Chris M. Walker

8-figure businesses • Tips about Business, Entrepreneurship, Money, and Freedom • Freelancing advocate

If you're a business owner tired of wasting money on agencies that don't deliver results, I'd like to make you a crazy promise...

Having helped thousands of business owners take control of their growth without expensive agency retainers, including:

Small business owners who went from struggling to $500K+ in annual profit without hiring a single agency.

Marketing directors who were tired of managing unreliable agencies and now handle their growth in-house with better results and lower costs.

And entrepreneurs who found that agencies kept them in the dark while charging premium rates for mediocre work - who now run their marketing with full transparency and control.

I would like to promise you'll see clear growth in your business within 30 days of using the Legiit platform.

...Using our B2B growth system that puts you back in control: https://go.legiit.com/download

I'd like to promise you this so you can see I'm not just another guy talking big without backing it up.

My goal is for you to get so much value from our platform that you tell other business owners about it.

...And potentially want to explore the next steps of working with us to scale your business even faster.

So, give our growth system a try here: https://go.legiit.com/download

Just copy and paste that link into your browser and it's yours, free.

Once you've tried it, let me know if it does or doesn't work for you...

I'm always here if you need help taking control of your business growth without getting locked into agency contracts.

You can follow me across all socials: @ChrisMWalker

Let's put you back in the driver's seat of your business growth.

Chris M. Walker
Founder, Legiit

It's building multiple 7 and 8-figure businesses through trial and error. Every system I share has been tested in my own companies first.

What makes my approach different:
- I don't make you dependent on agencies or consultants
- I give you the exact tools and systems that work
- You stay in control of your marketing, not at the mercy of others
- You get access to quality freelancers without the agency markup

"Figure out what you want. Figure out what it takes. Do the work."

That's my story. What's yours?

Owner & Founder

Superstar SEO is a 7 figure SEO, Internet Marketing, and SaaS Agency specializing in small, medium & large scale businesses grow via the internet.

He borrowed $50 from his dad and built a $50 billion empire.

Phil Knight was 24 years old.

Fresh out of Stanford business school with a crazy idea.

Import cheap running shoes from Japan. Undercut Adidas. Build something.

Everyone thought he was wasting his MBA.

“You went to Stanford for this?”
“Selling shoes from your car?”
“Get a real job.”

He didn’t listen.

Here’s what Knight understood that others missed:

Good running shoes were too expensive. Athletes needed better options. Someone had to fix it.

So he flew to Japan. Met with Onitsuka Tiger. Convinced them to let him distribute their shoes in the US.

One problem.

He had no company. No credentials. No business.

He made up a name on the spot. Blue Ribbon Sports.

The shoes arrived. He stored them in his parents’ basement. Sold them at track meets from the trunk of his car.

Made $8,000 his first year. Kept his day job as an accountant because $8,000 doesn’t pay rent.

Worked all day. Sold shoes at night and on weekends. For years.

His old track coach, Bill Bowerman, became his partner.

Bowerman obsessed over better shoes. Constantly testing and improving.
One morning, while making waffles, he saw the pattern.

He poured rubber into the waffle iron. Ruined the kitchen. Invented the waffle sole.

Running shoes changed forever.

But here’s the part people skip.

Knight almost lost everything. More than once.

Banks rejected him. Cash flow was brutal. Suppliers didn’t trust him.

In 1971, Onitsuka tried to cut him out and sell direct.

Knight chose to go independent.

At 33, with a wife and kids, he bet everything.

Started making his own shoes. Needed a new name.

An employee suggested Nike. Goddess of victory.

Another employee designed the swoosh. Knight paid her $35.

Nike launched in 1972.

He nearly went bankrupt again in 1975. Loans called. Almost done.

Except he wasn’t.

Found new backing. Kept going.

By 1980, Nike owned half the US running shoe market.

Today, Nike does $50 billion a year.

All because a 24-year-old refused to get a normal job.

He sold shoes from his trunk.

Worked a day job while building at night.

Got rejected over and over.

Almost lost everything.

Because he understood this:

Starting small isn’t failing. It’s starting.

