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Classmate described as 5'4, quiet, and a poor student built a cleaning/turnover…

Brief

A former classmate described as 5'4, quiet, and the 'dumbest' in school built a cleaning/turnover company by starting with neighbor jobs, cold-knocking property managers, and scaling to several trucks, a full crew, and over $2M annual revenue for the past three years. He endured ~1 year unemployed, 30+ job applications, and multiple short-lived hires before succeeding.

Why it matters

Classmate described as 5'4, quiet, and a poor student built a cleaning/turnover business that has done over $2M/year for the last 3 years; operation includes several trucks, a full crew, and contracts with apartment complexes and commercial landlords across the city.

Key details

  • He barely graduated, spent almost a year unemployed, sent 30+ job applications with only 3–4 responses, and was let go from two jobs within the first two weeks and told he wasn't a good fit after 9 days at another before starting property-cleaning work.
  • He began by hauling junk and doing deep cleans for a neighbor, started charging and cold-knocking property managers despite repeated rejections, and Codie Sanchez summed the lesson: "If you want to win long-term, you can't care about rejection, judgment, or failure. At all."
Source evidence

A guy I went to school with is a millionaire now. He was the dumbest in our grade.

Last time we linked up he told me how he actually pulled it off and it's one of the craziest paths I've heard.

Dude was like 5'4, quiet, couldn't pass a test to save his life. Teachers gave up on him by sophomore year.

If you got paired with him on a group project you already knew you were doing the whole thing yourself.

He barely graduated.

Spent almost a year after school doing nothing because he didn't think anybody would hire him.

When he finally started applying he sent out over 30 applications and heard back from maybe 3 or 4.

Two of those jobs let him go within the first 2 weeks. One of them told him he wasn't a good fit after 9 days.

At some point he started helping a neighbor clean out commercial properties between tenants. Hauling junk, deep cleans, dumpster runs.

Started charging for it. Then started knocking on doors offering the same thing to property managers.

Got told no a lot. But by that point he'd been hearing no his entire life so it didn't really register the same way anymore.

Built it into a full operation. Several trucks, a full crew, contracts with apartment complexes and commercial landlords across the city.

His business has been doing over $2M a year for the last 3 years now.

Same dude nobody in our school thought would amount to anything.

Rejection only stops you if you actually let it sit with you. He heard no so many times it lost its weight. And that's the only reason he's where he is right now

Codie Sanchez (@Codie_Sanchez)

If you want to win long-term, you can't care about rejection, judgment, or failure. At all.

— https://nitter.net/Codie_Sanchez/status/2085070117461762197#m