Unconventional entrepreneur Javier shares his inspiring journey of embracing success, failure, and taking bold leaps in business and hospitality.
In the world of business, success is often associated with expertise, experience, and a carefully crafted plan. But what if we told you that sometimes it’s the willingness to trust the universe and take bold leaps that can lead to extraordinary achievements? Meet Javier, an entrepreneur whose story is as inspiring as it is unconventional. In a captivating conversation, he shares his perspective on embracing the ebb and flow of life, understanding that seasons of success and failure are all part of the journey. Join us as we explore Javier’s incredible path, from building a thriving culinary empire without being a chef to venturing into the realm of hospitality. Prepare to be inspired and amazed by his humble yet audacious spirit. Through this raw and real account, we gain valuable insights into the power of resilience, intuition, and the courage to simply have a go.
In this conversation, we learnt…
– Javier’s background and journey (03:07 – 07:15)
– He is not a chef, but understands how to bring people comfort and joy (07:24 – 09:49)
– How ELSE hotel came to be (10:18 – 12:47)
– Javier’s internal monologue of creating ELSE hotel, and (13:07- 15:58)
– Javier’s period of failures and how he is currently dealing with one (15:58 – 18:31)
– Javier’s experience attending a nine-day silence and darkness retreat (18:46-25:10)
– How he, and his business, is a work and progress, and thats okay (25:10-27:29)
Notable soundbites
“Even though you’re not able to compute it into an ROI or dollars and cents, there’s so much value in a good experience And even if there isn’t, there’s so much pleasure.”
Despite not being a chef, Javier possesses a unique talent for understanding what brings people comfort and joy. He has a natural instinct for creating experiences that transport guests to a different place, evoking a sense of nostalgia or a feeling of being somewhere entirely new. Whether it’s through the ambiance of his restaurants or the flavours of the food, Javier has consistently received feedback that guests feel transported to different parts of the world. This remarkable ability is not limited to just one business but has been evident across multiple ventures like Grain Traders, Kilo, Raw Kitchen and now ELSE Hotel.
“It’s not the lion that we think it is. It’s maybe a bobcat, right? It’s still quite fierce and can kill you at any moment, but it’s manageable.”
As evident from Javier’s inspiring journey, launching a brand-new hotel independently may seem like a daunting task, but Javier’s unwavering self-belief and determination set him apart. His innate confidence and resilience are truly exceptional traits, making him a rare find in the industry.
“We have to be good stewards of opportunities.”
According to Javier, sometimes the reasons behind one’s choices are not immediately clear. It can take years for the epiphany to come. Javier, for instance, doesn’t always have an immediate answer when asked why he chose Kuala Lumpur. They believe that Kuala Lumpur chose them, but the exact reasons are still unfolding. Javier strives to be fully present and appreciate the gift they have in front of them. What’s more, Javier believes in jumping on such opportunities and having a greater impact to those around them. This includes creating fulfilling career paths for their team members, instilling pride in their work, and making a positive impact on their community and market.
“I feel like I’m in a patience-testing season. I feel like I’m in a resilience-testing season.”
Javier has a remarkable ability to recognize that he’s currently going through a “period of failures.” He feels like he’s in a strange place where things haven’t been working out well in recent years. He admits to having more losses than wins, which is humbling and frustrating. Even now, he’s still figuring out how to bring life and energy to their hotel business. Ultimately, Javier sees these challenges as tests that he’s okay with, as they provide opportunities for personal growth.
“I have incorporated the power of re in my life.”
Javier has incorporated the power of “re” in his life, recognizing the significance of starting again and rejuvenating. The concept struck him one day, prompting him to explore words that begin with “re.” What he found was a collection of beautiful terms, such as resetting, regenerating, and more, each offering a fresh lease on life. Taking action, he understands the importance of being still and ready to embark on a new journey. These moments hold value for everyone, and if individuals like Javier are fortunate enough to have the time, resources, and health, they should seize the opportunity. Life can be likened to a grid of infinite boxes, with each person occupying a unique position. By embracing these practices, Javier strives for personal growth and fulfilment.
Full Transcript
Chris Edwards (00:00)
Hey, Good Business listeners. We’re trying out something a little different for today’s podcast and I’m curious to know what you think. So email us at [email protected] or comment wherever you’re listening to let us know your thoughts. Now, on with the show.
