The Barista Who Built an Empire - Elad Assayag

In this episode of The Quest for Success Podcast, we sit down with Elad Assayag, a successful entrepreneur in the hospitality industry, to discuss his unique definition of success. For Elad, success is all about maintaining strong relationships with family and friends while making a positive impact on those around him.

Elad shares his journey, starting at a young age working in coffee shops and bartending, which sparked his passion for the people and service industry. He later transitioned into hospitality management, eventually launching his own consulting company. Elad’s approach focuses on blending the creative visions of chefs, designers, and investors to build successful business ventures.

In this insightful conversation, Elad emphasises the importance of surrounding yourself with the best team, continuous learning, and maintaining a people-centric approach. He also touches on his move from Israel to the US, the challenges of parenting, and the invaluable lessons he aims to pass on to his children. Elad reflects on the significance of mentors, learning from both positive and negative experiences, and why relationships are at the core of success.

Tune in to hear Elad’s inspiring journey and learn how to build lasting success in the hospitality industry.

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Transcript

Dylan Pathirana (00:01.137)
What are you drinking?

Elad Assayag (00:03.183)
Coffee and water so a cup of coffee and a cup of water next to me

Dylan Pathirana (00:05.511)
Whoa.

Dylan Pathirana (00:11.015)
Nice. All right. We'll get started. All right. Welcome back to the quest for success podcast. And thank you so much for tuning in once again. have a special guest, Elad Asiyaj. He's one of my cohorts from OPM, Harvard Business School course that I'm doing. And I had the privilege in the same living group last year with Elad. So I know Elad quite well. Thank you Elad for joining us.

Elad Assayag (00:40.235)
Yeah, of course, I'm happy to be here.

Dylan Pathirana (00:43.067)
So, Eli, this whole conversation is all about success. And so I think there's a critical question which we need to ask you to kind of get the lay of the land. And that question is, what does success mean to you?

Elad Assayag (00:59.117)
So this is a funny question coming from the two of you and I'll explain to you in a second why. And I heard that a few years ago and I really think that's the perfect definition of success. It's when you get older and your kids still want to hang out with you. And the fact that the two of you managed to do this thing together.

Dylan Pathirana (01:20.071)
Absolutely.

Elad Assayag (01:28.609)
That's the definition of success. So that means you did well, you had time for your family, you still been a cool guy, you still been amazing, you had taken care of your family, spent time with your wife, spent time with your kids, spent time with your business. The fact that you guys are doing what you're doing right now as father and son, that's the definition of success to me. You can't really measure it with money. You know, I've been privileged to see.

very, very rich people and I've always seen someone richer. I've seen people with big company, there's always someone bigger. I've seen someone that created stuff and then I've people created more. There's no definition, it's everyone looking at how they define it. It's like how many Ferraris you have in your garage that doesn't represent anything. What you guys are doing, this is success to me. This is a...

My kids are still young, so I hope one day I get to do, I enjoy doing, you know, they want to go to the pool now, so they're young, they want to hang out and do young kids, fun stuff. But as long as I find time to do it with them, and then when I get older, if I can still do that, then I think I won the race.

Dylan Pathirana (02:45.499)
Yeah, that's awesome. And so for you, it's more about family connection, still being connected and having strong relationships. Is that what success means?

Elad Assayag (02:55.799)
It's a big part of it. Yeah. It's a big part of it. Going to work and seeing the employees like able to come and talk to you about their family and still want to talk to you. And you kind of know as much as you can about them. That that's a part of success to me. You know, the business is rolling. Everything is fine. You make money, but it's all about connections. And the most important to me is the family and then friends and then

the list goes on and on and on and on. The fact that I'm here with you guys, this is success. That means that like, we left a good impression on each other and want to be in each other's future. That's success. That's what is success to me.

Dylan Pathirana (03:43.783)
Thank you a lot. It's interesting you use us to define your success. And I'm very humble, you know, how you describe that, you know, absolutely. I totally agree with you. End of the day, what matters? It's your relationships, right? Your family, your close friends. So I consider you as one of my closest friends from Harvard, because we had quite a great time together last last session.

three weeks together, I guess, and got to know each other quite well. So, Elad, if I don't want to do injustice to explain what you do, and I want you to take us through who's Elad and what he's doing right now.

Elad Assayag (04:33.002)
It's funny. how did my wife said to my daughter the other day, we were talking about it. We were just like hanging out and she's like, your dad is a professional schmoozer. It's not a skill or a company that we can pass alone. And then my daughter was asking, was like, okay, but what's a schmoozer? And I didn't have an answer for her.