Working two jobs isn’t weakness. It’s commitment.

Almost losing everything isn’t the end. It’s the test.

Knight started with $50 and a car trunk.

Bowerman built prototypes in his kitchen.

They kept going anyway.

Stop waiting for perfect conditions.

Start with what you have.

Borrow the $50. Sell from the trunk. Build at night.

Think Big.

CEO of Legiit - Helping business owners own their growth without paying expensive agencies that don’t get results. - go.legiit.com/download

He borrowed $50 from his dad; Built a $50 billion empire.

He built a $200 Billion empire serving hamburgers. But he was told he wasn't in the restaurant business his business was...

"Real Estate."

Ray Kroc was 52 years old, selling milkshake machines out of his car. Then he visited a burger stand in San Bernardino that was ordering eight of his mixers at once.

What he saw wasn't just a restaurant. It was a system. Assembly line cooking. Limited menu. 30-second service times. Consistent output every single time.
The McDonald brothers had built something special. But they saw it as one successful location. Kroc saw it as a repeatable process.

The First Model (1955-1960): Franchising

Kroc opened his first franchise in Des Plaines, Illinois. The problem was profit margins. The brothers kept their royalties. Franchisees kept most of the revenue. Kroc was left scraping gum off parking lots and barely breaking even.

Franchising alone wasn't the path to wealth. He needed a different angle.

The Pivot: Real Estate

Here's where most people miss the lesson. McDonald's isn't really a restaurant company. It's a real estate company that happens to sell burgers.

Kroc started buying the land under each location. Then he leased it back to franchisees. This gave him three revenue streams: franchise fees, a percentage of sales, and rent. More importantly, it gave him control. If a franchisee didn't follow the system, they lost their location.

The real estate model also meant McDonald's built equity with every new store. The land appreciated. The company's balance sheet grew. Banks were happy to lend for expansion.

The Buyout

In 1961, Kroc bought out the McDonald brothers for $2.7 million. He was 59 years old. The company had about 200 locations.

Twenty-three years later, when Kroc died, there were over 7,500 restaurants.

The Takeaway

Most entrepreneurs get stuck optimizing one business model. Kroc succeeded because he recognized when his first model wasn't working and found a better one.

He didn't just sell franchises. He controlled the land, the system, and the brand. That's the difference between building a business and building an empire.

Think Big.

Pepsi paid $1.95 Billion for a company that was told their branding was...

"terrible."

Seven years prior, they were selling apple cider vinegar in glass bottles...

In 2018, Rohan Oza invested $400K in Mother Beverage on Shark Tank. Shortly after, someone told founders Allison and Stephen Ellsworth their branding was terrible.

Most founders would've defended their work or made incremental changes. The Ellsworths did something different. They pulled back distribution for nine months and executed a complete rebrand new name, new packaging, new positioning.

Mother Beverage became Poppi. Glass bottles became bright cans. The repositioning was clear: revolutionizing soda for the next generation, not selling health drinks to wellness enthusiasts.

Then they launched in March 2020. During a pandemic. During an aluminum shortage. As a canned beverage company.

The timing looked catastrophic. It turned out to be perfect.

With retail distribution limited by COVID, Allison posted her founder story on TikTok. The video generated over $100,000 in Amazon sales overnight and now has 90+ million views. Poppi's total TikTok presence has surpassed 2 billion views.

This wasn't luck. It was strategic alignment. When traditional retail channels closed, they already had a direct-to-consumer infrastructure and a founder willing to build community on emerging platforms.

The results: $500 million in revenue by 2024. A Super Bowl commercial that became the most-viewed ad of the broadcast. And in May 2025, a $1.95 billion acquisition by PepsiCo just seven years after that Shark Tank appearance.

Three lessons from Poppi's playbook:

Brutal feedback is market research. When someone with industry experience says your branding doesn't work, they're giving you data. The Ellsworths used it to reposition entirely rather than iterate on a flawed foundation.

Distribution strategy matters more than distribution. They chose to pause expansion and nail positioning before scaling. Nine months of lost revenue bought them a brand that could sustain billion-dollar growth.