Chris Edwards (00:21)
Sometime in the middle of last year, a spanking new boutique hotel opened its doors in the heart of Kuala Lumpur’s Chinatown.
Chris Edwards (00:30)
Located on Petaling Street in what was once known as the iconic Lee Rubber Building, ELSE Hotel’ boasts seven stories, with a total of 49 rooms, each one designed in soft palettes and natural tropical textures with an interior that embraces a modern feel, while celebrating elements of yesteryears.
Chris Edwards (00:53)
The hotel also hosts several wellness facilities, including an outdoor pool terrace with cabanas, a gratitude space, and, my favourite, the floating meditation pods.
Chris Edwards (01:05)
I loved visiting ELSE Hotel. It’s a really incredible property, right in the middle of Petaling Street’s hipster culture. Just walking into the hotel lobby, you know you’re somewhere special. And it’s kind of surprising that the owners, Justin Cheng and Javier Perez, are actually first-time hoteliers.
Chris Edwards (01:25)
Justin leads Arcc Spaces, a collection of shared workspace brands with locations all over Asia, while his partner, Javier – an old friend of mine – is the restaurateur behind popular concepts like Kilo, Raw Kitchen, and Grain Traders – but it has always been his dream to open his own hotel.
Javier Perez (01:46)
You know, today, we talk about manifesting and putting things out in the world, so maybe that 23-year-old Javier that was saying, “I’m going to open a hotel, I want to open a hotel”, you know, was kind of planting a seed that would, you know, finally sprout 20 years later.
Chris Edwards (02:03)
And sprout that seed did. However, as Javier very quickly found out, running a hotel is no small feat. And despite it being his lifelong goal to become a hotelier, it would require more than sheer passion to keep the dream alive.
Chris Edwards (02:22)
Welcome to Good Business, a Launchpad podcast that goes behind the scenes of the leaders of good businesses who have people, planet, and profit at the core of their mission. I’m Chris Edwards, founder of The Honeycombers and Launchpad, and this is the story of how Javier Perez – of Kilo, Raw Kitchen, and Grain Traders fame – launched ELSE Hotel in KL, and the challenges of being a first-time hotelier, and how it really took him immersing himself in darkness to see the light.
Chris Edwards (02:55)
But before we get into ELSE Hotel’s launch, we first need to understand one thing: Who is Javier? And how did this Puerto Rican man end up on this side of the world?
Javier Perez (03:07)
That’s a pretty complex thing, right, when people ask me like, well, you’re Puerto Rican. And I think it’s not as a novelty today because there are a handful of Puerto Ricans now in Singapore, right? But at the time, I think that there was less than 10, right? I think there was about six or seven of us.
Javier Perez (03:25)
But, you know, life is a beautiful thing, right? No coincidences. I believe that I ended up in Singapore because I was destined to be there.
Chris Edwards (03:36)
Born and raised in Puerto Rico, Javier had always been fixated on creating incredible experiences, an obsession that began when he first saw how some friends ran a well-beloved restaurant in his neighbourhood and recognised that a good meal is more than just food and drink.
Chris Edwards (03:55)
Since then, he’d harboured ambitions of being able to host, entertain, and really bring joy to large groups of people, and that drive sent him to Switzerland in the pursuit of a postgraduate degree in hospitality.
Chris Edwards (04:10)
There, Javier met the woman who would soon become his wife, Sharon. And while looking for a place to plant their roots, they turned to Singapore.
Javier Perez (04:20)
At that point, her family or her parents had moved back to Singapore and she’s, like, “Well, my parents are back in Singapore. I’ve never really lived there. Why don’t we go check it out?”
Javier Perez (04:30)
And this was Singapore in 2005 so, you know, the green initiatives that Singapore have today still rang true back then. The island was beautiful, it was green, there was no MBS, there was no Sentosa – I mean, there was Sentosa, but there wasn’t Sentosa as you see it today. I mean, there was no ION –
Chris Edwards:
Mm.
Javier Perez (04:50)
– there was no Wisma Atria, there was no Orchard Central, you know, there was only Takashimaya, Lucky Plaza, I mean, it was a really green place, right? And so I fell in love with it immediately, actually, I just felt like, “Oh, wow, this is it”.
