August 17, 2025 • 39 mins
Quang Pham and most of his family escaped Vietnam just before the fall of Saigon. He would go on to be the first American of Vietnamese descent to become a Marine Corps Aviator and the first to take and IPO public on NASDAQ.
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Speaker 1 (00:04):
We all owe them, but very few of us know them.
They are the men and women of our military and
first responder communities, and these are their stories. American Warrior
Radio is on the air.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
Hello, ladies and gentlemen, your tuned to American Warrior Radio.
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we regularly interview veteran entrepreneurs here on American Warrior Radio.
I'd like to think of it as our contribution to
the challenges veterans sometimes face and making the transition from
military to civilian life. Over the years of talking with
(01:08):
these successful entrepreneurs, I found myself picking up lessons on
how to make my own business successful. It's inspired me
to reach higher and to keep them motivated during challenging times.
I highly anticipate the today's show is going to be
no different our guest today, Well, you know, I don't
want to give away too much of the story in
the introduction, suffice to say it's a true underdog story
(01:29):
that embodies the American dream. Gwan fam Welcome to American
Warrior Radio.
Speaker 3 (01:34):
Thank you Ben as an ought to be with you today.
Speaker 2 (01:37):
Well, sir, let's talk about what I found one of
the most important key elements of the inspirational part of
your story, and that's where it originates. You're ten years old.
It's April nineteen seventy five, and Saigon. What was going on?
Speaker 3 (01:52):
It was fifty years ago, April nineteen seventy five, the
last month of existence for a country formerly known It's
the Republic of Vietnam or South Vietnam. It just won
Vietnam today. I was then just finished the fifth grade,
living in Saigon on board Tonzannak air Base, which was
half half civilian and at one time in the seventies
(02:14):
was one of the most busy airports in the world
with all the military aircraft in civilian aircraft. My late
father then was the lieutenant colonel in the Air Force
up the South Vietnamese Air Force who was trained in
the United States, and my mother was a school teacher.
So April seventy five was a humid time. The war
had quiet down after the nineteen seventy three Piece of Courts.
(02:37):
Literally we know looking back at history, the North Vietnamese
was building to invade and violate the Piece of Court.
So as April seventy five rolled around, a lot of
things happened. But for a young boy with three sisters
limited Saigon, our neighbors starting to disappear, and not by capture,
(02:57):
It just simply left. They moved. Where they went we
didn't know, and for years we didn't know, and and
for something, we never saw them again. We saw tangs
and military movement within the air base. My father was
nervously pacing back and forth between the squadron and coming home.
(03:17):
And then one night he came home and said, you
and your mom and your sister have to leave tonight.
You didn't say we had to leave, He said you
have to leave. And the next thing you know, we
were herded out of bed, packed two bags, got on
a bust and we drove through the air station, through
the terminal and everything was blacked out, no lights. Sat
(03:40):
there a few hours, and then all of a sudden
he said, get out, get on the aircraft, and you know,
I ran in the back of the Hercules see one
thirty with his full engines on. We got on i'bbly
two hundred and some women and children mostly some men.
The ramp came up. There were Americans crewmen. I recognized
them because I knew the in my father's squadron, you know,
(04:02):
growing up, you know, as the military brat and saigone.
It took off, It was heavy, and that's it. That
was the last time I saw my hometown, my father
for seventeen years.
Speaker 2 (04:13):
Your mother gone specifically chose There were some options available
for the refugees coming out of South Vietnam at that time,
but your mother specifically chose the United States. You had
family in other parts of the world, but she chose
the United States.
Speaker 3 (04:26):
Why was that Vietnam was a colony of France for
one hundred years, so we grew up speaking French as
second language. So by nineteen seventy five, a few of
our family members had already gone to Paris, and I
think coming out of the war towards Saigon and being
stuck in the refugee camp through May and June of
(04:47):
nineteen seventy five, we had an option. Some refugees chose
to return to Vietnam on their communism rule and reunite
with their family. Little did you know that the harsh
that they would live through most day in the United
United States somewhat to France. We certainly had a chance
to go to Paris. And that's the last minute my mom.
You know, my father made the first critical decision was
(05:09):
to get us out early and not have to be
involved with the evacuation from the you know, the embassy
and the helicopters and the boat people. And then my
mother at the last and that said, no, we're going
to stay in the United States because there'll be more
opportunities for your kids. And you know, she made a
decision on the hunch. She didn't speak English, she didn't
know anybody in America. She just said, the French never
(05:31):
saw the South Vietnamese is equals, so we're better off
stay in America.
Speaker 2 (05:36):
Wow, that's some powerful stuff, I tell you, sir. I
just recently chatted with the Sergeant major of the United
States Marine Corps. He's originally from Sonora, Mexico, and when
his family they came to the United States, his parents emphasized, look,
a key component of our lives going forward here is
to find ways to give back to this country that's
(05:57):
giving us so much opportunity. And your story, guand and
you know your family to really reflects that.
Speaker 3 (06:06):
Well. Let me let me just say that we grew
up in Oxnar, California, and an aquacultural town about fifty
miles north of Dodger Stadium. I grew up with a
very melting pot society, a lot of friends who came
from Mexico, some illegals, some mostly were legal, had a
lot of friends. And I could tell you with all
the ethnic minorities that served in the Marine Corps, by
(06:30):
far the numbers the performance with the Mexican Americans. And
I think those are facts and they still were. They
were true thirty something years ago, they are true today.
So I'm glad you get to speak with the saravage
of the Marine Corps.
Speaker 2 (06:45):
When I'm going to I want to emphasize, just for
any Jags listening, He and his family did immigrate legally, okay,
So just to get that out of the way, he's
not getting deported, no, exactly.
Speaker 3 (06:55):
And like I said, the numbers overwhelmed me that the
Patriots in and the amount of Mexican Americans in the
United States Marine Corps. It's definitely hired in the other services.
It's I guess it's been true for thirty forty years,
and coming from southern California and being stationed here for
over ten years, it was a tremendous experience in working
(07:16):
alongside those marines.
Speaker 2 (07:19):
Go, we've got to take a break here in a
couple of minutes, but I just wanted at one part
of your book that sort of made me chuckle. When
I first came to the United States, I was nine
years old and we had been home schooled the whole
time there in Mexico, So me and my brothers were
a little bit i'd say more advanced than the other
my peers at that age level.
Speaker 3 (07:38):
And it was.
Speaker 2 (07:39):
Early on there. I'm in third grade and a kind
of rough and tumble mining town in Arizona, and one
of the guy that was a captain of the basketball team,
he said, well, you know, Ben, you're pretty smart. I
want you to help me pick the players for the
basketball team. Well, qun like you, all I'd ever played
was soccer. I didn't know anything about basketball. I didn't
know the rules, I didn't know how to make it successful.
(08:00):
Just kind of kind of makes me laugh because you
also early on just embraced and you know, took on
you know, baseball or whatever you could, and you were
you found early success in that, because that seems like
it was a foundational part of your mindset going forward.
Speaker 3 (08:17):
No doubt. I mean in America, I found out early
on the sports was such a big part of the
American fabric, not only just at the professional level, collegiate level,
but at the kids level, youngster. So by playing Little
League baseball that first year in nineteen seventy six, it
was a really difficult experience getting laughed at and not
getting a hit, and you know, getting hit by a
(08:37):
ball that I couldn't catch it right field, and transforming
myself the following year to being the Little League All
Star and the starter in the in the championship series,
you know, laid the foundation for me that I could
make friends by participating, by integrating, I can practice my English,
I think the most important thing was that. And you
got picked for you know, pickup baseball game, basketball game,
(09:00):
flag football games. The kids pick you because you could play,
not because of any colors or you know, after the
initial impression, not even for your height. They know who
can ball or that. I think you know what I'm
talking about, and I think it's still true today. It's
about effort and result, and that's the crux of my
book Underdog Nation.
Speaker 2 (09:21):
Well go on, I have to confess I could not ball,
so I ended up being the manager of the basketball team.
But still, you know, there's still a learning experience, and
I appreciate you bringing up the you know, the innocence
of children. How a lot of us need to maybe
get back to that in our lives today, Sir, stick
around with us. I want to try with some more
lazier and gentlemen. This is Ben Biler Garcia here in
American Warrior Radio. We're speaking with Quan Thomb. Check out
(09:44):
quan x spam that's q U A n g XPAM
dot com for more information.
Speaker 3 (09:49):
We'll be right back.
Speaker 2 (10:11):
For back here on American Warrior Radio. Laser and gentlemen,
there's your host, Ben Bila Garcia. We're talking with successful
military veteran entrepreneur on fam and Sir, I want to
say that I read your book Underdog Nation, and well
I love them. I'm gonna cheat here a little bit.