Founder-led content creates asymmetric advantages. Established beverage brands can't authentically tell a garage-to-Whole Foods story. Allison could. That authentic narrative became their primary customer acquisition channel when traditional retail failed.

The market wasn't saturated. The old approach to the market was saturated.

Think Big.

Do you think the rebrand was the main driver, or was it the TikTok timing?

#branding #marketingstrategy #startupgrowth #cpg

Warren Buffett gave her one piece of advice. She turned it into a licensing empire.

Kathy Ireland was 39 years old.

Kmart was her only retail partner. Her entire revenue stream.

Then they filed for bankruptcy. The largest retail bankruptcy in history.

She had 37 employees depending on her.

Everyone said she was done.

“You started with socks. That was your mistake.”
“Models don’t build real businesses.”
“Just go back to what you know.”

She didn’t listen.

Here’s what Ireland understood that others missed:

She hadn’t built her business on Kmart.

She’d built it on trust with busy moms who needed quality and value.

One failed partner wasn’t the end.

So she went back to work.

She pivoted hard. Expanded beyond fashion into home furnishings.

Because Buffett told her something simple:

Fashion changes fast.

Home products last.

Here’s the part most people forget.

Ireland was never supposed to be a businesswoman.

She was a supermodel. Thirteen Sports Illustrated swimsuit issues. Three covers.

When modeling slowed, someone asked her to model socks.

Model them. Not own them.

She said no.

She wanted to build the brand.

Launched Kathy Ireland Worldwide in 1993.

Started with socks because they were the test.

If moms trusted her with socks, they’d trust her with everything.

She was right.

After surviving Kmart, she kept expanding.

Home goods. Furniture. Jewelry. Weddings.

She listened. Built relationships. Took feedback seriously.

Today, her company licenses over 17,000 products.

Generates billions in retail sales worldwide.

Forbes called her a “Super Model turned Super Mogul.”

All because she refused to stay in a box.

What career are you treating like it’s over instead of a setup?

What opportunity are you playing safe instead of owning?

Ireland started with socks because everyone said it was stupid.

She survived bankruptcy because she understood trust and resilience.

Stop letting your past define your future.

Start thinking like Kathy Ireland.

Find your socks. Build your brand. Survive the test.

Think Big.

Buffett gave her advice. She built a licensing empire.

I got 8 million views and made $5,000 from a picture of Mark Wahlberg in his underwear.

Here’s the one thing most people get wrong when they try to use content to grow a business.

They forget that their customers are human beings.

Complex, diverse, human beings.

Instead they treat them one dimensionally…

…and that’s why they LOSE.

Let me explain so you can put this into action.

Say you sell SEO services or software. Here’s what most people do.

They optimize their profile for SEO. Put a GMB grid in their cover photo. Post about Google reviews, debate whether schema works, share case studies.

They think because their ideal customer is interested in SEO, that’s all they should talk about.

Here’s the problem: they never reach the majority of potential customers who will never know they exist because all they do is talk about boring SEO stuff.

People interested in SEO also care about business, sports, motivation, health, and a hundred other things. But this creator only talks shop, so they never get seen by those people.

They are only making bottom of funnel content. That’s why they are losing.

When you create content strictly about tips and optimization, you are providing Utility. Once the user gets the answer, they leave. And AI can now provide that same utility, making your content less valuable.

When I talk about entrepreneur stories, biohacking, or mindset, I am targeting Identity. I am connecting with the type of person who does SEO, not just the task.

Think about your real friends. You don’t hang out with them because they are good at their jobs. You hang out because you share values and interests.

If someone agrees with your take on sports or respects your dedication to health, they transfer that trust to your business expertise. If he thinks like me on X, I trust him on Y.

From a platform perspective, this is mathematically superior. The number of people searching for GBP optimization today is tiny. The number interested in success stories or health is massive. Broader content gets higher engagement, which signals the algorithm to push your content further.

The solution is an 80/20 split.

80% broad: entrepreneur stories, mindset, lifestyle. This casts a wide net and builds affinity.

20% narrow: your specific expertise. This proves you actually know what you are doing.