Chris Edwards (05:05)
Javier and his wife visited Singapore four more times, each time feeling the pull grow stronger, until they finally moved here in 2006. Soon after that, Javier launched his first endeavour.
Javier Perez (05:18)
So the first restaurant that we ever opened was a small Vietnamese restaurant –
Chris Edwards:
Ah.
Javier Perez (05:23)
– which was very creatively called Banh Mi, right?
Chris Edwards:
Hahahahaha.
Javier Perez (05:30)
We sold banh mis and phos and, you know, I’ve always been a huge fan of Vietnamese food and the freshness and just… I don’t know, it’s just so good, right? It’s so tasty –
Chris Edwards:
Uh huh.
Javier Perez (05:41)
– and so comforting. And that was our first restaurant. We took over a little space in China Square Central and, yeah, that’s where we started kind of our planting, if you will.
Chris Edwards (05:54)
And so began Javier’s career as a restaurateur in Singapore. After Banh Mi, he launched Raw Kitchen, then Kilo – which has a few locations around Singapore and Indonesia – and Grain Traders, which was a first-of-its-kind that launched with queues around the block.
Javier Perez (06:11)
The mission and, kind of, the vision for Grain Traders was to be able to offer people good food, great food that was intentional and thoughtful in the way it’s being handled.
Javier Perez (06:22)
We weren’t using any processed foods, no frozen foods, and we’re looking, really, at the craft, right, of being able to offer urbanites or kind of modern kind of city dwellers within Singapore accessible and really kind of fast service cuisine, but executed at restaurant-level kind of techniques, right?
Javier Perez (06:44)
And then, you know, on top of that, layering that with, you know, kind of these Latin, Asian, Mediterranean flavour profiles, right? Like, where, you know, your lunchtime didn’t have to be boring, right? Or it didn’t have to feel like you were just fueling up, but rather, even though you knew that you were fueling up and giving your body something of substance to take you throughout the day, that it could be enjoyable, it could be tasty, and yeah, it could pack a punch.
Chris Edwards (07:15)
There’s many interesting things about Javier, but maybe the most fascinating thing is that Javier isn’t a chef.
Javier Perez (07:24)
I’m not a chef, right? I’m not someone who can sit there and kind of think of creative ways of putting ingredients together and then it kind of works, right? What I think I’ve been gifted with is the ability to think about, well, what makes people feel good? What’s comfort?
Javier Perez (07:42)
You know, there’s moments that you experience, right, where you go somewhere and you’re unable to kind of put into words why you actually feel good in this space, what is actually attracting you to it. You know, this familiarity with the food, even though it may be some type of fusion interpretation, you still feel, like, well, “I know this, I’ve had this, I can relate to it”.
Javier Perez (08:08)
And so, you know, I believe that, you know, thank God I’ve been kind of given a gift of putting things together, you know, and kind of producing them in a way of, like, that just makes people feel great and makes them feel good. And so I think, you know, I believe it’s always started, not even I believe, I know that it’s always started with the intention of, you know, one: how do we provide our guests with a moment of familiarity? And could almost be a memory, a kind of experience that they’ve had before.
Javier Perez (08:39)
You know, one thing that’s always truly been ingrained is, how do we provide our guests with a moment of transporting them? You know, I think that one of the most beautiful comments or feedbacks that we’ve been given is always that, “Oh, I don’t feel like I’m in Singapore when I go to your restaurant. I feel like I’ve been transported”, or “I feel like, oh, I used to go to a place like this in Australia”, or “I feel like I’m in Germany”, or “I feel like I’m in wherever”, right? And we’ve heard that time and time again, not only in our Grain Traders business, in our Kilo business, and even in our Raw Kitchen business. And so that’s pretty cool, right? You know –
Chris Edwards:
Mm.
Javier Perez (09:17)
– the opportunity to be able to give people a moment of disconnect, but somehow they’re connecting with something else, with some other kind of memory, with some other experience. And I don’t know, I find that really like a blessing and like a really cool thing, because even though you’re not able to compute that into an ROI or, like, dollars and cents, there’s so much value in that. And even if there isn’t, there’s like so much pleasure.
