The podcast Guiding Growth: Conversations with Community Leaders from the Gilbert Chamber of Commerce, event and meeting venue Modern Moments and the Gilbert Independent/yourvalley.net explores the human journey of leaders. There are stories of humility, triumph, roadblocks, and lessons learned. This partial transcript of the most recent podcast with Damir Ljubovic   has been edited for brevity and clarity.         

Damir Ljubovic grew up in Bosnia and Sarajevo and moved to America in 1995 as a refugee of the civil war. Starting over in America, he moved to Arizona in 2002 and, in 2014, chased the American dream by starting his own business alongside his wife while raising three children. 365 Mechanical has been in business for 10 years, helping commercial and residential customers with their HVAC needs. Its main mission is to provide customers with facts related to issues they face so that they can make intelligent decisions about their new purchases.  

Today, Ljubovic continues to operate 365 Mechanical, but considers the success of his children to be his greatest accomplishment. 

Let's talk about childhood. What was that like?  

It was actually a very, very happy childhood. I just wish that my kids, and probably from what I hear from my American friends, people same age as me, all the kids had the same childhood, was very, very happy. No worries. My mom, my parents would let me go out and play and they didn't have to worry about stuff that we worry about today. So I just wish that my kids or our kids would have a 50% of really that worry-free childhood. 

OK, so let's go to high school age. What was that like for you?  

Again, everything boils down to this. I would call it true freedom. We didn't have buses. My school was probably like 15, 20 minutes away. So bunch of kids walking to school, and I remember when I grew up we had a true four seasons. So even winter I remember going to school with the snow up to our knees, and you were first in the morning trying to make a path with everybody else. But it was really, really happy time in my life and not just my life in everybody's life. I would just wish everybody to experience the same thing.  

Now we're going to '95. Talk about that a little bit.  

Three years of war was extreme situation in anybody's life, just witnessing pretty much killing and dying on a daily basis. It was absolutely huge experience how I perceived life. I guess it teaches us about life.  

I'm moving to United States and I literally, my story is typical, that immigrant story that I show up here with my mom because my dad was killed. We had some suitcases with us at that time. My family lived in Cleveland and came here as a refugee. I didn't even have a green card. I promised I wasn’t here illegally, but we had permission to stay here and work. And that's all I needed. Just like another shot in life to just do something with my life. So first seven years in Cleveland, and I think maybe third week in America, I was already working, rolled up my sleeves and started working.  

I'm really curious, and I'm going to just ask that you excuse my ignorance, but if you go back to the moment, how do you find the opportunity to come to America and what are you processing amongst extra grief with the loss of your dad and it's just you and your mom. What does that look like for you during that time?  

I actually told this story to my kids so many times. This was probably breaking point in my life. So I have a family who lives in Ohio. I think they moved like '70s, '80s. So now going back to war, this was late or early, the mid-90s. And at that time I was 22 years old, 23. And I was very, very upset and very mad that we are on kind of on the bridge of 21st century and we have this biggest war in Europe since World War II. And while the rest of the world is thinking about bigger and better things, but we’re just kind of living in a cave age.  

So December 31st, 1994, that's New Year’s Eve, right? I was laying in my bed. It was probably around 10 o'clock, and I’m crying. And the reason I was crying because we didn't have electricity, we didn't have water and the rest of the world is celebrating and we live in a cave age. I told myself that I was basically ready to put everything on a gamble, everything. I'll die like this. So at that point I contacted my family in the United States in Cleveland, and they obviously decided to help me out and be my sponsors to move to United States. They sent me papers, and I just decided, like I said, to gamble everything and take a chance and was I don't think we have enough time for me to tell you about this night that I basically escaped my country. But it was very, very dangerous. Not one but multiple situations. But you know what they say, you don't gamble, if you don't risk, there's no rewards in life. And it worked.  

