The Dream: How I Learned the Risks and Rewards of Entrepreneurship and Made Millions Read Online Free PDF

days later, with no explanation whatsoever, my father snapped out of his depression. “One way or another, we are going to move into that new house,” he said, and I remember being powerfully affected by the sudden change in attitude. That resilience and determination would forever be ingrained in my thinking, and the lesson was clear:
Never give up.
    In the weeks ahead, we did everything we could to raise money. Dad sold Mom’s car and began chauffeuring her to and from work. Mom began taking double shifts at the hospital. Dad volunteered for overtime. We kept clipping coupons. We even sold the TV.
    “We will go back to the way it used to be,” my father said. “There will be belt-tightening for us all. Sacrifices must be made.”
    I had learned many lessons from this experience—all important. Specifically, I’d seen firsthand that moving on is often one of the hardest things to do in life. But it’s critical. You will make mistakes, and you will get hurt, but you have better things to do than to wallow in self-pity. This is a very important lesson for anyone in business, so try to remember it when you get knocked down (because you
will
get knocked down).
    All of us did what we could to help. I remember seeing a NOW HIRING sign at a local McDonald’s, which was right across the street from the high school, and—because I loved their burgers and fries—I thought I’d be a perfect salesman: I really believed in the product.
    School got out at three-thirty, and I figured I could work from four to eight, five days a week, and still get back to the house in time for dinner and homework. One day after school I went inside and filled out an application. The manager was there, so I asked if he would review it then. He emerged from the back office and took one look at me, and I knew immediately that a job wasn’t in the cards. He couldn’t stop staring at my turban, but he humored me and went through the motions. We sat in one of the empty booths. “What do you do?” he said, glancing at the application with little interest.
    “I’m a student,” I said. “I go to school across the street.”
    “How old are you?”
    “Fifteen.” In California, you can work at age fifteen if you get permission from your parents, and I knew that wasn’t going to be a problem.
    “What kind of work have you done in the past?”
    “I haven’t worked,” I said. “But I help at home in the kitchen, and I can do anything. I’m a very fast learner.” His eyes kept drifting to my turban. “Just give me a chance,” I pleaded. “You won’t regret it. I am doing this to help my family. I’m very responsible for a kid my age.”
    I couldn’t sell myself, though. “I’m sorry,” he said. “I just hired a bunch of people, but I have your number and I’ll call if there’s another opening.”
    For the rest of the year, I passed that McDonald’s every day after school, and the NOW HIRING sign never came down. But I didn’t go back in to reapply. I knew I could say “Would you like fries with that?” just as brightly and convincingly as the next person, but that’s not what it was about. I was convinced it was about my appearance. It was about the turban. Maybe the manager didn’t have an issue with it, but he probably assumed it would bother the customers, and he must have felt it wasn’t worth the risk. Plus, where would I put my cute little McDonald’s cap? Seriously, though, the rejection bothered me. I didn’t want to be at the mercy of other people. I knew that someday I would be my own man, run my own show.
    Meanwhile, both my sisters got part-time jobs and my brother found a cheap used bike and landed a newspaper delivery route. The family was in survival mode.
    “Sacrifices must be made,” my father kept saying, and he never got tired of showing us how it was done. This also proved to be a valuable lesson. I learned perseverance from him. I learned that the road to success is paved with failures. Most of