Eddy Petion is the co-founder and Chief Operating Officer of NovaTechFX, an international forex and crypto trading platform. He immigrated with his family to the US at age 12 and attended high school in New York. Shortly after college, he joined the US Army, where he worked in logistics management for three years. After his military service, he entered the civilian workforce as an advisor to financial institutions. This experience led Eddy into the mortgage industry, where he worked as a loan officer and mortgage banker for several years before starting his own real estate business as an investor in the New York area.
After the 2008 market crash, Eddy Petion re-entered the corporate world, this time using his college education as a telecommunications manager while working with several wireless carriers throughout the country to build up their 3G, 4G, and 5G networks. However, after a few years, he returned to his entrepreneurial pursuits, this time as a crypto-currency trader. He dedicated his time to studying the digital currency industry and traveled the world to visit various financial institution forums both as an attendee and as a guest speaker. He took what he learned and, with his two co-founders, decided to start his own trading company in 2018. That company is NovaTechFX, and within two years, it grew to be an international company with thousands of happy customers.
Why did you decide to create your own business?
In the crypto industry, there are thousands of companies out there, and I used to trade on my own, as well. But what we quickly realized was that there was something missing in the market—giving people easy access to their funds. We decided to create our own company so that we could give our customers a reliable product that we are proud of. We wanted to build a product that is very efficient for regular people to use, that will also help them overcome their financial burden on their own. We also wanted to give everyone in the world an opportunity to do something better with themselves and invest in the future. We wanted to give everyone around the world an equal opportunity.
What do you love most about the industry you are in?
If you look at our way of life and the global economy right now, we are moving rapidly toward what is called a ‘digital ecosystem’. While the COVID-19 pandemic certainly wasn’t fortunate, I think it has really fast-tracked our progress toward a digital world. In all obstacles there can be found opportunities, and I think the pandemic really opened the door for many people who were not educated about this industry to start trading by themselves at home. I have seen many success stories.
What I love about what we do is educating others, because as far as this industry goes, education is key. If you educate someone—be they a co-worker, client, or a regular person—to the point where they have the necessary grounding to further educate themselves about crypto-currency, that can do a lot towards giving people the tools to gain financial independence and accrue wealth. Crypto-currency is the wave of the future. There are many financial institutions, governments, and corporations currently looking into the crypto space because they know it’s the future of money. And that’s how I look at it as well.
If you go back to the internet boom, a lot of businesses back then decided that they didn’t need the internet to run their business. Nowadays, you cannot run a business without the internet. You’ve got to embrace technology. I think our company is at the very forefront of the crypto-currency space, and educating ourselves and others more and more every day is my passion.
What does a typical day consist of for you?
That’s quite a question. Every day is different, especially in this industry. The very first thing I do when I wake up is say my prayers, and be thankful for what happened yesterday, and be thankful to God for giving me another day to help others. From there, the first thing I do is turn on the news. When you keep up with the news, you know what’s happening in the real world, and what’s helping to move the financial markets and what the impacts will likely be.
From there, I start my workday, which consists primarily of a lot of administration work and customer service. As an operations manager, I aim to make sure not only that the backbone of the company is solid, but also that all of our customer concerns are being answered. We never leave a ticket open for longer than 24 hours. I ensure that we stand fully behind our products, and make sure everybody is taken care of. And when the night starts to die down, another market opens. You’ve got the Asian markets and then the European markets. It’s a 24/7 job, I would say. But this company is our baby, and we want to work for it and keep supporting it.
What keeps you motivated?
My customers. Looking at testimonials from my customers and other people who have come into my life outside of business. It’s wonderful when you provide a service to someone and see that it has impacted their lives, and they come back and appreciate what you do. We want tomorrow to be a better day for our customers. If our customers are happy, we are happy. If our customers are thriving, we are thriving. So, all in all, it’s those positive testimonies that we read every day—that’s what keeps me driven to keep making the company better and better.
How do you motivate others?
To motivate someone, you first have to know their needs. What goals are they working towards? You need to know what drives them, and the reasons that they do what they do. If you have that information, you can remind that person every day why you’re working towards certain goals. You can also ask them what they haven’t done that could help them to achieve those goals, and then encourage them to take appropriate action. The bottom line is this: if what you’re doing in life is your dream—if it’s big enough and important enough for you to spend every day thinking about it and why you’re doing it, you’ll figure out how to pull it off.
