The sacrifices that she made for you in order for you to be successful today. It's amazing. We look back and we think of our traumas, tribulations and stuff that we go through. And it's like, wait a minute, mom didn't have Google.
Imran:She didn't have the ability to FaceTime somebody to ask for help. You know, I don't know if I was a mama's boy. I appreciate moms more than, well, I wouldn't say more than, but I'd certainly appreciate moms, even though I didn't have it. I think people just pop into your life and are mother like figures and there are seasons and I'm okay with understanding seasons of life and where people should be in and should not be in. That's a most recent revelation to me, to where I feel like it's not necessary that somebody needs to be in your life forever because they were there during a period of time in your life.
Imran:Interesting example of that. I've been married twice. Had a first marriage. She was a wonderful person. Just didn't work out.
Imran:And then we have my current and final and...
Kyle:Right.
Imran:Yeah. Said... Forever wife. I said current as if it was going to be a part two. Right.
Imran:No, my forever wife, Jessica. And the groomsmen in my first wedding were not any of the groomsmen in my second wedding. Really? It's just life. Yeah.
Imran:You know, and there's a gap of about eighteen years between the two marriages. But, know, when I got married once and I got married a second time. So that means that just life happened. We grow into different people. We grow into different paths as this.
Imran:And and you have to be okay with that. Right. Because I'm okay now, just like I was okay back then. It just you just have different people in your life and it's okay. So trying to hold on to people in your life because of a distant memory is something that's just not
Kyle:We're talking about your mom now though, Imran here. We're not talking about just some, you know, a friend that you, you know, from college. Like this is mom for
Imran:Right. Talking And I think that it's one of those things where I don't remember enough for it to be traumatic. It's my dad that became traumatic. Yeah. Because mom was there and I remember some great memories of mom.
Imran:But if you think about it, at five years old, half of my life, she was battling cancer. Right. She had cancer from about 37 years old to 40. So I didn't know mom other than bald mom wearing a wig mom. I didn't know mom except for, you know, not able to gain weight mom.
Imran:I had nauseous vomiting mom. So I don't know a mom different than that. So I just have, I think in my brain have triggered myself to say best version of her. I have a few photos with her. I hang on to that.
Imran:My mom's name was Adora Shan Adoration in Filipino. So my mom was a traditional Filipino Tagalog speaking woman and God fearing Catholic woman. And she went by Doris. And so one of those things, just hang on to the memories of what you have in as positive a way possible. Yeah.
Kyle:So you talked about your dad who passed away when you were 11. Take me through that relationship. Tell me about your dad.
Imran:Incredible. He is my hero of all heroes. Immigrant from Pakistan. Came over to the University of Philippines to get his bachelor's. That's how he met my mom.
Imran:She was a server in a restaurant. So he fell for this server in the restaurant, right? Both of them broken English. My dad, natural, speaking Arabic, Urdu, and other Middle Eastern languages, trying to broken English his way into flirting with my mom, who's broken English ing her way back. My dad ended up going to Cornell University.
Imran:So when he came over, he worked at Kmart in the nursery, as in like where you water the plants.
Kyle:Plants, yeah,
Imran:So he worked there in Ithaca, New York, went to Cornell University in addition to that, saved up a bunch of money, wrote a lot of back and forth with my mom in The Philippines in correspondence, love letters, and said, Doris, come The United States. So she came and immigrated too.
Kyle:From The Philippines.
Imran:From The Philippines. So they developed a relationship there in New York. After my dad graduated from Cornell University, they they made the move over to California. And then here we are. So my dad and mom, despite my dad being Muslim and my mom being Catholic, right?
Imran:Oil and water. Yeah. They stayed together. They married together. They fell in love together and stayed in their own individual religions.
Imran:So that just goes to show like, wow, if love can conquer through anything.
Kyle:You know, I'm watching you tell this story and you're beaming like it's it's a proud story of your for you, right?
Imran:I just think of how many relationships I have struggles with in my life personally, professionally. And I think about like, oh, I can't get past that. Like my mom and dad got past some of the biggest hurdles possible. Right. And when you think back to some of the stuff that our families or our generations before us have dealt with, our problems are big to us, but small in the grand scheme And of reason why my dad is my hero is because he was the ultimate entrepreneur.
Imran:He really was. If you think about a guy, came as an immigrant from Pakistan, went to Cornell University. I didn't go to college. I'm proud of his alumnus over there. He started as an insurance salesman.
Imran:And he was a broken English guy working in California, brown dude, trying to make his way in the world and ended up building relationships with a Filipino culture as a Pakistani guy. My wife is Filipino. Let me So work with he starts building, building, building. He buys an existing insurance company out. He becomes one of the top 10 salespersons for farmers insurance in the entire state of California.
Imran:He takes that money. He saves it like a, like a difficult immigrant would, Saves the money. He buys into an A and W So he's now a restaurant franchise owner. He owns an insurance company. He sells the insurance company to another company.
Imran:So he pockets more money in that sense. He goes doubles down into the restaurant industry. He wants to become an author. Like my dad had his hands in all these entrepreneurial. And I was front row for all of it, watching all of it from the age of five, six, seven years old when my dad had his restaurant.
Imran:It was on Main Street in Stockton, California. And, he's like, son, do you want to go and go up there and take the orders? I was like, sure, dad. So here I am at eight years old, learning how to use the register and taking orders for people. My dad said, I'm going to be an ultimate entrepreneur.
Imran:I'm not going to say anything. I'm just going to do, I'm going do it in front of my son. And he's going to learn by osmosis on how to put in the hard work and figure this out. And so as kids were running around at Chuck E. Cheese playing video or whatever, was at the store learning how to make change and take an order and customer service.
Imran:So I just had a different upbringing, which allowed me to be kind of who I am today. And he set the foundation. And here's the other thing too, Kyle, that's really important. After my mom died, my dad had to be mom and dad, provider and carer. And when my mom passed away, my dad installed a basketball hoop in our driveway.
Imran:It was after the fact. Created my love for basketball. Because basketball is one of those sports, as you know, that can be played by one person with a ball in a hoop. Right. Right?
Imran:I don't have to have anybody pitch to I don't have to have anybody throw to me. I could shoot hoops day, all day long. And that's my sport. I played in high school, etcetera. And when my dad would come home, he left when it was dark.
Imran:I went to school. I walked to school. He'd come home when it was dark. He worked, worked, worked, worked his ass off. But every day he came home, he'd take off his jacket, wearing his suit and tie still, keeping his dress shoes on.
Imran:And we shoot in the driveway for a good hour playing against each other, you know, whatever. My dad wouldn't even he wouldn't even waste one second to change his clothes in order for us to.
Kyle:He still have the dress clothes on and. Let's play, son.
