Kevin Zanazanian is a real estate broker at Oak Brook Realty in Los Angeles whose passion, work ethic, and humility has brought him decades of success. The son of Armenian immigrants, Zanazanian worked as a teenager on commercial aircrafts before getting degrees in Management and Professional Aeronautics. He discovered his passion for real estate soon after, and built an impressive network of clients. Zanazanian’s commitment to hard work, tenacity, and developing genuine relationships has given him a long and successful career in real estate.
FAMILY HERITAGE
Kevin Zanazanian: I’m a California native, my parents are from the Middle East, Syria, and Lebanon. My ancestry is from Armenia. However, they migrated to other countries to escape genocide, war, and violence.
WORK ETHIC
Kevin Zanazanian: My father was an auto mechanic—I was inspired by the technical aspect of his work, such as the labor. At the young age of 18, I decided to go work on aircrafts such as 747s and commercial airplanes. That’s where my career experience in a more technical industry started. During this time, due to my father passing away, I decided to get my bachelor’s degree in Management, an associates in Professional Aeronautics, and a minor in Aviation Safety. In 2005, I decided to shift and pursue real estate. That’s when I got my broker’s license.
LESSONS IN BUSINESS
Kevin Zanazanian: Never give up, always pursue what you’re passionate about and what you believe in. It’s all about helping people instead of thinking about helping yourself for monetary gain. It’s far more than customer relationships, it’s building the clientele to trust one another.
REAL ESTATE ADVICE
Kevin Zanazanian: The advice that I have for anyone wanting to dive into the industry is to keep striving and keep working toward your goals, and to start off with their local area, to see what properties are near them, and to see what inspires them. Would they like to go into the default real estate world? Would they like to sell luxury, beach properties, farms, or countryside estates? How can they help people? Is it a location where people are more affluent? People should reflect on what truly inspires them to go into the real estate market.
INSPIRATIONAL FIGURES
Kevin Zanazanian: My father and my mother of course, they are number one. I would also say Steve Jobs–how he took Apple to another level. He pushed the company to be one of the top companies in the world. That goes to show you that you should never give up and to stay passionate about your drive in life. Stay focused on reaching your ultimate goal, the end game.
I look at the most influential people in business and I analyze the struggles that they’ve had in life and how they came out of them. I observe what they do to get to the other level, difficulties they had and how they resolved them. I learn from how they succeeded and what they surpassed.
OVERCOMING CHALLENGES
Kevin Zanazanian: One of my greatest challenges was my father passing away at a young age. I had to continue to work to support my family, while still continuing my education. I had to figure out how to pay the bills, how to continue to maintain myself and my family all while keeping a positive attitude in life in order to go to the next level. Then, once I made it to the next level, I’ve had to continually make sure I sustain it. I am humble every single day because you never know what can happen.