Let's let's jump ahead to the end. If you don't mind,
you were the first American of Vietnamese just sent to
(10:32):
take an IPO public on Nasdak. And if I'm not mistaken,
that was a Kadrinal Therapeutics.
Speaker 3 (10:41):
Yes, Kadrina Therapeutics as so, Kadrino Therapeutic is c A
d R E ED which is cardiovascular and renal. You
know the intersection of heart disease, cardiovascular disease and renal disease,
which is kidney. They both work off each other. So
if you have an impairment to your cardiovascism, this can
affect your kidneys. If you have kidney impairment is going
(11:01):
to affect your cardiovascular system. So the drugs that we
are developing help you know, both conditions. So we named
the company Kadrino. And it's easier to say than cardiovascular
and kidney all.
Speaker 2 (11:12):
Right, And just for those like me who are not
as edumacated as you are, Basically, is this an anti coagulant.
Speaker 3 (11:20):
Well it is. It's an antiquagulant. I think the old
thing is a blood thinner. It isn't really effecting thin
the blood. The wharf and kubitant. But now there are
other oral anti coagulant. You are correct. It is in
the it's to prevent strokes at heart attacks and people
who are have high risk and rare cardiovascular conditions. And
let me corrected. I believe that I was the first,
(11:43):
you know, an American of Vietnamese heritage to serve of
the US Marine Corps an aviator and take a biotech
company public. Now, some of my publicists previously couldn't find anybody,
but you know, we want to make sure we you know,
there could be other but we didn't see anybody, but
we know for the biotech industry and marine aviation. Because
(12:03):
you know, we've only been around thirty forty years, fifty
years in this country, I'm sure there will be other
kids that are are going to come up, you know,
through their careers because you see now, right, the professionals
that run these big companies are a lot younger than
the traditional General Electric board, where the leadership where in
their fifties and sixties. You've got people running you know, Facebook,
(12:25):
Meta and other very you know Tree and dollar market
cap companies that are a lot younger by twenty thirty years, sir.
Speaker 2 (12:33):
I've had numerous entrepreneurs on Green Beret that started a
go ruck GEO r U c K, very successful. He
actually wrote a book called How Not to Start a
backpack Company? You know, So I see, I see that,
you know, the coffee that watches internets, interwebs sort of
(12:54):
start with so in radio, sir, I'm fortunate in that
I only have to one widget, one show, and then
I can put that on hundreds of stations across the country.
So the manufacturing end, if you will, of my part
is easy. What are the particular challenges though? That might
be unique to the pharmaceutical battle space because you're talking
(13:17):
a long time from IPO to actually getting a product
out there, and it may not ever get FDA approved.
Speaker 3 (13:25):
Great question. The industry is under a lot of heat
right now for pricing, and it comes and go every
few years. The pricing comes up. I think the public,
you know, number one, mostly pay a small cope or
a big copay out of pocket ten twenty hundred. There
are a lot of generic drugs available as well from
all the blockbusters that have gone off pad. But in general,
(13:48):
the biotech or the drug development or big pharma company,
anything in drug development. Number one is highly regulated. The
FDA is particularly interested making sure the drug number one
is safe and do it works without the side effects
short term and down the road. Number three, we make
(14:10):
and develop a lot of drugs for the world. So
you know, we share with our employees and investors that
the drug that we're working on today is going to
be around forever and it's going to be us that
people right now in the United States and then the
rest of the world and then the future. So keep
that you know, that's the long term you know, effect
and effort at the company. But number one, it's a
(14:30):
highly regulated industry, and number two is capital intensive. And
number three the complexity because you're talking about people who
are sick, right and if you bring a new medication,
it's got to be safe and it's got to work.
And so the FDA has certain standards that you must beat.
The current treatment are the standard of care, and so
(14:51):
it's very rigorous and you got through go through the
pre clinical human you got to show safety dosing and effectiveness,
you know, in before you get in the human Okay,
once you get to the human, you got to go
through phase one, phase two, at phase three, and our
drug is now entering phase three, which is efficacy is safety,
and that's called the pivotal trial. So the whole process
could take anywhere from called fifteen to twenty five years.
(15:15):
The Big Farm estimates it's over a billion seven for
each drug that gets approved. But you know, all the
numbers are good for you know, publicists and you know lobbyists.
We get our team to focus on our drug. Where
does today, what does it take to get through the
pivotal trial and the ramifications and the benefits of the
(15:36):
drug for Americans and the rest of the world. And
you know, we try to stay mission focused, just like
in the Marines were you know, when we're in the
news for deployment and the Gulf War. So while yeah,
our CEO and our leaders would say, you know what,
turn off CNN, everything else doesn't matter. You are in
the helicopter squad and your mission is simple getting the
right zone at the right time. Okay. Everything else is secondary.
(15:58):
That's pilot, air mechanics. Everybody on that ship. Your job
is to support marine helicopters getting in the right landing
zone at the correct time to support marines and ally shoots.
That's it.
Speaker 2 (16:12):
So on one of the key items or messages in
your book, Underdog Nation, is about success and you're defining
success for yourself, not how other people define would define
success for you. So what how would you define success
for katernal Therapeutics. What's that point where consciys okay, mission accomplished?
Speaker 3 (16:33):
You know it is? You know, so the IPO, the
indial purpose off for everybody thinks the culmination is now
it's for the biotech at drug companies, it's the waste
is the way to raise money from the public markets.
And that's the difference. Right, you're a private investor. You
don't have the liquidity when you own public stock. You know,
if the stock goes up, you get to sell, if
it goes down, you get to sell or buy more.
(16:54):
You don't have that flexibility in the private investment and
your other but you have other restrictions. So success for
the company is you know three folds. Number one, you know,
agreement with the FDA on what the trial looks like
and what it takes. Right, you got to know what
it takes to be successful. Number two, raise the capital
(17:15):
necessary to execute that mission to make it successful, and
number three actually execute it. There's three folds. So if
you don't have the capital, you can't do it. Okay,
if you have to plan and the money and you
don't execute, you can't do it. But taking action moving
forward and not just sit there and have uh, you know,
analyze it to you know, the debt uh. And so
(17:37):
we're at that point where getting the agreement in the
process of raising additional capital because you know, it's the
most challenge sign for industry, but they should need the drug.
They don't care you can't make that and you know
it's the industry. It's hard to raise money or the
FDA doesn't have enough resource to get back to it. Well,
you gotta keep you got to keep moving forward, you
(17:58):
got you got to go towards the objective. So we
got to.
Speaker 2 (18:01):
Head to another break here. But I don't think you
quite answered my question. So would success for you be
when to carfin is actually in the hands of the
patients who needed.
Speaker 3 (18:10):
Approval approval, the approval yep.
Speaker 2 (18:13):
Okay, I've got a member of the family who's got
congenital pain issues, and I just read that there's a
new non opioid pain medication that had been I approved
by the FDA. So I brought it up with their
doctor and he kind of smiled and patted me on
the head. So, look, just because it's approved by the FDA,
that means I'll probably see it here and I'll be
(18:33):
able to prescribe it in six or seven years.
Speaker 3 (18:36):
So it's definitely a long process.
Speaker 2 (18:38):
But when we come back, I want to touch on
your time when the Marines, because that was clearly of
defining moments led to a lot of your strategy. For
lack of better trimed I used. Ladies and gentlemen, there's
your host, Ben Dela Garcia. We're talking about QUALIFAM. Check
out the book undog Nation and we'll be right back.
(19:11):
Welcome back to American Warrior Radio. Laser and gentlemen, vis
your host Ben Butler Garcia. We're coming to you from
the Sallencer Central Studio. Silencer Central is the largest Sallencer
dealer in the world. For a limited time, they'll even
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Visit slencercentral dot com to confirm if only a sunzer
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(19:32):
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you right to your front door, making silence simple since
two thousand and five. That's Sallencercentral dot com. Ladies and Joe,
We're very privileged to be talking with Kwan fam a
very successful veteran entrepreneur. Check out his book, Underdog Nation.
Speaker 3 (19:49):
Quan.
Speaker 2 (19:49):
I'm gonna touch on this a little bit and that
later on the show. But as I mentioned before, so
often I learned something from the guests here, and I
got to tell you, sir your book. I found it
extremely helpful. And I'm not a pharmaceutical ceo. I'm just
a guy doing a radio show. But some great stuff
in there. But let's let's get back here. You mentioned
you were the first American of Vietnamese heritage that we
(20:11):
know to become a Marine Corps aviator and that journey
was inspired by your dad. Correct, you wanted to be
a fighter pilot like your father.