Imran:And and so those were moments to me where I think to myself, like, I'm tired. I worked all day. I don't want to, you know, Beckett's exhausted. My son's name is Beckett. Beckett's exhausting me today.
Imran:No, man. Dad could do it. I could do it. You know what I mean? And the part to me to this day that really reflects on me, and we could talk about back when time comes, but I'm older.
Imran:I turned 49 from this recording. I turned 49 next week, just a few days from now. And I'm older by five years than my dad ever did. And when I think about my dad and and what he accomplished in the forty four years that he had on Earth, I'm dumbfounded on how he was able to do it. Being an author, being an entrepreneur, owning multiple businesses, being an immigrant, kind of had to scrap his way.
Imran:Nothing was handed to him. And I'm at 49 trying to chase the ghost of trying to be like him. And I'm realizing through therapy now that I'm not supposed to be like him. I can be inspired by him, but I need to be my own path.
Kyle:Your own path.
Imran:Just like Beckett needs to be his own path when the time comes for him.
Kyle:Yeah, 100%. Sounds like your dad, said it, your hero, role model, best friend, even at that time. But he only lived till you were 11 years old. Right. Take me through that.
Kyle:What happened?
Imran:So my dad got sick. He ended up having some liver problems and he was up for a transfusion, a transplant. And back then, screening of any kind of blood infectious diseases weren't a big thing. So after my dad had his liver operation, they used blood that was donated, which ended up being infected with the HIV virus. And back then it was a very different world, very different world.
Imran:And back then when you had HIV, it was considered at that time. And obviously it's been debunked since then. But it was a gay disease. Yes. It was a gay disease.
Imran:And there was really no HIPAA back then. So when it was diagnosed that my father had HIV, the diagnosis was, here's some pills. They called it AZT. It might be the pills today. I don't know if it's used or not.
Imran:Here's your pills. This should prolong your life by a little bit. Get your affairs in order. That's what it was like. And if you think about that, if I thought about that today and I was given this, I wouldn't call it death sentence, but a mortality sentence.
Imran:And I knew that I had a year to live. And I had my son at the age of four, in my case, 10, knowing that the countdown clock has started, I don't know how to react. I don't know if I would react the same way my dad did. How did he react? In a strange way.
Imran:I wouldn't wouldn't call it abusive, but tougher. Like with more anger. So this is a this is something I don't really bring up. I haven't brought up and I'm actually shocked that I'm talking about it now. But my dad got tougher.
Imran:First time he ever took a belt to my butt was after he was sick. Not weird. Yeah. And I thought about that for years, wondering why he got tough. And I had some real hard times with it until I got later in life and I thought to myself, what if I knew that I was going to be dying And my son didn't have anybody left.
Imran:Is he going to grow up to be a weenie? Do I have to toughen him up? Am I upset at this whole situation? I'm taking it out on the one person that's there? I don't know.
Imran:And for years I held that resentment towards my dad. I was unable to understand it because he was never like that before then. So it was a weird like dynamic that he got tough on me after he got sick. Still loving, just a lot more stern than I was expecting. And I learned a lot of life lessons from my dad.
Imran:But one thing that I always had from him was humanity, humanity and dignity. I'll never forget my dad pulled us out of school in his final year of life. And I traveled with him and I was out of school for four months. DC, New York took us. Yeah.
Imran:Like, we're out of school. Let's go. And I saw sights. I saw things. I went to Washington Monument.
Imran:This is when I'm supposed to be at school when I'm seven, seventh grade. And my dad took us on this trip. And what I learned about that trip was he was like, this is it. You know, this is the last time I'm be with my son doing this thing before I'm too sick to realize it. And one event happened where we were at Washington DC and we're going to lunch and my dad saw this guy digging out of the garbage, eating pizza crust.
Imran:And he goes, Hey, hey, get out of there. And the guy was freaked out, scared. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry.
Imran:He goes, no, no, no. Nobody should be eating out of a garbage can. And my dad invited him to come and eat with us that lunch. Dusty, dirty guy had, you know, didn't smell great. I remember it.
Imran:I was shocked. I was sitting there eating with him, sitting at this table and listening to my dad talk to him. How did you get here? What happened? Why did you get involved in alcohol?
Imran:Just like that. My dad was a non drinker, non smoker, non drug user. So I listened to the humanity of it all. He treated this man like a person, not the invisible community that we often see. I mean, we're here in Sacramento.
Imran:We see it downtown often, you know, mental health and all the things come with it. And my dad turned this homeless guy that was digging out of the garbage into a human right in front of me. And it helped me understand something about my dad. Nobody's better than anybody else. And everybody has a time that they need somebody to help them.
Imran:Now, I don't know what that guy is. I mean, it was thirty five years ago. The guy has probably passed away from old age or whatever the scenario is, but he'll never that person, whether he's alive or not, will never know what that moment impacted me. I don't know his name. I barely would remember what he looked like, but I remember the life lesson that my dad gave me.
Imran:And he gave me lots of those throughout life that allowed me to be able to be who I am today because of those moments.
Kyle:We'll continue our conversation in a moment, but first, a word from our sponsor. Hey, everyone. Kyle here. On the Resilient Path Podcast, we talk a lot about finding strength during life's most difficult moments. And when a loved one is facing a serious medical crisis, no family should have to worry about where they're going to sleep at night.
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Kyle:So your dad's so impactful in your life. The man you've become. But that 10 year old, that 11 year old, you already lost your mom. Now you're losing your best friend, your hero.
Imran:I didn't know. You didn't know? No. The way I found out my dad had HIV AIDS was I was watching TV. It was the CNN.
Imran:It was some report. And they were talking about AZT, this pill. And they were showing like, you know, those classic pills going down the thing and the, you know, pharmacists putting them in the little tubes or the little bottles. I was like, what? What is this?
Imran:And I ran to the medicine cabinet, and I looked. And yes, it was the matching pill. And it was for the AIDS virus. That's how I found out. I found out because my dad didn't want to tell me.
Imran:And so I remember sitting for about a week, week and a half, keeping it to myself until I went to my dad. And I said, are you going to die? I remember crying. And he says, we're all going to die, son. And I said, No, but are you dying?
Imran:And he said, Yes. And I think that's one of those moments where as a child, you are looking at the person that's your hero and seeing the kryptonite against your Superman. And at that moment, I started cherishing stuff. I had asked him a bunch of questions. How did this happen?
Imran:What happened? What happens now? What's going to happen to me? So there was a lot of answers there that affected me. And it still triggers me to this day.
