Success Story - R. Yehoshua Zitron - TorahAnytime.com

There was a boy that came from a very wealthy family. And this boy, he went and he decided that he is you know, making his money on his own. He didn't want to go and he didn't want to make money from his you know, from his father. So, he goes and he tells his his father. He comes at 21. He comes 21 years old and he says that he says, "I'm going to make money on my own. I'm out of here." He moves out of the house. Packs up all his bags, moves into the city. Problem was he didn't have a place to stay. He was 21, didn't really think too much in the future. So, he's going he's like the first thing I'll do is let me try to find a job. And he goes from place to place trying to find a job, but no one wants to hire him. He has no education on you know, in anything that they wanted to hire him for. He had you know, he had no skills. He had nothing. He came from a very posh wealthy family, but he didn't know anything. So, nobody hired him. So, days and days and days he's searching for a job. He can't get find anything. So, he had nothing else to do and he couldn't he didn't have any money to go and rent an apartment. He ended up sleeping in a park bench. And he's sleeping on the park bench with all his stuff. And a few days go by and you know, there's a guy that walks by and you know, sees him and says, "You know, what's going on? What's up with you?" He's like you know, he's like you know, this is you know, he's like, "Welcome to my home. This is my home. What can I tell you?" He says, "Why don't you where's you know, why don't you go to your house?" He says, "I don't have a house." He said, "Why not?" He says, "I'm trying to find a job. I don't going to find a job." So, the guy looks at him and has pity at him and says, "Listen." He says, "You know, I was looking for a dog walker." And I you know, if you go and you walk my dog, I'll give you three meals a day and I'll let you stay I have a guest house. You can stay in my guest house. So, the guy the boy was very appreciative. He says, "Of course I you know, of course I'll do it." The guy the boy ends up walking his dog for three you know, three times for you know, four times a day because the guy was very obsessive about that. Walks for a little bit. At the end of the day he was working for less than an hour and this guy was providing him a roof over his shoulder. This guy was providing him three meals a day. Now, without the stress of having to find apartment, this boy was able to go and try to find a job. He started going from place to place searching for a job. And he couldn't find anything. Finally, he ended up going to low paying jobs. He went into a certain pizza store and he said, "Listen, can I maybe you need a some worker for something?" And the guy says, "Yeah, we need you know, we need we need a worker for some you know, little jobs." And he says, "You know, fine. I'll take it." And he starts working getting paid bubkes. And all of a sudden, the owner of the pizza store goes over to him and says, "You know what? I see you're doing your your work so you know, so well. I'm going to give you a promotion." And he makes him instead of just washing the dishes, now he's also in charge of like the fries or something like very very small. But he gives him instead of you know, he was making $10 an hour, now he's making $55 an hour. Like a crazy crazy promotion. But this boy didn't think anything else. He okay, whatever you know, my luck. Now, he is making 55 $55 an hour you know, cleaning the floors a little bit and you know, stirring some fries on the fryer. Now, he was making a significant amount of money for what he needed and he was living you know, rent free that he started saving some money and he was able to go and move out on his own. And slowly slowly the pizza owner slowly gave him more and more promotions. But promotions that like if you would have looked at it from outside didn't make any sense, but he kept on just like giving him more like you know, now you're in charge of actually the oven. Now you're getting paid $100 an hour. And he was getting paid like crazy money for little tasks. And he was saving the money until the time came that he felt you know what? He says, "I know everything about the pizza business. Let me open up my own pizza business." So, he had some money saved. He goes and he couldn't find a location in a prime you know, prime area. So, he went to a little bit of the sketchy part of town and he opened he rented a place and he invested some money and he opened up a pizza store. Problem was is that nobody walked into his pizza store. It was in the wrong part of town. He didn't have a lot of a lot of foot traffic. The location was terrible. And he had you know, a few customers a day at best. One day he's losing money head over he's he's he's bleeding money. Forget about losing money. And one day this guy comes in and he tastes his pizza and he says, "Wow, this pizza's delicious." He says, "I've never had such a delicious pizza pizza before." He says, "Tell me." He says, "I want to become partners with you." He says, "Over here you're not going to make any money." He says, "Let me let let's join business together and I will go and I will get you a prime location and this way you're going to be able to go and you're going to be able