Chris Edwards (09:49)
That last bit, for me, personally, really illustrates the kind of person Javier is. But, despite the successes of his series of intentions across Raw Kitchen, Kilo, and Grain Traders, Javier never stopped looking for opportunities to impart those experiences to more people. And so it just happens that, in 2017, that opportunity came knocking in the form of an invitation to go to KL by his old friend Justin.
Javier Perez (10:18)
You know this project really was a project that my now partner Justin had come to me with and said, “Hey, we have this building and we’re unsure what we want to kind of do with it, we’ve been looking at different options”, they’re in the co-working space and and in the private office space, and they’re developers and so, you know, “We can do co-working, co-living, maybe we can do a members club”, you know, all these ideas were floating around. And one of those ideas was a hotel.
Chris Edwards (10:50)
There it was – an opportunity for Javier to jump in and achieve his goal of becoming a hotelier. There was just one little issue: Javier had never been to KL before.
Javier Perez (11:01)
When Justin actually called me and said, “Hey, would you like to come to KL?” I was, like, “Well, I’ve never been there. OK, let’s try it out”. And I think it was part and parcel because I never had this call or attraction to KL, right? If I had two or three days off, you’re going to Bangkok, you’re going to Bali, you’re going to other places, you’re not, like, “Yeah, let’s go to KL”. But when I got here, which was – the first time I visited KL was 2017 – I was, like, “Wow, this is interesting, this is cool”. You know, it reminded me – and I apologise in advance to anyone listening out there that may take offence to this – but like, I don’t know, it reminded me of like a mixture of Thailand, Bangkok, and Singapore, but, like, in the late ‘90s, right? Like it felt like, “Oh, this is like Thailand and Bangkok, like, 15, 20 years ago.
Javier Perez (11:54)
We kept speaking about it and I said, “Oh, have you found someone to kind of help you with the hotel?” And he’s, like, “How about we just do it together?” And foolish optimism, right? You’re just, like, “Yeah, sure, we could do it.
Chris Edwards:
Hahaha.
Javier Perez (12:05)
We can open a hotel, right? Sounds easy enough”, you know?
Chris Edwards (12:10)
So open a hotel the pair did. And, to their credit, they immediately saw that this task wasn’t going to be an easy one.
Javier Perez (12:18)
There were moments where you’re like, “Oh my gosh, what have we gotten ourselves into”, right? There’s so much to think about, there’s so much to do. And there is, right? That’s not to kind of take away from that because there is a lot to consider and there is a lot to do.
Javier Perez (12:33)
But at the same time, you know, it’s not the lion that we think it is. It’s maybe, like, a bobcat, right? It’s still quite fierce, right? And it can kill you at any moment, but, like, it’s, you know, it’s manageable, right?
Chris Edwards (12:47)
As you just heard, the monumental task of launching an entirely new hotel brand independently didn’t deter Javier in the slightest, mainly because – if you know Javier – you know that he is the type of person that just has this weird, underlying self-belief – and that’s very rare to find.
Javier Perez (13:07)
We’re not necessarily given the answer of why something has called us until years later, right? Like, the epiphany isn’t there right away. I mean, at least for me, it’s not like I have the answer every time, like, “Oh yeah, I know exactly why we chose KL”. And when people ask me, “Well, why KL? Why did you choose KL?” And I always say, you know, “Well, I believe KL chose me, but I don’t have the answer of why yet”, right? I’m just kind of trying to be as present as possible, look at what we have here in this gift, right? Because we have to be good stewards of opportunities. And then how do we build upon this, right? Once again, how do we build upon it for our team members to have great career paths, to have things that they can look forward to, to have pride in what they do, to then how do we then impact our community or even our market?
Javier Perez (14:02)
Maybe if we speak two years from now, we can really dive deep and say, like, “Oh wow, all of these things have happened. We’ve been able to really kind of impact change in these kind of ways. We’ve been able to impact market or communities in this kind of way”. And then we will come closer to, like, this answer, right, of why. But right now, I believe that we’ve been kind of put into this market to be part of it –
Chris Edwards:
Mm.
Javier Perez (14:30)
– to be part of its growth, to be part of its evolution, to be part of just its transition, right?
Chris Edwards:
Mm.
Javier Perez (14:37)
And we’re constantly going through transitions in everything we do, in our businesses and life, and concepts and ideas. And so, you know, today we are into 2023 of KL and, hopefully, you know, when we look back, we’re like, “Wow, ELSE was really impactful over the last five or 10 years, right?