Imran:When I find out people are passing away or they're sick, it's very difficult for me because I feel terrible for the person passing, but I feel worse for the people that love them, that are left behind, that don't know what to do. And as we talk through our pod today, I've been my dad. I've been through that to where I watch people around me that love me look at me and say, well, what am I supposed to do as you're dying? So finding out from your father, your hero, the man that you thought would be there forever isn't going to be there, not only not just forever, but not for long. You start cherishing those moments.
Imran:And I think that's when my dad flipped to saying, Let's do something together, son, to where you'll never forget me. And there was a saying that happened, I remember it says, Nobody really ever forgets you until the last person that knows you passes away too. And so as long as I'm alive, Hassan Poladi will always be at the forefront and he will always be known. Just like I hope that when Becket grows older, he'll remember Imran Poladi too, his dad, and pass on whatever I leave to him as my legacy moving forward.
Kyle:It's powerful, man. That's I mean, because I understand, you know,
Imran:you're a dad, you get it like it hits you hard to think about.
Kyle:Dad is larger than life, you know, indestructible, you think as a kid growing up. And I see it now as an adult. You know, I watch my father get older, my uncles and aunts getting older. These were people that were as big as the world to me. My dad
Imran:would be Grant Cardone. He would be Alex Hermosy. He would be that guy that could say, here's the nuts and bolts on how to build something from scratch to be an entrepreneur in business and see success. Maybe not the monetarily level, but definitely in the structure of building a successful business. And he didn't have YouTube.
Imran:He didn't have cameras. He didn't have podcasts. We're lucky enough to have that. We could just lift something up. Our legacy, you, me, it can live for centuries after us because we've been recorded.
Imran:We can record stuff that matters to us and that we could pass on. And even though our physical bodies leave us and we're done, our legacy can be is, is, is, you know, it's created and solidified here.
Kyle:Yeah.
Imran:And our son, Nick and Quinn and me and Beckett, they can watch us So over the what are we doing? How are we really recording the stuff that matters or are we, you know, Tik Toking and dancing in front of a camera nonsensically? We can do that, too. Yeah. But make sure that you leave some of the knowledge that we learned on this earth because we owe it to our parents, to our ancestors, to people that helped us to pass that along, because that's how we honor them because they didn't have this shit.
Imran:Yeah. They didn't have the ability for
Kyle:us to do for them to do this. Well, Beckett, Nick, Quinn, this is going to live with them. This episode And right
Imran:hopefully it inspires them to do this for their children when the time comes. Take
Kyle:me back to an 11 year old, not only losing your mom and dad at such an early age, but your dad with HIVAIDS in that era. We're talking late '80s.
Imran:Yeah. This is before Magic came out. Yeah. And even then with Magic Johnson, the stigma was strong. So as I mentioned earlier, it was considered incorrectly a gay disease.
Imran:So, you know, going to school where I was, it had leaked that my dad had HIV. And somehow a teacher who probably meant well said, Imran's father is dying of AIDS. He has AIDS. So be sensitive when he comes back. Well, that wasn't sensitive.
Imran:When it came back, the kids told their parents. And instantly, uninformed, uneducated, ignorant parents who didn't have the education because there really was none at that time thought of me as almost like a carrier monkey of disease. It was disgusting. And so when I came back to school, and you want to talk about trauma, I don't like using this word, but I'll use the word for emphasis. They say, Oh, there's that faggot's kid.
Imran:And it crushed me because I didn't know what that word meant. I I don't like using it, but I wanted to say it for emphasis reasons, so I apologize for your podcast to do that. But that was traumatic for me, really bad, to where kids would avoid me in school. They didn't want to be around me. They thought if I used that bathroom stall that they would get it if they used the same bathroom stall.
Imran:Now, B10, B11, I went back to school after my dad passed away. So I didn't have stuff to go run back to talk to a dad to. So here I am dealing with this, not understanding. I just lost my father. I had lost my mom a few years prior.
Imran:And now I'm being called these names and treated like a diseased person. I had a very, very close friend by the name of Justin. I don't talk to him anymore. No reason other than we grew apart. But he was my one saving friend, best man at my first wedding.
Imran:And he was the one and only that was like, I love you. Come on. Don't worry about it. We'll be all right. And if I didn't have Justin, I don't know where I'd be.
Imran:I don't know. Even though Justin and I aren't close and we haven't talked in fifteen years, circumstances of life has been there. I talked about seasons earlier. I don't think I could have made it without him through that season. Right.
Imran:Even though I'm making it through seasons now. Yeah. But I'm here on a podcast in 2026 talking about Justin, who I haven't talked to in fifteen years. But I don't know where I would have been without Justin because he was the one friend that stuck with me while everybody else was treating me like shit. And so for me, I just feel like there's always a Justin for all of us.
Imran:Somebody that's going to overlook the commentary, the incorrect information, the stuff. And I think we all had it. I mean, did you have somebody like that in your life when you were young that was just like by your side and ride or die?
Kyle:Yeah. Yeah.
Imran:We all had one and we all have one throughout life. And we need to cherish those relationships during the seasons that they're with us.
Kyle:At the time, you had every right to say, I lost mom, I lost dad. My community, my school, my friends are viewing me as a pariah to go left, to turn to the streets, to give up. Take me back through that time. How did you get through that?
Imran:It was in honor of my dad. Everything I did was, dad, what do you think? Dad, look what I did. And every goddamn time that man said to me, I'm so proud of you. I'm so proud of you.
Imran:I love you. You did it. Look at the effort you put in. He made me feel like every single thing that I did was like I just clowned Mount Everest. Look at this macaroni necklace, dad.
Imran:Oh, my God. How many hours did it take for you to put this together? I'm so proud of you. And I was always looking for validation. And I thought to myself, don't have him now.
Imran:So what am I going to do? Not, I mean, I live for the validation for my father. I was, he was the one man, the one person on earth that I wanted to make proud. And I thought to myself, this is it. I don't have anybody to make proud anymore.
Imran:But I would be an absolute waste if I didn't continue to try. And that's kind of how it's been for me. I do not, I'm not very good at academics. I was on roll the first two years of my high school years, and then I learned how to cut and, you know, chase girls and all that stuff. But when I graduated from STAG high school, I had a 1.9 GPA.
Imran:I was a, I was not good at school. Not because I was bored or anything like that. You know, people have the the Asian culture thinking that like, oh, well, he's Asian. He's probably good at math. Right.
Imran:So, you know, they probably copied off me. So I failed. And then eight people sitting around me failed too.
Kyle:Damn it,
Imran:everybody. Yeah, Why did you get those math problems wrong? But I just feel like it was one of those scenarios where you have to figure out who you're striving for. And when you don't have anybody, then to me, I was striving to make my dead dad proud. I was chasing ghosts and doing drugs was not what my dad would have been proud of me for.
