(above) Fred Durham, Co-funder and CEO of Cafepress.comtalks about what he learned from his previous failed business ventures.
On my long day of travel from Minnesota to California, I had the pleasure of sitting by a nice man and his 4 year old little girl on my connecting flight from Phoenix to San Francisco where I would attend the Cafepress Connect Conference. He was well dressed, down to earth, and seemed like a genuinely happy guy.
We got talking about what we each did for a living and I learned he was a sales manager at a Toyota dealership as well as a real estate agent and landlord of several properties he owned. After the car buying, “Let me talk to my manager about your offer” jokes and discussing real estate prices and how cheap it is to live in Phoenix, I wanted to know more.
I’m always interested in people’s stories...how they got there. How they became successful in their career and happy in their life. I wasn’t prepared for the story he told.
He was born in Mexico, his mother died when he was only one year old, and his family was very poor. The economy was poor all around and at the age when most young Americans are complaining about their first job flipping burgers or passing the driver’s ed class, this young man decided he needed to come to America to support his family.
Since the Mexican government did not allow people to leave and apply for a green card, he, like many others chose to sneak into America. He arranged to get a ride from a trucker and got caught at the border. He tried again. And again. And again. And five times after that. He learned the ins and outs of the system, figured out the best way in, and the 9th time, at the age of 16, he found himself at night, at the border, hiding under a freeway overpass.
He lied still in the dark all night long to avoid the patrol lights...rats biting him, bugs biting him. His eyes were swelling up just telling me the story. He waited till daylight and then hitch hiked the rest of the way with $0.50 to his name, not knowing a bit of English.
He learned English on his own, applied for his green card and later obtained United States citizenship. He first worked at a farm picking spinach and in years to come he helped other family members obtain their legal citizenships in the United States. Now a Toyota dealership sales manager, self employed real estate angent, and landlord, he beams with pride when talking about his wife and two daughters.
What a humble beginning this immigrant had. He gave me his business card (in case I ever want to buy a home or Toyota in Phoenix), but he gave me more than that. He gave me a reminder to never take for granted the opportunity there is in the United States...and in life in general (and the internet, for that matter!). Opportunity like there is no where else in the world, and how persistence can pay off.
“9 times it took me,” he said to me while holding up 9 fingers, “9 times.”
Which brings me back to the Cafepress conference.
Now in San Francisco at Fort Mason Center I sat awaiting the keynote address by Fred Durham and Maheesh Jain, co-founders of Cafepress.com. They began their talk by telling the history of the company and how they got started.
The two had been partners before in other ventures...other businesses, other online printing businesses that eventually failed. One after another. Until, you guessed it, the 9th business model was what Cafepress is today. Started in Fred’s garage it has grown to millions of users strong. More on their success story here.
After this weekend how could I not keep adding designs to my T-shirt lines, opening Cafepress shops, seizing every opportunity I have thrown at me? I’m sure there’s nothing significant about the number nine, other than it sure stuck in my head, and it's a lot of failures that didn’t keep certain motivated, optimistic people from giving up.
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