Chris Edwards:
Mmm.
Javier Perez (14:59)
If I’m opening a brand – and I won’t name any brands – but if I’m opening a brand that’s already established, has 10 hotels around the world, and I’m just plugging it into a new city, well, that’s one thing because you’ve already done the work and created the roots, the following, the reputation. But today, I look at us as, like, a little foetus embryo thing, like, we’re just a baby. Like, we’re not even crawling yet, right?
Chris Edwards:
Hahaha
Javier Perez (15:25)
And maybe you can say, “OK, OK, we’re crawling”, but like, you know, who are we?
Chris Edwards:
Yeah.
Javier Perez (15:30)
What are we? What do we stand for? What is our culture? What are our values? What actually attracts people to or will attract people to the ELSE name? How do we ensure that attraction turns into retention over time and loyalty? Yeah, so it all takes time and just kind of dedication and just… yeah, commitment through the good, the great, the bad, and the ugly, whatever may come, right?
Chris Edwards (15:58)
Of course, like in many businesses, right after the good and the great, the bad and the ugly followed.
Chris Edwards (15:58)
But one of the most remarkable things in this conversation was Javier’s ability to talk about and realise that he’s currently experiencing what he calls a “period of failures”.
Javier Perez (16:20)
I feel like if somebody was kind of filming my life or if I have to think about it, I feel like I’m at this weird space where things haven’t really worked out over the course of the last few years, right? I definitely have racked up more losses than wins, right? And so that’s a really humbling place to be. It’s a very frustrating place to be.
Javier Perez (16:43)
Yeah, sure, we opened a hotel and, you know, I’m looking to open another small place, but internally there’s a lot of things that are not going well, right?
Javier Perez (16:53)
We find ourselves not being able to identify the proper systems or procedures or, you know, things that we need to kind of give ourselves a greater foundation. We have found ourselves in a bit of a turnover cycle with key people. We’re like, well, what is it?
Javier Perez (17:08)
And then you wonder, like, you know, you have to do some introspection and say, “Well, is it me? Is it… what am I not seeing or overlooking?” We have opened some restaurants, we opened Grain Traders in Los Angeles and we had to close after 15 months. And sure, a lot of people can say, well, you know, it was COVID. We opened right in the heart of COVID without knowing that COVID was on its way. But you feel like, “Oh my gosh, like, why am I… why am I not getting any Ws, right?
Javier Perez (17:38)
You know, I really do feel like I’m in a patience-testing season. I feel like I’m in a resilience-testing season. I feel like I’m in a… Whatever you want to kind of attribute or kind of, you know, in your own kind of thoughts, like, when you’re going through something that just doesn’t seem to be converting or working out. But the crazy part of it is that I’m OK with it.
Javier Perez (18:01)
You know, there’s times where even today, we’re still trying to figure out this business in the hotel. It’s a beautiful product, you know, the hardware is all there, but then it’s really bringing in and ensuring that there is a life and there is a soul and there is a vibrancy that… it’s the heartbeat, right? So…
Chris Edwards:
Mmm.
Javier Perez (18:18)
And yeah, so, you know, we are definitely being tested. Alright, if I have to speak to myself, I feel that, you know, I’m being tested. But I’m okay with the test.
Chris Edwards (18:31)
But even for a guy as cool as Javier, there are hard days. Sometimes, those days can turn into weeks, months, maybe even years. And it can be hard to find a bright spot in dark times.
Chris Edwards (18:46)
Funnily enough, it took being in a literal dark room for Javier to find his light. Just a short while before we had this conversation, Javier had attended a nine-day silence and darkness retreat in Thailand.
Chris Edwards (19:03)
Honestly, for a needy extrovert like me, nine days of silence and darkness sounds like torture. But according to Javier, it was actually kind of therapeutic.
Javier Perez (19:15)
My thoughts going there without having any exposure to it, I was, like, “OK, well, this is going to provide me a moment of complete solitude with absolutely no distractions, absolutely no -” and when I say distractions, I’m not just talking about your phone, your email, your work, but like, actually, you know, you can, you’re not going to be stimulated by anything visually, right? You’re not speaking, you’re… So what I thought, which is, you know, kind of what happened was that you’re gonna have this moment to just be with your thoughts and that’s a really scary place to be, right? Because not all of our thoughts are great thoughts, right? And probably for the majority of us, the majority of thoughts are not great thoughts, right?
