In a time of war, prejudice and hopelessness, one man found his way to America to fulfill a dream that even today would be difficult to achieve.
Morteza Ghalambor left his native Iran in 1982, under the strain of the Iran hostage crisis and war in his homeland, and he arrived in Pennsylvania with only $100 to his name in the world. Twenty-three years later, he’s the president and CEO of a multimillion-dollar financial business in Tysons Corner.
“He’s come a long way,” said Rapa Caseres, executive manager for TaxPlus Inc., Ghalambor’s company. “He’s a very generous man. He wants to help anyone in need.”
“I came here in 1982, to Pennsylvania, where there was something like 22 percent unemployment, and I couldn’t find a job,” Ghalambor said.
He drove to Texas, spending all of the money in his pocket, leaving him with no place to stay, no family or friends in half of the world, no job prospects and no way of buying any food to eat.
“I managed to get a job at a Best Western and made a deal with them that I could eat at the restaurant and they would take the money out of my paycheck,” he said. He would work from 11 p.m. until 7 a.m., then shower in one of the unused rooms at the hotel and drive his car to a shaded area for a few hours sleep before the heat in his car woke him up.
“That’s how I lived for the first two weeks,” he said.
Having been in business commerce in Iran, he went to school to get his master’s of business administration in Dallas, earning a scholarship for his second semester for his 4.0 average.
“I never took public assistance or welfare of any kind, so when a student told me I didn’t have to pay for my second semester of school, I told him I wasn’t going to get a loan or take any help,” he said. “It took the kid 30 minutes to convince me to take the scholarship.”
WHILE BUILDING the company, he also helped to raise his daughter, Leyla, who is now 22 and attending college herself, studying to become a doctor.
He started TaxPlus in 1995, making and distributing fliers to any and all stores and businesses in the area that would accept them. “I didn’t know anyone or have any clients,” he said.
Amy Kirschenbauer was working in the same office complex when TaxPlus first started, and went in to talk with Ghalambor one day about some help with her taxes.
“He was so nice and helpful,” she said. After becoming his first official client, she took some of the fliers he’d made up and handed them out in the building. The two have been in contact ever since.
“He would get together games and candies when I’d come in to do my taxes because I’d bring in my daughter who was three at the time,” she said. “He’s so personable and honest.”
His help for Kirschenbauer has gone beyond her income taxes. “He’s helped me draw up plans for businesses, if there’s something you don’t understand he’ll take the time to explain everything to you,” she said. “He really cares about people.”
Slowly, word began to spread, and in his first year Ghalambor had 81 tax clients. He now has a company worth several million dollars, 1,500 tax clients, 80 corporate clients and 22 employees.
“The core of our operation is built on integrity, honesty and customer service. Because of that, people rely on us heavily,” he said. “Clients are No. 1 as far as business is concerned.”
He has big hopes for the future of his company, planning to expand through the Northern Virginia region over the next few years and extending the company’s services to include mortgages, financial planning and becoming “a financial center,” he said.
Ghalambor is sure his clients will continue to work with him while the business grows.
“We’ve proven ourselves over and over as trustworthy,” he said. “In this day and age, it is difficult to find a professional center that isn’t trying to sell anyone anything.”
The atmosphere in the TaxPlus office is one of family and closeness.
“I love my employees. I call them my kids,” he said. “If they have a car problem, I’ll take them to get it fixed. This is like a home for me.”
The hard work and dedication Ghalambor has shown in making his business successful, Kirschenbauer said, is a testament to the American Dream.
“He’s an All-American story,” she said. “He came here with nothing but ambition and a drive to be successful, and he made himself successful because of that drive and his love for this country.”
“EVERYONE ADMIRES HIM here,” Rapa Caseres said. “He wants to make sure all of his employees own a home at some point and are taken care of. It’s hard to find someone like him nowadays.
“Mort, that’s what we call him here, he’s very thankful for what he’s been given,” she said.
“I believe God, Allah, Mohammed, whoever, they give you something so you can give it to others,” Ghalambor said. “I’m a vehicle to provide a service to others.”
His focus remains on helping others, and as someone who came with, and started from, nothing, he is unattached to the material things in life.
“I’d rather sleep on the street if I could help someone,” he said.
Part of that generosity is demonstrated through contributions to the Persian Children’s Foundation.
“I feel like I’m a trustee of something. It was given to me so I could give it to someone else,” he said.