Workingteens.org thinks it's important to point out these fine examples of what can be achieved through hard work.
John Paul DeJoria
John Paul DeJoria is best known as the co-founder of the John Paul Mitchell Systems, hair products that stock the shelves of over 150,000 salons. But his entrepreneurial craft has its origins in his early days as a sales rep. DeJoria's first job out of college was selling Redken hair products door-to-door. Not only was the job thankless, and the $600 a month he earned hardly enough to pay for food—but this was also during a major gas shortage. DeJoria used to wait for hours in line, just to get the fuel necessary to do his job. But all those years of building up thick skin paid off better than DeJoria could have imagined. He and his partner Paul Mitchell had to relentlessly push their product for years, before it took off and became a massive success.
Rafael and Gabe Ruelas
Went From Selling Candy Door to Door to the Boxing Ring, Where They Have Become World-Class Fighters
Mark Cuban
Well-known as one of the sharks on “Shark Tank,” Mark Cuban's biggest success as a businessman was the founding of the startup Broadcast.com, an internet radio company that he sold to Yahoo! for $5.7 billion in 1999.
Since then, he’s stepped back from entrepreneurship and enjoyed being a billionaire. When asked by Rolling Stone what would surprise people about the billionaire lifestyle, he said, "Nothing. It's " bleeping amazing.”
But Mark Cuban’s first entrepreneurial venture was not so glorious: selling garbage bags. His father told him that if he wanted new sneakers, he had to earn them.
So, after doing some research, he went door-to-door selling garbage bags. And he earned his sneaker money because he knew what the people wanted: cheaper garbage bags, free of the hassle of having to go to the store.