Dylan Pathirana (04:47.213)
You

Elad Assayag (05:01.418)
I don't know someone could get stuff done. I basically build restaurants and, you know, do, I've been in the hospitality industry since I'm 14. First job when I was 14, I used to make coffee in the train station in Israel in a little coffee shop. Wake up at 430 in the morning, be at work at five, then.

finished my day, then I moved to United States. I worked as a bartender for a years. I've been in Vegas for the last 24 years. And then slowly move into management in the hotels. And after that, I opened a consulting company. I used to help people just like start businesses or expand businesses based on my experience I got with those hotels. And in the last probably 15 years, 12 years,

I start taking equity in some of the projects I'm doing. So what do I do exactly? I'm in the hospitality industry, but I'm the one behind the scene to make sure whoever wants to open a business, I kill all the background noise. So opening a business is hard enough, especially in this industry, which involved a lot of like artists and creative people and chefs.

So I move all that background to make sure they can come up and have as successful business as they can. And like I said, throughout the time I become like a partner with them.

Dylan Pathirana (06:40.167)
What are the main restaurants that you're talking about? I know you got a few in Vegas and a few in Miami and yeah, can you please share some of the names?

Elad Assayag (06:53.738)
Yeah, we have about 20 restaurants right now between Vegas and Miami. We have an Italian restaurant, which is, I always go to that one because it's my first baby. So it's the one that kind of like shifted the way I do business. It's called Mercato. It's in the Venetian Hotel. We own Café Americano. It's Caesar's in Paris, Havana in 1957. We Mexican restaurants. We have sushi. We have quite a few brands.

Dylan Pathirana (07:23.36)
And you also have donuts, right? Yeah. Is that the latest one?

Elad Assayag (07:26.258)
Yeah, it is the latest one. The Donuts is actually like the smallest project we've done, but it's a baby project. It's kind of like, let's see how far we can take this crazy idea of creating like a luxury boutique donut shop in the middle of Vegas, in the middle of casino. It's actually working really well. In the grand scheme, it's the smallest restaurant we have.

Dylan Pathirana (07:33.489)
Okay.

Elad Assayag (07:55.53)
But it's kind of like a fun place to go. sit down and it's a happy place. I don't know anyone that goes to buy sugar if it's not happy. it's a very happy place. I sit on the world number one legal drug dealer. I sell coffee and sugar. Two highest sold drugs on the planet.

Dylan Pathirana (08:05.073)
You

Dylan Pathirana (08:12.391)
That's it. And I want to go back a little bit because you, mentioned family and throughout our discussions, we're finding a lot of people, their journey is really shaped by their formative years. And I know you mentioned Israel. And so I want to go back to your early years and I'd like you to walk us through some of them and how it's kind of impacted your later life.

Elad Assayag (08:43.498)
we, I grew up, my father is from Morocco. So my father came from North Africa when he was a young kid to Israel. And then my mother is a daughter of two Holocaust survivors and they came from Poland. So my family is, back in, I was born 1980. Back then it was a big taboo to have an Eastern European, Marian African and Israel.

We lived in Israel, a very normal life. We financially, we had nothing really. I was very struggled, but I had everything else. I had fun memories of my childhood. I grew up in a very, very small town. I was very close with my friends, played soccer every day after school, just a normal life.

After the high school, I served in the military in Israel in the army for three years. That was a great experience. Looking at now, looking at to the past, it's a great experience. While you're doing it, it's a little tough. But I think that helped shape a lot of men and women in Israel. Basically at 18, you stop everything. I don't care where you're coming from, how much you have, who your parents are.

Everyone stopped what they're doing, serving the military, and then at 21 everyone get a fresh start to start their life. So I thought it was an amazing experience. I came to United States for vacation right after the military and I met a girl that she's still my wife 24 years later. And I decided to stay in the United States. wasn't like a plan to move or to leave Israel. I was very happy over there.

Dylan Pathirana (10:31.983)
Ugh.

Elad Assayag (10:39.462)
And then we lived in New York City for a years, then moved to Vegas. And slowly with Vegas, I was, like I said, always in the hospitality industry, but started very small making coffee. When you come to Vegas, you see this mega resorts and it's just kind of like the, as good as you can get. Let's put it, it's the Harvard of hospitality, but maybe even one level higher.

And I fell in love right away. I fell in love with the people. I fell in love with the smiles. I fell in love with the service. And then we stayed here.

Dylan Pathirana (11:16.657)
That sounds like such an amazing journey and there's so much to dive into there. But I want to talk a bit about your parents. Were they in hospitality or kind of what led you down that path?