Speaker 3 (20:19):
Yes? And I mean when you, I mean when we
talked to kids who are in America, who are they
called military brad they moved to Germany, they moved to Okinawa,
they come back to the United States. Well, you know,
kids who grew up in the South Vietnamese military family
with the ultimate because the difference is when I deployed
a US Marine, I went to the Gulf War and
then on an amphibious ship for six but I don't
(20:41):
bring my family with me. So in South Vietnam for
the first years of his life, my late father flew missions.
There was no one year toward the old saying for
the South Vietnamese air for is you fly it til
you die, because the war went on for two decades.
So when I you know, when I was born, you know,
the first few years, he was in the northern part
(21:02):
of you know, Vietnam, South Vietnam, near the DMZ, the
Deex Military Zone and bases that were north of Saigon.
Later in his career, when the Americans started to withdraw,
then we moved on to the base of nineteen seventy two.
That's why I spent a lot of time with him
because he was stationed at the same base, so we
were military base housing, and you know, I saw my
dad go go go to work, go go go service country.
(21:24):
He would be gone sometime back the same night, sometimes days,
sometimes weeks. So that was the role model. I was
the only son, so I'm go down to the flight line.
And you know the benefit was when he had duty,
I drove around, you know, I rode around with them
in the jeep. But he was a major and we
go out to see aircraft armed to go on missions.
I saw I first head. I didn't watch it through
a movie or hinted. It was incredible. One one night
(21:47):
he came home and he said, take Colong. It was
sometime in nineteen seventy two or seventy three. I was
seven or eight years old. He said, hey, you want
to you want to see a viet Cong And you
got to remember, now, you know, the only news we
had was American Armed Forces, and you know, Vietnamese news
and everything in video was American Armed Forces. We didn't
really see Vietnamese news and television, and we saw all
(22:07):
the old reruns of Star Trek and twelve o'clock High
and everything. You know, it was for the Americans who
were stationed in Vie, South Vietnam, and we saw were
bodies of the enemy. So I go with them to
the Base brig where they held prisoners and other people
who are in trouble with the military, and they brought
this Vietnong out and you know, I was, I guess
a seven or eight. This was like a teenager and
(22:30):
he was a Vietnamese boy, maybe this you know, fourteen
to sixteen, and you know, it was it hit me.
They never showed the face of the enemy. When I
was growing up on TV, we never put the TGA.
We didn't know the vehicle was a Vietnamese person like us.
So that was one of the things that stuck out
with me when I was growing up there. That one
(22:51):
night still stuck with me, you know, almost over fifty
years later. But I grew up wanted to be like him.
So why came in America. I didn't speak English, didn't
have a citizens, didn't have any money. I never thought
that America would trust me to let me join the military.
The US Marine Corps allowed me to take you know,
go through Afhaicaana school, earn a commission, then sent me
(23:12):
the flight school and you know, let me fly missions.
It was a great honor and it was a great
responsibly that I took very seriously to be able to
fly Marines in the Gulf War, and to turn around
to be a bark in the USS Tarawa in the
summer of nineteen ninety two, and to be the her
aircraft commander of flying into Mogadishu in September and October
(23:34):
nineteen ninety ninety two. It was tremendous, But I think
I wanted to be a pilot my father. But I
got older that was near my commission time. What I
really wanted to do was to serve my new country
and pay back for my citizenship and to honor those
because I think in the book you read, I was
(23:54):
not going to join after off Shericanan school, but I
decided to visit the Vietnam Wall, and at the Wall
in summer of nineteen eighty six, I realized I didn't
know one American on that one American name on that
Vietnam War, and I felt like, you know, I had
to go serve by and I really pay back of
my citizenship instead of just going to achieve my childhood
(24:15):
dream of becoming an aviator.
Speaker 2 (24:17):
One of the themes that you communicating in your book
Underdog Nation is I might get this wrong, but you know,
coincidence as destiny and you so like in my case,
I never be in a radio host was not on
my punch list. It's just the person who founded the
program died young, and I just I had a passion
(24:37):
for continuing the messages, so I jumped in with both feet,
knowing absolutely nothing about radio. You wanted to be a
fighter jock, but they assigned you to helicopters. But it
turns out that that quote unquote coincidence actually led you
to be able to go into combat before your other
training class peers and then.
Speaker 3 (24:55):
Go for as it turned out, you are correct. My
I had the jet grades come out of Pensacola Flight School,
but our class that graduated from primary flight training, we
all got helicopters. And then everybody should know in naval aviation,
every helicopter is manned by two naval aviators because we
carry you know, precious cargo, marine lives and to fly
(25:19):
off the ship. You don't want to put just one
pilot up there. And you know, if you're a harrier
or an fat pilot, your single pilot, you always got
the ejection seat. If something goes wrong, you know in
the helicopter, we're going we're going down with the troops
in the back, so there's always two more seats. So
initially I was disappointed, but his lives turned out. You know,
(25:41):
my father before I was born, was in a joint
mission with the US Marine Advisors in flying eighth thirty
four's He was shot down in the Vietnamese Air Force
Guy Raider, which is an attack airplane that was given
to the South Vietnamese military by the US Air Force,
and he was rescued by a US Marine H thirty
four helicopter crew. So is a coincident or the sud
(26:07):
became a Marine helicopter pie, I don't think it's a coincidence.
Speaker 2 (26:12):
I'm out of so when your dad eventually came, you know,
ten years, I think in the camps, would eventually did
get to the US and you were reunited. And it
seems to me, sir, you said mentioned something in the
book about how he was visiting you at your unit
and he's looking at the tail of this helicopter. It
was the same unit you were flying in that rescued
him in Vietnam.
Speaker 3 (26:33):
Yeah, so I wrote a lot about that in my
two thousand and five book A Sense of Duty about
the whole Marine Corps experience and I shared with that
with readers in Underdog Nation. So, you know, he was
late fifties by time he came United State seventeen years later,
and he saw the tail number and it was not
exactly the same squadron, it was close. And I put
(26:54):
all this stuff together when I wrote the book after
he had passed away, because one of the dying questions
I had I had my whole life, and I felt
like I didn't get an answer for was a, dad,
why didn't you just leave with us? What about this
honor thing? You know, your country was losing the war,
your president had left, the military has really no ability
(27:15):
to fight. Why do you just leave? You left mom
with four young kids in America for all those years? Okay?
And then the second question I wanted to ask him
before he passed away, you know, which I found the
answer to, was Hey, how come you guys could win
the war? You know, America gave sixty thousand lives, twenty
five plus years of aid, all of those equipment. Everything.
(27:39):
I wanted to hear from him, but I didn't have
the you know, the courage. I didn't want to put
him through the stress coming into America, having to deal
with the transition, So it took time, and you know,
once he passed away, it took me a few years
to put together the answers. And in Underdog Nation, I
think there's a part of a chapter that I share
(28:01):
that readers should quite to solve that dying question or relationship,
because it helped me back for many years, even after
I served and gotten out and had gone to the
privatester and it started my first company. That I had
to write that first book because I had to find
those answers myself, and I think it really unlocked the
potential that I was not preoccupied anymore with those two
(28:23):
questions that I couldn't get directly from him.
Speaker 2 (28:26):
Okay, kwan, When we come back, I'd like to talk
about I've had a lot of better and entrepreneurs talk
about the lessons that they took from the military into
the private sector. And you say, the marine startsure to
calculate the risk, plan and adapt changes. UCLA didn't teach
you that. Harvard didn't teach you that business school didn't
teach you that. So when we come back, I like
to check a little bit about your entrepreneurial journey, Lady
(28:46):
and gentle When Ben Bueler Garcia. We're talking with Kwon Fam.
Speaker 3 (28:49):
I'll be right back.
Speaker 2 (29:12):
Welcome back to American Warrior Radio. Lason, gentlemen, this is
Ben Bula Garcia.
Speaker 3 (29:16):
We're very privileged.
Speaker 2 (29:17):
He talking with Quan Fam a lot of first in
his life. Check out quanx XPAM dot com. It's spelled
q u a n g xfam dot com. Also his book,
Underdog Nation. It's it's been very helpful, and I said,
I'm still processing a lot of it, and I don't
want to give too much away here. I want people
(29:37):
to buy the book and read it and absorb it.
But you in the book, you early on you talked
about how you sort of adapt Einstein's equation, Uh, you
know equals MC squared and you create your own equation,
which is S equals.
Speaker 3 (29:52):
E R three.
Speaker 2 (29:54):
Explain the elements of those that equation for our listeners.
Speaker 3 (29:58):
Yeah, it's success equals effort in results times three. And
I'm trying to break it down when people don't Well,
first of all, you got to define success, and for me,
early on, success was really about family and cultural expectation.
