In the past few months, Bryan M. Min has pocketed top awards from the United States Small Business Administration and the San Diego Chamber of Commerce for the remarkable achievements of his fledgling company, Epsilon Systems Solutions.

Since its inception in 1998, Epsilon has grown steadily and earned more than $12 million in revenue last year. One of the fastest growing businesses in San Diego, the company's list of clients includes the Department of Defense, Department of Energy, Department of the Interior, and Department of Transportation.

The cornerstone of this enormous success has been Min's principled leadership and his relationship with his employees. "To me it's about a building a strong team," Min said. "I have a great group of individuals that work for me and that I'm very proud of."

Min and his team try to escape from the office on Friday afternoons to a bar or restaurant where they can relax. "We throw ideas around and it can get outlandish, but it's always fun," Min said.

This democratic work environment Min stewards is offset by the strong personal values he incorporates into his business.

Last year, he started the ESSential Foundation, a program that encourages Epsilon employees to get involved in their children's schools. "A parent's involvement is probably the most influential factor on a child," Min said. For every hour that an Epsilon employee devotes to his or her child's school, Min compensates the employee with 75 percent of their hourly pay.

The program was inspired by Min's appreciation for the potential he has to positively influence his employees' lives, and to impact the world beyond his company. "That's an awesome power," he said.

Not one to take things for granted, Min is forthcoming about how Epsilon's status as a minority-owned business has helped the company secure government contracts. Although it has certainly been "another tool in the toolbox", Min refuses to use the status as a crutch.

"It's just like any other affirmative action program – it allows certain individuals to have an opportunity that may not have been possible," he said. "It's an ideal way for companies to grow."

But Min warns that companies that lean too heavily on such government programs will eventually sink. Without genuine ability and drive, no business can survive - regardless of how much money anyone throws at it.

Today, more than half of Epsilon's business is unrelated to the government program that grants contracts to minority-owned businesses.

Notably, however, business was not always a part of Min's life plan.

After graduating high school, Min enrolled in the University of Southern California (USC) on a ROTC scholarship and studied engineering. He jokingly concedes that this may have been an act of rebellion against his father, who was an English major at the prestigious Seoul National University.

The military is not exactly the most popular career choice among 1.5 generation Korean Americans, but then Min has always been a self-styled renegade. "I've always had the desire to stay away from the mainstream," he said.

"I wanted to be a jet pilot, to fly into the blue yonder," Min said.

But during his junior year in college, Min had to get prescriptive glasses for his eyesight, dashing any hopes of becoming a Navy pilot. It was then that Min went into nuclear power submarine program and served in the Navy for more than 6 years. In the meantime, he managed to get his master's degree at Virginia Tech and emerged from the Navy as a Lieutenant. He continues to serve in the Naval Reserves today as a Lieutenant Commander.

While at USC, Min partook in the Korean Tutorial Project, a program where college students visited junior high schools with a high number of Korean-American students. Min and his peers spent afternoons tutoring young students and playing basketball with them.

"That kind of experience and early exposure to under-privileged children's struggles has brought me to where I am now," Min said.

From his experiences in the Navy to his upbringing as a Christian, Min said each of his experiences has helped shaped the idealism he tries to uphold in his life and work today.