When Victor Magan was 7 years old, he lived in an old, six-floor apartment building in Washington Heights in New York. The building superintendent managed the three surrounding buildings as well. Even though Victor’s building was in OK shape, residents and visitors would always discard their gum in the hallways. Being the restless, young, entrepreneurial spirit that he was, Victor approached the superintendent one day and offered to scrape all the gum off the four buildings’ floors for just a few dollars. He then continued to do this on a monthly basis. “It was hard work, but I loved it because I was making my own money,” Victor says. “I liked the flexibility and the freedom. I was only 7 and I was my own boss.”
“Don’t Quit Your Day Job”
Victor didn’t have a computer when he was growing up, but he was fascinated by them. With their automation and limitless capabilities, he knew they were the future. “I wanted to be part of the future,” he says. “I didn’t want to get left behind.”
Fast forward to when Victor was 20 years old sitting with his mother—who was a Citibank corporate employee at the time—saying, “I don’t care what you have to do, Mommy, I want to work with computers.” When she lined up an interview, Victor told the interviewer, “I’ll do whatever it takes, I just want to work with computers.”
Unfortunately, there were no computer jobs available, just a position in the mailroom at Citibank. Every day for the four months Victor worked in the mailroom, he called the IT department manager to ask if there was a position open. The one day he didn’t call, the clerk called Victor and asked why he hadn’t called that day. She just happened to have two management information systems (MIS) positions open. “I didn’t really know much,” he says, “but she gave me a job, saying that I would do great because I was really persistent.”
Victor spent the next three years working the morning shift as an MIS specialist at Citibank and his evenings shadowing the desktop administrator. He then moved on to Verizon Wireless, where, despite being a temp, he became the No. 1 employee in his department. Victor expanded and heightened his skills with a few more jobs and several certifications. He provided support services for various small businesses including automotive and financial companies. After being laid off from a managed services provider, Victor decided to take his final unemployment check to register his business and purchase the tools he would need to become one himself.
A few months later, Victor secured his first two clients. It was a good side hustle, but it wasn’t quite enough to sustain him and his growing family. At this time, Victor ended up landing a job with another MSP.
This job experience was a true eye-opener. Victor noticed that the company he was working for would frequently raise prices and sell services that their clients really didn’t need to make an extra buck. “I just didn’t like that,” Victor says. “In my house, we really value integrity.”
In addition, morale was down in the company due to poor management practices. Victor recalls waiting all week for Friday to arrive, then being miserable when Sunday came.
The toxicity Victor witnessed and endured was just the push he needed to take Network Brainiacs to the next level. He knew he could do better, so he decided to pour all that energy into Network Brainiacs.
Building A Legacy
Victor had read Quitter: Closing the Gap Between Your Day Job & Your Dream Job, at a critical time in his career. True to the words of its author, Jon Acuff, Victor effectively built his Network Brainiacs dream job while working a day job. Now it was time to make the company thrive so he could work his dream job forever.
Victor was determined—alongside his wife, Juana—to build a company that was honest, selling only necessary and valuable services to their clients; and human and loving, treating their team members with the genuine love and respect needed to foster a great culture. Ultimately, the Magans wanted to create an environment where everyone enjoyed coming in to work and helping clients. “We value people,” Victor says.
To help maintain the company’s high cultural standard and values of integrity, lifelong learning, a passion for serving others, relentless problem solving, and being a team player, Juana oversees ongoing team-building activities such as trivia games, escape rooms, and Friday book club. She often must get creative and tap into her educational background, recognizing that these activities are particularly important as the company moves to a more hybrid work setting.
Just a few months ago, Network Brainiacs came up with an internal goal to directly make lives more convenient for 1,000 people, recognizing that their work in efficiency and security is multiplied across the organizations they serve and the organizations and individuals their clients serve. Network Brainiacs has grown from just Victor working part-time to Victor, Juana, and six other team members working full-time in the company with a shared mission.
The Network Brainiacs mission continues to be to make lives convenient through the seamless integration of technology, driven by a passion for serving others and an unwavering commitment to excellence. As a trusted technology partner, Network Brainiacs provides innovative solutions that streamline processes and enhance daily life for small and medium-sized businesses, including but not limited to organizations in the automotive, healthcare, legal, and manufacturing sectors in New Jersey and New York.
“It’s scary how many companies out there think they don’t really need managed services, that they’ve been good without them for so long. They feel like they’re small enough where they won’t get targeted. We definitely want to work with companies that have an appreciation for technology,” Victor says, “and an understanding that their business will not thrive if they aren’t using the right technology.” Based on his past experiences, Victor also looks for companies that are respectful and have integrity. “We tend to gravitate towards companies that are like us,” Juana adds.
Going Above And Beyond For Clients
Thriving in his dream job, Victor consistently goes above and beyond to serve his clients. For example, once during a massive blizzard, Victor drove over an hour out of his way to retrieve and repair a faulty server for one of his medical practice clients. Juana tried to tell him that it was very dangerous to drive in that weather, but Victor insisted that he needed to have everything up and running by Monday so that when patients came in to “see the doctor,” everything was good to go. That’s how much he cares!
Victor simply wants to make life convenient by delivering exceptional service. From a little boy scraping gum in the hallways to a young man in his 20s enthralled with computers to the owner and CEO of Network Brainiacs, he’s living his dream and flourishing alongside his company.
For more information about Network Brainiacs, go here.