How has your company grown from its early days to now?
Our company started as a very small crypto hedge fund company. We’ve grown to become a worldwide company since then, and we’ve helped thousands of people benefit from the digital currency industry. We’ve gone from having just a handful of customers to having hundreds and thousands of customers. Every day, we keep improving, because at the end of the day, a company is only as good as its customers. We’ve grown to the point where we not only have our own trading platform, we also have a sister company that has crypto ATMs out on the market. What we try to do is to evolve with the industry, and make the digital market as easy to use and accessible as we can for as many people as we can.
Where do you get your inspiration from?
When I was in the military, the first book I read was Rich Dad, Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki. It was the first motivational book I ever read. That book and others like it have helped to mentor me and have acted as my coaches. When I’m driving, I can have my coach right there with me simply by listening to audiobooks. One thing that stood out in that book is that inspiration can be derived from anywhere. But one thing I feel that many people missed out on in the previous generation is education on how to be successful, and how to make money. What they teach you is how to have a career. Go to school, have a career, work your 9-5, retire at age 70. But they don’t teach you the power of building a business and being an entrepreneur. So, from these books, I picked up some of that education that I was never fortunate enough to be taught while I was in school.
Who has been a role model to you and why?
One of my role models is actually my father. My children are the first generation in my family born as US citizens. I’m a US citizen, although I wasn’t born as one. My father came to this country at a much older age than I did, and he had little education. He was able to get on the train every day, go to work, and provide for his family. I came here with 9 of my brothers and sisters—I’m the youngest—and each and every one of us was able to get a college education. And even the ones that didn’t finish college now own their own businesses. My father had a huge hand in making that possible. He’s someone I look up to for his ability to accomplish so much from the little that he had. I’ve always said that if he can do what he did with what little he had to work with, I can do it ten times better. And I tell my kids the same thing—if I can do what I do today, you should be able to do ten times better in the future.
How do you maintain a solid work life balance?
I’m the type of person that’s on the phone 24/7. If someone texts me, I’ll pick up the phone and call them right back. I have conversations with people, and whether or not it’s during my working hours, I’ll take a few minutes of my time just to say hi to someone. Sometimes it’s easy to lose sight of how important it is to just pick up the phone and say “Hi, how’s your day going?” If I can do that with 10-15 people per day, I feel like I’ve accomplished something. And I feel like I’m making their day.
I also make sure to take time off with my family and my kids. I make sure that we can do things that I didn’t get to do when I was their age. I give them experiences that I didn’t have. We go on family vacations, and sure, sometimes I’m on my computer working during the vacation, but at least we know that we’ll be able to spend dinner together. I try to help them feel like it doesn’t have to be all about work all day, because you can work all day, but if you don’t have a high quality of life and some time to spend with your loved ones, you’re basically working for no reason.
What traits do you possess that makes a successful leader?
One trait is persistence. Not only do you have to be persistent in this industry, you have to be resilient as well, and willing to learn. One thing I tell people is to take business as a learning curve—continue to educate yourself and be persistent about it, and you’ll always get there. But that persistence has to come with self-discipline in order to stay on course and look forward to your goals. So, yes, I’m very persistent. If you tell me I can’t have something, I make sure to get it.
What suggestions do you have for someone starting in your industry?
We live in a new world right now. The only way for you to succeed is to know your product. You can’t just clock in, do your job, and go home for the day. You have to educate yourself more and more about what you’re doing. You need to expand your horizons and constantly improve yourself. Learn what your boss is doing, and what your supervisor is doing, and why they’re doing what they’re doing. Expand your mind, and don’t just stick to what you’re doing every day.
Where do you see you and your company in five years?
I get asked that question every day. What I tell people is that I don’t put a timestamp on my company or myself. Every day, I look at five years from now, and five years ago. I learn from my mistakes, what we did wrong, and how to make it better. Where I see myself and this company in five years is continuing to be a much better company, getting better and better with the passing of each day, dealing in products that meet the high standards of all of our customers.