Elad Assayag (11:29.738)
No, not at all. My dad worked in a factory. He used to drive a forklift for the last 40 something years. My dad was a factory man, blue collar, go to work every day at 6 .30, come home. They make him retire three times and then they find a way to come back and not to stay retired. And then they made him retire again and he came back because he just loved where he worked. Very humble man, but I think I got

the meaning of hard work from him. No matter what happened, he was up in the morning going to work. We had one week off in the summer when he'd take us to the beach or something, but as we remember him and my siblings, the guy's working. And my mom was in fashion. She worked in clothing stores and boutiques and...

And she, you know, she, she, she wasn't, none of them were in the hospitality industry.

Dylan Pathirana (12:31.591)
So what made you decide, interest to get into hospitality? Any moment that you realize this is where I need to be?

Elad Assayag (12:47.114)
Yes, I'm just like you. love people. You know, it's like I'm a people person and I need to be around people. I thrive off people. get my battery get full when I'm around people. Yeah. So I remember my first job. Like I said, I was really young and it was very hard for a 14 years old to get up at four or five in the morning. But I think the first thank you.

Dylan Pathirana (13:00.911)
Energy, yeah.

Elad Assayag (13:16.234)
and a smile, I was like, wow, this is right away. So in a normal job, you go to work and you give your report to your boss and the boss to the boss. And by the time someone recognized your job, it takes maybe a day, maybe a month, maybe 10 years. Here within seconds, you get a smile and a thank you. So was like, this is cool. I can enjoy this.

It kept on going and the more friendly you are and the better job you do, the more recognition you get right away. Some of it in form of tips, some of them in form of smiles, some of them in form of like getting promoted. And I think in the eighties, the movie Cocktail came with Tom Cruise and I was like, I'm going to be a bartender. This is pretty cool. And that's it. And the bug, they say if you have the bug in you, it doesn't go away.

Dylan Pathirana (14:11.815)
It's interesting. Yeah. And so once you, came to the U S and you fell in love with it here, how, what was the first in like, where did you start in your hospitality journey in the U S

Elad Assayag (14:25.834)
I hope that American immigration don't listen to this podcast. But for the first year I was illegal construction worker. I was making seven bucks an hour, then nine bucks an hour and doing construction in New York. My wife used to design clothes back then for DKNY and Calvin Klein and I show up like old Dusty.

Dylan Pathirana (14:31.443)
You

Dylan Pathirana (14:41.329)
Wow.

Elad Assayag (14:52.906)
I used to make $243 a week and it exactly was enough for one dinner. We were living in her apartment, driving her car, enjoying my life. And then I was in charge of one dinner and it couldn't be an expensive one. It was just the budget I had. And then when we moved to Vegas from New York, I realized that, okay,

Dylan Pathirana (15:00.583)
Wow.

Elad Assayag (15:19.774)
We're definitely gonna stay together forever and I'm gonna stay here. And right away in Vegas, I knew something. This is the city I wanna be. Those big hotels, those big restaurants, those big casinos, that was the place I wanted to be. Obviously started process of fixing my status in the United States and right away I got a job as a bartender and from there, it just kinda like, I got deeper and deeper into this.

Dylan Pathirana (15:49.105)
So once you got into like bartending and the hospitality industry in LA, Las Vegas, did you kind of just climb your way up and until you were running restaurants? How did that work?

Elad Assayag (16:00.97)
No, that's a trick. And I keep on saying it to all my employees now or my friends. It's a very dangerous place. I was 22. I got a job as a bartender in one of the major hotel and casinos. And at 22, I was making a lot of money as a bartender. The tips here in the city, I know you Australians don't like the tip, but in the United States, they tip a lot. I was making great money.

Dylan Pathirana (16:25.926)
Haha!

Elad Assayag (16:30.852)
and I did it for a few years, but I felt like something was missing.

We had a house, we bought a car, everything was fine, doing really well at a young age. Again, it's in comparison to what other people do at 22, 24, 25. We were doing really well. But one day I turned around and I realized that I'm not the youngest one anymore.

And there's guys that are a lot older than me that are doing this. And I've said that if I'm gonna keep on doing this, I'm gonna be here 50 and 60. And I will just bartend it. I said just, and it's injustice, because it's a great job and people love it. But I felt that I needed to do a little bit more.

I didn't want to get stuck behind the bar. There's a lot of people that still do it and they love it and it's amazing. know, we have people that have been with us for 20, 30 years working behind the bar and it's great that they find where they want to be. But I felt like I want to change stuff. I wanted to make more. So I went into management. So basically my pay got cut by 80%. I was making 20%. I was making as a bartender and start climbing my way up.

to from a supervisor to a manager to a GM to going and opening new hotels for the casinos. Then the nightlife industry, all the nightclubs and day clubs in Vegas became big. I moved to that side for two years to learn that aspect. then entertainment became always been big in Vegas, but now the foot and beverage portion of it was something new. So I went there. So it was kind of like chasing what's next, what's hot.