Imran:Getting involved in alcohol, gangs, that stuff was around me and easy to get into. Just not something that I had any interest in. And as I listened to to Kevin on your previous podcast, he did the same kind of neo matrix get out the way type of situations too to stay out of trouble. Yeah. And and and we're some of the...
Imran:I would... I don't know if I call myself a success story. I know Kevin's is, but like just the story of being able to navigate out of situations that were right in front of you. And we talked, the name of this podcast is The Resilient Path.
Kyle:Resilient Path, yes.
Imran:There's two pathways that we could have taken. And I just took the pathway that would have made my dad proud. So again, that's kind of what I decided to do.
Kyle:It sounds like with everything you've been through, you had to grow up At a young age, maybe quicker than most kids had to. What are some of the things you think you learned at an early age that others didn't learn until later in life?
Imran:Are you familiar with the five love languages? I think we've talked about it off air before. Let me just go through them real quick for those of the audience that don't know them. There's acts of service, physical touch, words of the affirmation, receiving gifts, and quality time. Those tend to be five love languages that we experience.
Imran:Friendships, intimate relationships, love relationships, professional relationships. There's ways that we can count that. And what I learned, kind of like who I turned into today and the things that I yearn for versus things that I don't yearn for, kind of fall into those five love languages. And the two that I didn't receive when I was younger, physical touch and words of affirmation. That's what my dad gave me.
Imran:He hugged me. He held me. He told me he loved me. He told me how proud he was of me. And then at 11, bang.
Kyle:That's gone.
Imran:Gone. And you just don't get it from other people. And if you do, it's not organic like it was with your father or whoever it is that you had providing that to you. So later in life, to this day, those two mean something to me. Physical touch, you're close within me.
Imran:And I love you. So whether it don't matter. If we're hot, cold, whatever, my foot is touching Jessica's foot when we go to sleep. Right. I just want to know she's there.
Kyle:There too with your mom in the ear. Yeah. Like the touch. Yeah. Like
Imran:Jessica don't like me playing with her ears when she's sleeping. Leave me alone. But like the foot on the foot just I'm here.
Kyle:Yeah.
Imran:Right. We don't we don't get off the phone ever without saying I love you. Even if it's like, hey, I'm pulling you to the driveway. I'll see in a second. Okay.
Imran:Love you. Like, what are we doing? Right? But like, I don't know. I've lost people right from underneath me.
Imran:And I don't want the last thing to be that they ever know, no matter what it is, without having me say I love you. I say that to men sometimes. Yeah. Like my bros. Hey, brother, I love you.
Imran:I'll see you later. Like some people are,
Kyle:ugh. Right.
Imran:I'm not like, I don't care. I don't care. I'm an adult. At 49 years old, if you haven't had a guy tell you you love you a little bit a little bit squiggly like that, it's okay, man. It's going be all right.
Kyle:Well, you know, and you know my son, Nick, one of the things that always fills me up and makes me most proud is he would just be walking by in the house. Dad, I love you. Really? Unprompted. He'll say, Dad, I'm going go to the bathroom.
Kyle:I'm like, All right, I love you, dad. Amazing.
Imran:Well, let me say so. I'm questioning what what kind of bathroom usage he's going to have. Did he have a big burrito or something?
Kyle:Dude, it could be anything, you know? I'm here to tie my shoe. I love you.
Imran:But here's a question for you. Do you go, well, what is that for? No, say that
Kyle:I embrace. I'm like, yes, give me more. Every time he says it, I say to myself, damn. Because I grew up in a household, we didn't say I love you at all. Zero.
Kyle:You know, shout out to mom and dad, but they understand.
Imran:Did you feel love, though?
Kyle:I don't think I did. That's why we have this podcast. I don't think I did. I did not. It's one of those.
Kyle:I know they love me, but I didn't feel it. And so one thing I tell my daughter, Quinn, I tell Nick, too. The I love yous have to be more than words, though. Told Quinn, I said, as you get older, you'll meet men, you'll date, and they may say they love you, but can you really feel it? And I remember one time sitting in the car.
Kyle:I said, I love you to my daughter. She's like, I love you too, dad. I said, But do you feel it?
Imran:Yeah, wait a minute. Let's step back for a second.
Kyle:But like, can you feel it? She's like, Yes, I feel it. And so that's something I'm trying to, you know,
Imran:is she pushing back right now at that age? Because Quinn's at that age. She's not like, Dad, come on, stop hugging me.
Kyle:No, she's my best friend. I love We're snuggle kisses still like very touchy feely household. Even Nick, we're hugging every day. You know Nick's like this, Deb, why are doing this? I know, I'm putting him on blast right now.
Kyle:Every morning he wake up, a hug. Every night before he goes to bed, a hug.
Imran:I'll tell you this. As a guy that's on the outside looking in at your family, you could tell. Really? You could tell that they feel loved. Yeah.
Imran:You know, it's like as you go through your new version of what you're doing with your speaking and consulting and emceeing career, Nick's like, give me the play by play of what you're doing. And he's excited. Like, he's like, yeah, my dad's doing this and he's starting to podcast this. And it was really like, he's proud of you. Really?
Imran:Right? Unprompted. I'm not asking him. Yeah. Like, you know, we're friends, but like, I'm not trying to identify.
Imran:He'll tell me. Right. But that's what I hope. You know, I hope that that my son's legacy is in the sense of my dad's doing this. Because I bragged about my dad when I was a little kid, too.
Imran:Right. When we had show and tell him my dad was healthy, my dad would be coming in talking about restaurant and he'd bring all the Rupert floats Oh, for the kids at the Imran's dad is the coolest dad ever because he gave us ice cream and soda. You know, parents probably weren't too happy about that. But like, I just feel like as we have these moments of being able to be an inspiration to people, I like the opportunity to be an inspiration to people via podcasting or, you know, being out there. But none of that matters if my own child doesn't find me to be somebody of that they want to emulate, but it's inspired.
Kyle:Yeah. Yeah. You know, you told me you became an emancipated minor at 16. And I look at your life, your arc, and your adult life, you went through some challenges. More dramatic, more dramatic.
Kyle:That kid's life. Dude, you know, you went through stuff as a kid. Now you're an adult. Tell me about some of the trauma that you faced as an adult, and do you think what you went through as a kid helped serve you to get through some of those things?
Imran:I think it hindered me. Really? Yeah. I think what happens is you end up being survival mode. Wow, you're so brave.
Imran:You were able to accomplish that despite this. Yeah. What else was I supposed to do? Like, there's no choice. Oh my god, there's no mommy or daddy you can run back to to go get more money from.
Imran:No allowance there. You work. I work my ass off. I worked at Baskin Robbins on the Miracle Mile for three point two five dollars an hour. I had a paper route at the time, right, making an additional $300 a month paper route.