Now let me clarify something important.

You should still talk about your niche. You should still have a way to bring people into your business. You should still give them every opportunity to pay you.

Going broad will pull in people who will never buy from you. That’s fine. Their engagement still gets your content seen by people who will.

Just make niche stuff the minority.

This is why I can post a story about Mark Wahlberg in his underwear and generate more leads than people will make in a year of posting Google Reviews tips.

Think about the whole person. Think about everything they might be interested in. Give it to them.

Think Big.

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He got rejected by his own company. Then he bought it. Now it’s worth $100 billion.

He built a $100 billion empire selling coffee. But he wasn’t in the coffee business. His business was…

“The Third Place.”

Howard Schultz was a salesman in New York, hawking kitchen equipment. He noticed a small Seattle company ordering an unusual number of drip coffee makers. He flew out to see what was going on.

What he found was a shop selling whole coffee beans. No drinks. Just beans. The founders loved coffee as a product. Schultz saw something bigger.

The Italy Trip (1983)

Schultz visited Milan on a buying trip. He saw espresso bars on every corner. But people weren’t rushing in and out. They were gathering. Talking. Lingering.

The bars were community hubs. A place between home and work. Schultz realized the product wasn’t espresso. It was the experience. The ritual. The belonging.

The Rejection

He went back to Seattle and pitched the idea. Turn Starbucks into an Italian-style coffee bar. Sell the experience, not just the beans.

The founders said no. They wanted to stay in the bean business. They didn’t want to run restaurants.

The Pivot: Il Giornale

Schultz left and started his own company. Italian-style espresso bars called Il Giornale. They took off.

In 1987, the Starbucks founders decided to sell. Schultz bought the company for around $3.8 million. He was in his early 30s. He merged his coffee bars with the Starbucks name and never looked back.

The Model

Starbucks wasn’t selling coffee. It was selling a “third place.” Not home. Not work. Somewhere in between.

That’s why the chairs are comfortable. That’s why the WiFi is free. That’s why nobody rushes you out. You’re not buying a latte. You’re renting a feeling.

Competitors sold caffeine. Schultz sold an environment. One of those is easy to replicate. The other isn’t.

The Result

Today, Starbucks has over 35,000 locations worldwide.

The Takeaway

Most entrepreneurs compete on product. Schultz competed on something harder to copy: how customers feel when they walk through the door.

He didn’t sell better coffee. He sold a better place to drink it.

Think Big.

Graduated second to last in his class. Now worth $1.7 billion

Jimmy John Liautaud was 19 years old.

Undiagnosed dyslexia. Struggled with ADD. Felt like an outsider.

His dad gave him two choices: Join the Army or start a business.

No backup plan.

His father loaned him $25,000 for 48% of whatever he built.

The catch: If it wasn't profitable in one year, Jimmy had to enlist.

He wanted to open a hot dog stand. Spent months researching.

Then realized $25,000 wouldn't cover it.

So he pivoted. Found a sandwich shop. Saw the margins.

On January 13, 1983, Jimmy John's opened in Charleston, Illinois.

Four sandwiches on the menu.

Zero customers walked in the first day.

Zero.

Jimmy grabbed samples and hit the streets. Knocked on dorm rooms. 

Handed out sandwiches to anyone who would try one.

Word spread.

Year one: $154,000 in sales. $40,000 profit.

By May 1985, he bought out his father and became sole owner at 21.

By 1994, he had 10 stores. Zero debt.

Then he started franchising.

By 2002, around 200 stores. But 70 were failing.

Most people would have walked away.

Jimmy stopped selling franchises. Left his wife and three kids at home.

For 18 months, he traveled the country. Store by store. Retrained owners. 

Fixed systems. Worked the line.

Turned around 63 stores. Closed 7 that couldn't be saved.

By 2016, 2,500 stores. He sold a majority stake to Roark Capital. Deal valued around $3 billion.

Today, over 2,800 locations.

Forbes estimates his net worth at $1.7 billion.

All because a 19-year-old who graduated second to last refused to let his story end there.

Your circumstances don't determine your outcome. Your response does.

