Shaahin Cheyene : Rags To Riches

This week’s conversation with Shaahin Cheyene is a classic true life Rags to Riches story. From poor beginnings, Shaahin made more money before he was 20 than most of us could make in many lifetimes. So, although this podcast isn’t about building financial wealth, I was intrigued to find out what motivates someone to get out of bed each morning when they don’t need to.

One of the big challenges for humans is purpose and meaning and it is well documented that children of the super-wealthy struggle with this. Many go off the rails and die young, and the same is true for young musicians and celebrities. So I don’t necessarily equate financial wealth with a fulfilling life.

My interest in this conversation is more aligned with discovering what it takes to keep going when all of the big races have been won. That is why I accepted to request from Shaahin to come on the podcast and talk about his experiences.

From Rags…

Shaahin began his life in Iran. It was a wonderful place for a child his age to grow up. At least, it was until the arrival of the Islamic revolution in 1978-79.  That is when Shaahin’s family fled the country and landed in the USA., starting a new life in Los Angeles.

As immigrants, life was not easy for them. Shaahin’s father worked all the hours he could in low paid jobs just to sustain them. They lived in an up and coming area. So whilst they were poor, Shaahin saw wealthy people around him everyday. His parents encouraged him to study hard so that he could pick out a good profession such as doctor or lawyer, etc.

However, what the young Shaahin noticed was that saw looked more like long hours and super hard work than success. Whilst those people had wealth, they also had debts and had to keep working long hours to sustain it all. This childhood experience had a major impact on his perspective of freedom, hard work and entrepreneurship.

Shaahin made his mind up that he wanted something different. He looked to books for a solution and discovered Napoleon Hill’s ‘Think And Grow Rich’ and the early work of Tony Robins. So, at 15 he left home to find a different path.

Faking his ID, Shaahin found work and lived rough in abandoned buildings or cars. That is where he discovered the Rave Scene and loved it. It fitted his life style, plus there were people making lots of money. This was the era of MDMA or Ecstasy and it was the drug dealers who ran the scene and accumulated wealth. However, a life of crime was not what he was looking for. But it did get him thinking about the possibility of making something like Ecstasy that was not illegal.

“I was Foolish enough to not know I could fail”

That naive faith did the trick and Shaahin was successful in developing the first legal Herbal Ecstasy. With equal blind faith, he managed to persuade the drug dealers to believe in him and within just a few years the product was available in 30,000 stores across the USA.

…To Riches

Shaahin was not even 20 years old when his company hit $1Billion in sales. This was the early 1990s before the internet and tech startups were even an idea. A billion in sales was big news and everyone wanted to speak to him so he found himself on TV, radio and in magazines.

His story is about making it big early in life and not stopping there. Shaahin went on to create more world-changing inventions; the first mind-enhancing Nootropics and early work with Vaping systems. He holds patents on numerous ideas and inventions and has also written 4 books. His latest entitled ‘Billion’ came out last month.

Shaahin is not like any of my usual guests, as he claims he was never passionate about any of his projects. I accepted his comment at the time but on listening back, I think he is passionate about the systems and processes he creates. The products and ideas are just the vehicle for engaging his passion for life and the work that he does.

It was in looking for a sales platform during the development the nootropic Excelerol that he discovered the power of the Amazon marketplace. This inspired the development of a new system.

Today Shaahin is the Founder and CEO of Accelerated Intelligence, Inc. a major Amazon FBA seller with millions in sales. He is the lead coach at ‘Amazon Mastery’ where he teaches entrepreneurs how to, in his words “CRUSH IT!” on the Amazon platform.

Discover More About Shaahin

I hope you enjoy this lively exchange with Shaahin Cheyene and that you find inspiration from his story.

The ‘Amazon Mastery’ course is available via his website and there is a video on his home page where you can access the course by clicking the orange button in the top right corner. 

His new book ‘Billion’ covers the full story of his amazing life journey and he has a YouTube channel and his own podcast ‘Hack and Grow Rich”.

All these links, along with other useful links are available below.

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