Throughout the years in business there have been many inspirational stories of people who were born with very little but had a dream and went after it. This rags to riches stuff is not exclusive to business, take a look at celebrities such as Jay-Z, a former crack cocaine dealer on the harsh streets of New York who managed to turn his ability for rapping into a multi-million dollar career as a celebrity and a business mogul who boasts a clothing line, sports agency business and record company.
Today we are going to focus on one such rags to riches story which may give you some inspiration if you have a dream of one day owning your very own company. One lesson that we can take from these kinds of stories is that regardless of who you are, what your background is or what you plan to do, the market does not judge and if you are smart enough and work hard, then you can become a success. Let’s take a look then at the incredible story of Robert Bassam.
Who Is He?
Robert Bassam is the CEO of Eastern Automotive Group, a car dal ship company which operates mainly out of the Washington area. The company turnover $300 million in revenue each year across its many locations. Anyone living in Washington may not have had dealings with the car company tehmselves, but everyone knows who the company is thanks to the insanely catchy ‘Where your job’s your credit’ jingle. Something which even Bassam admits, was surprising in terms of how quickly it caught on.
How Did He Get There?
Born in 1966 to a family on welfare and living off food stamps, Bassam had always dreamed big and knew that as soon as he could get the opportunity that he would go on to make money. At the age of 20 Bassam moved from Miami to Washington to work in a Mexican restaurant, the pay was low but tips kept Robert going. Assam saw two cars for sale at the local Salvation Army and managed to save up his tips to buy them for $50 each. Within a few days, Bassam had flipped the cars to co-workers for $300 each and as Bassam has said “that’s when the light bulb went off”.
Robert pooled his money with a co-worker and began flipping more cars, buying 20 initially and then more and more. Finally, after working in wholesale for a few years, in 1991, Bassam opened his very first dealership, specializing in selling cars based on second-chance credit, something nobody else was offering.
The rest as they say, is history and Bassam is now a very wealthy business owner who boasts his own fleet of 19 cars which include a Ferrari and a Lamborghini. The adverts are famous, the company is thriving and the man who started off on food stamps is now an inspiration for millions.