Anything Is Possible: Defying Expectations to Become a Business Owner
The Inspiring Story of Javier Diaz, CEO & Co-Founder of OSI Engineering
Welcome, friends! Glad to have you here. Today’s newsletter focuses on Javier Diaz, a Latino entrepreneur of Mexican descent. He has an inspiring story about using the lessons from humble beginnings to start a Silicon Valley-based tech staffing firm, OSI Engineering, which also does business in Florida.
In this issue, you'll also learn the following:
🌴 The approach Diaz takes to placing tech talent
🌴 The factors that can make it easier for you to start a business today vs. when he started his company
🌴 Why he doesn't recommend "doing it all"
🌴 This is Javier Diaz, the CEO and co-founder of the 5th largest Latino-owned business in Silicon Valley (Source: Silicon Valley Business Journal, 4/1/22)
DON'T LET OTHERS' EXPECTATIONS DEFINE YOU
He’s soft-spoken, deliberative and eager to help. Javier Diaz is also the CEO and co-founder of OSI Engineering, a multi-million dollar tech and engineering staffing company.
“We live and breathe technology… Because we work in innovation and R&D projects, we’re always working on cutting-edge devices. And that’s what engineers and experts really want to work on…”
Diaz’s leadership role and work in the tech industry defies the expectations that society had for him.
RESPONSIBILITY CAN BE CHANNELED IN DIFFERENT WAYS
“I was raised by a single mom with five kids. And I was the oldest. So, as the oldest, I kind of had to take [on] that role of helping my mother and caring for the rest of the family.”
Javier Diaz understood the great responsibility he had.
His mother came to the U.S. as a teenager from Mexico.
Javier lived on a farm. He and his family were migrant workers.
So their mission in life was clear.
“Our purpose was just to work and feed ourselves and feed the family.”
Life on the ranch: Javier Diaz (left), Julia Campos (center) and Angel Diaz (right)
THE TIP JAR (Tips provided courtesy of Javier Diaz)
STARTING OUT: Diaz encourages those starting out to enroll in programs designed to help Latinos in business.
He also suggests you network with entrepreneurs who may, or may not be, in your industry.
“You can still work with each other and share resources and share experiences, instead of going into it on your own."
“Set up a group and then learn from each other.”
STEEPED IN SKILLS (mid-career): For this stage, Diaz wants to remind you that you don’t necessarily need to get an office.
“Because of the pandemic, more and more resources are online. So you have the capability of building a business from your home. When we started OSI back in 2010, we had an office in downtown Campbell (Note: Which is in the Silicon Valley part of California). If I [were to] start that office today, we wouldn’t have needed an office. You can develop and create the business from home. That would be a cost savings, as well.”
STARTING OVER: “It’s a marathon, not a race… It takes time… Success is not going to happen overnight.”
I’LL NEVER DO THAT AGAIN: “At first, trying to do everything on your own, I think that was a big hurdle for me. Because I was trying to do HR. I was trying to do business development. I was trying to do legal.”
“It worked out really well when we started the company. But, as the company was growing, I was still focusing [on] that...”
He says that, later on, once he started hiring people “and once I started delegating those responsibilities, the company started growing much faster…”
BEST ADVICE FROM “LA CASA”/BEST “HOUSE” ADVICE: Diaz says the best advice he ever got came from his mom.
She told him the well-known farmworkers' motto, “Si, se puede.” TRANSLATION: “Yes, you can.”
“She always instilled, anything you want out there in life, you can have. You just gotta work – work hard for it… She instilled a great work ethic in me at an early age, which I still carry to this day. And I find the folks that I have in my office also have the same work ethic.”
Javier with one of the employees he hired early-on, David Gutierrez (2012)
SEE BEYOND YOUR IMMEDIATE REALITY
Diaz says he was out in the fields working since the age of seven. He was picking fruit in California, Oregon and Washington.
Hard work is what he knew.
Michael Martinez, who serves as OSI Engineering’s Director of Communications, understands that reality. He also came from a migrant worker family and was also able to excel.
“We grew up in an era where… coming from farm labor working families… education wasn’t encouraged. Because it was about family survival.”
As the eldest child in the family, the pressure for Diaz to support the family took precedence.
HARD WORK+AMBITION+DRIVE+CLEAR PLAN=HARD TO BEAT
But that wouldn’t kill his ambition and drive to create a better life for himself and his family.
Diaz will tell you, he felt like a fish out of water working in Silicon Valley.
“When I came in the mid-90s, working in the tech industry, I was the only Latino in my department…. I always felt a sense of isolation.”
But he knew, along with his co-founder and COO, Odi Banuelos, that they could provide the tech industry with better staffing services.
They took a macro approach to staffing. Instead of having engineers and tech experts in a limited number of industries, they have talent teams with “renewable skills sets.”
Javier (right) with Mario Ruiz (left), another early hire at OSI Engineering (2012)
FIND A STRATEGY THAT OPTIMIZES YOUR USE OF RESOURCES
Diaz says, “If we have a developer that’s working on a software application for a medical device," OSI Engineering may be working with "another company developing [an] automotive vehicle or consumer device or AI software [that] will need the same type of technical expert, but on a different platform."