Elad Assayag (18:21.734)
Where should I go? Where can I learn more? And one day this one ended for me too. I realized, okay, I'm done. I'm going to do my own thing. Fortunately, a friend of mine asked me to help them with the small business. And then this is kind of like, okay, I have something to offer to other businesses. I have all those years of experience I got from those casinos. How can I make a business out of it?

And I took that and just opened a small company. And luckily, you I was fortunate to leave impression on some really good people. Actually, the first person to give me a break is from Australia. It was the Westfield family. And my first, yeah, my first big break came because of them. So I did spend some.

Dylan Pathirana (19:05.423)
nice

Dylan Pathirana (19:11.373)
What did you do for them?

Elad Assayag (19:14.766)
they're, they're a huge company. So Peter at the time was running United States and we became very, very good friends throughout him coming to Vegas for conventions. And I realized when those big landlords talk to Nordstrom or Apple or Louis Vuitton, the conversations are the same. But when they talk to a little mom and pop, there's a disconnect between how they do business. One company think only about as a big company.

And that's all they know. And one company has a very small mom and pop mindset. So I was kind of the liaison between them to kind of break the ice and manage to make the deal go through. I learned a lot from them. I came there with zero experience. And I was lucky that they were so patient with me and let me.

sit on some great meetings and I learned a lot from them. know, my career, always say my career start my personal career, my personal company started because of because of because of Peter from Westfield.

Dylan Pathirana (20:26.507)
And I've seen some of your projects and they're absolutely phenomenal. But I know there's so many different elements that come into creating a restaurant experience. There's so much artistic work, design work, construction. How did you go about managing all of that as one man?

Elad Assayag (20:50.208)
So it's, it's never one man. have to have a great team around you. but I can, I can say one thing. I can say one thing. It's not one man. No one is that creative. So what I do is, and that's, that's where I separate myself from, from actually, I don't know many people that do what I do. I haven't met one yet. I don't create anything. I don't invent anything. I don't know.

if your idea is good or bad. I have chef or designers or concept guys come to me and tell me, I'm gonna make this Italian restaurant or this sushi or this Indian food or I wanna open a Sri Lankan food restaurant. Okay, I'm not the one to say what's the next hot concept will be. I don't know, I'm not the one.

to say this is a cool design, this is not a cool design. What I do is I take those guys' ideas and bring it to a business plan. So the chef only care about the food, the designer only care about the design, the investors only care about the money, the landlord only care. Everyone have their own, they look at it from their selfish point of view. They want to know that they're doing. So I'm the one that like, okay guys,

Dylan Pathirana (22:12.42)
Absolutely.

Elad Assayag (22:17.001)
This is exactly as the happy medium. This is where we're gonna make money. This is what's gonna be successful. Chef, you have too many dishes in your menu that's not gonna work. Landlord, you're asking too much from this concept. Investor, this is when you're gonna make your money. I bring it together. Designers wanna design the best restaurants on the planet. I hire the best designer. I hire the best contractors. I hire the best chefs to the project.

But now we need to make sure everyone get to say what they want, but everyone at the same time becomes successful. So I appreciate the compliment, but I don't create stuff. I just take other people's idea and just make it a business for them.

Dylan Pathirana (23:03.367)
So you connecting the dots pretty much everything together. Put this. Yeah. And, and you talked a lot about, know, you bring the business plan to the creative ideas. Do you have any formative training in business or is it just something you've learned throughout your experiences?

Elad Assayag (23:05.683)
Yes. Yeah.

Elad Assayag (23:22.473)
No, you can ask your dad. I fake it every morning and then see what happened in the end of the day.

Dylan Pathirana (23:25.991)
You faked it well,

Elad Assayag (23:31.752)
no, the, don't. So I did not go to school, but I was privileged to work in the best hotels in the world and the best restaurants in the world. So I get to see what works, what doesn't work. And, and again, I hire the best people when it comes to financing. So, I rather make a lot less money, but know the project will do.

perfectly because I surround myself with the best people and then we can make I really make 20 projects that have a small equity in it than just trying to make one project that I have the most equity in it. So everyone takes a little piece of the pie, but we can create a lot more and make it really really good. So I keep on saying when you negotiate a deal get the best lawyer you can afford. I can read contracts really well, but I'm not a lawyer.