Javier Perez (20:07)
And so, you know, we have all of these things that we deal with, whether they’re insecurities, inadequacies, we deal with self-doubt, we deal with guilt or shame or not being able to kind of go past something or forgive ourselves. And then also then you have these thoughts about, like, well, “What am I doing with my professional life and how is my business going and what can I do better? Maybe I should have given better instruction to this person and this wouldn’t happen”. But what happens is that whatever is within you, you have nine days with it by itself, right?
Chris Edwards:
Hahaha
Javier Perez (20:47)
And it is a beautiful experience, but it’s also very cruel, right? It’s also very real. It’s very revealing. You know, a phrase that I came out of from there was “cruel grace”, right? Because sometimes we look at grace as being something that, you know, gives you an opportunity or it comforts you and sends you on your way and says, “Hey, don’t worry. Like, you know, keep going and you’re fine and…” But sometimes grace has to be cruel to show you, “Hey, you’re gonna keep going, you’re gonna keep moving forward, but you need to attend to these things, you need to kind of look at this a bit more intently, consciously”.
Javier Perez (21:28)
But it’s a crazy moment because, you know, I went in there with a lot of baggage. I went in there with a lot of self-inflicted trauma. And so I had to kind of deal with that, right? And we have a teacher that’s in there, you’re in the complete darkness, you’re not speaking. It was interesting because it is a darkness that you have never experienced before, right? Like, it’s like an abyss, like, you’re just, like, in this, like, you’re, like, “What is this?” And you’re eating in the dark, taking a shower in the dark, brushing your teeth in the dark, getting dressed, everything, right? But it is a darkness that I’ve never experienced, and I can feel very confident to say that nobody has ever experienced, unless they’ve actually been into a dark room, right?
Javier Perez (22:10)
And so the first handful of days were actually not bad, right? where it really got very difficult for me. I mean, there was day four where there were some things and it was just my mind, right? Because you’re battling these things. But day seven was really tough.
Javier Perez (22:25)
But there was such a beautiful… you know, there’s so much revelation, right? And there’s other parts of this, right? Because we’re just scratching the surface, but, like, you know, your brain starts to produce, you know, other kind of chemistry within your brain that we don’t usually experience. We usually only experience twice in life, which is in birth and in death. And so since you are in the darkness for a certain amount of time, your melatonin, once it reaches a certain ceiling, your brain and your body cannot produce, overproduce melatonin. So then it converts it into another chemical which then opens a whole other spectrum of, like, visions and seeing and realisations and really beautiful stuff, right?
Javier Perez (23:13)
So yeah. It’s given me some great clarity, but at the same time, I still believe that I need to continue that practice, whether that practice is here in this natural state and world or whether I do this on a calendar basis.
Chris Edwards (23:27)
One thing Javier took away from this retreat experience was the “power of re-”, and it’s compelling, but I’m gonna let him explain it.
Javier Perez (23:37)
I have incorporated this thing of “re” in my life, re, right? R-E, the power of re, right? And so like, what does that mean? And that came to me one time and I was, like, “What does that mean?” And then I started to look up and you can Google this, like, all words that start with re, with R-E. And it’s beautiful, right? Because it’s all about re, like, resetting, regenerating. you know, there are a multitude of words that are so beautiful, that are there really to give you more life, right?
Chris Edwards:
Mm.
Javier Perez (24:11)
And to restart and reactivate and re, re. You can take a look and you can see what words may resonate with you, but it’s the action of taking the time to be still and to start again, right? And to be ready for what’s next. And so we all need those moments, right? Or at least we should make those moments, you know, if we have the luxury, right?
Javier Perez (24:36)
Like I said, you know, in this beautiful thing we call life, you know, there’s this beautiful and unfortunate grid, right? And this grid can have, you know, a trillion boxes and we sit somewhere on the vertical and the horizontal of that grid, right? And other people sit below us, above us, beside us. And so if we’re fortunate enough that we can implement these practices, if we have the time, if we have the money, if we have the health, if we have the mental fortitude or stability, then we should take full advantage of it, right?
