MEELAD DEZFOOLI

BEST BUY FLOORING, HENDERSON, NV

Meelad Dezfooli didn’t let anything stop him from his dream career. While still in grade school, Dezfooli started working at his father’s flooring store. Sadly, when the recession hit in the late 2000s, his father had no choice but to close his stores and retire.

Dezfooli, who had assumed he would one day take over the family business, was despondent.

“By the time I turned 18, everything was starting to fall apart, the market was in ruins, many accounts defaulted, and my dream was taken from me,” he recalls.

Forced to switch gears, Dezfooli opened a Persian restaurant. Even though he found some success, he still desperately missed the flooring business.

“I realized I loved the industry and the people around me,” he says. “I was nostalgic for the culture, the employees.”

Over the next five years, Dezfooli worked over 12 hours a day, seven days a week, doing anything to save the money needed to start his own flooring company.

The endless, grueling hours paid off. By 2015, he was back in the flooring business, founding Best Buy Flooring in Henderson, Nevada. The business has flourished and expanded to multiple locations.

Now that he’s the owner of a highly successful business, Dezfooli shows his gratitude by helping local heroes. He offers generous discounts to veterans, police officers, and other service people. “After what they’ve done for our country, it’s my honor to give them a better price,” he says.

Not one to forget his roots, Dezfooli made a point of hiring several of his father’s former employees, some of whom came from troubled backgrounds. “He had employees who may have had a small [police] record, but they were some of the best people,” he notes. “My father always taught me to give people a second chance. And I know as much as anyone the blessings of a second chance.”