So I hired the best lawyers. And then when it comes to business plans, I really know where to look at, but I'm not a CFO. I'm not a numbers guy. So I try and get the best one. And then on and on, the best architect, the best designer, the best chef, I use the best furniture company. know, people tell me that, this chair is $120. I'm like, OK, but this chair will be broken in five months. You need a chair that can handle eight hours every day of sitting for the next 10 years.

So it's those little things that people, that we put together.

Dylan Pathirana (25:04.645)
Yeah, that's amazing. I mean, we can talk about quite a lot on what you're doing and what you learn through your experience. But I'm really curious, Elad. I just want to take you back all the way to that holiday that you came from Israel to US and meeting your partner. Can you take us through like, know, because as I said, I'm very curious what

I just want to know that story. I want to know your connection. Yeah, please.

Elad Assayag (25:37.392)
Yeah.

so when I was 18, I was in New York, for a vacation. have family in New York. my grandparents from my mom's side after the Holocaust split, some went to France, some came to United States, some went to Israel. So I always had a great uncle that living in New York. So I came to visit him when I was 18 and I said, when I finished the military, come again. Cause his kids more or less my age and we got along well.

I came, spent some time with nice, it just some vacation. And then one of my cousins invited me to a birthday party that, we just went to the city. Obviously, you you come from a small town in Israel and now you're in Manhattan with those cool clubs, cool restaurants, just enjoying New York. He was right around, Christmas and New Year's, which New York is just beautiful.

And my wife was in that party. She knew one of my cousins. And we stayed together since then. In the beginning, I had to go back home because I really couldn't stay in United States. I was on a tourist visa. A few months later on Valentine, we met in Paris for a few days just to spend Valentine together. And right after that, we decided we need to give this

Dylan Pathirana (26:49.297)
You

Elad Assayag (27:06.598)
a shot and see what this relationship takes us. And we've been together 24 years.

Dylan Pathirana (27:14.129)
That's amazing. I mean, you mentioned she's coming from fashion. She's a fashion designer. What's her background?

Elad Assayag (27:23.942)
Not anymore. she, she was, yeah, she was in fashion for a long time. She worked for a really good fashion companies. then she, when we moved to Vegas, she opened her own boutique and then the big financial crisis of 2008 closed a lot of businesses here. And then she went back to work for Adidas and other companies. And, you know, what she's doing is amazing to me too, because she used to run so many.

stores. She had hundreds of employees in each store and she realized that her best talent is growing and developing people. So she decided right at COVID that she doesn't want to work for a corporate company anymore. And she kind of wrote a 12 course, let's call it a book or a program to help develop and enrich women that

are stuck and don't know what's the next move in their career, what's the next move in their professional life. She ever on the website, but you know, it's amazing because I sometimes, you know, she'll explain to me what she's doing and this is on a daily basis. Like, wow, I never thought about this. Wow. I never thought about this. You know, we have, 3000 employees now in our company and sometimes, you know, you don't want to take things for granted. So

those small conversations with her would like spark a light bulb like, huh, I didn't realize I was doing this. So she's been a very, very supportive, inspirational person in my life. And I'm very grateful for every minute with her and my kids.

Dylan Pathirana (29:07.692)
And so I guess you kind of learn from each other.

Elad Assayag (29:12.63)
Yeah, yeah, all the time, all the time. It's been a journey. We allow each other to grow our personal life, but also our professional careers. So when I have a new project and I'm look, hon, I'm going to be busy with this thing for eight months or this recent project I'm about to finish took me three years. She understands it and she wants to take

She will take more of the lead in the house with the kids and stuff. And then the other way around, when she wanted to open her website, and there was a financial investment and time investment and a lot of frustration of starting a new business, I understand where I need to do the same thing for her. So it's always been kind of like playing ping pong with our careers, but the important thing is like our relationship never suffered.

Date nights are mandatory, time with the kids are mandatory, barbecue in the backyard is mandatory. We didn't stop that. So it was very healthy for both of us to keep those careers.

Dylan Pathirana (30:20.091)
Yeah. Yeah. And, and what I'm getting a lot of throughout this conversation is you're a very people centric person and you know, being quite early on in my journey, I want to get some advice from you. What do you have any key tips to connecting and building strong relationships?

Elad Assayag (30:41.182)
Yes, listen to them. So if we have a cup of coffee and all you care about is what you're going to say and trying to get your point across and you not genuinely care about the person on the other side and where it's coming from, what is he doing, how is he doing it, it's very hard to have an authentic relationship.

