Angie 00:00 Good Monday morning, everybody. I am Angie Callen, and this is No More Mondays — the podcast where we believe you can have a thriving career or business and an amazing life on your terms. Every week I get to bring you guests who are doing just that, and they’re here to share their real stories, honest insights, and practical mindset shifts that have helped them live and work more authentically. Today’s guest is the perfect example — even more than I thought. Wait till we get into this, y’all. Navid Moosa is a real estate investor, entrepreneur, and someone who lives the freedom life on his own terms. After more than 20 years in real estate investment, he’s closed over a billion dollars in deals, built a portfolio of 300 doors, and even trademarked his own investment method. And that’s not even it — he’s got a taco truck, a car dealership, a consulting firm, the list goes on. But here’s the kicker: this guy is not a trust funder. That portfolio of success wasn’t handed to him. He didn’t have big resources. He built his empire from the ground up — by figuring out how to use what he had to just get started. So if you’ve ever felt like you’re behind, suffering from the comparison syndrome we all get from social media, because you don’t have enough time or money to go do the thing — this is going to challenge everything you’ve ever thought. This episode is for you. Navid Moosa, welcome to No More Mondays.

Navid 01:12 Thank you, Angie — that was a great opening. I appreciate that.

Angie 01:16 I want to rewind a minute and give everybody a little more context — from real estate to taco trucks. How did this multi-potential life of serial entrepreneurship start for you?

Navid 01:26 I wish I had a specific date, but I can tell you this — I was in the W-2 world. I would pinpoint it to one moment where there was a promotion I felt I deserved at a job, but the person who got hired, I ended up training them.

Angie 01:40 So think about that — somebody out there just went: oh, I’m not the only one who’s been through that.

Navid 01:45 Like — I went for this job, you hired somebody else, but now you want me to train them for the job you didn’t pick me for? Oh yeah, no. Let’s not do that. Peace out. I’m out.

Angie 01:55 That was your moment. Do you think — philosophically, three minutes in — do you think you were always wired this way, and that was just a catalyst or trigger to step into it?

Navid 02:04 Absolutely. My senior year of high school, I had to repeat it. When I went back, I didn’t want to be in school again — I just worked. At the end of that school year, there was an award ceremony, and I was getting an award for hardest worker or something like that. I missed the award ceremony because I wanted to work instead — and I didn’t even know I was getting the award. My counselor pulled me aside and said: what’s wrong with you? I said, what do you mean? He said, we were giving you an award last night. I said, no one told me. He said, it was a surprise — that’s why we asked you to take the night off. I said, I had to work. I gotta get paid. And he was like: you’re 18, you have plenty of life ahead. I’m like: no, I want to work now. For me, it was never that straight-and-narrow path. I’ve never been wired the same as my peers. Everyone always said, you’re different, what’s wrong with you, you’re not normal. And I’m like — okay.

Angie 02:58 And now you look back and go: thank you.

Navid 03:01 Yeah, I’m just like — no, you’re not normal.

Angie 03:04 What even is normal? And this is a really great piece of this conversation — there are so many things that society says are normal, and we keep ourselves small and in a box because we think we have to live by those rules. You’re living proof of what happens when you challenge that norm.

Navid 03:20 Oh, absolutely. In my senior year of high school, I got offered a job at a bank. I was like: no, I’m going to do the regular thing — graduate, go to college, get a degree, all of that. I bounced around, had to repeat the year, worked here and there. Five years later, I ended up working at that same job that was offered to me five years earlier. And I thought: I should have been here five years ago. But I had shied away from what was right there for me because the “normal” thing was to do it the other way. I told myself: I’m not making that same mistake twice. If this is what’s presented, rock out. Let’s do it.

Angie 04:05 So where did the confidence come from to take steps forward despite the constraints, despite the norms, despite the “what are you crazy?” feedback from the people around you?

