To make ends meet, he picked up a second job chopping poultry at a Church's Fried Chicken. But I followed my father's advice about what John F. Kennedy said, that every crisis is an opportunity, so leverage it. I learned how to strategize and be a strategist, not by choice, but for survival. Unable to afford private language courses, he leveraged what he knew by enrolling in multiple math and science classes that accelerated his learning of the language through problem solving and experimentation. The framed reminders of just how far Javidi has come hang from the walls of his office.
Intelligence is everything.
Academics continue to be an integral part of his life. Now he is the core of Digiton. In the early 1980s, while pursuing his doctorate, Javidi landed a job with Wal-Mart as a customer service manager. That quickly led to the role of a marketing strategist and entrance as a junior member of the inner circle of founder Sam Walton. Javidi was part of the strategy team that had the foresight to recommend Wal-Mart expand its reach by opening pharmacies inside its retail stores, a strategy since copied by competitors.