When you come to America, you have this mainstream and
you have your immediate circle. And you have your cultural subcircle. Right.
(30:20):
The Mexican American immigrants would hang out with their own.
The South Vietnamese did the same. And the exportation in
the early years was you got to go to college,
honor your family, and become a pharmacist, an engineer, or
a doctor. Nobody said anything about joining the United States
military after the Vietnam War and honoring your family, right.
(30:40):
So I wanted to, you know, to serve my country,
honor my family, and contribute to the greater good of mankind,
which is the pharmaceutical route. But that was the early
definitions success for Vietnamese refugees and the young kids who
came over after the war. When I decided to go
to the Marine Corps, my family, you know, had questions,
my friend question My classmates from UCLA certainly had jokes
(31:03):
like what are you doing? Go make some money? Why
are you going to see war again? Didn't you have
enough war growing up in Vietnam. I didn't let those
people decide my success. My success was definedest I wanted
to serve my country and honor my family. My father
was still in Vietnam in captivity then, and so I
think people, whatever is society or a family or cultural
(31:24):
expectation is if they're following that route, you know, they
need to look at themselves seriously and identify what that means.
Once they identify what success means, and they got to
measure their you know, their progress towards it. And for me,
that was, hey, can you get a commission? Can you
get it by school? Can you get to the fleet?
And so in the civilian world, what I was able
(31:45):
to do was do you want to be in the
big farmer world? To me, success was can you be
somewhere where you can really add to the decision making,
And that was to become an entrepreneur.
Speaker 2 (31:58):
Let me pick your brain a little bit. It's you know,
I've got an expert here and I want to take
full advantage of it and hopefully our listeners will learn
something from it as well. So success can be tiered.
Speaker 3 (32:09):
Correct.
Speaker 2 (32:09):
So, like I said, when I first started this radio show,
it was just a weekend labor of love, you know,
one hour local station. And my threshold for success there
came from my wife who said, don't lose money. You
can't you know, keep doing it, but don't you can't
subsidize it out of our own pockets. You've got to
you know, it's got to pay for itself. Okay, that
(32:31):
threshold met and then you know, as we started to
get inquiry, the next threshold was, well, these are important stories.
Maybe it's our duty to expand into as many years
as possible.
Speaker 3 (32:40):
So the next.
Speaker 2 (32:41):
Threshold for success was growing the number of affiliates. And
you know, now we're you know, north of one hundred
and fifty stations, we're on American Forces Network, which is
a huge honor. And I'm having after reading your book
while I'm struggling a little bit like Okay, now what now,
what is your definition of success been? And honest, the
one answer I could come back with sure was to
(33:02):
get more feedback from our listeners.
Speaker 3 (33:06):
Yeah, so I think without digging into your business plan, Ben,
I would say sponsorship. I would say, you know, whether
it's a financial increase, whether it's a nonprofit, a legacy
and succession planning, right, I mean, just like the radio
station owner host before you you took his or her position,
(33:26):
there's got to be a succession plan. One day you're
going to say what I want to sit back and
relax and here a new voice behind this. And that's
the legacy you want is you want to be able
to release yourself. I think so. I think going back,
what did I learn in the Marine Corps? One is
everybody's replaceable, but you've got to have the next man
or woman up. So the lieutenant goes down, the staff
sergeant comes up. Right, If the squad leader coming goes down,
(33:50):
the corporal goes up. If not, the private first class
comes up. You always got to be ready to go.
It's like the flight leader goes down, you know number
two has to take over. So that's why I learned.
Number one was you've got to train yourself in organization
to be expendable. It's easy to say, but it's hard
to do, and you have to have the success plan.
So if something happens the mission gets accomplished, we always
(34:12):
brief that. In our flights, flight leader gets shot down,
somebody else is taking the lead, okay. And then the
second part is risk assessment. Right, there's a go no go. Right.
We always brief a flight of four right, if one
goes down, you keep going. If two goes down, you
may not go okay, So you got to know what
the risk assessment is and that go no go. I
think the first lesson, I added, because you asked me
(34:34):
what I learned. The first lesson I learned was be
a young officer. And it was something that a lot
of the Vietnam Vets who were on staff in the
mid the late seventies taught us was you know, right
or wrong? They taught us in chronicle. Make a decision, lieutenant.
Don't just sit there and waffle and be indecisive, whether
it's attack or retreat or you know, gather yourself and
(34:57):
do something, just do sit there and freeze up. So
I've always learn that action is better than no action.
Speaker 2 (35:02):
Yeah, and in your book Underdog Nation, that's I mean
you your whole life, you were the underdog and many well,
I would say, even on up to the IPO. Entrepreneurship
is not for everyone. It's it's just not. And mindset
is so important. But mindset without a definition for success
and action is it's a waste of your time.
Speaker 3 (35:25):
There's a waste of time. I still encourage people to
take a good look and some people may come an inclusion.
Maybe it's not timing yet. It doesn't mean you know,
it's never It may be at this point in your
career or your life, and your family. Yeah, so there
are other factors that and I think the book hopefully
gives what you said earlier one or two nuggets and
(35:48):
give yourself a chance to think and kind of resink
your mission, your effort, and your result. And you know,
nobody's going to take all twelve to teach hepters to
digest it change their lives. Like you said, I am, I'll.
Speaker 2 (36:02):
Tell you this is an endorsement one.
Speaker 3 (36:03):
I'm I'm.
Speaker 2 (36:04):
I took a couple of nuggets out of the first
few pages of the book. So we're running out of time, sir,
but any other and there's lots of great stuff in there,
and we don't have time to touch on. One of
the those things that I pull from it based on
my personal experience is the importance of mentorship. And your
book you call it the Admirals or admirable Boles, and
you know, finding someone like that to mentor you, if
(36:25):
you will, to aspire to quan. We talked a little
bit about your definition of success, and I think your
underdog and lindset you really you want to help spread
that success. You want to serve others because you're so
grateful and your family is so grateful. You mentioned it before.
As you know, Vietnam was a great tragedy, but you
(36:49):
have an enduring, lifelong appreciation for what this country gave you.
Speaker 3 (36:55):
So yes, I'm grateful. My family's grateful. I'll leave this
with your listeners. I think being an American veteran is
an honorable status. I think Americans respect us. They want
to help us, that we can help ourselves. Pick out
the things that we learned on the things I learned,
take action, do your homework. Not everybody's going to have
(37:20):
time to help you. But the admirables I mentioned in
my book. I never met Fret Smith, the late Fred Smith,
the founder of FedEx, who's just passed away, but I
study how he formed the company and what it took
for him to overcome all the challenges in the early
seventies with fed it almost went out of business. I
never met General Colin Powell, but I study how we
progress through the ranks. And so there are things I
(37:44):
think these days between the Internet ai UH and just
re excerpts of people's biography, you can you can see
where they met their challenges then and studied the profiles.
Once again, I think, take a lot of pride in
your service. Uh No means A know today you're going
to have rejections, and I think one of the last
things I'll leave you that is one of the best
(38:06):
thing I did was I stopped talking about my military
service about two years into my new sales career. Is
what I found out was some people who didn't serve
kind of told me, Hey, if you loved it so much,
why did you leave? Why did you retire? And so
when that happened, I figured some people they had enough
of my military service, and now I'm in the private sector,
they're looking for results. Okay. So when I turned that,
(38:30):
when I turned that notch over to that mode, I
really took off. And so I think veterans everybody's gonna
find out when they need to turn that notch over.
Speaker 2 (38:38):
Okay, ladies and John when the book is Underdog Nation,
zero in on effort and results for success. Also check
out que xbam dot found dot com. That's q O
A n g x F A p h A M
dot com one. What a what a privilege and an
honor to have you share your time with our listeners today.
Thank you so much my pleasure.
Speaker 3 (38:59):
Ben. I forgot to tell you I've been to Tucson twice.
I flew the old forty six through Davis Bonton twice
in the early nineties.
Speaker 2 (39:07):
Wonderful. It's now a rescue base. We're seeing a lot
more helicopters here, so sir, best of luck to you,
I won't use luck you. Thank you, and congratulations on
your success.
Speaker 3 (39:18):
Thank you, Bett, nice to be with you.
Speaker 2 (39:20):
There you go, Ladies and gentlemen, don't forget. You can
find this an over six hundred other podcasts at American
Warrior radio dot com. Until next time, all policies and
procedures or remain in place.
Speaker 3 (39:29):
Take care.
Speaker 1 (39:35):
You've been listening to American Warrior Radio. Archived episodes may
be found at americanwarriorradio dot com or your favorite podcast platform.
We all owe them, but very few of us know them.