Navid 04:17 It was a long path to fight that. I’m first generation born in this country — my family came from Uganda, Africa. My parents were used to raising kids in a particular way. They were old school, traditional, grind-and-go, which is fine. But then it was like: hey, we’re in America now, there are opportunities here — go take advantage of them. And I’m thinking: you’re telling me to take advantage of opportunities, but nobody’s showing me what that looks like. Everybody here is just working, working, working. And then I go to school and my friends are going to parties, sleepovers, friends’ houses. We were two houses back and forth every weekend — just our cousins. That’s all I saw, all I knew. We were a working-class family. So when I heard my friends talking about sleepovers and parties, I’m like — I didn’t do that. I was in bed by ten o’clock. That was a real battle. Here’s what you’re telling me to do, here’s what you’re showing me to do, and here’s what everyone else seems to be doing — what’s right? I honestly didn’t know. So I was like: forget it, I’m gonna go do what I feel I gotta do and let the chips fall where they may.

Angie 05:20 Hi mom and dad — they listen to all my episodes. There’s a lot of parallels there, even though I did not grow up in Uganda. I also am a little bit of an odd duck who grew up in a pretty traditional, conservative home in western Pennsylvania. My dad was my high school math teacher — single income, teacher’s salary. Very small circle, very family-focused. And the word entrepreneurship never crossed my world until I was doing it, because they don’t teach it in school anywhere, really. There’s a level of friction that comes with being a little bit of that odd duck. I sometimes don’t know where the free-spirit-go-be-an-entrepreneur person came from in my upbringing. So tell me — how did you meet and work through that friction?

Navid 06:10 Back in Africa, my father was an entrepreneur, a businessman. When he came to this country, all that was shut down, so everyone worked. That spirit was there though. And how did I work through the friction? I just — I had to do it. I got tired of arguing. No matter what I did, an argument was going to happen. So I thought: if I’m going to get in trouble anyway, I might as well do something I actually want to do. Because if someone tells you to do something their way and you don’t align with it, it’s not going to come out right. So I said: I might as well have fun while I get there and see where it goes. And it’s kind of a quirky thing in my culture, even questioning your parents — just asking the simplest question was considered talking back. I remember there was a basketball game, and my dad changed the channel. The team was down by nine with ten seconds left. My dad goes: they’re gonna lose. And changed it. I got upset — I said: how do you just change the channel? You don’t know that. And my brother was like: oh shoot, he’s gonna die. My dad was 6’4, 6’5 — huge. So he was like: we’re about to be six brothers, not seven. My dad, trying to prove me wrong, went back to the game. The team came back, hit three three-pointers within nine seconds, tied it and won. And I said: see, dad? Told you. My dad got upset. And I’m just sitting there thinking: that’s messed up. All I said was, how do you know? I wasn’t being a smart aleck — it was a fact, it was the score. And I’m like: no matter what I do, I’m in trouble. So if I’m gonna be in trouble either way, I might as well go do the thing I believe in.

Angie 07:55 That’s a funny quirky story, but it tells a lot. In the bigger picture, in the more substantial places where you pushed through friction, it sounds like you found permission in the idea of: you’re damned either way, so you might as well do the thing that feels right to you.

Navid 08:10 Correct — that’s the best way to put it. What is gonna happen is gonna happen. I could never do right or be right. I’m the youngest of seven. I was always being compared to older siblings who were more academically gifted. The report card on the refrigerator, all of that. And I’m like: congratulations to you. I want to go this path over here.

Angie 08:32 Do you think being the youngest of seven has something to do with the rogue in you?

Navid 08:37 I think the cultural component plays a bigger role than birth order, honestly. Being first generation here, not knowing what to do, and then having my oldest brother step in as a father figure — he had the responsibility placed on him. And I just saw everything and thought: you guys are telling me there’s opportunity here, but you’ve never been exposed to it, so how do you know what it looks like? Your vision of opportunity is speculation. With all due respect — I’m living it. I’m going to go prove it. You may not like the path, but it’s a path. At least.

Angie 09:08 There was such a strong instinct there. And fast-forwarding — you’ve got this whole portfolio of businesses. How did you practically start, when it came time to following your instincts and building without the resources a lot of people think they need?