And it can be in business, it can be with friends, can be with your parents, it can be with your kids, it can be with everyone. We're so absorbed in what we want and what we're doing and where we are that we forget that sometimes at that moment, you're in different place right now and you need something else for me. So as long as you are okay with listening, but really listening, not just, know.

nodding your head and like, yeah, yeah. And all you can think about like, what are you going to say next? Or what are you going to do next? Really understand where this person is from. And it can be like a simple thing, you know, like about a movie they went to see last night or a serious problem at work or a serious problem at home. When you do that, you kind of create a really healthy relationships with whoever you talk to.

Dylan Pathirana (31:55.495)
I think that's a really good point. And do you think having conversations with your children kind of emphasizes that because you might be thinking about tough days at work and then your kids just want to talk about something they saw in the garden or something which, yeah, which might not seem super important to you, but to them it's, it's incredibly important.

Elad Assayag (32:18.546)
That's my biggest struggle. You you really want to do the best you can with your kids, but it just doesn't come with a manual. You don't know what you're doing. You'll never know what you're doing. I want to listen as much as I can. And I want to push them as much as I can. And I want them to do as best as they can. And I want to be open to what they're saying. You know, but my son is seven. He wants to just chase butterflies. And my daughter is a teenager.

half the time, I don't even understand what she's saying. I try to, I'm there for them, but there's always a struggle, you know, because they're your kids and you love them and you just want them to do amazing right now. You want them to do the best right now and you don't have patience or you don't want them to make mistakes, but they have to make mistakes. That's the only way to grow. They have to make mistakes. I'm trying to help and...

Sometimes it's good, sometimes it's bad, sometimes I'm the good guy, sometimes I'm the bad guy. We have a very open relationship with them so we can talk about everything and we're trying to be there for them as much as we can. But it's hard, kids are hard. It's still, they get to like an older age, you're shaping their personality, you help them doing it.

It's difficult, especially those days with all those phones and TV and YouTube and Instagram and all the craziness in the world. You don't know what's the right. Yeah, it's some, some days like tough, but you've been there for them and they know we love them and I'll do anything for them. And I think that's the most important thing.

Dylan Pathirana (33:48.581)
Yeah, for sure.

Dylan Pathirana (34:00.455)
Absolutely. And is there any lessons from your life that you're trying to leave for your children as well, or in part on your children?

Elad Assayag (34:08.58)
Yeah, it's okay. Yesterday I went to the gym with my daughter. She enjoyed going to the gym with me and I told her you have to finish those four sets. I don't care what weight you put on, how fast you're going, but you have to finish your workout. We came here, you're going to finish your workout. can have the minimum impact, but you're going to finish this workout.

This relate to we grew up that we had to get it done. If not, we'll have nowhere to sleep, nowhere to eat, nothing to do. We're so fortunate and it's same thing with your dad. know, we grew up very similar. We're fortunate that you guys don't have to go through this. And you don't have to hustle so hard and you don't have to struggle so hard, but you do. Cause you can live on my success or his success or someone else's success.

You have to push for yourself. that's what I said yesterday. It's like, need to work out. That's it. We came to the gym. Let's give it our best. Work out. Push yourself. It's hard. It's hard because you want to give them everything we didn't have. But at the same time, I want them to have the same drive we had.

Dylan Pathirana (35:26.831)
Yeah, absolutely. It's almost like a blessing and a curse at the same time, because as the quote says, know, tough times create strong people and then strong time, strong people create easy times and then the easy times create weak people. so finding the balance between giving them opportunity and taking away some of the struggles that you had to deal with, but also, as you said, keeping that drive as well.

Elad Assayag (35:38.956)
Yeah.

Dylan Pathirana (35:53.957)
So as you said, there's no rule book and you kind of just have to play it by ear.

Elad Assayag (35:57.944)
It's drive. It's the drive. It's the focus. It's what do you want to do when you grow up? You obviously not going to know this answer at 14. You're probably not going to know it at 22. It takes time to figure it out. But as long as you're trying to do whatever it is you want to do, give it your best. Give it 100%. You'll be OK. You'll do OK. But if you start like cutting corners and looking for excuses, that's frustrating. You're not going to get anywhere.

Dylan Pathirana (36:09.617)
You

Dylan Pathirana (36:30.021)
Yeah, so Elahad, throughout your journey, do you have any mentors or anyone that you look up to?

Elad Assayag (36:39.306)
All the time, all the time.

Elad Assayag (36:44.191)
I've always been the youngest in the room. You know, I always had people that were in the business longer than me. So I was trying to always understand where to go. But it's not a specific one mentor. I look at moments, know, and the moments can be, this is something I need to learn from. Or I had a lot of good moments and like,

my God, this is the worst mistake ever. Let's not do it again. So it's not like, wow, one person. Cause I have really good people around me, like I said, but I try and like capture moments versus capture just one person. Cause you know, I don't care how successful you are. You're to do great things. You're to do some bad things. What can I learn from your good things? What can I learn from your bad things? I learned, you learn more from negative experiences, obviously. But my mentors are a moment, you know,

At this moment, this project, I learned so much from X, Y, and Z. that make it, that make you bigger, make you a lot more than just following one person. You you brought a lot more experience into what you're trying to do.

