How A South Georgia Dirt Road Made Me Millions
I can still remember the first day of the rest of my life. It was a muggy Sunday afternoon and my parents were waving goodbye from the front door. As I was pulling away, my Dad ran up with a concerned look and said, “are you really moving to Athens GA”? It was at that moment I realized that my life was about to change. And boy, has it changed.
I grew up on a dirt road in southwest Georgia. My life was a bubble and I was cool with it. It took about five minutes outside of the bubble to discover that the world was a big place packed full of people with big dreams. I met people from big cities, worked with people with major league educations and envied every one of them. And as a result, I hated that dirt road because I blamed it for making my adult life way too hard for such a long time.
I knew five people among the 30,000 students at the University of Georgia. I had no big money connections that could help me land a job after college. I opened my first checking account with my only $100 bill. And my first car was a hand-me down from my gracious mother. Yeah, that dirt road made my life hard and I blamed it everyday.
I was so mad at it that I started working day and night to prove myself. I finally landed my first job and was overjoyed to earn $22k in my first year. I read as many success or money management books as possible during my lunch breaks. I worked ridiculous jobs on the weekend to save money. I ate cheap frozen foods every night of my life to save even more money. And I kept driving my hand-me down car to — you guessed it — save money. I was determined to make it big and prove my dirt road heritage wrong.
It took seven years but I finally reached my goal of saving $150k. Those lunchtime books taught me the easiest way to riches was to own a business. So, I used every bit of my $150k to start a residential cleaning service called Two Maids & A Mop in Pensacola, FL. It took two years for the business to earn its first profit and more than eighteen months to earn my first paycheck. But eventually, the business grew…and grew….and grew. Along the way, I kept reading books, kept saving money and kept hustling. Today, that little cleaning service has grown from a small business into a nationally recognized brand with 29 office locations across the country. My success has been chronicled in big time publications such as Entrepreneur, Success, CNN Money, Forbes, Yahoo Finance and; most recently, Forbes Magazine. I’ve been selected to the University of Georgia Top 40 under 40 Alumni, inducted into my school’s alumni hall of fame and named one of the Top CEO’s in the entire state of Alabama. Yeah, it’s been a good ride.
I used to blame that dirt road for everything. But today, I love it and still blame it for everything. I blame it for everything because all of my success is a result of that dirt road. I hustle everyday because of that dirt road. I save money left and right because of that dirt road. And I wake up everyday with a desire to change the world because of that dirt road. That dirt road made me a man. It made me fight harder than anyone else and it — by itself — made almost all of my dreams come true.
I owe that dirt road so much. I have two wonderful children, a beautiful wife, a franchise network that employs more than 400 great people and a perfect life. I think about that dirt road everyday. And I’ll continue to think about it everyday because it’ll always drive me to change the world. A dirt road doesn’t end. Nope, a dirt road certainly does not end. So, to you — dirt road — thank you for making me the man I am today. I’ll always owe you.
I’m searching for people with their own dirt road story who are ready to change their future by building a business. Visit our franchise opportunity website right now if you’re interested in learning more about the Two Maids & A Mop franchise investment and financial expectations.