Navid 09:22 When I was at that bank job — the one where I got passed over — my staff would say: what are you doing here? You’re a great salesman. I’d say: I’m not a salesman, I just like to sell. They said: that’s why you’re so good. You don’t sell — you tell a story about something you’re passionate about, and that makes people want to buy it or learn more. And when I got passed over for that promotion, I said: I can’t keep doing this. Let me dig into something. Real estate kept coming up — it had been on my radar since I was 17 or 18. I kept running away from it. When I was 30, a really good friend of mine got tired of hearing me talk about it. After my 30th birthday, he bought me the real estate class.

Angie 10:05 That’s either a really good friend or someone who was done with you. Could go either way.

Navid 10:10 Yeah — best $600 he ever spent. He said: shut up, bro. I’m tired of you talking about this. Just go get your license and get it done. And I’ve always been someone who burns the boats and just goes in. So I got into real estate. I started showing properties and ran into a guy who needed some help. I needed some money. I became his assistant on a verbal agreement to get paid monthly. The first month went by — nothing. He disappeared on vacation without telling me. I kept going into the office looking for my check, asking the front desk: where is he? They said he’s on vacation. I was like: with my money. And I had just gotten married. My wife was holding down two jobs while I was living this dream of being an entrepreneur. He came back, I confronted him, and he said: what check? I said: we had an agreement, here’s everything I did. He goes: you think you deserve it? And then claimed he’d been up all night fixing my reports. Why didn’t you tell me if I was doing something wrong? He just left. So now I had no job, no pay, a two-and-a-half-hour round-trip commute I’d been funding on credit card after credit card for gas and tolls, and no payday. And that’s when I said: I’m never going to let this happen to me again. I went harder and smarter and just started talking to everybody I could about real estate.

Angie 11:40 There’s a few things I want to point out for those listening. Whether it’s entrepreneurship or finding the right W-2 fit for your values — whatever it is — getting to a life of freedom is not a linear path. You get to define what that freedom looks like. But sometimes you’ve got to go through the positives, the negatives, and take some hits to figure it out. There is a certain level of risk you have to be willing to entertain because when you’re building freedom for yourself, there is no ladder. There are no clear steps. It’s trial and error, which comes with some failures that become learning experiences.

Navid 12:18 Oh, absolutely. If I had given up when he didn’t pay me — if I’d gone back to my job — if I’d stopped every single time I got kicked, I would not be here talking to you.

Angie 12:30 And you would be working — of all things — in a bank. Which feels like the nail in the coffin.

Navid 12:36 So funny — when I left the bank, I had to go back one day for a funeral. A buddy of mine had passed. I walked into the branch and said to a gentleman named Brian: did you guys change the lights in here? He said: no. Did you repaint the walls? He said: no. I said: it looks so dark in here. He said: it was like this when you were here. And I thought: holy shoot. I just know what the sun looks like now. And that was depressing — this is what we were subjected to for all those years. But here’s the thing — I was still struggling financially. I talked to two bankruptcy attorneys in my first ten years of being self-employed because I just didn’t know what to do. And I thought: is my struggle going to be how to pay these bills? Or is my struggle going to be walking into this dark place every day? Pick your struggle.

Angie 13:30 I love that. Pick your hard. I’m a CrossFitter — they had a campaign for a while: hard choices, easy life; easy choices, hard life. What are you going to regret 30 years from now? Are you going to regret the four walls that gave you stability? Or are you going to regret not seeing how far you can push yourself? The struggles that came with the not-easy road — they were worth it.

Navid 13:52 Oh, absolutely. Whether you’re W-2, self-employed, whatever — there is always going to be a struggle. You just have to pick the one that’s going to align with who you are.

Angie 14:02 Something came to mind as you were talking — there is a bias for action in how you approach everything. I’m gonna go out there, I’m gonna find out, I’m gonna do what I can with the resources I have. I’m going to act versus overthink. What would you say to the people out there who are overthinking?