They are the men and women of our military and
first responder communities, and these are their stories. American Warrior
Radio is on the air.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
Hello, ladies and gentlemen, your tuned to American Warrior Radio.
This is your host, Ben Biler Garcia American Warrior Radio
broadcast from the Silencer Central Studios. If you're thinking of
getting a silencer for one or more of your weapons,
there's never been a better time to do so. For
a limited time, our friends at Salacer Center will pick
up the cost of your tax stamp on select suppressors.
That's a two hundred dollars value. There's a sallencercentral dot
(00:46):
com to confirm if only a silencer is legal in
your state. They'll complete the paperwork and ship right to
your front door, making silence simple. At Silencercentral dot com
we regularly interview veteran entrepreneurs here on American Warrior Radio.
I'd like to think of it as our contribution to
the challenges veterans sometimes face and making the transition from
military to civilian life. Over the years of talking with
(01:08):
these successful entrepreneurs, I found myself picking up lessons on
how to make my own business successful. It's inspired me
to reach higher and to keep them motivated during challenging times.
I highly anticipate the today's show is going to be
no different our guest today, Well, you know, I don't
want to give away too much of the story in
the introduction, suffice to say it's a true underdog story
(01:29):
that embodies the American dream. Gwan fam Welcome to American
Warrior Radio.
Speaker 3 (01:34):
Thank you Ben as an ought to be with you today.
Speaker 2 (01:37):
Well, sir, let's talk about what I found one of
the most important key elements of the inspirational part of
your story, and that's where it originates. You're ten years old.
It's April nineteen seventy five, and Saigon. What was going on?
Speaker 3 (01:52):
It was fifty years ago, April nineteen seventy five, the
last month of existence for a country formerly known It's
the Republic of Vietnam or South Vietnam. It just won
Vietnam today. I was then just finished the fifth grade,
living in Saigon on board Tonzannak air Base, which was
half half civilian and at one time in the seventies
(02:14):
was one of the most busy airports in the world
with all the military aircraft in civilian aircraft. My late
father then was the lieutenant colonel in the Air Force
up the South Vietnamese Air Force who was trained in
the United States, and my mother was a school teacher.
So April seventy five was a humid time. The war
had quiet down after the nineteen seventy three Piece of Courts.
(02:37):
Literally we know looking back at history, the North Vietnamese
was building to invade and violate the Piece of Court.
So as April seventy five rolled around, a lot of
things happened. But for a young boy with three sisters
limited Saigon, our neighbors starting to disappear, and not by capture,
(02:57):
It just simply left. They moved. Where they went we
didn't know, and for years we didn't know, and and
for something, we never saw them again. We saw tangs
and military movement within the air base. My father was
nervously pacing back and forth between the squadron and coming home.
(03:17):
And then one night he came home and said, you
and your mom and your sister have to leave tonight.
You didn't say we had to leave, He said you
have to leave. And the next thing you know, we
were herded out of bed, packed two bags, got on
a bust and we drove through the air station, through
the terminal and everything was blacked out, no lights. Sat
(03:40):
there a few hours, and then all of a sudden
he said, get out, get on the aircraft, and you know,
I ran in the back of the Hercules see one
thirty with his full engines on. We got on i'bbly
two hundred and some women and children mostly some men.
The ramp came up. There were Americans crewmen. I recognized
them because I knew the in my father's squadron, you know,
(04:02):
growing up, you know, as the military brat and saigone.
It took off, It was heavy, and that's it. That
was the last time I saw my hometown, my father
for seventeen years.
Speaker 2 (04:13):
Your mother gone specifically chose There were some options available
for the refugees coming out of South Vietnam at that time,
but your mother specifically chose the United States. You had
family in other parts of the world, but she chose
the United States.
Speaker 3 (04:26):
Why was that Vietnam was a colony of France for
one hundred years, so we grew up speaking French as
second language. So by nineteen seventy five, a few of
our family members had already gone to Paris, and I
think coming out of the war towards Saigon and being
stuck in the refugee camp through May and June of
(04:47):
nineteen seventy five, we had an option. Some refugees chose
to return to Vietnam on their communism rule and reunite
with their family. Little did you know that the harsh
that they would live through most day in the United
United States somewhat to France. We certainly had a chance
to go to Paris. And that's the last minute my mom.
You know, my father made the first critical decision was
(05:09):
to get us out early and not have to be
involved with the evacuation from the you know, the embassy
and the helicopters and the boat people. And then my
mother at the last and that said, no, we're going
to stay in the United States because there'll be more
opportunities for your kids. And you know, she made a
decision on the hunch. She didn't speak English, she didn't
know anybody in America. She just said, the French never
(05:31):
saw the South Vietnamese is equals, so we're better off
stay in America.
Speaker 2 (05:36):
Wow, that's some powerful stuff, I tell you, sir. I
just recently chatted with the Sergeant major of the United
States Marine Corps. He's originally from Sonora, Mexico, and when
his family they came to the United States, his parents emphasized, look,
a key component of our lives going forward here is
to find ways to give back to this country that's
(05:57):
giving us so much opportunity. And your story, guand and
you know your family to really reflects that.
Speaker 3 (06:06):
Well. Let me let me just say that we grew
up in Oxnar, California, and an aquacultural town about fifty
miles north of Dodger Stadium. I grew up with a
very melting pot society, a lot of friends who came
from Mexico, some illegals, some mostly were legal, had a
lot of friends. And I could tell you with all
the ethnic minorities that served in the Marine Corps, by
(06:30):
far the numbers the performance with the Mexican Americans. And
I think those are facts and they still were. They
were true thirty something years ago, they are true today.
So I'm glad you get to speak with the saravage
of the Marine Corps.
Speaker 2 (06:45):
When I'm going to I want to emphasize, just for
any Jags listening, He and his family did immigrate legally, okay,
So just to get that out of the way, he's
not getting deported, no, exactly.
Speaker 3 (06:55):
And like I said, the numbers overwhelmed me that the
Patriots in and the amount of Mexican Americans in the
United States Marine Corps. It's definitely hired in the other services.
It's I guess it's been true for thirty forty years,
and coming from southern California and being stationed here for
over ten years, it was a tremendous experience in working
(07:16):
alongside those marines.
Speaker 2 (07:19):
Go, we've got to take a break here in a
couple of minutes, but I just wanted at one part
of your book that sort of made me chuckle. When
I first came to the United States, I was nine
years old and we had been home schooled the whole
time there in Mexico, So me and my brothers were
a little bit i'd say more advanced than the other
my peers at that age level.
Speaker 3 (07:38):
And it was.
Speaker 2 (07:39):
Early on there. I'm in third grade and a kind
of rough and tumble mining town in Arizona, and one
of the guy that was a captain of the basketball team,
he said, well, you know, Ben, you're pretty smart. I
want you to help me pick the players for the
basketball team. Well, qun like you, all I'd ever played
was soccer. I didn't know anything about basketball. I didn't
know the rules, I didn't know how to make it successful.
(08:00):
Just kind of kind of makes me laugh because you
also early on just embraced and you know, took on
you know, baseball or whatever you could, and you were
you found early success in that, because that seems like
it was a foundational part of your mindset going forward.
Speaker 3 (08:17):
No doubt. I mean in America, I found out early
on the sports was such a big part of the
American fabric, not only just at the professional level, collegiate level,
but at the kids level, youngster. So by playing Little
League baseball that first year in nineteen seventy six, it
was a really difficult experience getting laughed at and not
getting a hit, and you know, getting hit by a
(08:37):
ball that I couldn't catch it right field, and transforming
myself the following year to being the Little League All
Star and the starter in the in the championship series,
you know, laid the foundation for me that I could
make friends by participating, by integrating, I can practice my English,
I think the most important thing was that. And you
got picked for you know, pickup baseball game, basketball game,
(09:00):
flag football games. The kids pick you because you could play,
not because of any colors or you know, after the
initial impression, not even for your height. They know who
can ball or that. I think you know what I'm
talking about, and I think it's still true today. It's
about effort and result, and that's the crux of my
book Underdog Nation.
Speaker 2 (09:21):
Well go on, I have to confess I could not ball,
so I ended up being the manager of the basketball team.
But still, you know, there's still a learning experience, and
I appreciate you bringing up the you know, the innocence
of children. How a lot of us need to maybe
get back to that in our lives today, Sir, stick
around with us. I want to try with some more
lazier and gentlemen. This is Ben Biler Garcia here in
American Warrior Radio. We're speaking with Quan Thomb. Check out
(09:44):
quan x spam that's q U A n g XPAM
dot com for more information.
Speaker 3 (09:49):
We'll be right back.