Dylan Pathirana (38:04.391)
So guess you learn through your experience, you how other people, you looked at to other people when they're doing things and you learn from them. That's, yeah.

Elad Assayag (38:14.834)
Yeah, when we do a project, know, like I said, I bring very successful people to do it. Usually the people I worked with in the past and it's people I look up to, you know, my partner has been amazing inspiration for me. Peter from Westfield has been a great mentor for me. I had people...

Dylan Pathirana (38:34.255)
Westfield.

Elad Assayag (38:39.188)
I was privileged to work with some great people, know, a few of the CEOs in the hotels, I was privileged to be in some meetings and just listening to people talk and how you engage with people. And then some of the operators in my life seem like people just monsters like, wow, you, you delegating like 2000 things at the same time. This is so impressive. So again, because I don't have just one thing I trying to do, I'm trying to do like a

360 all around service on every field I have someone I take from. It could be the lawyer, can be the operator, it can be the CEO, it can be someone that I want to take something.

Dylan Pathirana (39:21.319)
So now it's more like other way around like many people look up to you now like you've got thousands of people working for your team and they look up to you want to learn from you and I know you're a very big team player you develop people right so share some you know your key strategies how you work with these guys and

what are the things that are actually working and what are the things actually not working, know, to make a great team.

Elad Assayag (39:53.907)
So a restaurant is like a factory. It's a big factory. You open in the morning, you have to prepare yourself, you make food, then you need customer service. There's so many elements for this factory. Beside the music and the decor, there's so many other things that have to work really, really well that day for it to be a successful day. Making good food is the easy part. There's a million other things you need to work.

The real success is to show people what you want, explain to them what they want, have clear guidelines of what we're trying to achieve, and then just let them work. And if they make mistakes, let them learn from their mistakes. Obviously, you have to be with them, identify the mistakes, fix them right away. But it's so dynamic work. In every factory, you see it probably in your

facility. Allow people to make mistakes and not to be afraid to make mistakes because mistakes will make you grow or if they don't make the mistake you will invent something new and you'll find a way to do things better. Just be open to them. We have a great relationship with our team. You know as long as they know what we want we delegate and allow them to do their job and all the way down.

Dylan Pathirana (41:22.705)
Yeah. Yeah. I think that's a really good point that you made there. It's almost like you kind of set the vision and then you allow people to have the agency to execute that vision, however they see fit. And that almost motivates people as well, because then they have a sense of responsibility and ownership over the execution of, of whatever they're delivering. And it makes it feel like it's there.

their baby and they want to look after it as well. So it's almost like empowerment through giving responsibility away.

Elad Assayag (41:58.039)
Yeah, I have to because we deal with really thousands of people a day. You we serve thousands of people every day and most people have different needs. You know, some people want this, some people want that. There's different service to come from different countries. As long as the core is the same, we allow people to be creative. We allow people to have their personality. It's not like, you know, like a car manufacturer factory.

when you come and you do the same thing over and over, we cook the same thing over and over, but with the way we deliver it, the way we engage with our customers is very specific to whoever is working that day. can't tell them how to, everyone have to smile and say good morning, but people have different personalities and we allow them to express their personalities. And you know, it's very seasonal, you know, it can be different.

food in different season or different drinks or holidays. So I have to allow our chefs to get creative. We can't keep it boring for them. it's the worst thing for a hospitality company. It's when the team become bored, then the customers will be bored. So, you know, we constantly doing things, new things. But like I said, as long as, you know, if you have a taco shop, the chef doesn't start making sushi. We're good. As long as it's

Dylan Pathirana (43:23.579)
Yeah

Elad Assayag (43:25.356)
we make new cool tacos then we're cool. Now the food costs have to be X as long as it's not like start spending crazy money, we're good. So, you know, we allow them to explore.

Dylan Pathirana (43:28.197)
Yeah.

Dylan Pathirana (43:35.611)
Yeah, Yeah, yeah. And that's right. I always tell my team as well. I mean, no point hiring smarter people and then you tell them what to do. Right. So you want them to bring their creativity. They are, you know, everyone's got strengths, right? Unless you let them shine and try to do their own thing, you know, you're not going to get the best out of these people. So just as a leader, I guess.

you doing the same. Our role is to empower them, get them the best out of. Yeah, makes sense.