Graduating last doesn't make you dumb. It makes you hungry.

Having zero customers doesn't mean you failed. It means you start knocking on doors.

Stop waiting for perfect conditions.

Jimmy turned a $25,000 loan and an ultimatum into a billion-dollar empire.

Not because he was special.

Because he refused to stay down.

Think Big.

Graduated next to last in class. Now worth $1.7 billion

Coca-Cola laughed at them. Pepsi ignored them. Now they're worth over a billion dollars selling tap water.

Wall Street said you can't build a billion-dollar brand selling water. Liquid Death did it anyway.

Here's what they figured out that most businesses never will:

The product doesn't matter. The story does.

Think about it.

Water is the most commoditized product on Earth. It falls from the sky. It comes out of your tap for free. Dasani and Aquafina already own the shelves.
You accidentally (or intuitively) picked the Red Can (Convicted Melon).
Nobody needed another water brand.

But Liquid Death isn't selling water. They're selling rebellion.

Tallboy cans that look like beer. Heavy metal artwork. A slogan that says "Murder Your Thirst."

They made hydration cool for people who think wellness culture is annoying.

The numbers are insane.

They're selling canned water for roughly $2 a can. The same water you get from a Brita filter for pennies.

And people line up to buy it.

Valuation: Over a billion dollars. For water.

Here's the kicker.

Their merch sells out faster than their water. Hoodies. Hats. Skateboard decks.

People pay to advertise for them.

That's not a beverage company. That's a lifestyle brand that happens to sell drinks.

The lesson:

You're not competing on product. You're competing on identity.

Liquid Death didn't make better water. They made water for people who hate typical water brands.

They found an underserved audience and gave them something to belong to.

Your product can be boring. Your brand can't be.

Stop trying to be for everyone. Start being the only option for someone.

That's how you turn tap water into a billion-dollar company.

Think Big.

#marketing #branding #liquiddeath #startups #businessstrategy

Tinder offered Whitney Wolfe Herd $450 million to buy Bumble. She said no.

They came back with over $1 billion. She said no again.

Then they sued her.

She took the company public and became a billionaire anyway.

Here's what she understood that most people miss:

Rejection isn't a weakness. Rejection is leverage.

Look at the backstory.

In 2014, Wolfe Herd left Tinder after filing a sexual harassment lawsuit against the company she helped build. She settled for just over $1 million.

The industry erased her. She was a co-founder of Tinder, yet she was forced out and stripped of her history.

They said she was done.

She wasn't done.

That same year, she launched Bumble.

One simple rule change: Women message first.

That's it. That's the whole "innovation."

Everyone said it would never work. Women don't want that pressure. Men won't wait around. The market is already crowded.

They were wrong.

Within a month of launch: 100,000 downloads. By 2017: 22 million users. By 2020: 100 million users worldwide.

Match Group, the company that owns Tinder, came calling. $450 million. She rejected it.

They came back. Over $1 billion. She rejected that too.

What did Match do next?

They sued her. Patent infringement. Called Bumble a Tinder copycat.

Her response was public and direct. She said the lawsuit was meant to intimidate Bumble before a potential IPO or acquisition. She counter-sued for $400 million.

Both lawsuits were eventually dropped.

February 2021. Bumble goes public.

Whitney rang the Nasdaq bell with her 18-month-old son on her hip.

Opening day: stock jumped 63%. Peak market cap: $13 billion.

At 31, she became the youngest woman to take a company public in the United States. And the youngest self-made female billionaire in the world.

The same industry that tried to bury her watched her build an empire.

She didn't need their approval. She didn't need their money. She needed their rejection to fuel what came next.

Here's the lesson.

When people try to buy you out, they're telling you something. They're scared.

When people sue you, they're telling you something. You're winning.

When people say you'll fail, they're telling you something. They don't understand what you're building.

Stop looking for permission. Start looking for proof that you're on the right track.

The rejection IS the proof.

Think Big.

#entrepreneurship #bumble #womeninbusiness #strategy #motivation

They cut her off from a $15 billion fortune. So she built a $300 million empire on her own.

