Rafie Ansari is no stranger to risks. Aside from the obvious, being an entrepreneur who launched his flooring company Carpet N Things in 1985, Ansari emigrated to this country from Iran to study and earn degrees in computer science and finance. Rather than go into finance upon earning an MBA, he opened a retail store in Laural, Md., with his brother-in-law, Alex Araghi, currently vice president of FloorMax’ commercial division. It was a serendipitous moment in his life that was not in the original plan.
“I started working in flooring because that was what everybody I knew outside my field was doing,” Ansari explained. “I thought I would get into it, do it for a few years and pass it on to my brother-in-law, who is a partner in the business, and then move back into my field.”