Shirinn Behzadi (R), author and entrepreneur, in a recent interview.

“Fear is my friend,” says Shirin Behzadi, author and C-suite entrepreneur who left her native Iran alone as a teenager and worked to become CEO of a billion-dollar home improvement franchise company. She also raised a family and survived a brain tumor.

In her new memoir, “The Unexpected CEO: My Journey from Gas Station Cashier to Billion-Dollar CEO,” Behzadi shares her inspiring story of how she refuses to be erased and uses her power for good.

The youngest of five children growing up in Tehran, where the Iran-Iraq War was a daily reality, Behzadi as a teenager attended a private high school for gifted and talented girls. It was there in her junior year that the principal invited a male senator to speak to her class.

“Fear is my friend,” says Shirin Behzadi, author, C-suite entrepreneur of $1 billion company, cancer survivor who left Iran alone as a teenager for college in U.S..”

“He told us our brains are half the size of men’s,” Behzadi says. “So I asked the principal why would she invite him to say that to us?” She recalls her principal told her that yes, female brains are indeed half the size of male brains.

“Maybe yours is, but mine is not,” Behzadi responded.

As a result, she was kicked out of that school and had to attend another high school for her senior year. “There was a lot of fear,” she says, because she had been arrested earlier at 15 years old by the Revolutionary Guard for speaking her mind.

Her mother added Behzadi to her passport and “the decision was made” for her to leave Iran, first going to Turkey and then to the U.S. to study in college. At 17, her mother, Heshmat, took her to Istanbul as a minor on her passport, and arranged for her to stay with a woman who cared for young girls in transit. Then her mother returned home.

Food was scarce and it was difficult to navigate in Istanbul, trying to get her own student visa to attend college in the U.S. Almost miraculously, Behzadi says she convinced someone at the embassy to allow her to be one of the recipients for a scholarship to California Polytechnic State University beginning in 1984.

“I was afraid a lot,” Behzadi says. “I didn’t know the difference between different currencies and it was almost a paralyzing fear with a lot of disassociation. But I understood the fear and said, ‘Now what?”

Believing that adversity is an opportunity and is what can be turned into a superpower of resilience, Behzadi pursued her vision of running a company as big as “General Motors,” she says.

“Adversity is an opportunity and is what can be turned into a superpower of resilience: Shirin Behzadi, former CEO, author of The Unexpected CEO. @takeleadwomen #superpower ”

Going to university full time as a math major and working at a gas station “on the worst shifts,” Behzadi says it was demoralizing. “I didn’t have friends, I was behind a bullet-proof glass not in a nice area. I do remember I realized I was very unfortunate, but also very fortunate to have trials and tribulations, but also hope.”

Switching to studying accounting, Behzadi got a job at a local library and then an accounting internship before joining Ernst & Young full time. “There were not a lot of people who looked like me,” Behzadi said, in a business industry with few women who made it to partner.

After four years, she moved to Hammond Company, with a $1 billion portfolio, where she was in charge of loan servicing, at the rate of $100 million in loans per month. The CEO, Tom Hammond, promoted her to CFO, when she was pregnant with her son, Sam. The company was sold in 1999.

In 2004, she began working with the franchise company, Budget Blinds, with the idea of growing the company that eventually became Home Franchise Concepts, that launched in 2006. The home improvement franchise by 2019 had operations in 12,000 cities and doing 70,000 units per week.

But Behzadi had another major challenge interrupt her massive success, as in 2009 she was diagnosed with a brain tumor. The first surgery failed and in 2010 it was successful, but the mother two, Sam and Sara, had severe hardships with recovery.

“This is not what anybody asks for,” Behzadi says. “My life is before and after brain surgery.”

Returning to work, Behzadi and her partners in Home Franchise Concepts brought in private equity to sell the company. “I was the only female in the room,” she says. All of the other company leaders including the CFO, CEO, CMO, CIO and COO were all bought out. They asked her to stay on—the only one they retained. She stepped down in 2019 after the company had doubled in size in four years.

“When I was going through twists and turns and hard times, I knew what I had to offer,”Behzadi says. “I tell people to envision what they want or it is not going to happen. Male or female, aim high,” she says.

“I tell people to envision what they want or it is not going to happen. Male or female, aim high,” Shirin Behzadi #CEO #entrepreneur @takeleadwomen ”

She has not returned to Iran, but her mother and siblings all came to the U.S., and her father passed in 2008, though he had been in the U.S. by then as well.

Having endured and excelled through her personal and professional challenges, Behzadi says, “Empathy is good for business. People misunderstand empathy for weakness. But empathy is meeting people where they are. A good leader knows where their team is and offers them opportunity for growth.”

She adds, “Every player in the orchestra contributes to the orchestra and are harmonized.”

“Empathy generates revenue,” says Shirin Behzadi, former CEO, billionaire, author, survivor on her #leadership #success.@takeleadwomen”

Her success in growing the franchise company by 70% in sales is because she operates with empathy. “I did listening tours with employees. Empathy generates revenue.”

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Michele Weldon

About the Author

Michele Weldon

Michele Weldon is editorial director of Take The Lead, an award-winning author, journalist, emerita faculty in journalism at Northwestern University and a senior leader with The OpEd Project. @micheleweldon www.micheleweldon.com

Michele Weldon

Have No Fear: Leader Builds Success on Empathy, Confidence, Tenacity and Authenticity

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