to make so much more money." And the guy says, "Yeah, of course you know, like I've been struggling you know, I'm looking to take on a a business partner." So, he goes and he takes on this partner and they open up in a prime location and this business partner goes and hires some high end chefs and meanwhile the business starts booming. And people start coming in and be like, "Wow, this pizza's the best pizza we ever had." And he was making so much money. And in a short period of time he decided he's going to open up another location. And he opened up his second pizza store. And within three years he had five pizza stores making a ton of money. Now, he hasn't spoken to his parents to his family in three years. Now, he's starting to think. He says, "You know what? He says, maybe I should write to my parents. I haven't spoken to them in so long." So, he takes out a pen and paper and he writes to his father and he says, "You know, I wanted to you know, after all the greetings and the you know, the regular you know, hi hellos that a son would tell his father." He says, "I wanted to just tell you dad that after three years of being away from you, I've made my own fortune." He says, "You know, I didn't need any help from you. I didn't need any help from my brothers. I was able to go and and and build a corporation. I have five pizza stores under me in just three years. And I just wanted to tell you. I wanted to show you that hard work, perseverance, that is the key for success. You don't need a rich father. You don't need family money to make money." And he sends in this letter to his father. A few days later the he receives his father's response. And the father responds is, "My precious son." He says, "I'm so happy that you're doing well. And I feel that is my obligation to tell you of what really happened." And the father goes on and writes in the letter. He says, "Do you ever wonder why a total stranger found you on a park bench and let you stay in their guest house for just walking their dog? And gave you three meals a day for just walking their dog?" He says, "I sent that man after you to look for you. And when he found you, I told him I I set up a superficial or or a fictional you know, character that this was man and I gave him a dog and he went and he produced this whole this whole just to go and give you a roof over your shoulder and to give you some food. And when you got the job at the pizza store, he says, "You were making 10 bucks an hour." He says, "I went over and I told the pizza owner he says, I'm going to pay the $10 an hour and but I'm want you I'm now going to pay him another 50 bucks on top of that. Just give him a little promotion. Make him think that it's coming from you." He says, "I was paying your salary in the pizza store cuz I wanted to go and boost you up. Nobody makes $55 an hour from moving some fries in a fryer, for sweeping up some dirt. He says, "Not only that, when you opened up the store, he says, "You weren't going to fail. There was no way you were going to succeed over there. So, I sent my a different guy to your store and say, 'You know what? Let's move you to a prime location.' And he moved you to a prime location. But the problem was that the pizza wasn't that good." He says, "SO, I WENT AND I I HAD the guy go and hire some you know, high end chefs to go and produce good pizza. And then I I went and I paid customers to come in and go and patronize you on how good your pizza is." He says, "You think you put your money in your own pocket?" He says, "My dear son." He says, "It wasn't your hard work that earned you your money. It was your loving father who will always be there for you that set all this up." You know, many times we go we think that we made it in business. You know, we found we know, we got into business. We built up large corporation. And we feel this is our you know, we we worked so hard. And you know, there are many there there I I have to be careful how I say this because there are many good things that come out of that go and they will they will get see CEOs of certain companies to come in and talk to people kids in public school like religious CEOs come talk to kids in public school. Look, you could still be a religious person and still be a large CEO. You you're still able to have a large corporation and make a lot of money. And sometimes I can't say all the times, the business owners they come in and be like, "You know what? Yeah, we studied the market. We went and we we worked hard and we did everything that we so so and that's how we made we we made the money." And the answer is that that that is true to a certain extent, but the real lesson that has to be you know, conveyed to the to the to these kids is that at the end of the day it's God. It's all Hashem that gave us everything. It's nothing else. It's not this boy's you know, pizza store dream to open up that he was successful. No, it had nothing to do with that. It was because he had a loving father that gave him and sent him all the business his way. And so to us, whatever we have, whatever we're working, if we are successful, then we have to think about it for a second realize that it's all from Hashem. It's all from God. It's not our ideas. It's not our understanding on it. It's not our education that gave us this. It's all 100% from Hashem.