Speaker 2 (10:11):
For back here on American Warrior Radio. Laser and gentlemen,
there's your host, Ben Bila Garcia. We're talking with successful
military veteran entrepreneur on fam and Sir, I want to
say that I read your book Underdog Nation, and well
I love them. I'm gonna cheat here a little bit.
Let's let's jump ahead to the end. If you don't mind,
you were the first American of Vietnamese just sent to
(10:32):
take an IPO public on Nasdak. And if I'm not mistaken,
that was a Kadrinal Therapeutics.
Speaker 3 (10:41):
Yes, Kadrina Therapeutics as so, Kadrino Therapeutic is c A
d R E ED which is cardiovascular and renal. You
know the intersection of heart disease, cardiovascular disease and renal disease,
which is kidney. They both work off each other. So
if you have an impairment to your cardiovascism, this can
affect your kidneys. If you have kidney impairment is going
(11:01):
to affect your cardiovascular system. So the drugs that we
are developing help you know, both conditions. So we named
the company Kadrino. And it's easier to say than cardiovascular
and kidney all.
Speaker 2 (11:12):
Right, And just for those like me who are not
as edumacated as you are, Basically, is this an anti coagulant.
Speaker 3 (11:20):
Well it is. It's an antiquagulant. I think the old
thing is a blood thinner. It isn't really effecting thin
the blood. The wharf and kubitant. But now there are
other oral anti coagulant. You are correct. It is in
the it's to prevent strokes at heart attacks and people
who are have high risk and rare cardiovascular conditions. And
let me corrected. I believe that I was the first,
(11:43):
you know, an American of Vietnamese heritage to serve of
the US Marine Corps an aviator and take a biotech
company public. Now, some of my publicists previously couldn't find anybody,
but you know, we want to make sure we you know,
there could be other but we didn't see anybody, but
we know for the biotech industry and marine aviation. Because
(12:03):
you know, we've only been around thirty forty years, fifty
years in this country, I'm sure there will be other
kids that are are going to come up, you know,
through their careers because you see now, right, the professionals
that run these big companies are a lot younger than
the traditional General Electric board, where the leadership where in
their fifties and sixties. You've got people running you know, Facebook,
(12:25):
Meta and other very you know Tree and dollar market
cap companies that are a lot younger by twenty thirty years, sir.
Speaker 2 (12:33):
I've had numerous entrepreneurs on Green Beret that started a
go ruck GEO r U c K, very successful. He
actually wrote a book called How Not to Start a
backpack Company? You know, So I see, I see that,
you know, the coffee that watches internets, interwebs sort of
(12:54):
start with so in radio, sir, I'm fortunate in that
I only have to one widget, one show, and then
I can put that on hundreds of stations across the country.
So the manufacturing end, if you will, of my part
is easy. What are the particular challenges though? That might
be unique to the pharmaceutical battle space because you're talking
(13:17):
a long time from IPO to actually getting a product
out there, and it may not ever get FDA approved.
Speaker 3 (13:25):
Great question. The industry is under a lot of heat
right now for pricing, and it comes and go every
few years. The pricing comes up. I think the public,
you know, number one, mostly pay a small cope or
a big copay out of pocket ten twenty hundred. There
are a lot of generic drugs available as well from
all the blockbusters that have gone off pad. But in general,
(13:48):
the biotech or the drug development or big pharma company,
anything in drug development. Number one is highly regulated. The
FDA is particularly interested making sure the drug number one
is safe and do it works without the side effects
short term and down the road. Number three, we make
(14:10):
and develop a lot of drugs for the world. So
you know, we share with our employees and investors that
the drug that we're working on today is going to
be around forever and it's going to be us that
people right now in the United States and then the
rest of the world and then the future. So keep
that you know, that's the long term you know, effect
and effort at the company. But number one, it's a
(14:30):
highly regulated industry, and number two is capital intensive. And
number three the complexity because you're talking about people who
are sick, right and if you bring a new medication,
it's got to be safe and it's got to work.
And so the FDA has certain standards that you must beat.
The current treatment are the standard of care, and so
(14:51):
it's very rigorous and you got through go through the
pre clinical human you got to show safety dosing and effectiveness,
you know, in before you get in the human Okay,
once you get to the human, you got to go
through phase one, phase two, at phase three, and our
drug is now entering phase three, which is efficacy is safety,
and that's called the pivotal trial. So the whole process
could take anywhere from called fifteen to twenty five years.
(15:15):
The Big Farm estimates it's over a billion seven for
each drug that gets approved. But you know, all the
numbers are good for you know, publicists and you know lobbyists.
We get our team to focus on our drug. Where
does today, what does it take to get through the
pivotal trial and the ramifications and the benefits of the
(15:36):
drug for Americans and the rest of the world. And
you know, we try to stay mission focused, just like
in the Marines were you know, when we're in the
news for deployment and the Gulf War. So while yeah,
our CEO and our leaders would say, you know what,
turn off CNN, everything else doesn't matter. You are in
the helicopter squad and your mission is simple getting the
right zone at the right time. Okay. Everything else is secondary.
(15:58):
That's pilot, air mechanics. Everybody on that ship. Your job
is to support marine helicopters getting in the right landing
zone at the correct time to support marines and ally shoots.
That's it.
Speaker 2 (16:12):
So on one of the key items or messages in
your book, Underdog Nation, is about success and you're defining
success for yourself, not how other people define would define
success for you. So what how would you define success
for katernal Therapeutics. What's that point where consciys okay, mission accomplished?
Speaker 3 (16:33):
You know it is? You know, so the IPO, the
indial purpose off for everybody thinks the culmination is now
it's for the biotech at drug companies, it's the waste
is the way to raise money from the public markets.
And that's the difference. Right, you're a private investor. You
don't have the liquidity when you own public stock. You know,
if the stock goes up, you get to sell, if
it goes down, you get to sell or buy more.
(16:54):
You don't have that flexibility in the private investment and
your other but you have other restrictions. So success for
the company is you know three folds. Number one, you know,
agreement with the FDA on what the trial looks like
and what it takes. Right, you got to know what
it takes to be successful. Number two, raise the capital
(17:15):
necessary to execute that mission to make it successful, and
number three actually execute it. There's three folds. So if
you don't have the capital, you can't do it. Okay,
if you have to plan and the money and you
don't execute, you can't do it. But taking action moving
forward and not just sit there and have uh, you know,
analyze it to you know, the debt uh. And so
(17:37):
we're at that point where getting the agreement in the
process of raising additional capital because you know, it's the
most challenge sign for industry, but they should need the drug.
They don't care you can't make that and you know
it's the industry. It's hard to raise money or the
FDA doesn't have enough resource to get back to it. Well,
you gotta keep you got to keep moving forward, you
(17:58):
got you got to go towards the objective. So we
got to.
Speaker 2 (18:01):
Head to another break here. But I don't think you
quite answered my question. So would success for you be
when to carfin is actually in the hands of the
patients who needed.
Speaker 3 (18:10):
Approval approval, the approval yep.
Speaker 2 (18:13):
Okay, I've got a member of the family who's got
congenital pain issues, and I just read that there's a
new non opioid pain medication that had been I approved
by the FDA. So I brought it up with their
doctor and he kind of smiled and patted me on
the head. So, look, just because it's approved by the FDA,
that means I'll probably see it here and I'll be
(18:33):
able to prescribe it in six or seven years.
Speaker 3 (18:36):
So it's definitely a long process.
Speaker 2 (18:38):
But when we come back, I want to touch on
your time when the Marines, because that was clearly of
defining moments led to a lot of your strategy. For
lack of better trimed I used. Ladies and gentlemen, there's
your host, Ben Dela Garcia. We're talking about QUALIFAM. Check
out the book undog Nation and we'll be right back.
(19:11):
Welcome back to American Warrior Radio. Laser and gentlemen, vis
your host Ben Butler Garcia. We're coming to you from
the Sallencer Central Studio. Silencer Central is the largest Sallencer
dealer in the world. For a limited time, they'll even
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(19:32):
variety of suppressors. They'll complete all the paperwork and ship
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two thousand and five. That's Sallencercentral dot com. Ladies and Joe,
We're very privileged to be talking with Kwan fam a
very successful veteran entrepreneur. Check out his book, Underdog Nation.
Speaker 3 (19:49):
Quan.
Speaker 2 (19:49):
I'm gonna touch on this a little bit and that
later on the show. But as I mentioned before, so
often I learned something from the guests here, and I
got to tell you, sir your book. I found it
extremely helpful. And I'm not a pharmaceutical ceo. I'm just
a guy doing a radio show. But some great stuff
in there. But let's let's get back here. You mentioned
you were the first American of Vietnamese heritage that we
(20:11):
know to become a Marine Corps aviator and that journey
was inspired by your dad. Correct, you wanted to be
a fighter pilot like your father.