Navid 14:20 I could be cliché and just say: just do it. Which is true. But I’d say — okay, here’s a discussion you need to have with yourself. I’m scared to do X. Write it down. Then write the opposite of what you wrote. I’m scared because I might fail — what’s the opposite of fail? Pass. I’m scared I’m going to go broke — what’s the opposite of broke? Wealthy. Write down your fears, then write the opposite next to each one. If that doesn’t get you excited, you’re not looking at the right thing. Because when you see that list — the possibility side — that’s what should start moving you.

Angie 14:58 I love this even better than what I usually walk people through. It’s similar, but I like this so much more — it puts it in the positive. Instead of just mapping out the worst-case scenario, you’re asking: what if you succeed?

Navid 15:10 Yeah — and a lot of us have a brain and a mind. The brain is physical. The mind is what you make of it. So what kind of mind do you want? A positive one or a negative one? And are you willing to do what it takes to get there?

Angie 15:24 There is proven science about a positivity mindset versus a negativity mindset — about scarcity versus abundance. And what I think is so incredible throughout all of this is that even at times of scarcity, you remained committed to finding abundance at the end of it.

Navid 15:38 And don’t get me wrong — there were times I didn’t want to keep going. Times I questioned myself: what am I doing? Why am I putting myself through this? But then I’d go back to my why. And every time I went through a hardship, I’d ask: why am I doing this? And it would come back to: do you want to go back to those four walls? Do you want to get passed over again? Do you want those 2am calls for system upgrades? Do you want to deal with vacation request approvals? No. So all of that is kind of like choosing your struggle again.

Angie 16:10 For those of you who may be new to this podcast — I founded my company three months after we went bankrupt. We went bankrupt because of a business deal gone south that had nothing to do with what I do now. Essentially, a business deal nearly ruined everything — our finances, our marriage, and came close to leaving me with absolutely nothing. Three months later, I founded the best thing I’ve ever done. While that sounds tropey — Phoenix Rising, overcomer — there is real legitimacy to finding abundance despite scarcity.

Navid 16:50 Your story right there — I bet if someone first-time listening says: that’s just her, she’s lucky — I challenge that person. How many times have you said that about somebody else? Oh, they’re just lucky. There are a lot of lucky people out there, I guess.

Angie 17:05 Very expensive and very demoralizing luck. And there’s the quote — it took me seven years to get lucky, or something like that. Luck equals hard work.

Navid 17:14 The one I love is from Usain Bolt — I’m going to mess up the numbers, but it’s something like: I practiced nine years to run for seven seconds once every four years. Whatever the exact numbers were — damn.

Angie 17:26 That really puts in perspective what happens if you can persevere and build resilience. I’d be curious — what do you think about failure now versus Navid ten or twenty years ago?

Navid 17:38 Ten, twenty years ago — failure meant my life is over, the sky is falling. Now I don’t really look at failure at all. I say challenge. Okay, this is my next challenge. If I look at something and find difficulties, I do my best not to say this could happen, this could go wrong. I say: this is the challenge in front of me, how do I overcome it? And if the steps to overcome it are something I’d even put myself through — I’ll do it. If not, I won’t, because I know there’s so much opportunity out there.

Angie 18:05 It sounds calculated to an extent, but it still has that bias for action behind it.

Navid 18:10 Oh yeah. And as I do this interview at 50 years old, I can tell you I wasted too much of my life not taking action. I was 30 when I got my real estate license — more than half my life. That’s what I mean by wasted — not taking action.

Angie 18:25 Let’s give everybody some advice. What do you say to that person who’s 50, has been playing it safe for so long, and is stuck between safety and risk — between playing small and making the leap?

Navid 18:38 You have more years behind you than you have in front of you. What are you waiting for?

Angie 18:43 Best time to plant a shade tree was 20 years ago. Second best time is right now.

Navid 18:48 Find the line.

Angie 18:50 You can always go back, but you can never go forward having tried the thing and not regretting it. Nobody on their deathbed regrets trying the thing. They regret not trying the thing. Don’t be that person.