Paris Hilton was a teenager when her family made a decision. She wasn’t getting the money.

Her grandfather Barron Hilton had rebuilt the family empire to over $4.5 billion. But when Paris started showing up in tabloids and scandals, Barron changed the will.

Paris was completely cut off.

Everyone assumed she was just another rich kid coasting on her name. A “party girl” with no real skills.

But Paris saw what everyone else missed: They weren’t cutting her off from money. They were handing her freedom.

No trust fund meant no family control. So she went to work.

She turned her name into a business.

The problem she solved: How do you monetize attention without selling products yourself?

The answer was licensing. Put her name on products. Take a percentage. Let others handle manufacturing.

People mocked her as a “dumb blonde.” But it was strategy. Every “oops” moment and “That’s hot” catchphrase was a deliberate character crafted to sell.

The public saw a socialite. She was running a business machine.

Her perfume line alone generated $2.5 billion in sales. Paris personally earned over $300 million. Not Hilton money. All hers.

She expanded to 19 product lines. No factories. No inventory. Just brand control and royalties.

In elite families, sons learn business. Daughters learn manners. Paris flipped that script. While her family was busy protecting their fortune from her, she built her own.

Today she runs a business empire worth $300 million. Zero dollars inherited.
She proved they were right to cut her off. She didn’t need it.

Paris turned getting erased from a will into the best thing that ever happened to her. She understood that getting cut off isn’t punishment. It’s permission.

Stop waiting for someone else’s money to fund your dreams. Find your angle. Build your brand.

Sometimes the greatest fortunes come from being written out of someone else’s will.

Because when your family won’t give you anything, you learn to take everything.

Think Big.

Cut off from $15 billion. Built a $300 million empire alone.

Red Bull wasn't invented...

...It was copied.

Then made better.

Red Bull sells over 12 billion cans a year. But it started as a knockoff of a Thai truck driver's drink that nobody in the West had ever heard of.

In 1982, Dietrich Mateschitz was a toothpaste salesman traveling through Thailand. Jetlagged and exhausted, he tried a local energy tonic called Krating Daeng. It was syrupy, uncarbonated, sold in small medicine bottles, and marketed to blue-collar workers.

Most people would've finished the drink and moved on. Mateschitz saw something else. He tracked down the creator, Chaleo Yoovidhya, and proposed a partnership. They each put in $500,000. Split the company 49/49.

The Pivot Mateschitz didn't just import the Thai drink. He rebuilt it.

> New Formula: Carbonated. Less sweet.
> New Look: Replaced the medicine bottle with a slim silver can.
>New Positioning: Shifted from "Blue Collar Tonic" to "Premium Lifestyle."

He spent three years on development before selling a single can.

The Launch Red Bull launched in Austria in 1987. Not in grocery stores. In nightclubs and bars. Not through traditional advertising. Through sampling, sponsorships, and word of mouth.

Everyone in the beverage industry thought he was crazy. The taste was polarizing ("medicinal"). The price was double the competitors. The product category didn't even exist yet.

They weren't selling a drink. They were creating a market.

The Result Today Red Bull is worth over $16 billion. They own soccer teams, racing teams, and a media empire. All from a drink that started in Thai pharmacies.

The Lesson Adaptation beats imitation. Mateschitz didn't import Krating Daeng. He reimagined it for a different market with different expectations. Same core product, completely different positioning.

Krating Daeng still exists in Thailand. Still sells to truck drivers. Still in those small bottles. Red Bull took the same basic idea and built a global empire by refusing to copy what already worked.

Think Big.

#branding #marketingstrategy #positioning #cpg #redbull #businesshistory

No money. No connections. No backup plan. 300 million records sold

A taxi ride with $35 led to becoming the best-selling female artist in history.

Madonna Louise Ciccone was 19 years old.

She landed in New York City with barely enough money for cab fare.

No contacts. No connections. No safety net.

Everyone back home said she was crazy.

“You’re just a girl from Michigan.”
“You can’t sing well enough.”
“You’ll be back in six months.”

She didn’t go back.

Here’s what Madonna knew that everyone else missed:

Talent is common. Relentless reinvention is rare.