Speaker 3 (20:19):
Yes? And I mean when you, I mean when we
talked to kids who are in America, who are they
called military brad they moved to Germany, they moved to Okinawa,
they come back to the United States. Well, you know,
kids who grew up in the South Vietnamese military family
with the ultimate because the difference is when I deployed
a US Marine, I went to the Gulf War and
then on an amphibious ship for six but I don't
(20:41):
bring my family with me. So in South Vietnam for
the first years of his life, my late father flew missions.
There was no one year toward the old saying for
the South Vietnamese air for is you fly it til
you die, because the war went on for two decades.
So when I you know, when I was born, you know,
the first few years, he was in the northern part
(21:02):
of you know, Vietnam, South Vietnam, near the DMZ, the
Deex Military Zone and bases that were north of Saigon.
Later in his career, when the Americans started to withdraw,
then we moved on to the base of nineteen seventy two.
That's why I spent a lot of time with him
because he was stationed at the same base, so we
were military base housing, and you know, I saw my
dad go go go to work, go go go service country.
(21:24):
He would be gone sometime back the same night, sometimes days,
sometimes weeks. So that was the role model. I was
the only son, so I'm go down to the flight line.
And you know the benefit was when he had duty,
I drove around, you know, I rode around with them
in the jeep. But he was a major and we
go out to see aircraft armed to go on missions.
I saw I first head. I didn't watch it through
a movie or hinted. It was incredible. One one night
(21:47):
he came home and he said, take Colong. It was
sometime in nineteen seventy two or seventy three. I was
seven or eight years old. He said, hey, you want
to you want to see a viet Cong And you
got to remember, now, you know, the only news we
had was American Armed Forces, and you know, Vietnamese news
and everything in video was American Armed Forces. We didn't
really see Vietnamese news and television, and we saw all
(22:07):
the old reruns of Star Trek and twelve o'clock High
and everything. You know, it was for the Americans who
were stationed in Vie, South Vietnam, and we saw were
bodies of the enemy. So I go with them to
the Base brig where they held prisoners and other people
who are in trouble with the military, and they brought
this Vietnong out and you know, I was, I guess
a seven or eight. This was like a teenager and
(22:30):
he was a Vietnamese boy, maybe this you know, fourteen
to sixteen, and you know, it was it hit me.
They never showed the face of the enemy. When I
was growing up on TV, we never put the TGA.
We didn't know the vehicle was a Vietnamese person like us.
So that was one of the things that stuck out
with me when I was growing up there. That one
(22:51):
night still stuck with me, you know, almost over fifty
years later. But I grew up wanted to be like him.
So why came in America. I didn't speak English, didn't
have a citizens, didn't have any money. I never thought
that America would trust me to let me join the military.
The US Marine Corps allowed me to take you know,
go through Afhaicaana school, earn a commission, then sent me
(23:12):
the flight school and you know, let me fly missions.
It was a great honor and it was a great
responsibly that I took very seriously to be able to
fly Marines in the Gulf War, and to turn around
to be a bark in the USS Tarawa in the
summer of nineteen ninety two, and to be the her
aircraft commander of flying into Mogadishu in September and October
(23:34):
nineteen ninety ninety two. It was tremendous, But I think
I wanted to be a pilot my father. But I
got older that was near my commission time. What I
really wanted to do was to serve my new country
and pay back for my citizenship and to honor those
because I think in the book you read, I was
(23:54):
not going to join after off Shericanan school, but I
decided to visit the Vietnam Wall, and at the Wall
in summer of nineteen eighty six, I realized I didn't
know one American on that one American name on that
Vietnam War, and I felt like, you know, I had
to go serve by and I really pay back of
my citizenship instead of just going to achieve my childhood
(24:15):
dream of becoming an aviator.
Speaker 2 (24:17):
One of the themes that you communicating in your book
Underdog Nation is I might get this wrong, but you know,
coincidence as destiny and you so like in my case,
I never be in a radio host was not on
my punch list. It's just the person who founded the
program died young, and I just I had a passion
(24:37):
for continuing the messages, so I jumped in with both feet,
knowing absolutely nothing about radio. You wanted to be a
fighter jock, but they assigned you to helicopters. But it
turns out that that quote unquote coincidence actually led you
to be able to go into combat before your other
training class peers and then.
Speaker 3 (24:55):
Go for as it turned out, you are correct. My
I had the jet grades come out of Pensacola Flight School,
but our class that graduated from primary flight training, we
all got helicopters. And then everybody should know in naval aviation,
every helicopter is manned by two naval aviators because we
carry you know, precious cargo, marine lives and to fly
(25:19):
off the ship. You don't want to put just one
pilot up there. And you know, if you're a harrier
or an fat pilot, your single pilot, you always got
the ejection seat. If something goes wrong, you know in
the helicopter, we're going we're going down with the troops
in the back, so there's always two more seats. So
initially I was disappointed, but his lives turned out. You know,
(25:41):
my father before I was born, was in a joint
mission with the US Marine Advisors in flying eighth thirty
four's He was shot down in the Vietnamese Air Force
Guy Raider, which is an attack airplane that was given
to the South Vietnamese military by the US Air Force,
and he was rescued by a US Marine H thirty
four helicopter crew. So is a coincident or the sud
(26:07):
became a Marine helicopter pie, I don't think it's a coincidence.
Speaker 2 (26:12):
I'm out of so when your dad eventually came, you know,
ten years, I think in the camps, would eventually did
get to the US and you were reunited. And it
seems to me, sir, you said mentioned something in the
book about how he was visiting you at your unit
and he's looking at the tail of this helicopter. It
was the same unit you were flying in that rescued
him in Vietnam.
Speaker 3 (26:33):
Yeah, so I wrote a lot about that in my
two thousand and five book A Sense of Duty about
the whole Marine Corps experience and I shared with that
with readers in Underdog Nation. So, you know, he was
late fifties by time he came United State seventeen years later,
and he saw the tail number and it was not
exactly the same squadron, it was close. And I put
(26:54):
all this stuff together when I wrote the book after
he had passed away, because one of the dying questions
I had I had my whole life, and I felt
like I didn't get an answer for was a, dad,
why didn't you just leave with us? What about this
honor thing? You know, your country was losing the war,
your president had left, the military has really no ability
(27:15):
to fight. Why do you just leave? You left mom
with four young kids in America for all those years? Okay?
And then the second question I wanted to ask him
before he passed away, you know, which I found the
answer to, was Hey, how come you guys could win
the war? You know, America gave sixty thousand lives, twenty
five plus years of aid, all of those equipment. Everything.
(27:39):
I wanted to hear from him, but I didn't have
the you know, the courage. I didn't want to put
him through the stress coming into America, having to deal
with the transition, So it took time, and you know,
once he passed away, it took me a few years
to put together the answers. And in Underdog Nation, I
think there's a part of a chapter that I share
(28:01):
that readers should quite to solve that dying question or relationship,
because it helped me back for many years, even after
I served and gotten out and had gone to the
privatester and it started my first company. That I had
to write that first book because I had to find
those answers myself, and I think it really unlocked the
potential that I was not preoccupied anymore with those two
(28:23):
questions that I couldn't get directly from him.
Speaker 2 (28:26):
Okay, kwan, When we come back, I'd like to talk
about I've had a lot of better and entrepreneurs talk
about the lessons that they took from the military into
the private sector. And you say, the marine startsure to
calculate the risk, plan and adapt changes. UCLA didn't teach
you that. Harvard didn't teach you that business school didn't
teach you that. So when we come back, I like
to check a little bit about your entrepreneurial journey, Lady
(28:46):
and gentle When Ben Bueler Garcia. We're talking with Kwon Fam.
Speaker 3 (28:49):
I'll be right back.
Speaker 2 (29:12):
Welcome back to American Warrior Radio. Lason, gentlemen, this is
Ben Bula Garcia.
Speaker 3 (29:16):
We're very privileged.
Speaker 2 (29:17):
He talking with Quan Fam a lot of first in
his life. Check out quanx XPAM dot com. It's spelled
q u a n g xfam dot com. Also his book,
Underdog Nation. It's it's been very helpful, and I said,
I'm still processing a lot of it, and I don't
want to give too much away here. I want people
(29:37):
to buy the book and read it and absorb it.
But you in the book, you early on you talked
about how you sort of adapt Einstein's equation, Uh, you
know equals MC squared and you create your own equation,
which is S equals.
Speaker 3 (29:52):
E R three.
Speaker 2 (29:54):
Explain the elements of those that equation for our listeners.
Speaker 3 (29:58):
Yeah, it's success equals effort in results times three. And
I'm trying to break it down when people don't Well,
first of all, you got to define success, and for me,
early on, success was really about family and cultural expectation.
