As a child growing up in Brooklyn, Gino had a comfortable childhood thanks to his father’s successful produce company and die hard work ethic. He developed the urge for entrepreneurship and started selling fireworks at school before getting into drugs. His drug use caused a downward spiral which led him to being homeless and penniless for about a year and a half. The fear of going back to that time in his life forced Gino to work as hard as he could and never give up, even until this very day. He came up with the idea to start a mobile oil changing business and applied to many mechanic shops to try to learn how to actually do an oil change since he had no prior experience. Because no one would hire him, he decided to buy a used van and a lot of mechanics books and started going door-to-door to sell his services. Today, Oil Can Man services multiple fleets and provides much more than just oil changes. His dedication and determination led him to the success he has today along with the infamous Lamborghini speedboat which matches his Lamborghini Aventador LP720-4 Roadster Limited Edition.
The One Ingredient that Prevents Entrepreneurs from Being Successful
I often get asked what is the secret ingredient to success, and while many have their own definition of it like hard work, belief, dedication, perseverance, there is one word that I believe leads to more success than others. I have examined over 200+ entrepreneurs in our academy who also live and breathe this, but because it is part of…
Secret Academy Episode – Jake Kassan & Kramer LaPlante
Jake Kassan & Kramer LaPlante were college roommates who both had an intense passion for entrepreneurship; Kramer loved the challenges and rewards that came with starting and owning his own business while Jake was inspired by his father and other entrepreneurs like himself. After realizing that a college education was not for them, they both dropped out and started their journey into entrepreneurship together. Kramer had experience with crowdfunding as he had a previous business selling wallets, and Jake was experienced in the marketing aspect of business. They decided to combine their experiences and start a business selling high quality, yet affordable watches called MVMT Watches for young people. Utilizing Indiegogo as a crowdfunding platform, they were able to raise $300,000 in just 50 days. Within their first year, they were a million dollar business, and today they are selling watches all over the world.
Secret Academy Episode – Ted Nash
From a very young age, Ted Nash had the entrepreneurial spirit. At the tender age of twelve, he created his first business — Rediz, an online shopping portal. Other businesses he started before the age of 15 included a cloud storage platform, a travel agency, and a music site. At 17, he was the first teenager to ever reach 1 million downloads in the App Store with the app Face Rate which uses facial recognition technology. News International offered him a position as Head of Digital Product Innovation in addition to licensing his software. During his time there, he launched and managed mobile products for The Sun, The Times, and The Sunday Times. Ted was able to save up and also raise investment capital to launch a new business venture with two other entrepreneurs. Currently he is the CEO of Tapdaq, a mobile advertising exchange app in which he was able to raise $1.4 million in capital for the commercialization.
Secret Academy Episode – Ian Bell
While attending a wedding several years ago, Ian Bell struck up a conversation with another guest in the buffet line about the guest’s cell phone. As it turns out, the guy worked at Office Max and had access to all the latest gadgets before the rest of the consumers. Ian expressed his desire to create a website dedicated to reviewing the latest technological gadgets, and another wedding guest named Dan overheard this and offered up his website building skills. After the wedding, Ian kept in touch with Dan, and they would eventually form DigitalTrends.com, a product review website with over 22 million unique visitors per month and generating over $20 million in gross revenue in 2015.
Secret to Success – Gino Gargiulo
Perhaps the greatest achievement to entrepreneurial success is not the monetary gain, but rather the satisfaction of knowing you’ve made your parents proud. For some individuals like Gino Gargiulo, his father never had an opportunity to witness his success due an early passing. Vowing to make his father proud, Gino took a chance with a mobile oil change business that was dominated by well known brands to become a recognized small business in Florida. Today, his business has grown to an 8 figure empire and has expanded to different verticals within the automotive repair and customization niche.
Secret Academy Episode – Shawn Thomas
From a young age, Shawn Thomas knew he wanted to be an influencer, a motivator, an entertainer. He was always the type of person to be up front, center stage, and take risks in his life. In his early 20’s he decided that instead of going back to college to earn a degree, he wanted to start his own business. So Shawn moved to Memphis, TN and got a job selling insurance while also working at a restaurant to supplement his income. He did this for three years, and in 2002 he came up with an idea to provide public computers and accompanying software to hotels for their guests to use. This idea would eventually blossom into a $20+ million company called Uniguest that was later acquired, which allowed Shawn to retire much earlier than most. Today, Shawn has over 384,000 followers on Instagram as @askamillionaire motivating, inspiring, and mentoring young entrepreneurs.