He goes on to explain, "So when we finish up an automotive project… we can take that resource and move them over to the consumer product… So, even though they’re different industries, they all need… similar resources, which allows us to penetrate multiple industries…”
WORK SMARTER=DELEGATE VS. DOING IT ALL
Diaz strongly encourages aspiring and current entrepreneurs to focus on working smarter.
To him, that means, “Instead of having to put 70 hours in a [week], you can now scale back some of those hours. Pass on some of those administrative tasks or operational tasks to somebody else, and then focus on scaling and growing the business.”
EXPAND YOUR RESOURCE POOLS
Diaz talks about how finding resources, especially after the pandemic, has changed.
“Now you can find people in the Midwest or you can find resources overseas. There’s a lot of near-shore operations where you can find resources at a fraction of the cost of finding someone local. So, for someone starting a new business mid-career, the entry point… as far as financial cost, is not going to be as much [of] a hurdle as it was a few years ago.”
He mentions Upwork as one site where you can find individuals worldwide for a lot less, “if you’re looking for everything from an accountant to a designer to a technical writer.”
“Fiverr is another one to find independent contractors that do project-based work.”
CORE VALUES TRANSFER ACROSS INDUSTRIES
Looking back, Diaz says his time on the farm as a migrant worker seems like a “lifetime ago.”
And, yet, it’s the basis of why he was able to endure the tough times and grow his technical and engineering staffing company over the past 12 years.
“To operate a farm, you gotta work hard. Take care of the land. Take care of your livestock. So I just kind of use those same core values of [being raised] on a farm and what my family taught me and [apply] it to work. And just being diligent and being transparent. Having respect for your team and your clients. Having integrity. Leading by example.”
INDUSTRY: Talent Resources (Technology and Engineering)
STARTED BUSINESS: January 4, 2010
LATINO CONNECTION: Mother was born in Mexico
EDUCATION: Attended California State University - Chico
DREAM JOB AS A KID: “I always loved painting. Yeah, so I wanted to be an artist or painter.”
BIGGEST GOAL YET: “We just expanded into Canada earlier this year. So the goal that’s next is expanding into Latin America and China… We’re having those conversations now… It takes a while to set up a corporation overseas. So we’re going through that process now.”
NO NEED TO GO IT ALONE
HELP ON THE OUTSIDE...because we can all use a helping hand:
Social Media Success: The Roadmap to Follow
Growing your audience and making connections with potential customers may seem daunting, especially when you have so many other responsibilities as a small business owner. This virtual class will provide you with an easy-to-follow plan for engaging in a meaningful and effective way with your audience. Details are below:
SCORE (Service Corps of Retired Executives) Orlando
“A Simple Recipe for Social Media Success”
Tuesday, August 30, 2022
7:00 p.m. EDT – 8:00 p.m. EDT
Virtual Webinar
FREE
https://orlando.score.org/event/simple-recipe-social-media-success-7
WORKING ON THE INSIDE...because we know our culture has a hard time asking for help:
Public Speaking: Back for More
Maybe you attended Part 2 of this webinar and are ready for the final session of the series. Even if you missed the first two installments, I believe it's never too late to get something out of a webinar like this. After all, public speaking is a skill that will serve you well, no matter the industry. Here are the details:
SBA (Small Business Administration)
“Learn the Art of Public Speaking to Help Grow Your Business – Part Three”
Tuesday, August 30, 2022
10:00 a.m. EDT – 12:00 a.m. EDT
Online Webinar
FREE
https://www.sba.gov/event/2185
INSPIRATION FOR THIS ISSUE: In recent years, we’ve heard more about the generational wealth gap.
To start, generational wealth refers to the assets (ex. houses, inheritance, stocks and other investments) that families pass on to their kids or grandkids.
When we’re talking about the generational wealth gap, specifically, it’s the disparity that keeps certain groups from being able to build on that wealth to help their future generations.
Minorities have had a particularly difficult time bridging that gap, in large part because of housing discrimination over decades, but also because of an inability to attend college due to a lack of money to pay for it.
When Javier Diaz spoke about the expectations migrant workers, like himself, grew up with, I thought about the generational wealth gap.
When college, home ownership or a white-collar job is not in the cards because of a lack of education, a lack of means, or outright discrimination, it has an impact on future generations.
Alternately, when someone like Javier is able to not only work in the tech industry, but become a business owner, providing jobs to others, the impact is exponential.
Not only should we celebrate what he’s been able to achieve, we should share stories like his to inspire, educate and provide the guidance for other traditionally-disadvantaged groups to help them buck the trend and succeed.
Before my interview, in our initial phone call, Javier told me about different organizations that helped him.
After our interview, he followed up with a list of the groups whose mission it is to empower Latinos.
He didn’t have to do that, but he did.
In Part Two, I will share the names of the organizations he provided.
He gets it.
Javier Diaz understands the significance of being able to redefine what’s possible for Latinos and, hopefully, close the generational wealth gap that has kept minorities behind for far too long.
🌴 Enjoyed this article? Share it (share button is at the top).
🌴 Want to support this Latina-created publication? Subscribe for free.
🌴 Thank you for reading Generation Si! Make it a great day. #theskyisNOTthelimit 😻