Elad Assayag (44:12.425)
Yeah. You can only do X amount of things a day. If you want to do 10 more, now you need 10 strong people. And you only as good as how strong your people are. Train them well, treat them well, they'll produce as much as they can. And in my industry also the biggest compliment is when people leave us for bigger or

let's call it better or more luxury restaurants. People ask me, you're not mad? I'm like, no. If they will go work for McDonald's, I will be very upset. But if this is a new restaurant in this luxury hotel open and they're all my employees, it's the biggest compliment. It means I'm a good school and a good place for them.

Dylan Pathirana (44:48.689)
You

Dylan Pathirana (44:58.403)
Absolutely. so Elad, what is next for you? Where is Elad going? What's the vision?

Elad Assayag (45:07.153)
just keep on. I really love my job. I really love what I do. I enjoy it. unfortunate that it's also pay the bills and it's been good. So we, I want to keep on doing exactly what I'm doing, but just take bigger projects. So really I think our next move is a hotel. We own two small hotels in Miami.

My partners have one of my partners have two hotels in Mexico City and I don't want to them in Spain. I think my next move will be hotel and the reason why I say hotel because that's just naturally how hospitality go. You go from a coffee shop to restaurant to 10 restaurant. Now you want to the hotel and put all your restaurants in it. So I think that our next move I've been exploring on this for the last few years and I think

recently it's kind of become something I really want to do. But keep on doing what I'm doing, know, just on a bigger scale.

Dylan Pathirana (46:16.345)
And I suppose now looking back on this incredible journey that you've had, do you feel successful?

Elad Assayag (46:24.519)
yeah, I feel, you know, I wake up in the morning and I thank God every day and I kiss my wife and kids every day. I feel very successful. But just for this reason that like I woke up this morning and I went mountain biking and then I sit in the backyard with my wife and have a cup of coffee and then I get spent time with the kids and now I'm doing this with you. I don't care if I had 20 more billions in the bank, I would still have the same day I had today.

I would still wake up and have coffee in the backyard with my wife, go mountain biking and spend time with you guys. I don't think I feel very successful because I do what I love doing.

Dylan Pathirana (47:04.583)
It's awesome. You're a fulfilled human being, which is, you know, it's so wonderful to hear. And throughout our conversation, I've just been jotting down a few things, which I think have been very important in your success. And I think the first one is probably the most resounding, which is you are incredibly people -centric. And what I mean by that is every time you're talking about your businesses, you always talked about bringing in the best people and

always about your relationships and how you empower your team. I think you are also very humble about that. You are the connector and you bring an amazing team together. And it's throughout that team that you can achieve some of the amazing things that you, you have. And another one I think is consistently learning. You were always talking about how in the early days, when you started in the restaurant game, you always wanted to learn from

the people in the industry and going and sitting in on meetings with the Weffield family to see how they do deals. And now being at Harvard, consistently trying to learn and grow your knowledge buckets so that you can have more impact. And then the last one I think is your drive as well.

You are always trying to excel at what you're doing. And there's clearly so much hard work that's gone on in the background to get from serving coffee in Israel to now being where you are today, running so many restaurants and the amazing projects that you've done. And I'm so glad that that's something you're trying to instill in your children as well. Yeah. Just to add to that list, Dylan Head.

knowing a lot, know, spend some time with you, you're one of the easiest guys to talk to. And you're very black and white and you tell exactly how you feel in a very positive way. And I really enjoy spending time with you because I know I get the, you're not trying to, not just telling bullshit, like, you you just tell the truth, what you believe.

Dylan Pathirana (49:26.491)
And then we can have a very easy conversation. So that's something I can see that is a real strength in your success. When you're dealing with people, when you're dealing with your business partners, they can see that honesty and coming from you, which creates the trust. So that's definitely a strength that you have that I really enjoy.

Elad Assayag (49:40.676)
you

Dylan Pathirana (49:53.423)
I guess thank you a lot for this wonderful conversation with us. yeah, hoping to see you very shortly.

Elad Assayag (49:54.348)
Yeah.

Elad Assayag (50:03.19)
Yeah, we will. look, thank you for inviting me. This was awesome. And I'm so happy for two of you to do this. This seems to be the coolest thing ever. So to many, many more episodes and can't wait to meet you in person, and see you soon.

Dylan Pathirana (50:20.775)
Yeah, likewise. Thank you so much, Elad. And for those who are listening, it would be amazing if you could follow us at the Quest for Success pod and on all of our streaming services, YouTube, Spotify, and also Apple podcasts and helps us grow the show and get on bigger and better guests. And on that note, we will see you guys in the next episode. Thank you. Thank you. Hey, thanks.