Navid 19:02 There’s no magic. A lot of people ask: what’s your secret? Do you get up at 4am and take a cold plunge? No, I don’t. Do I get up early? Yeah — because if I wait too long, it just gets buried in the day. And I didn’t become an early riser overnight. When I promised myself to start getting up at 4:30, the first week I just — sat up in bed. That was it. Then I’d go back to sleep. Three weeks later I finally got my feet on the floor and started walking. I think a lot of people do that thing where they think: I’m too old, I’m too young, I’m not financially ready, I’m a man, I’m a woman, whatever — you just have to do it if you truly want it. If you don’t want it, then don’t do it. It’s that simple. You are complicating it.

Angie 19:55 Don’t be an overthinker. You can find a million reasons not to. All you need to find is one or two reasons to lean into it. You mentioned habits — what are some of the other things you’ve adopted that have helped you balance — or maybe harmonize — all of these endeavors?

Navid 20:12 First — I don’t use the word balance. I use harmony. Some days you’ve got to be 100% on one thing. Some days 100% on another. If you’re looking for 50/50 balance, good luck — it’s not gonna happen. So harmony, not balance. That’s one. Second is time management. I have a program called MDTA — mindset, discipline, time management, and action. The time management piece is very important. I revolve my job around my life, not the other way around. I try to start my day at 11am and end at 3pm, Monday through Thursday. Monday is my business review day — I go through all my businesses. Tuesday is real estate. Wednesday is automotive. Thursday is food, taco trucks, that sort of thing. Friday is for me. Is it perfect? No. Does it work? Absolutely. There are days Tuesdays become Wednesdays and vice versa — that’s fine. But if you at least have a template, it gives you a guideline to follow.

Angie 21:15 I kind of want tacos on Tuesdays, but okay. You’re always going to have fires to put out. But it’s nice to have some structure in there. And the big thing — we both have Fridays off, which was the best thing I ever did for myself in business. No meetings on Fridays. Time to focus on me, go play outside, so I’m ready to go again on Monday.

Navid 21:35 Yeah — gym every day nine to ten, then I start at eleven. On Fridays, I’ll have some emails, don’t get me wrong, but for the most part: no meetings. I also go to afternoon prayers at one o’clock. From one to three I’m there — leave me alone. Phone stays in the car. That’s it.

Angie 21:52 Turn-off time is so, so important. But the big thing I want to go back to — when you walked through your schedule, I’m a huge fan of omitting the word balance from the vocabulary, because it’s an elusive thing you’re never going to find. If you focus on integration and harmony, and think of it like an orchestra — sometimes the strings are really loud, sometimes the woodwinds are really loud, but it all comes together and sounds really nice at the end.

Navid 22:18 That’s right. Yeah — perfect.

Angie 22:21 It’s never going to be perfect, but if you start where you are, you’ll never know where you’ll go.

Navid 22:25 And I’m glad you said that — the whole perfection thing. The analysis paralysis, the overthinking — I think the pursuit of perfection is part of why people get paralyzed. We automatically think: if it doesn’t go exactly this way, then forget it, I’m not doing it at all. No — it would be nice if it went that way, but if it doesn’t, at least you tried it, you did it, and you can adjust. My personal opinion is that some people hide behind that perfection. They use it as an excuse. It didn’t go exactly this way, so it wasn’t meant to be. But you’ve never done this before — so how do you even know what to expect?

Angie 23:05 How do you even know what perfect looks like if you’ve never done it? And perfectionism, around here, is more of a procrastination technique than a positive personality attribute.

Navid 23:14 That’s actually really good. That’s a really good way to put it.

Angie 23:18 And ultimately — building this life of freedom, which I also think is an important word to define for yourself. For Navid it means a schedule he likes, Fridays off, being there for family. For me it’s building the life you want and making your work harmoniously layer above that. But the big theme throughout this whole conversation is: it will not come if you don’t act. Waiting for permission or for perfection is just going to keep you exactly where you are. So whether you’re sitting on an idea, afraid to take the leap, or just tired of playing small — this story proves you don’t need everything to start. You just need to use what you’ve got, focus on an abundance mindset, and make a move.

