CSUN students, both current and alumni, were part of the entrepreneurship event where business leader and CSUN alumnus David Nazarian shared his insights from the business world.
Nazarian spoke to a crowd of approximately 300 students at USU Northridge Center on campus about the importance of leadership, mentorship, communication, risks, hard work and networking.
The Management Association at CSUN recognized Nazarian with an award for his continuous support and involvement at the university.
With 30 years of success in the business industry, Nazarian returned to where it all began since his donation to the College of Business and Economics of $10 million, and his drive to raise an extra $15 million. He raised a total of $25 million to help students succeed the same way he did from CSUN class of 1982.
Business management senior and president of Management Association at CSUN, Abed Rahman opened the event.
“There were a lot of tips and advice he gave that I felt were really relevant to business, and entrepreneurship in this day in age,” said Rahman.
The College of Business and Economics was named David Nazarian College of Business and Economics in 2014.
“Unless you don’t fail, you don’t grow,” said Nazarian. “Figure it out and you do it again. Each day presents a new opportunity to do more, learn more, and grow more.”
He talked about how students are relying more on communicating through media, instead of talking face to face. The best way of communicating is in person from his perspective, and that is how he has kept himself networking with other entrepreneurs.
“Trust me having a cup of coffee or lunch go a long way,” said Nazarian.
Business information systems junior at CSUN, Rogelio Lopez, thought the event was motivational to not only him but for everyone who came out to hear David Nazarian’s words of wisdom.
“We need people like him to come on a weekly basis so they can inspire the students and give advice on how to be an entrepreneur just like the speaker David Nazarian,” said Lopez.
Nazarian talked about his ultimate goal being for, “Every student here that graduates at CSUN to get a job that they deserve.”
Double major in accounting and business management with a minor in finance senior at CSUN, Carlos Martinez says he hopes that every student at the event grasped the advice that Nazarian had to say because he is a true success inspiration from where he started to where he is today.
“It’s a great opportunity for students to see what he’s done in his career, and see how they can start something similar,” said Martinez. “It’s not where you start, it’s were you finish.”
Martinez asked Nazarian about the importance of mentorship and how students should seek other people for help because they can have good advice in the career they want to pursue.
Nazarian said finding a mentor isn’t easy, but there are people willing to talk to students and guide them because they had the same passion.
Finance senior and president of Student Finance Association at CSUN, Gary Ahluwalia, asked Nazarian how he manged to transition from one project to the next in the past.
David said it was a step-by-step process, even though he mentioned he was the type of person that doesn’t stick to one thing.
CSUN business management alumnus from spring 2015, Anthony Tello, returned to his alma mater to see Nazarian. Tello was inspired by Nazarian to go out and work twice as hard to one day have his own business ventures.
“Nazarian is a very successful guy who knows a lot about business, he knows what we went through because he was here before,” said Tello.
