For Ron Sturgeon – a millionaire living in Texas, USA, a pile of rusty, damaged cars is not garbage. It’s a gold mine.
Speaking to CNBC, he said: “What one might call junk, I call it a treasure.”
Collecting vehicle parts from broken-down cars was a business that made Sturgeon rich. The man explained: “You can pay $100 to buy back an old car, then sell its engine for $150 and still have the rest of the car. It’s a business pretty good business.”
Wealth was new to Sturgeon because in his younger days he was homeless. Sturgeon said: “When I was a senior in high school, my father passed away and left me a $65, 2,000 Volkswagen. At that time, I was helpless and had nowhere to live. I moved to a new town mobile home and started working on other people’s Volkswagens. That’s all I knew, I had to do something for a living.”
Also from this time repairing cars, Sturgeon realized a new business model, more profitable than usual and made him a lot of money:
“I had accumulated about 35 used cars that I used to fix other cars. Within a few weeks, I realized that I could make more money selling car parts than I could by selling car parts what I can do. Every week I will go buy a few more broken cars, pull them back and sell the parts separately.”
Just like that, Sturgeon founded his own business called AAA Small Car World in 1978. Two decades later, his business boomed: ” We’ve grown to six locations, 150 employees and $15 million in revenue with a net profit of 30%” he said.
In 1999, this company was bought by Ford for about 15 million USD. But Sturgeon says the auto giant has had trouble running it. On Blue Collar Millionaires, Sturgeon said: “In the long run, AAA Small Car World didn’t work for Ford. They eventually sold it to me in 2003.”
Two years later, after restructuring efforts, Sturgeon sold it to Schnitzer Industries for $23.5 million. Sturgeon said he was not properly trained in business and that his success came from his reading habit. Sturgeon read the Wall Street Journal every day for 25 years. He encourages people to form this important habit if they want to become rich.
“My advice is to read at least one book a month. Even today, I devour them. Customers for Life by Carl Sewell and Secrets of the Millionaire Mind by Harv Eker are two books that have created the foundation. business for me. Of course, to be successful, hard work is still an important factor.
I’m not a prodigy or anything sublime. I spent my normal years in high school. I think I am where I am today because I have learned a lot from books over the years” Sturgeon happily shared.
Although he has now become a millionaire with a fortune many people want, this man has never forgotten the days when he did not have a bed to sleep before. Sturgeon is currently in the commercial real estate business. Ending the series of difficult rainy days, he is now a real estate giant.
Recently, Sturgeon bought himself a Bugatti Veyron worth $1.5 million even though it was a used model. However, he is very satisfied with it and said that he is currently still focusing on learning and conquering new experiences.
In 2015, Sturgeon donated 2 villas in Colleyville, Texas to the families of victims of severe tornado damage: “This idea popped into my head while owning 2 abandoned houses. I think they can certainly help people who are in need of a place to live and are not afraid to give it away” he said.
According to CNBC
Source: Vietnam Insider