So she got to work.

Waited tables. Posed for art classes. Did whatever paid the bills while she chased the dream.

Auditioned for bands. Got rejected. Auditioned again. Got rejected again.

Record labels passed on her. Said she wasn’t commercial enough. Said her voice was too thin. Said female artists were a risk.

She kept showing up anyway.

Finally, a DJ at a club started playing her demo. People danced. Labels noticed.

In 1982, she released her first single.

By 1984, she had become one of the biggest stars on the planet.

But here’s where most artists would coast.

Madonna didn’t coast.

She reinvented herself over and over. New sound. New image. New controversy. Every few years, a completely different version.

Critics buried her a hundred times.

“She’s done.”
“She’s too old now.”
“Nobody cares about her anymore.”

Every time, she proved them wrong.

Four decades later, she’s sold over 300 million records worldwide.

Most successful touring female artist in history.

Still selling out stadiums in her sixties.

All because a 19 year old with $35 refused to let rejection define her.

She turned having nothing into fuel for building everything.

She proved that your circumstances don’t determine your ceiling. Your refusal to quit does.

What rejection are you treating like a verdict instead of just another opinion?

What dream have you abandoned because someone said you weren’t good enough?

Madonna arrived in New York with less money than most people spend on lunch.

Got told no more times than most people ever try.

Reinvented herself when everyone said it was impossible.

Because she understood something most people don’t.

The people who tell you no don’t get to write your story.

You do.

Stop waiting for permission. Stop needing approval.

Find your version of that taxi ride. Bet on yourself with whatever you’ve got.

And never let anyone convince you that where you start determines where you finish.

Sometimes the biggest careers come from the smallest beginnings.

Because when nobody believes in you, you only need one believer.

Yourself.

Think Big

No money. No connections. 300 million records sold.

Wall Street hated him. Analysts called him "too generous." They told him to cut wages and raise prices to boost the stock price.

He ignored them all. And he built a $300 billion empire because of it.

Jim Sinegal wasn't your typical CEO.

He started as a bagger. He unloaded mattresses. He learned retail on the floor, not in a classroom.

When he founded Costco in 1983, he built it on a philosophy that sounded insane to modern business experts:

"Treat your employees and customers right, and the profits will follow."

The "Suits" told him he was leaving money on the table.

They said he paid his workers too much (way above minimum wage).

They said his margins were too low (capped at 14-15%).

They said he should charge more for the famous hot dog combo.

He refused. Every single time.

When the current CEO, Craig Jelinek, once complained that they were losing money on the $1.50 hot dog and needed to raise the price, Sinegal replied with a line that should be in every business textbook:

"If you raise the effing hot dog, I will kill you. Figure it out."

He wasn't protecting a hot dog. He was protecting a promise.

He understood that Costco wasn't in the business of selling groceries. They were in the business of selling Trust.

If you gouge the customer on the hot dog, they wonder where else you are gouging them.

If you squeeze your employees, they stop caring about the customers.

The results of his "outdated" philosophy?

Costco has one of the lowest employee turnover rates in retail.

They have 120+ million loyal members who pay just to walk in the door.

The stock is up 60,000% since the IPO.

He proved that you don't have to be ruthless to be rich.

He proved that "Shareholder Value" is the result of taking care of people, not the goal.

The Lesson:

Short-term greed builds quarterly bonuses.

Long-term trust builds dynasties.

Stop trying to squeeze every penny out of the transaction.

Start trying to earn the relationship.

Think Big.

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.css-6ytdur{background-image:linear-gradient(284deg, rgba(39, 43, 72, 1) 0%, rgba(33, 47, 183, 1) 100%);color:transparent;-webkit-background-clip:text;background-clip:text;}Chris M. Walker's Linkedin Analytics

Chris M. Walker

Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}Chris M. Walker's LinkedIn Performance

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Chris M. Walker's Best Posts .css-1emoo84{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:400;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);}(last 30 days)

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Chris M. Walker's Linkedin Analytics

Performance ScoreChris M. Walker's LinkedIn Performance

Chris M. Walker's Best Posts (last 30 days)