|
|
 |
|
| First Person |
A Gamble that Keeps Paying
Bill Cullen
05/03/2004
|
I was the eldest son in a family with 14 children. By the age
of 3, I was going to school with my older sisters, and by 4, I was on the
streets with my mother, selling everything from fruit to handmade Christmas
decorations. My father, Billy, was a laborer on the docks. As I grew, I attended
school only two or three days a week, spending the rest of the time working
beside “the Ma” to help feed the family. That is where I had the advantage over
my siblings. From 4 to 14, I spent so much time with her, not just as mom, but
as business partner. I learned the basics of buying and selling, wheeling and
dealing from her and my grandmother, who also was a street vendor. My mother—who
never went to school—taught me these simple lessons before I was 10 years old:
“You work harder, quicker and smarter than the other guys. Believe you’ll never
meet a man better than yourself because you are terrific. And you always help
those who are less fortunate than yourself. That’s what life is all about,
son!”
Despite the economic resurgence in Ireland,
there are those who are left
behind. The foundation has so far awarded $35 million for youth projects
throughout the country. |
Budding Businessman
I had a mind for business, and my mother encouraged
me. When I was 8, I convinced her to buy surplus dolls from a merchant. I asked
my sisters to make dresses and bows for the dolls, and I sold them as “Judy
Garland” dolls at a substantial profit. At 12 I persuaded an uncle to raise pigs
with me, but a flood drowned the hogs and wiped us out financially, just before
they would have gone to market. I was bankrupt before I was a teenager. When
another idea, paper flowers, didn’t sell the way I expected, I realized I needed
to bring my wares to the place potential buyers would want them—just outside a
hospital—and soon my family had a virtual assembly line in the home for
flower-making. Location, location, location.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