Imran:So I start early in the morning. I try to go to school and do okay. I go to Bastard Robins and work at night. And then on the weekends, worked at the River Mill, which was like a banquet hall. How many jobs you have?
Imran:Hey, man. Remember Living Color? Hey, man. That was me. But when you're cobbling together money, you're just trying to figure out how you're able to survive because you don't have a paycheck with mommy and daddy.
Imran:You don't have a, you know, you don't have that backup plan. So I would say that it hindered me in the sense of as an adult because I wouldn't say I ever had even a vote of confidence. And I'll share with you part of that in my real estate world. But like mine was just like smashed, smashed the food through the keyhole. That's how I did things.
Imran:Yeah. Right. Like just mash it through, just push it through the fence. I didn't know any better. I didn't know that you could open the door and walk through rather than just kind of like bang.
Imran:I'm just going to Kool Aid man my way through this wall. That's how I operated for most of my young adult life. Just like bang into the wall, fall down, bang into the wall, fall down, bang into the wall, fall down. Bang, finally go through. Okay, do it again.
Imran:Do it again. So it's just this sense of like just over and over again. All I'm doing is just the hard way because I didn't have anybody teach me anything And then that caused a lack of confidence. One of the things, you know, we'll talk about later, but like I have a real estate career, that I'm very proud of. And I've sold over a thousand houses in my career with team members, solo, etcetera, but over a thousand in my career.
Imran:And of all the houses that I've sold, the highest priced house I've ever sold in my life is 388,000. Now, some markets that's listening to this $3.88 might be luxury. But in California, that's not that's not a lot. So the question is, why is it that I was unable to do it? Same MLS system to look up, same contracts, same mouth, same bus bench ads that I can put out there.
Imran:Why would, in my brain, why would a high net worth individual want to talk to some dumb, uneducated kid from the other side of the tracks, from Stockton, California?
Kyle:You thought that and felt that at the time.
Imran:I didn't realize it until later in life. Because I'd be like, Oh, there's an appointment with somebody over at... There's an area in Stockton called St. Andrews behind the Gate golf Community. Okay.
Imran:Right? And it's an opportunity, Imran. Do want to interview with them? And I had self sabotaged myself constantly in order to make sure that I didn't go to that appointment or that I was like, well, they're going say no anyway, so I might as well just... Right?
Imran:So I remember going to that St. Andrew's appointment and it was a beautiful home and they were very nice to me. And I was like, yeah, but I don't have this and I don't drive that and I don't have this. So I don't know. I understand if you want to go somebody else.
Kyle:You're your own.
Imran:Like an enemy. Your I'm literally de... I'm like de... I'm toxifying myself to when the rejection happened. I go, See, I see, I knew it.
Imran:I'm just going back over here and help the first time condo buyer that's struggling to get a five eighty credit score. I'll just go help them. And I just took this, this, I don't have it in me. I don't have the confidence. I'm going to stay away from this whole entire generation or genre or class, and I'm just going to stay over here.
Imran:And as I got older and as I started training other people in the real estate world, and I know I'm skipping around, but I think it's just important in the mindset aspect of things. I was like, damn, my stupidity and that guy who listed the house as genius, that gap is a lot smaller than I thought. Right. Right. In fact, as I investigate more about that agent, he's way worse than me.
Imran:I actually did a disservice to that seller of that home by not giving them my all because I'm actually better than Better that
Kyle:than that guy. Yeah.
Imran:And as I started looking at that, that's when the self help stuff happened with me. All right. Why am I acting like this? Why am I staying over here instead of standing over there confidently? Why am I sheepishly going and saying, I don't know if I'm the right fit for you?
Imran:And over here, I'm like, I'm the man. I'm going to help you
Kyle:through this
Imran:first generation Hispanic. Feel confident over there. I'm over here because I'm the, I'm the king of the people over here that have trouble credit. First time home buyers, first lineage in their family as a first generation born United States citizen. Like all that stuff to me, can handle.
Imran:But as soon as I cross the tracks to over here, I'm done. I forgot everything. I don't know anything. I don't know how to fill out a contract. I don't know how to put stuff on the MLS.
Imran:I don't know how to take good photos. Like what happened when I crossed over that track? It was a lack of confidence. And so for me, I learned that in life a little later than I would like to because it probably hurt my earning potential, but it did create a revelation in my life later in life that served me well as an entrepreneur now. And I'm not afraid of anything anymore.
Imran:People look at me and they're like, you're crazy. You're opening like we're on the brink of opening our framing store.
Kyle:Yes.
Imran:Right? What? I've never opened a framing store before, but you know what I know? I know how to put together a good business. I know how to a business plan.
Imran:I know how to hire and retain the right people. I'll figure it out. And if the framing store don't work out, then it'll be a mailboxes store where you have mailbox. And if that don't work out, I'll make a place where we make, you know, tacos. I'm not worried about it because I have enough confidence in me and my experience and what I've done to where I can adapt.
Imran:If this is the worst of my problems as an entrepreneur that a business fails, who's gonna judge And before I'd be really upset. Oh my God, I'm gonna look so dumb. I'm gonna look so embarrassed. Who am I looking embarrassed to? People that won't take the chance themselves to do it.
Imran:People that are too scared to do it. But yet I'm the one over here trying, and I'd rather have Beckett watch his dad put the effort in to do something for themselves, to own and not be owned.
Kyle:So no fear of failure?
Imran:Zero anymore. The only fear I have still to this day is running out of time on my clock. You know, 49 means that we're on the back nine of the figurative golf. Yeah. Right?
Imran:So what am I doing now for the back nine? And I've had health problems before. We can talk about if you want, we'll talk about the cancer, we'll talk about the diabetes, we'll talk about everything else. So my clock on the back nine is going a lot faster than the clock on the first Right. Because people say life is short and life's been pretty damn long.
Imran:It's been pretty long right now. Right? But the experience is now, I actually have a physical in front of me clock and his name is Beckett. And every day he looks a little older than he did So the day I'm watching this young man grow, this kid that looks just like me growing up and saying more things and being more of a young boy instead of a young baby. And that I'm watching this young, beautiful child growing and it's making me realize now time feels faster.
Imran:Right. Right. Was before it was like, didn't have a baby. I'm I'm a go out, do this, and I'm going to buy that, and I'm going to And spend I realized what's important now. Here's what it comes down to.
Imran:I've built a pretty successful business, businesses, plural. And if they said, your son is sick and he needs you and you have to give up everything, I'd be signing that paperwork before I would be even out of this chair. Gone. I don't care. Because the stuff that I built is important to me.
