Dare to dream

The history of the United States is full of legendary stories. In addition to the well-known Tom Edison and Bill Gates, there are thousands of unidentified entrepreneurs in the United States who disregard experts and dare to take all risks to pursue their dreams. It is this dream and indomitable spirit that has earned them great success. Here are a few stories about them.

Dead time

An autumn night in 1989, California.

Scott McGregor, 45, is working on a home computer. Lifting his tired eyes, his 10-year-old twins, Chris and Travis, and his wife, Diana, greeted him in the kitchen. They were paying for the milk.

McGregor consciously groaned. He went into the kitchen and said to them, "I am not doing it anymore. I will go out and find a job tomorrow."

"Dad, you can't stop now." Travis immediately objected. Chris also said: "You are all very successful."

Two years ago, in order to pursue his dream, McGregor gave up the comfortable position of the consultant. He used to work in a company that rents a folding hand-held phone to a business traveler at the airport and hotel. However, these calls cannot be billed separately for each call, and there are no bills, and some companies do not allow employees to reimburse. Therefore, they need to place a computer integrated circuit board in the phone to record the bills for each call.

McGregor knows that his ideas will succeed. With the support of his family, he began to engage with investors. However, this venture seems to have nowhere to go.

On a Friday in March 1990, McGregor’s adventure fell to the bottom. On that day, the agent of the property management company rang the door of his house. If the McGregor family could not pay the rent before Monday, they would have to live on the street.

The desperate McGregor called the investor throughout the weekend until 11:00 pm on Sunday, when an investor finally agreed to open a check for him. McGregor used the money to pay the rent and hired a consultant engineer. A few weeks later, the engineer thought that the system that McGregor envisioned could not be realized. "Try again," McGregor said. In May 1991, the family faced the financial crisis again. McGregor called the Southern Bell Company, the earphones of the telecommunications industry. The general manager asked him: "Can you take out a sample before June 24?" McGregor remembered the engineer who sang the reversal and the workbench. Meta-component: "Of course." He hopes his voice sounds full of confidence.

He immediately called his eldest son Greg. At the time, Greg was majoring in computers at the university. McGregor told him about the serious challenges he faced. Greg started his 18-hour day. He wants to invent an automatic board that beats all experts, which is a tricky problem. He must invent a billing system that combines the accounting credit card and timing software with a network that determines the location of each of the parties and places it on a fingernail-sized wafer. On June 23, McGregor and Greg flew to Atlanta with untested samples.

After McGregor introduced his 22-year-old son to the general manager of Southern Bell, Greg handed the sample phone to his mother. "Mom, try it." His mother stuffed a credit card into the phone, then dialed a phone and everything went so smoothly. Subsequently, Greg handed the Bell staff a complete printed document.

This year, the mobile phone company of the McGregor family company is a multi-million dollar industry leader. Recalling the days when it seemed that failure was a foregone conclusion, Scott McGregor spoke with his heart and pride about his wife and children: "We have withstood the test and our family is very strong."

Opportunity

One afternoon in the winter of 1989, 17-year-old Jos Ageral proudly held a letter into his father's laundry in South Bronx, New York, where he received a scholarship from Columbia University. Old Jos is very happy. "Get a degree and do some work in big companies!" He encouraged Little Jos. Old Jos came to New York from Puerto Rico when he was in his teens. He had never read a book, but he has been working hard. He hopes his son has a better life than him.

In 1983, Joss was still working in school, and his father died suddenly. Little Jos took a vacation to the school. Joss worked for a long time to save his family's career. When he understood that three years had passed, he had lost his scholarship. When the classmates invited him to the graduation ceremony, Xiao Jos said to them: "I can't walk, I am too busy."

In fact, he is too depressed. "Dad," he thought. "I took your business. How do you develop in the future?" Like other dry cleaners, Agaar has to cope with the increasingly expensive environmental regulation tax. From an economic point of view, chain stores affiliated with a cleaning center have sprung up. However, when Aguiar went to Atlanta to contact the promoters to enter the joint venture, he was rejected. The reason is simple, they are not interested in slums.

On the plane home, Agaar carefully calculated: "Thousands of people in the Bronx are carrying cleaning bags on their way to Manhattan, and a perfect opportunity is in front of them." Agaar walked down. When it comes to airplanes, frustration has become an excitement: he can open his own associates.

In 1992, Agaar founded the "Laundry King", an associate that has a comfortable blue interior with a light blue and yellow door. Today, Agaar has 22 branches.

Recently, Agaar has contacted his alma mater, Columbia University. He wants to return to school and finish his studies. However, business professor Harvey Shulman has another idea. Last winter, Jos Ager returned to his alma mater who was forced to leave 13 years ago to teach business to students. He knows that his father will be proud of it.

King Arthur's Sword

The 28-year-old Brad Havel and 25-year-old John Flaherty work in a rescue station in Delvin, Florida. It’s time for a break, they’re talking about what they’ve experienced before. It was in 1987, Flaherty had a large 18-wheel truck carrying the driver and his wife and two children, rushing through the railroad fence and turning over the bucket into the canal. Because the surface of the water is full of mud and gasoline, the rescue team wants to open the cab with a water pressure divider, commonly known as the "knife of life." However, they cannot use force in the mud and the oil pump saw cannot be used underwater. They only saw the family when the tow truck pulled the truck out of the canal. "It's too late." Flaherty told Javier.

Havel remembered a car that fell over the Everglades Road in southern Florida in 1989. At that time, the teenager's little driver was stuck in a broken car. The broken roof pressed his head against a pile of broken glass between his legs. The child was in pain. The rescue team belonging to Havel opened the door with the "Pliers of Life" three, five and two, but immediately no help, because the next step must avoid a soda can, this "hard of life" is difficult to do well . The child was of course saved, but for Havel, it was a frustrating 45 minutes.