Brian Scudamore has always been an entrepreneur. While in high
school, living at Shawnigan Lake boys’ school on Vancouver Island, he
operated a school store in his room selling forbidden junk food to eager
students. That, and seeing an old junk pick-up in a drive through,
sparked a business idea in a young Brian. At 18 he started “ The Rubbish
Boys", which later became 1-800-GOT-JUNK.
He started the company one summer as a way to earn money to attend
university. He bought a truck and advertised that he would come to your
home or place of business and pick up junk for a fee. The idea caught
on, and as they say, the rest is history.
Brian’s father, a liver transplant surgeon at the Vancouver General
Hospital, was not too excited about Brian’s decision to junk university
for a career as a junk dealer extraordinaire, regardless of how
successful Brian was becoming.
Realizing he had a good idea, Brian registered the company name
worldwide and began selling franchises on a per truck basis. Soon
franchises were popping up all across Canada. He now has over 320
franchises in Canada, the United States, Australia and the United
Kingdom. Sales this year will exceed $140 million.
The enterprise has been dubbed one of the fastest-growing companies in
North America. It has been written up in over 3,000 news stories,
including Fortune magazine. Brian was selected as one of Canada’s “Top
40 under 40” and has appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show, Dr. Phil and
many other TV shows.
Brian has become an internationally famous entrepreneur celebrity. All
of this success and he is still only 37 years young. Move over Donald
Trump — you have serious competition.
When I asked Brian if he felt there was still opportunity for young
people to achieve, he replied, “Yes Dick, there is always opportunity
to achieve. All you have to do is be creative and willing to take a
risk, take chances. My advice to anyone is that you must have a vision
of what it is you want to do. And then go for it.”
Canada is an exciting land of opportunity. Anyone who doubts that
statement need only read this inspiring story of Brian Scudamore,
another Canadian Achiever.
Read more about him at
www.canadianachievers.com.
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