Imran:But in the grand scheme of pecking order of what's the most important to me, nobody's more important than my family. Yeah. You would give up anything. Oh, would give up anything to make sure that my family was So part of my fear is making sure that I build the empire fast enough to where when I'm gone, because it's a very high likelihood choice. My wife is thirteen years younger than me.
Imran:Very high likelihood that I'm going to be gone before she would be. She is, yeah. So I need to make sure that that legacy is not only established, but also the empire that they can take over. And I'm using the term empire, you know, like I'm the Ming dynasty or something. But I'm just saying like my empire, whatever that looks like.
Imran:Yeah. My version of it needs to be established to where they don't have those struggles.
Kyle:Do you think that urgency, obviously, when Beckett came, it ramped it up. But knowing what happened to mom, knowing what happened to dad, knowing your cancer scares that you can talk about here, do you think that created a greater sense of urgency for you?
Imran:Of course. When I was diagnosed twice, I had testicular cancer at the age of 27, stage two. Testicular cancer, I don't know if you've dealt with any health problems or had a scare. I know that brown and black people have a lot more of a Diabetes. Higher chance of some of this stuff.
Imran:So diagnosed at 27, it was a fairly easy process. They remove one of your two testicles and then they end up doing radiation to the affected area. So your hips and area. So that's what I went through. However, when I went through that, I went through some financial struggles.
Imran:As a realtor, you don't get paid unless you show up to work and close your 100% commission. So I struggled with some finances. My first wife and I didn't work out, so she wanted to leave, which is understandable. I went through bankruptcy. Some struggles that were there, mental rather than physical.
Imran:But in 2013, I was diagnosed with stage four Hodgkin's lymphoma cancer. And that was a totally different world. 41 tumors in my body, thirty percent chance of survival within one year, like low. And when I was going through all that, what you realize is like, I'm 37 years old. I'm not even going to make it to my mom's age.
Imran:I was panicked. And when you think about having cancer at that time, and I could only go to a very few places to get the help that I needed. Modern medicine has improved since then.
Kyle:Right.
Imran:But this was thirteen years ago. Right? So I went through eighteen months of chemo. I went through four months of radiation. I was sick, man.
Imran:And one thing that got me through it was at that time, I told my doctor, don't tell me my diagnosis. Now we I know you and I had this session before, and I think you leaned in and was like, what do mean? Right. Whenever somebody is diagnosed with terminal or this much chance percentage to live, or this is what, how much time we believe you have, they're operating off of like scenarios in other humans, right? 41 tumors in the chest.
Imran:You have Hodgkin's lymphoma. Based on our studies, this is the likelihood of the path you're going go down. And I've seen people manifest in their own brain the final destination of how it ends, even though maybe it may not have been that way. And the reason I knew that is because I wanted to know during the first time I had cancer, what was my diagnosis? What did it look like?
Imran:So I did that pathway. And then during that time, as I was learning and spending time doing the research on it, you come to find out like, wow, just your positive mindset can change the scenario. I didn't even need a positive mindset. I just needed to not have the negative one.
Kyle:Yeah. Yeah.
Imran:And doctors, I don't care who the doctor is. Very few of them have good bedside manner. I remember the doctor that diagnosed me with my cancer the second time was the first the same doctor that diagnosed me with my testicular first Okay. Time the issue was I couldn't breathe. I was playing basketball one weekend, and I was having trouble just breathing.
Imran:So I was like, let me just go see my doctor. And I had this weird lump sticking out of the top of my neck above my collarbone. Imagine like a little small I would just describe it like a small walnut or something. It was hard. I didn't know what it was.
Imran:Just a lump. It's like, what is this thing? I'm ignoring it. I'm ignoring it. I just ignored it.
Imran:I'd be walking, start coughing a little bit, just over the course of three or four months to the point where I was like, I got to go to my doctor. So I went to the doctor and they said they did chest x rays or whatever. It was a Friday. And I was living in Southern California at the time. And they said, my doctor here in Stockton said, don't go home.
Imran:We got more tests to run on Monday. I was like, What? What are you talking about? Don't go home. Yeah.
Imran:So I came back on Monday. They did a biopsy on my neck and found out that it was cancerous. They did a full scan and found something like 40 tumors. I'm telling you a story in advance, Kyle. But at the time I didn't know.
Imran:So my doctor told me to stay and I'll never forget it. He walks in and he doesn't really say anything. And I said, hi, doctor. And he goes, hello. And I said, you look troubled.
Imran:And he goes, yeah. And I said, am I okay? And he didn't say anything. We're just sitting there. And I said, is the cancer back?
Imran:And he's like, yeah. And I said, is it bad? And he said, yeah. And I said, Am I in for a long journey in front of me? And he goes, Yeah.
Imran:And I said, Then don't tell me what we need to do. Let's just go do it. And I remember crying when I was saying that. How could it happen twice, man?
Kyle:Right.
Imran:How much fucking bad luck can I have? I lost my mom. I lost my dad. I grew up by myself. I had cancer already once.
Imran:I'm not even 40. I get it a second time. What the hell is going on? I remember being mad at God. Why are putting this on me?
Imran:Why can't I just have a regular life? I'm not even asking for an extraordinary one. Just let me be a person. Why does this keep happening to me? And we started chemotherapy, you know, immediately.
Imran:And because I didn't know the diagnosis, I was only sensitive to the stuff that was happening around me. So I remember I would go every Friday to go get my chemotherapy. They'd plug me in to a machine and it would drip into my veins and, you know, they did that. And I'd start at 09:00 and then there'd be a wave of people that would come in the same room as me and they're getting their chemotherapy. So we're all chemo buddies together.
Imran:We called each other chemo sabbies because we were all together in this room and we got to know each other. And people would be in there, they'd do their chemo, they'd leave at eleven and I'm still there getting my chemo. And then lunch would happen. I'm still getting my chemo. Then another batch of people would come in and they'd get their chemo and then they'd leave.
Imran:And I'm still there with my chemo. And I'm like, God damn. How sick am I? We go to the doctor and I remember making a conscious choice. And this is one of those ones where it's like, woah, I was very sick.
Imran:So it'd be like, you do Friday and then Saturday and Sunday, I'm in fetal position. Monday, I'm in fetal position. The way I describe it, Kyle, is constant nauseousness. Like you're on the brink of throwing up the entire time. That's what it feels like.
Kyle:That you're back at it again.
Imran:And it doesn't go away. Yeah. And for my own sanity, I was in real estate at a corporate level. I go back to work on Tuesday. I didn't feel good, but I went back to work on Tuesday.
Imran:Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, go back to Friday, sick through the weekend, do it again. Eighteen goddamn months I did that thing. Right? And somewhere in the month seven, I was really struggling with this thing mentally, emotionally, physically. My body couldn't take it.
