Charles Atlas, An Inspirational Entrepreneur.

2.5K followers

8 years ago

Growing up in the 1960's, the public housing projects was the place all families back then, wanted to move to. The buildings were all newly completed and we were one of the first families to move in.

After settling in and meeting a bunch of new friends, we all hung out together, went to school together, got robbed and beat up by the neighborhood bullies together, but we took it all in stride.

At least we met some new bad ass friends.

On a nice day, after school let out and eventually all doing the summer, my friends would all hit the basketball hoops out on the front lot.

I was the only one out of the bunch who thought about making some extra pocket money.

After getting my parents permission and a school work permit, I worked a few hours each day in the Neighborhood Youth Corps Program.

It was a nice feeling being able to financially hold my own without begging my folks for money all the time.

But after a several weeks of tasting the almighty dollar, I started getting a little greedy. I thought of the things I could buy. This young kid wanted more! MUCH, MUCH MORE!!

I remember seeing an ad in an old magazine. It was a black & white picture of this guy named Charles Atlas, a body builder. He promoted pills that would make you look like him. Pills, NOT equipment!

Probably was a rip-off. But hey, it was the early 60's and people was buying his product like crazy. The Internet wasn't even thought of, yet the crooks were still out in abundance. I'm not saying Mr. Atlas was one, but I know they were out there.

This guy was in the paper every week for months and months selling pills. I was young and couldn't figure out why this same guy was in this same paper every week. I was tired of looking at him.

It took me a while to finally figure out who this Charles Atlas guy was. He was a very successful entrepreneur making money selling pills through ads ran in the paper each week.

This is what inspired me! So while my buddies were hitting the court shooting hoops, I was going door to door shooting my mouth off trying to convince folks why they should order books from me.

I had a little success, but nothing like Charles Atlas. Just the idea of becoming a young entrepreneur making my own money, was a very gratifying feeling I will never forget.