Before he came up with the idea that changed his life, Richard Montañez, the son of a Mexican immigrant, grew up in a migrant labor camp in Southern California. He and his ten siblings lived in a one-bedroom apartment with their parents before moving to an 800-square foot three-bedroom home. Those experiences shaped him.
"I have a PhD of being poor, hungry and determined," the janitor-turned-inventor-turned-executive tells the Washington Post. "And I think when you've experienced those three things, there's a lot of wisdom. When you've been poor, there's so much innovation that comes out of that."
Montañez, now in his 50s, has been innovative since grade school.
When his mom sent him to school on the first day of 3rd grade with a burrito for lunch, he was embarrassed. It was the 1960s, and back then, "very few people had seen a burrito," he writes in his memoir "A Boy, a Burrito, and a Cookie." "There I was with this burrito and with everyone staring at me. I put it back in my bag and hid it."
The next day, when he asked his mom to make him "a bologna sandwich and a cupcake like the other kids," she instead packed him two burritos: one for him to eat and one for him to use to make a friend. By the end of the week, the seven-year-old entrepreneur was selling burritos for $0.25 each.
moose6434 on June 29th, 2018 at 17:48 UTC »
He has an amazing story, but this part (from a different article) always struck me.
The day the CEO came to hear his idea, an executive in the crowd asked Montañez how much market share he thought Hot Cheetos could get.
“It hit me that I had no idea what he was talking about, or what I was doing,” Montañez recalled. “I was shaking, and I damn near wanted to pass out…[but] I opened my arms and I said, ‘This much market share!’ I didn’t even know how ridiculous that looked.”
The crowd obviously looked at him stunned and silent until the CEO spoke up to the executives and said "Alright team, we have a goal - what can we do to get this much market share?" as he took the same pose as Montañez.
True leadership is about empowering others.
Edit: found a source http://www.lowrider.com/news/1108-lmrp-richard-montanez-raza-report/ - long read - just ctrl+f "market share" for the anecdote I gave.
TBAAAGamer1 on June 29th, 2018 at 17:33 UTC »
that was the best idea ever.
glances at hands stained crimson
the greatest
TooShiftyForYou on June 29th, 2018 at 16:08 UTC »
"I have a PhD of being poor, hungry and determined," the janitor-turned-inventor-turned-executive tells the Washington Post. "And I think when you've experienced those three things, there's a lot of wisdom. When you've been poor, there's so much innovation that comes out of that."
When his mom sent him to school on the first day of 3rd grade with a burrito for lunch, he was embarrassed. It was the 1960s, and back then, "very few people had seen a burrito. There I was with this burrito and with everyone staring at me. I put it back in my bag and hid it."
The next day, when he asked his mom to make him "a bologna sandwich and a cupcake like the other kids," she instead packed him two burritos: one for him to eat and one for him to use to make a friend. By the end of the week, the seven-year-old entrepreneur was selling burritos for $0.25 each.
That's good parenting and for a quarter the burrito was a hell of a deal over a bologna sandwich.