Sony Mordechai: 5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Started Imperia Caviar
There are no perfect individuals, but there are perfect teams. Try to build yours sooner than later.
As part of my series about the leadership lessons of accomplished business leaders, I had the pleasure of interviewing Sony Mordechai.
Sony Mordechai is a serial entrepreneur, investor and philanthropist committed to making people and organizations thrive. Raised in Greece and based in Los Angeles, Sony identifies as a global citizen using business as a lever to do good for the world.
Although most of his interest is around optimizing the performance of established businesses, Sony has also contributed to several venture investments for reputable companies such as Singularity University, Magic Leap, Nearpod, Yaypay, Humatelligence etc.
Many of the companies that he co-founded and owns are among the fastest growing or largest in their respective industries and markets. Sony stands out as a pure visionary and realist who understands that the success or failure of any venture will depend heavily on timing as well as the team’s performance and collaborative skills. Committed to the idea of being a life-long learner, Sony is halfway through a 9-year executive program at Harvard University and has completed courses at Singularity University for exponential technologies and Columbia University for value investing in addition to his undergraduate degree in banking and finance from CASS Business School.
Restless in nature and fearless to try new things, Sony felt an urge to drive his passion towards caviar and created TheCaviarClub.com and Imperia Caviar in 2018. His vision is to establish Imperia Caviar as the first true club of its nature to offer quality caviar at a more affordable price and reintroduce caviar as a brain-enhancing food and an everyday delight.
Thank you so much for joining us Sony! Can you tell us the story about what brought you to this specific career path?
My story is one of both luck and intuition. I always had an interest both for building businesses as well as investing. My curiosity of discovering something valuable or new and sharing it with the world has always been a motivation of mine.
My passion for Caviar specifically started some 10 years ago in Bordeaux during a leisure trip we had scheduled with a group of CEOs organized by my YPO chapter. Although, most of the trip was tailored around wine tasting what truly resonated with me was our caviar tasting event; it was love at first bite!
Can you share one of the major challenges you encountered when first leading the company? What lesson did you learn from that?
I became an entrepreneur from a very young age and it felt quite natural to me. My biggest challenge at the beginning of every venture is to discover and align with a team with whom complement one another, share common values and can collaborate effectively. The moment a team like this comes together, then everything becomes possible. Throughout the years, I have learned no matter how hard it might be to find someone better than yourself to do anything you do you must never stop looking. The greatest value you can have as a CEO is to hire and inspire the greatest talents in your dream team.
What are some of the factors that you believe led to your eventual success?
By far the two most important factors for any of my successes are timing coupled with a complimentary dream team who shared common values.
Offering uncompromising value and service to our clients is what we are all about and has led to us becoming the first choice for our colleagues, customers and collaborators Our caviar is unquestionably some of the best caviar out there and our price point is unbelievably good. Beyond just a business opportunity, the truth is that we at Imperia absolutely love caviar both for its health benefits but also for the incredible joy and experience it can create for people. We want to make this superfood an everyday delight and position it as the next avocado. Caviar is the world’s yummiest and most celebrated superfood on the planet! It’s time for all to enjoy!
What are your “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Became Founder”? Please share a story or example for each.
- Joy is not a goal, it’s a state of mind that lives within you no matter what. You are your own light and the trigger bettering everything and everyone around you.
- Price is what you pay, value is what you get. Make sure you become as valuable as possible to your customers as soon as possible.
- Define your massive transformative purpose — mine is to help people and organizations thrive while making earth a better place.Your purpose is what will keep you going when nothing makes sense and everything is falling apart.
- Wellness in action for yourself and others is critical. We are all biological machines so the better we take care of our bodies and minds, the better we will enjoy and perform. Sleep well, eat healthy, exercise regularly and relaxing / meditating should be your top priority.
- Money is nothing more than stored energy that should be viewed like blood; you live with it not for it and the more of it you have the more people you can help and support.
What advice would you give to your colleagues to help them to thrive and not “burn out”?
You want to discover your “peace in action” and do as much of it throughout your workday as soon as possible. A strength is really something that after you do it you feel energized and inspired. As your day unrolls, observe every task you do and how it elevates or drains your energy. Delegate the latter ones to people that love doing what drains you.
There are no perfect individuals, but there are perfect teams. Try to build yours sooner than later.
None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story?
I believe that my parents and uncles have truly shaped who I am and how I deal with life in a great way. If I had to single out one person, my mother would be the one. Overall, I believe every human being I ever interacted with has contributed in helping me arrive where I am.
Stephen Covey, Richard Branson, Tony Robbins, Peter Diamandis and Swami Parthasarathy are a few of the people I had the privilege to spend time with that have helped me develop and express my inner self. Warren Buffet and Jack Welch’s books and teachings have also been instrumental as well.
Looking forward my wife and lovely kids have doubled down on me to continuously overcome any challenge and realize my full potential!
I am forever grateful to all the people already mentioned as well as all the masterminds and communities I have been part of such as YPO, X-Prize, TED, Tiger21, Vistage, Singularity University, Abundance360, VedantaWorld, Platinum Partners etc.
What are some of the goals you still have and are working to accomplish, both personally and professionally?
We believe we have only scratched the surface of what is possible. We view business as a lever for doing good to the world and if we believe in success we will have enough impact to dent the course of humanity.
My mission in life is to help people and organizations thrive while making earth a better place. I truly believe that we are all one and the sooner we realize and act upon it the faster we will elevate the whole human race.
Few of my shorter terms goals are focused around mastering one true potential. I am in the process of writing a book around certain pillars that by mastering them you will be able to express your potential for yourself and others.
On the business side my immediate goal is to make sure that the world rediscovers and recognizes Caviar as an incredibly healthy and yummy superfood while making it accessible for more people to enjoy. In the meantime I am also involved in the acquisition and transformation of mature businesses and how we can transform them for maximum positive impact.
What do you hope to leave as your lasting legacy?
An authentic self that helped others be the best version of themselves while elevating everyone as a whole. I want to be able to positively impact scale as many people as possible and set an example of what is possible when we all align.
You are a person of great influence. If you could start a movement that would enhance people’s lives in some way, what would it be? You never know what your idea can trigger!
That we are all one and we should all be there for each other unconditionally. The sooner we realize that we are as good as the last starving person on the planet and that we are fully responsible for everything that happens to us, we will rise and seek massive action.
How can our readers follow you on social media?
Find out more about Imperia Caviar at https://imperiacaviar.com/.
Facebook: @IMPERIACAVIAR — https://www.facebook.com/IMPERIACAVIAR/
Instagram: @imperiacaviar — https://www.instagram.com/imperiacaviar/