Imran:And I was like, I'm done. I can't do this. And I talked with my doctor and he's like, Imran, I'm never going to make you do something you don't want to do. But as your doctor, here's my diagnosis of what I think you should do. But as somebody that's watched you fight through this, why are you giving up?
Imran:You are an inspiration to other people. So what I started doing is I started recording stuff on YouTube. Really? You could actually watch to this day, it's still up, of me going, hey, hey, it's Imran, and let me tell you how it was making me feel and how sick I feel and blah, blah. It's still to this day, it's still up from 2012.
Imran:And I started getting messages from people. A friend of mine, Dana from high school, messaged me. She was going through a divorce. She goes, hey, just to let you know, I watch every one of your videos. And even though I don't have cancer, I feel like I'm dying because I'm going through this divorce that I'm really struggling with.
Imran:And I just want to let you know your videos inspire me. And I was like, well, I can't give up now.
Kyle:Right.
Imran:Right? And then this guy would say something and that gal would say something. And it created a little audience for me to where I was like, woah. And so then I was like, okay, well, my dad spent the last year of his life on his back dying. I might be dying, but I'm not going to leave this earth on my back.
Imran:So I was like, hey, does anybody want me for a speaking engagement? I'll do it. So I started speaking. And here I am, this guy going through stage four cancer, which I didn't know was stage four at the time, on stage, balding, sick, and speaking on stage and inspiring other people. Not because I'm inspirational, but who the hell is going to get up from chemo and go speak on a stage?
Imran:Right? I was probably putting myself at risk because my immune system's down. But shit. I'm dying anyways. Let's go.
Imran:So I had this mentality of, I don't know what's in front of me. I don't know how sick I am, but here's what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna make sure that I live every last second of my life exuding it and not just fading away into oblivion. And I did that. And my doctor, after we looked at the...
Imran:After eighteen months of chemo, was like, alright. You don't wanna know anything, but are you ready? I was like, sure. He goes, you beat it. We got some cleanup to do with radiation.
Imran:Do you wanna know your diagnosis? I was like, yeah. He goes, 41 tumors, stage four, Hodgkin's lymphoma. You were supposed to die, thirty percent chance of dying. And even though we're sitting here now, you had a one hundred percent mortality rate after five years of this.
Imran:He goes, I can't say that you won't die. You might get hit by a bus. But I'll tell you that the cancer is gone. Let's clean up with the radiation. You got a little while to go and we're okay.
Imran:For now. It's like, okay. And here we are thirteen years later. I'm not dead after five years. And I really wholeheartedly believe that it was 51% medicine and 49% non negative mentality.
Imran:Yeah. Yeah. You know, because I let a lot of that absorb into my life before with the can't talk to this net worth over here and have to stay over here. Hey, wait your turn in line and don't be an entrepreneur. Fall in line and do the things and earn the money that you're destined to earn.
Imran:We'll let you know when you're good enough to be able to advance to the next level of promotion. And I just don't live that way anymore. I don't wait for people to tell me what to do. And it's the wrong mentality, Kyle. I'll tell you this, and it shouldn't be my way.
Imran:But I struggle with friends of mine that are in their late forties and have to ask permission if they can hang out with their kids this week for school from their boss.
Kyle:Yeah.
Imran:You're a grown ass man. Right? Whether you call in sick or whatever, like you shouldn't have to have permission to be able to do the things that you want to do as a person. Because the one thing that I do not want when I'm an old man sitting at the... Jessica loves me too much to put me in a home.
Imran:But I might be in the house at an old age, but I'll be in the back of the house. Right? But I'm in the house. I don't want to be in the back of the house regretting at 99 years old going... But you weren't there.
Imran:God, I should have gone to Beckett's thing. Right. I should have gone to Beckett's sporting event or I should have taken her more Kings games or whatever that be.
Kyle:Yeah. You know, we're sitting here and we've detailed your journey. A lot of trauma. But now you're a successful entrepreneur, beautiful family, beautiful wife, beautiful son. What do you think that 11 year old, that 16 year old would think about you right now?
Imran:There's a word that I always use to describe this scenario. It's serendipity. I don't even know what it means.
Kyle:Sounds good.
Imran:Sounds good. I think it means something like that it's kind of falling into the way it's supposed to be. You want to talk about weird math? Let me give you a little bit of this. And Ricky Williams has been a friend now for our shop and everything, and he's an astrology guy.
Imran:He's an astrologer. So I was doing a little bit of this astrology in the stars type of thing reading into it. My dad died when I was 11. My dad died when he was 44, just before he was about to turn 45, about two months prior. When I found out that my wife was pregnant with my first child, her first child, Beckett was born August 2022.
Imran:I was born and my dad passed away in October of the year. My dad in 'eighty nine, two months before his 40 birthday when he passed and I was 11. Beckett was born two months before my 40 birthday. Like I'm taking over where my dad left off. Yeah.
Imran:I'm a dad at the same age as where my dad ended him being a dad to me. I mean, it's always going to be my dad, but his living earth body, same, same. Yeah. My wife, Jessica, was born nine months to the day after my dad passed away. Is that shit crazy?
Imran:Bro, it's almost like God was like, I know I took your most important person, but don't worry, I got you.
Kyle:I got you.
Imran:Another important person. So she was conceived the next day and then nine months later she was born? Like, so what would 11, 16, 21 year old me say to the scenario? Understand that every action that we have today is admired or revered by somebody. There's always some no matter how much I feel like, damn, I wish that I had that, somebody is here
Kyle:Looking at you. Going, I wish I had that. Yeah.
Imran:Right? And some people are like some people would say to me, wow, I can't believe you went through all that cancer. I can't believe you beat it. What an inspiration. I'm like, me?
Imran:Look at that person. Look at this person. And you know who that person is to me? It's my son, Beckett. As you know, Beckett was born with a stroke.
Imran:We don't talk about it very often because what ends up happening is when we put on social media, in fact, this is one of the very first times I've ever talked about it publicly. Now people around us know. Right. People that are in within our social or personal or loving circle know. You've known.
Kyle:I know.
Imran:But Becka was born with a stroke. And there was some significant guilt on our family, me and Jessica. Well, could we have done better? My wife lived a clean life and an even cleaner pregnancy. I mean, she was just so making sure that Beckett was going to be a healthy boy.
Imran:We went to the doctor constantly. We did everything right. She stayed away from anything that remotely could have poisoned her body. She even changed the way that she would use shampoos and soaps to make sure that they were paraben free and making sure that was clean. She didn't want any reason for Beckett to have any types of issues while she was the one that was creating him.
