Guy Tweets Story Of Richard Montañez, Former Janitor Who’s Now A $20M Dollar Brand
Forget self-improvement and business motivation books—it’s Twitter with the right guy and the right story that you need to get the job done. No need to thank me for saving you money.
Entrepreneur Ankith Harathi has recently shared a story about Richard Montañez, a man who started off as a janitor at a company you may or may not have heard of—Frito-Lay, part of PepsiCo—and rose to becoming the 20-Million-Dollar Man just because he took initiative and went to that one meeting.
It’s not every day that a janitor making $4 an hour becomes a multi-million dollar man
Image credits: ankithharathi
Entrepreneur Ankith Harahti shared the ‘rags to riches’ story of Richard Montañez that drew everyone’s attention
Image credits: ankithharathi
Image credits: ankithharathi
Image credits: ankithharathi
Image credits: ankithharathi
Image credits: ankithharathi
Image credits: ankithharathi
Image credits: ankithharathi
Image credits: ankithharathi
Image credits: ankithharathi
Image credits: ankithharathi
Image credits: ankithharathi
Image credits: ankithharathi
The story goes that Montañez came from a family of 14, could barely speak English, and couldn’t even dream about becoming anyone because there was no dream where he came from.
But one day, as he was working his $4/hour janitorial job, he found out the CEO of the company he worked for—where he was taking initiative, learning about more than just janitorial duties, and trying to be better overall—had announced to all of its hundreds of thousands of employees: “act like an owner.” Montañez did.
So, he asked for a meeting with the CEO. And he got it. And in that meeting, he shared an idea—an idea of how the company’s products, snacks, could be adapted just a little bit to appeal to a whole new audience, Latinos. Long story short, it was adding spice to the snacks. “Put that mop away,” said the CEO, “You’re coming with us.”
The story ended up being quite successful among Tweeters, getting over 200k likes
Image credits: ankithharathi
This wasn’t secret knowledge, or anything—it just took one man to retell this story in a way that appealed to internauts, drew them in, and made for a pretty inspiring read.
The Twitter thread managed to get over 200,000 likes and almost 50,000 retweets. For many, this was quite an inspiring story, while it started a bit of a debate among others.
One person pointed out that this is quite a rare situation as most conglomerate CEOs don’t provide such opportunities, and it doesn’t work well in certain other cultural contexts, like that of India. But, regardless, people were still left amazed by the story and the hard work, dedication, and belief in oneself that Mr. Montañez exhibited.
Here’s how people reacted to the story
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Image credits: AdamBladeTaylor
What are your thoughts on this? Got some inspiring stories to share with the audience? Let us know in the comment section below!
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Stories like this are weapons. "This poor guy worked hard and succeeded - therefore everyone can do the same. If you're poor, it's your fault." In reality, only very few can be rich - capitalism is a pyramid scheme.
Agreed. These kind of occurrences are so rare and is about equivalent to winning the lottery, it might as well be urban myth. Education will only take you so far, a good idea will only take you so far, for the most part you have to know the right people. Good luck with that if you're from a lower caste. Don't fool yourself, america has castes.
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This is such a lovely story, and it is a slight shame that people have decided to turn it into another "capitalism vs socialism" argument. No matter your political ideology, we can all agree that Montañez deserves his new role, wholeheartedly. This story is also a good example for why we need a diverse work force to create products for a diverse audience. Anyhow, very heartwarming! And Montañez's grandfather's advice was actually amazing, whether your a janitor or a CEO of a big business, you do menial or mental work, take pride in what you do (and while you should always take pride in what you do, you can also think of ways to better yourself and look forward, as this man did!). All-around lovely story. And I have to agree, spicy Cheetos are the best!! :D
Except this happened in the mid-80's. How many more stories like these have you heard since?? You can put any positive spin you want on this, but the fact is that reality is not reflective of it. You have way more disenfranchised people than people like Montanez. That last post from Adam Taylor IS America and perfectly encapsulates our reality.
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I really must address the first comment on the tweet from anniehic " that's Capitalism, thats the American Dream, we cant let us be dragged into socialism." She like many Americans are confused about the difference between socialism and communism. This story is great and the "dream" is fantatsic for this guy but sadly the reality is that millions of Americans and incredibly poor, living in conditions that you would expect in the third world. Socialism is about a fairer society for all. You can still have a job and make money but government and your tax dollars support the poorest in society. If you are rich/white/privileged it is easy to not know/care about the shocking poverty in America. Socialism is not the evil Americans think it is , what is wrong with a fair society in which people dont love on the streets,the government helps everybody to get a job and they are supported until they do, nobody goes hungry and healthcare is free for all?
It could also be argued that the CEO was practicing socialism when he told all employees to act like a CEO. Most capitalist companies do not do that. The biggest thing is that he listened, they both learned, and respected the man and didn't just give him a $500 bonus and steal his idea. That's what most capitalists would do.
Load More Replies...
Stories like this are weapons. "This poor guy worked hard and succeeded - therefore everyone can do the same. If you're poor, it's your fault." In reality, only very few can be rich - capitalism is a pyramid scheme.
Agreed. These kind of occurrences are so rare and is about equivalent to winning the lottery, it might as well be urban myth. Education will only take you so far, a good idea will only take you so far, for the most part you have to know the right people. Good luck with that if you're from a lower caste. Don't fool yourself, america has castes.
Load More Replies... This is such a lovely story, and it is a slight shame that people have decided to turn it into another "capitalism vs socialism" argument. No matter your political ideology, we can all agree that Montañez deserves his new role, wholeheartedly. This story is also a good example for why we need a diverse work force to create products for a diverse audience. Anyhow, very heartwarming! And Montañez's grandfather's advice was actually amazing, whether your a janitor or a CEO of a big business, you do menial or mental work, take pride in what you do (and while you should always take pride in what you do, you can also think of ways to better yourself and look forward, as this man did!). All-around lovely story. And I have to agree, spicy Cheetos are the best!! :D
Except this happened in the mid-80's. How many more stories like these have you heard since?? You can put any positive spin you want on this, but the fact is that reality is not reflective of it. You have way more disenfranchised people than people like Montanez. That last post from Adam Taylor IS America and perfectly encapsulates our reality.
Load More Replies... I really must address the first comment on the tweet from anniehic " that's Capitalism, thats the American Dream, we cant let us be dragged into socialism." She like many Americans are confused about the difference between socialism and communism. This story is great and the "dream" is fantatsic for this guy but sadly the reality is that millions of Americans and incredibly poor, living in conditions that you would expect in the third world. Socialism is about a fairer society for all. You can still have a job and make money but government and your tax dollars support the poorest in society. If you are rich/white/privileged it is easy to not know/care about the shocking poverty in America. Socialism is not the evil Americans think it is , what is wrong with a fair society in which people dont love on the streets,the government helps everybody to get a job and they are supported until they do, nobody goes hungry and healthcare is free for all?
It could also be argued that the CEO was practicing socialism when he told all employees to act like a CEO. Most capitalist companies do not do that. The biggest thing is that he listened, they both learned, and respected the man and didn't just give him a $500 bonus and steal his idea. That's what most capitalists would do.
Load More Replies...
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