Navid 24:00 Yeah — just make that move. And your question about freedom — freedom for me is being there when my kids need me. Doctor’s appointments, school events, field trips. That was my first version of freedom. Sometimes we think freedom means I just do whatever I want whenever I want. Okay, but how do you get there? There’s work to do. And I’ll admit — I was guilty of using someone else’s definition of freedom and making it mine. And that’s how I knew I wasn’t living my own why.

Angie 24:28 That’s not authentic to you — it’s authentic to them. Neither one is right or wrong, but what’s right for somebody else may not be right for you, and you owe it to yourself to find out what that is.

Navid 24:38 Trial and error. For the longest time, Angie, I would say: I’m doing this for my kids, for my wife. And eventually I realized: no, I’m doing it for me. That’s the best way. Yes, I can provide for them in many ways. But I want to provide in this particular way — and I’m doing this for me. It took me a long time to be okay with that. A very long time. Once I embraced it, it just took off.

Angie 25:02 And here’s the thing — it takes a while to become okay with that because society perceives it as selfish to put yourself first. However, you can’t fill from an empty cup. If you’re not prioritizing yourself and energizing yourself, you’re not the person you want to be for everyone else around you. By serving yourself, you actually serve others better.

Navid 25:22 Absolutely. The struggle for me was selfish versus self-care. That was a huge battle — how do I do this without upsetting the people in my close circle? Because I put the expectation on myself of how I should be there for you, instead of letting you accept how I am going to be there for you. That’s a huge struggle that so many people face today. If they can get that little piece figured out, I think a lot of other things start falling into place.

Angie 25:50 And that’s another place where giving yourself permission — to put self-care over the perception of selfishness — can really shift how you look at risk, freedom, and reward. But you’ve got to allow yourself to do the things.

Navid 26:03 Yeah. And to your comment about awards — you have to understand you’re not going to get a gold medal every single time. Sometimes you have to settle for bronze, and that’s okay.

Angie 26:12 You might just not get the trophy at all. Unlike Millennials who were used to 12th place trophies — we had first, second, third, ribbons, and that was it. So yeah — 12th place trophy. Hilarious and true. This has been so good. So many little tidbits of inspiration and wisdom here. Navid — how does everybody stay in touch with you and learn more from you and everything you put out into the world?

Navid 26:35 I’m really big on Instagram and TikTok — my handle is @thenavid.moosa. My website is navidmoosa.com. I’ve got a lot of free videos on real estate investing there — all free game, as my son says. I do have some courses, and I just launched a subscription-based service. If you’re nine-to-five and want to build a five-to-nine, I’ve got you covered. And if you want that five-to-nine to eventually replace your nine-to-five through real estate, I’ve got you covered there too. If you send me a DM — no bot, I actually answer myself.

Angie 27:10 That makes two of us. I have loved this so much. Side note — Navid and I actually met in person at an event a few months ago. It’s always really fun to come do this with someone you met in real life but didn’t get to deep dive with, and find out how much common ground there is. I’m so appreciative of you for storytelling, sharing your wisdom, and being vulnerable with us today so we can inspire everybody out there to have No More Mondays — and no more Fridays.

Navid 27:35 Thanks for having me. I really appreciate the invite. I had so much fun. I just love the name — I saw No More Mondays and I was like: yeah, I don’t know exactly what it’s about, but I can get behind that. Let’s do it.

Angie 27:48 That was the whole goal. And to all of you out there — you don’t need a perfect plan, you don’t need all the answers. You just need one resource, an idea, a skill, a connection. You might already be sitting on the thing — you just need to find the courage to make the move. My challenge to all of you this week: find one place in your life where you can flip from scarcity mindset to abundance. Make that list Navid told you about. Take action — whether it’s finding the resources, DMing Navid or me, whatever gets you one step closer to No More Mondays and no more Fridays. We are here for you. I’m Angie Callen — this has been No More Mondays. Navid, thanks again for showing us what it means to build a bold, freedom-filled life. And thank all of you for listening. I’ll catch you next week for another episode of No More Mondays.

Navid 28:35 Thank you, Angie — great time, great fun!