I just waited a couple of weeks for my mom. She was old enough that she can leave the town. The reason I had to escape was because I was still young. I could be a soldier and use me and I just didn't want to participate that nonsense in that war. So yeah, it was simply, I made the decision basically overnight, I'm leaving everything behind because I truly did see myself to start my life from zero. And you know what? It turns out that it was actually a really good decision. I mean here we are probably 30 years later. I mean there's no war, but country's economically devastated, and many, many, many young people, even after me just left the country looking for better life.  

OK, let's jump back to the U.S. What were you doing?  

Well, I actually found a job in machine shop. My cousin's husband, he helped me get the job and I mean my first job was extremely, I wouldn't say difficult, but it was a heavy labor. I had to cut some steel and big, big heavy steel bars. And then I was just watching other guys working on the machines, and I'm like, “I think I can do that.” And then I asked the owner and everything naturally progressed. And I don't know, the one thing that I'm also teaching my kids and generally speaking with people, the success comes from struggle.  

I was making a decent money, but one thing that I really didn't like most of the people speak was speaking my native language, and I didn't speak any English. So I realized that in order for me to succeed and be more successful in this country, I have to speak English. I have to learn English. So I literally took a pay cut, but just to work with people that they just speak English. At that time I was still single. And I dunno, I consider myself low maintenance. I don't a lot. So money was fine, but my goal was just to learn English, and many doors will open up for me and that's actually what exactly what happened.  

I moved 2002 to Arizona. What drove me to Arizona? Well, my wife lived down here in Phoenix. So she has a lot of family in Cleveland. That's where we met, fell in love and decided to get married. And I'm like, ‘OK, I'm coming down to meet my in-laws and I think it was either October or November.  I show up down here, it's beautiful, warm. I'm like, I want to live here. It took a few years, but 2002 we finally pulled the trigger and moved down here. 

 So when you get down here, what are you doing?  

Well, I was good with what I was doing, a machine shop. At that time, 2002, economy wasn't great. My father-in-law, he was also in the same industry, but he's the one who probably gave me one of the best advice in life. He asked me if I'm ready to go to school a little bit, but air conditioning is the thing here in Arizona. It's like unlimited source of work. So I decided to switch and just graduated from the local school, found the first job, and again, work my way up from lowest paying guy down on the bottom. And I guess here we are 20 plus years later, I own my company.  

It strikes me that you're not afraid of hard work and you have an intrinsic ambition. You're not willing to give up. And I'm curious where does that come from?  

Where it comes from is just I don't want to go back. I don't want to go back to the way I lived. And reality is that nobody moved to this country because you left something better behind. Everybody moves to America because you left something that is not so good, not so pretty for whatever economical or political reasons.  

And I guess I want to show my kids right now a good example. Nothing too difficult, nothing too hard. So just if you keep working hard, you'll be fine.  

365 Mechanical — how did that get started work?  

But I mean, again, boils down to what we talking about, my ambition. Basically me dealing with the customers, I realized how much they appreciate what I was doing for them, and it just made me believe that I can do it. Dealing with other contractors and other companies that they were not doing so good. I think I can do a lot better than this. I decided again to gamble. I'm a very confident person. I put my mind to something, and I'll make it happen. And I had a huge support by my wife and kids. They believed in me, and that's all I needed. And honestly, it just really didn't take a whole lot for customers who call me once they find out. And here we are 10 years later, we're still in business.  

So where are you going now? I mean, if you think about the future, what's the future look like for Mechanical 365 and you for that matter?  

Well, right now we have seven employees. I want people that they work for 365 to wake up every morning and go happy to work. I tell everybody that they don't have to work for me, I don't have to employ them, but we all have our bills to pay, so why not make this something that is really enjoyable?  

What is it that you hope your kids know about you and your legacy?  

My dad basically told me once that the most difficult thing to be in life is to be a good human being. So I would like my kids to remember me as a good human being. 2018, when it was the first time I took my kids back home where I came from, and we were visiting my father's grave. I wasn't crying or I wasn't emotional. They asked me, “dad, are you sad?” And I said it just a little bit, but I'm more overwhelmed with the sense of pride (of) who I became. And it was because of my parents. So what I would like my kids one day that for them to say the same thing. I'm a very, very happy, I'm glad who my father was. So that's what I would like my legacy to be.