He grew up with in a struggling family with six siblings. He was a sub-par student, lucky to have graduated high school. In college, he needed more time than his peers just to pass. He joined the Marines during college and spent three years in the Korean War. He was the first in his family to graduate and he aspired to become a gym teacher. After graduating college, he tried starting a business - it failed in a short amount of time and he accumulated nothing but debt. Against all odds, he tried entrepreneurship again - the business failed, and he amassed nearly $20,000 in debt.
He was approaching middle-age, was unemployed, and had no marketable skills. His family was relying on him to put food on the table. So, he did what any self-respecting man with mouths to feed would do.
He started another business.
Without a plan.
Hundreds of feet from a national-brand competitor.
He was the boss as well as the only employee.
He had six items in stock.
Four of them were used.
It took three days before one customer walked through the door.
It was a week before he made his first sale.
Since that day in 1960, his business increased in revenue every single year for over fifty years.
Today, he has over 800 stores with annual revenues over $3 billion and a personal net worth of $4.2 billion. You've probably never heard of him although his business holds the Guinness record for the longest continually-running television ad. You probably wouldn't recognize his name despite Forbe's reporting him to be the 92nd richest man in America and 255th richest man in the world.
Bruce Halle founded Discount Tire Company in debt, with two new tires and four re-treads. He used a nearby gas station to air up tires as he didn't have his own air compressor.
This blog is for whoever can use it, including myself.
MY MISSION: To conduct comprehensive interviews with small business owners to provide detailed insight and motivation to future or current entrepreneurs and grow this blog into a business.
I want your stories. Let me take that back, WE want your stories. I know there are hundreds of thousands of people just like me, daydreaming in their living rooms or spacing out at work thinking we have what it takes but waiting for an unknown something.
We want your successes, failures, motivations, problems, plans and nightmares. Send them to me at sergeantchampion@gmail.com
Thank you for reading and here's to a successful future,
ADAM CHAMPION