Imran:And so when he was born and he came out, he was just this beautiful kid. And I have pictures of me crying as he was born and I'm holding it. Somewhere in that twelve hour period from the time that we were starting the contractions to the time he was born, he had a brain bleed, AKA a stroke. And that first night, I've been through a lot of shit in my life. Lots.
Imran:I think we all have. Yeah. But there's nothing worse than watching your child go through trauma. We didn't spend the first night with our son. They rushed him because he wasn't breathing.
Imran:I mean, he was breathing when he came out, then shortly after, was struggling breathing. They had him on tubes. Like, what's going on? Healthy, regular sized child. Nothing.
Imran:No preemie. No nothing. And they had... Because we're... He was born in Roseville.
Imran:The emergency NICU, the the nursery... Excuse me. The the very small child one was in Downtown Sacramento.
Kyle:Sacramento. Yeah.
Imran:So they came with this emergency crew. They put Beckett inside of this contraption. He's got tubes all over him. Jessica's in a wheelchair. I'm holding her behind.
Imran:I'm standing behind her holding the wheelchair, and we're watching our son be taken away to go and see. We didn't know if this was the last time we were gonna see him. I'm crying. She's crying. And I remember thinking to myself, fuck, just give me whatever he has.
Imran:I'll take it. Don't give it to him. I've had a good life. Give it to me. There's just nothing like that helpless feeling.
Imran:I'll never forget it. So as Beckett's grown up and he's getting better and, you know, he's struggling through some of the, of the word, words out of his mouth, but I kind of think about what he's come through. I remember he was in the NICU and we would visit him from the moment we could come into the day that we, the minute that they kicked us out. And Jessica and I would sit at the, in the parking lot before we did our forty minute drive home to Roseville. And we would say, What did we see today that was hopeful for us?
Imran:We didn't know if he was going be able to walk, talk, breathe on his own. We didn't know anything. And we just had this hope and we'd cry. And it puts a strain on your marriage. It puts a strain on your relationships.
Imran:It makes you not wanna do anything. And so when the the... Before all this yabber yabber that I'm giving you right now, you asked me, who's your hero? That's my hero. Because this kid went through seizures after seizures, 30 seizures a day.
Imran:He had nodes. We were trying to check his brain as to how we could function. And he just is this wonderful kid. And so whenever I want to give up on something, whenever I wanna be fearful of something, whenever I'm not sure of myself, I go WWBD.
Kyle:What's that stand for?
Imran:What would Beckett do? And this kid this kid is something else, and he is my hero. And even though I'm supposed to be his, and he looks at me as such, there isn't a bigger, tougher, more resilient person that I know than my son.
Kyle:He came out of the womb resilient. Yeah. About that. Yeah. Like, and that's the thing that, you know, I'm hoping this podcast lets people know whether it's a one week old, 50 year old, a 70, Every day you're faced with.
Kyle:Things that can knock you down and young Beckett, he's already proven he's a fighter.
Imran:Yeah.
Kyle:Think about that. At four years old, he's already shown he's strong, the strength that he has.
Imran:And even though he's my Superman, I'm grateful for what he is, not necessarily worried about what he isn't. But mentality wise, it's difficult when you see other four year olds that are doing things that your son isn't doing. Yeah. It's difficult. Jessica and I have had deep conversations about this, emotional conversations, and we're like, he is his own path.
Imran:I'm not gonna worry about this part. Right? Just because he's not keeping up with the Joneses over here doesn't mean that he's deficient in in any way. In fact, if you've ever... And you've held my son as a baby.
Imran:Yeah. Yeah. Right? You've been around him. Literally, I mean, I see kids that are a little bit more advanced in speaking or whatever it be.
Imran:And so they're cute. Man, are they nightmares. Son can sit at a cloth napkin formal dinner for three hours at a table, chilling, enjoying himself. He rarely cries. He's he's a sweet young boy.
Imran:He's always down to be at whatever. And I would... There's nothing... Even with his deficiencies that he may have, there's nothing about him I would change because I only know him as such. And I love him so much and Jessica loves him so much that we couldn't imagine him being any other way.
Imran:And so I think about that when I look at other people that have maybe children with physical ailments or disabilities. And I'm like, wow, that must be tough. But they feel to their kid like I feel Like, to wouldn't want them any other way. And so it's crazy because I see so many people that go, man, I can't do this because I don't have that. I wasn't given this opportunity because I wasn't blessed with X.
Imran:Okay. That's one way to think. But the other way to think is, man, I'm okay. Got two arms, two legs. I could jump today.
Imran:What can I do with my capacities that I do have? That
Kyle:you do have.
Imran:And so for me, I would just say to your audience, it's okay to be fearless. Because the people that you're scared that are gonna judge you are people that have been often too scared to do it on their own anyways. There's a lot of people that are probably looking at you going, look, dude, he's doing a podcast. He's revealing himself slowly. He's showing the wounds.
Imran:Is he crazy? And you're like, Somebody's going learn from this.
Kyle:Yeah.
Imran:Yeah. For me, for my guests, whoever. And I'm not for everybody, and I'm okay with it. I think young me wanted to stand on this table and say, beat my chest. Look at me.
Imran:Look at me. I'm the greatest. And then you come to find out, like, as you get older and more mature, you're like, I'm for some people and I'm okay for not for other people. And the reason why I know that is because I feel that way. Yeah.
Imran:There's some podcasts that, you know, I watch them and they're very successful. And I get up at 02:00 and I eat raw eggs and I go into my mind palace and I think about, I'm sitting there going, man, I ain't doing any of that shit. Right? I'm too tired to do that. But but here's what works for me.
Imran:Yeah. Right? And maybe 10% of your audience looks at this and goes, Imran, he he said some stuff that really resonates with me. And the other 90% say, not for me. Not for me.
Imran:And I have to look at that and say, Okay, damn, 90% didn't really feel me. But then the other 10, I'm like, but I really made an impact on the 10. Yeah. Yeah. I just like that homeless guy getting out of the garbage that my dad pulled away from it.
Imran:Just like the nurses that didn't get the the adulation that helped my son through his tribulations. Just like my wife, who isn't a public figure, that is my hero every day for running this family the way she does. So just because you're not standing on a stage doesn't mean somebody's not watching you. And I want you to remember that too, because Nick and Quinn, you are their inspiration, you know, and how you now navigate this 2.0 version of Kyle Draper is gonna be a big deal. And I could tell you as somebody that knows your son, he's infinitely proud of you.
Imran:Infinitely proud of you.
Kyle:Don't so don't fuck up. My man, Imran Poladi, I really appreciate you being vulnerable, sharing your story. You're an inspiration. Beckett's an inspiration. Jessica's an inspiration.
Kyle:Thanks for coming on the Resilient Path Podcast.
Imran:My pleasure.