Chris Edwards (25:10)
Today, Javier recognises that his career and his businesses and himself are all still works in progress – and for all he knows, they may continue to be for a while. But, as usual, he’s not sweating it. In fact, he had this to say.
Javier Perez (25:27)
Even if it all went to shit today, right? Like, I don’t know. I feel like I’m in a very different space. I have so much to be grateful for. And even if I just had to, like, I don’t know, no longer be an entrepreneur and I need to just go find a gig somewhere, then I have to kind of believe that, OK, why is this happening and is this what it’s meant to be – not saying that I’m subscribing to that and letting the current take me along, right? But I believe in cycles, right?
Javier Perez (25:57)
And I believe that we’re constantly being taught things. And so, you know, do I have the faith that there will be a time of triumph, of, like, celebration, of, you know, really kind of elated celebration of, like, you know… yes. But I also think that, like, I’m going through a moment of testimony building, right? Because, you know, ever since we’ve known each other, like, I’ve just been like, oh, yeah, things are going fine and whatever, right?
Chris Edwards:
Hahaha!
Javier Perez (26:27)
And so, you know, this is just a moment I feel that’s for me to say, hey, you know, who knows, right? Like I said, most of the time, you only know the why much later, right? Like, when you’re in it, very few people are so in tune to kind of see the why when they’re in the middle of something. And so perhaps my why is years from now, being able to lend support or comfort to people who may be going through similar situations, right?
Chris Edwards:
Hmm.
Javier Perez (26:59)
Being able to be an encouraging voice or shoulder to lean on to say, “Hey, just continue on”, you know, not foolishly, but you know, “There is a way”, right?
Chris Edwards 27:11
Jav, thank you. It’s been an absolute delight. There’s so much here that is so valuable and I really appreciate it, thank you.
Javier Perez (27:19)
No, thank you. And it’s great to see you and I hope to connect again soon. So… that wasn’t too painful.
Chris Edwards 27:29
Hahaha. No, that wasn’t too painful at all. I’m glad, I’m glad.
Chris Edwards (27:36)
So my big takeaway from this conversation with Javier, well, there’s so much, to be honest. The big one for me is I love his approach to trusting the universe and knowing that we’re constantly in a state of flux, and that we’ll have seasons of success and seasons of failure, and that’s kind of OK. That’s all part of the journey. I also really admire his appetite for just having a crack and having a go. I mean, it’s amazing to think he’s not actually a chef, and here he is with a multitude of restaurants, and now a hotel, under his belt. He’s a true inspiration and yet he’s so humble and understated. I’m really grateful to call him a friend.
Chris Edwards (28:21)
I hope you enjoyed Javier’s story and learning from it as much as I did. Special thanks to my mate, Javier, for being so raw and real – as I knew he would be – in this conversation. I absolutely recommend you all book a weekend to KL and go and stay at the ELSE Hotel. I was there thinking, “Oh, my goodness, I have to bring my whole family back”. It’s such a beautiful experience. And if you’re in Singapore, absolutely eat at Kilo or Grain Traders, they’re phenomenal experiences, and all those details are in the show notes.
Chris Edwards (28:53)
Thank you so much for listening and tuning in to Good Business. Please let us know what you think of today’s episode – it’s a new format, we’d love to hear from you. Email us on [email protected], and we’d really appreciate it if you could give us a rating on our podcast and leave us a nice review on any podcast platform you’re listening on. And if you liked today’s episode, please share it with a friend. I’m not asking much, am I?
Chris Edwards (29:21)
Also, if you’re not subscribed to us, give that follow button some love. We’ve all got so many more stories of good businesses and the great leaders behind them, and I’m really excited to share their stories with all of you.
Chris Edwards (29:33)
Finally, if you want to join a community of ambitious, daring, smart, and super kind entrepreneurs, please hit us up at www.thelaunchpad.group. I think you’ll be surprised at what you could harness from joining our community.
Chris Edwards (29:52)
Before we close out, I acknowledge the traditional owners of the land on which I am recording this podcast, the Arakwal people of the Bundjalung nation, and I also pay my respects to Elders past and present and future. I also extend respect to all traditional cultures.
Chris Edwards (30:10)
Thank you again for listening. I’m Chris Edwards, and I hope you feel as inspired as I am to create your own good business.