When you come to America, you have this mainstream and
you have your immediate circle. And you have your cultural subcircle. Right.
(30:20):
The Mexican American immigrants would hang out with their own.
The South Vietnamese did the same. And the exportation in
the early years was you got to go to college,
honor your family, and become a pharmacist, an engineer, or
a doctor. Nobody said anything about joining the United States
military after the Vietnam War and honoring your family, right.
(30:40):
So I wanted to, you know, to serve my country,
honor my family, and contribute to the greater good of mankind,
which is the pharmaceutical route. But that was the early
definitions success for Vietnamese refugees and the young kids who
came over after the war. When I decided to go
to the Marine Corps, my family, you know, had questions,
my friend question My classmates from UCLA certainly had jokes
(31:03):
like what are you doing? Go make some money? Why
are you going to see war again? Didn't you have
enough war growing up in Vietnam. I didn't let those
people decide my success. My success was definedest I wanted
to serve my country and honor my family. My father
was still in Vietnam in captivity then, and so I
think people, whatever is society or a family or cultural
(31:24):
expectation is if they're following that route, you know, they
need to look at themselves seriously and identify what that means.
Once they identify what success means, and they got to
measure their you know, their progress towards it. And for me,
that was, hey, can you get a commission? Can you
get it by school? Can you get to the fleet?
And so in the civilian world, what I was able
(31:45):
to do was do you want to be in the
big farmer world? To me, success was can you be
somewhere where you can really add to the decision making,
And that was to become an entrepreneur.
Speaker 2 (31:58):
Let me pick your brain a little bit. It's you know,
I've got an expert here and I want to take
full advantage of it and hopefully our listeners will learn
something from it as well. So success can be tiered.
Speaker 3 (32:09):
Correct.
Speaker 2 (32:09):
So, like I said, when I first started this radio show,
it was just a weekend labor of love, you know,
one hour local station. And my threshold for success there
came from my wife who said, don't lose money. You
can't you know, keep doing it, but don't you can't
subsidize it out of our own pockets. You've got to
you know, it's got to pay for itself. Okay, that
(32:31):
threshold met and then you know, as we started to
get inquiry, the next threshold was, well, these are important stories.
Maybe it's our duty to expand into as many years
as possible.
Speaker 3 (32:40):
So the next.
Speaker 2 (32:41):
Threshold for success was growing the number of affiliates. And
you know, now we're you know, north of one hundred
and fifty stations, we're on American Forces Network, which is
a huge honor. And I'm having after reading your book
while I'm struggling a little bit like Okay, now what now,
what is your definition of success been? And honest, the
one answer I could come back with sure was to
(33:02):
get more feedback from our listeners.
Speaker 3 (33:06):
Yeah, so I think without digging into your business plan, Ben,
I would say sponsorship. I would say, you know, whether
it's a financial increase, whether it's a nonprofit, a legacy
and succession planning, right, I mean, just like the radio
station owner host before you you took his or her position,
(33:26):
there's got to be a succession plan. One day you're
going to say what I want to sit back and
relax and here a new voice behind this. And that's
the legacy you want is you want to be able
to release yourself. I think so. I think going back,
what did I learn in the Marine Corps? One is
everybody's replaceable, but you've got to have the next man
or woman up. So the lieutenant goes down, the staff
sergeant comes up. Right, If the squad leader coming goes down,
(33:50):
the corporal goes up. If not, the private first class
comes up. You always got to be ready to go.
It's like the flight leader goes down, you know number
two has to take over. So that's why I learned.
Number one was you've got to train yourself in organization
to be expendable. It's easy to say, but it's hard
to do, and you have to have the success plan.
So if something happens the mission gets accomplished, we always
(34:12):
brief that. In our flights, flight leader gets shot down,
somebody else is taking the lead, okay. And then the
second part is risk assessment. Right, there's a go no go. Right.
We always brief a flight of four right, if one
goes down, you keep going. If two goes down, you
may not go okay, So you got to know what
the risk assessment is and that go no go. I
think the first lesson, I added, because you asked me
(34:34):
what I learned. The first lesson I learned was be
a young officer. And it was something that a lot
of the Vietnam Vets who were on staff in the
mid the late seventies taught us was you know, right
or wrong? They taught us in chronicle. Make a decision, lieutenant.
Don't just sit there and waffle and be indecisive, whether
it's attack or retreat or you know, gather yourself and
(34:57):
do something, just do sit there and freeze up. So
I've always learn that action is better than no action.
Speaker 2 (35:02):
Yeah, and in your book Underdog Nation, that's I mean
you your whole life, you were the underdog and many well,
I would say, even on up to the IPO. Entrepreneurship
is not for everyone. It's it's just not. And mindset
is so important. But mindset without a definition for success
and action is it's a waste of your time.
Speaker 3 (35:25):
There's a waste of time. I still encourage people to
take a good look and some people may come an inclusion.
Maybe it's not timing yet. It doesn't mean you know,
it's never It may be at this point in your
career or your life, and your family. Yeah, so there
are other factors that and I think the book hopefully
gives what you said earlier one or two nuggets and
(35:48):
give yourself a chance to think and kind of resink
your mission, your effort, and your result. And you know,
nobody's going to take all twelve to teach hepters to
digest it change their lives. Like you said, I am, I'll.
Speaker 2 (36:02):
Tell you this is an endorsement one.
Speaker 3 (36:03):
I'm I'm.
Speaker 2 (36:04):
I took a couple of nuggets out of the first
few pages of the book. So we're running out of time, sir,
but any other and there's lots of great stuff in there,
and we don't have time to touch on. One of
the those things that I pull from it based on
my personal experience is the importance of mentorship. And your
book you call it the Admirals or admirable Boles, and
you know, finding someone like that to mentor you, if
(36:25):
you will, to aspire to quan. We talked a little
bit about your definition of success, and I think your
underdog and lindset you really you want to help spread
that success. You want to serve others because you're so
grateful and your family is so grateful. You mentioned it before.
As you know, Vietnam was a great tragedy, but you
(36:49):
have an enduring, lifelong appreciation for what this country gave you.
Speaker 3 (36:55):
So yes, I'm grateful. My family's grateful. I'll leave this
with your listeners. I think being an American veteran is
an honorable status. I think Americans respect us. They want
to help us, that we can help ourselves. Pick out
the things that we learned on the things I learned,
take action, do your homework. Not everybody's going to have
(37:20):
time to help you. But the admirables I mentioned in
my book. I never met Fret Smith, the late Fred Smith,
the founder of FedEx, who's just passed away, but I
study how he formed the company and what it took
for him to overcome all the challenges in the early
seventies with fed it almost went out of business. I
never met General Colin Powell, but I study how we
progress through the ranks. And so there are things I
(37:44):
think these days between the Internet ai UH and just
re excerpts of people's biography, you can you can see
where they met their challenges then and studied the profiles.
Once again, I think, take a lot of pride in
your service. Uh No means A know today you're going
to have rejections, and I think one of the last
things I'll leave you that is one of the best
(38:06):
thing I did was I stopped talking about my military
service about two years into my new sales career. Is
what I found out was some people who didn't serve
kind of told me, Hey, if you loved it so much,
why did you leave? Why did you retire? And so
when that happened, I figured some people they had enough
of my military service, and now I'm in the private sector,
they're looking for results. Okay. So when I turned that,
(38:30):
when I turned that notch over to that mode, I
really took off. And so I think veterans everybody's gonna
find out when they need to turn that notch over.
Speaker 2 (38:38):
Okay, ladies and John when the book is Underdog Nation,
zero in on effort and results for success. Also check
out que xbam dot found dot com. That's q O
A n g x F A p h A M
dot com one. What a what a privilege and an
honor to have you share your time with our listeners today.
Thank you so much my pleasure.
Speaker 3 (38:59):
Ben. I forgot to tell you I've been to Tucson twice.
I flew the old forty six through Davis Bonton twice
in the early nineties.
Speaker 2 (39:07):
Wonderful. It's now a rescue base. We're seeing a lot
more helicopters here, so sir, best of luck to you,
I won't use luck you. Thank you, and congratulations on
your success.
Speaker 3 (39:18):
Thank you, Bett, nice to be with you.
Speaker 2 (39:20):
There you go, Ladies and gentlemen, don't forget. You can
find this an over six hundred other podcasts at American
Warrior radio dot com. Until next time, all policies and
procedures or remain in place.
Speaker 3 (39:29):
Take care.
Speaker 1 (39:35):
You've been listening to American Warrior Radio. Archived episodes may
be found at americanwarriorradio dot com or your favorite podcast platform.
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