3 Inspiring Entrepreneurial Stories + 50 Job Openings
A summary of this weeks LinkedIn posts.
The Story of Sam Waltons First Retail Store
Did you know that Sam Walton’s first retail store failed?
In 1945, Sam Walton bought a store called The Ben Franklin Store in Newport, Arkansas with a $20,000 loan and $5,000 from his savings. The Ben Franklin Store was losing money when Walton bought it.
Long story short, Walton grew this store to be the biggest variety store in the state and possibly the whole region. He was able to repay his debt and turn the company around with huge success.
The problem: the lease only lasted 5 years without a renewal clause. After all his hard work, Walton was “kicked out” of the town he contributed so much to just from a simple mistake.
Did that stop him from becoming one of the most successful entrepreneurs in the country?
You tell me…
Despite the devastating loss, he got right back on his feet and started a new store in Bentonville, Arkansas called Walton’s Five and Dime. Learning from his mistakes, he made sure to get a 99-year lease.
By the end of the 50s, Walton’s Five and Dime had 15 stores running. One thing led to another, and he started Walmart!
The point of this story is that despite losing everything, Walton tried again.
Fail
Learn
Try again
Failing is for winners.
The Genius Marketing of Rolex
How Rolex’s genius marketing strategy propelled them to fame:
In 1926, Rolex released the first water-proof wristwatch in history called the “Rolex Oyster”. This was a huge innovation, but the founder, Hans Wilsdorf, awaited the perfect opportunity to showcase it to the world.
In 1927, Hans heard about a woman, Mercedes Gleitze, who claimed to be able to swim across the English Channel, which is 20.5 miles long. Understandably, people didn’t believe her, so she was made to do it again with thousands watching.
Hans saw this golden opportunity and convinced Mercedes to wear the Oyster watch around her neck while swimming. Mercedes ended up swimming in the freezing water for about 10 hours and made it about 80% of the way through the channel before being pulled out because she almost died.
After all that, the watch remained undamaged and fully functional. This gave Rolex huge publicity. Hans then followed up with an ad on the front page of a London newspaper right next to the swimming story.
Hans started marketing his watch with ads showing the Oyster inside a fish bowl. He used this visual on the watch displays in every Rolex store. He also got Evelyn Laye, a British model, to promote his watch. The pictures of her again showed her hand (with the watch) in the fish bowl.
The lesson:
You don’t have to invent something completely new or crazy to be successful. Just take something that already exists and make it a little different.
In this example, wristwatches already existed but were less durable and accurate than pocket watches. Hans Wilsdorf found using pocket watches inconvenient, so he modified the wristwatch.
The second lesson:
Once you’ve found your edge, make that the center of your marketing.
Rolex’s innovation was a waterproof watch. What did they do? They constantly showed it in water. All of their ads were focused on that one improvement.
Milton Hershey’s Resilience
Milton Hershey’s first two candy businesses went bankrupt and his third almost failed too.
After the second business failed, Milton’s family refused to loan him any more money. He was not out of options though, as he managed to get a loan from his former accountant. That was enough to get him back on his feet and start another business.
Using what he learned from his previous businesses, Hershey made caramel candies and started the Lancaster Caramel Company. As his sales grew, his aunt gave him a loan that he had to repay in 90 days.
As the days passed, the business wasn’t making enough money for Hershey to pay the loan back on time.
That’s when he got his break: A British importer found Hershey’s business and quickly became impressed by the caramels' unique taste and month-long shelf life. The importer placed a large order for these caramels and promised to pay Hershey if they arrived in good condition in London.
After several days of complete silence, Hershey received a letter. It was a check for 500 British pounds, which is $65,000 in today’s USD.
Can you imagine getting a check for $65,000?
This was enough money to pay off all of his debts and reinvest into his business. From here, his company grew to several factories and employed thousands of people. This business eventually started selling chocolates and became the Hershey’s company we know today.
If times are rough, believe in yourself and your business. Don’t give up. Remember how much it took to get to where you are now.
Your breakthrough is right around the corner.
Were these stories inspiring? Which was your favorite? Which one resonated with you the most?
Let’s look at all 50 jobs I shared this week. I’ll show them day by day. Keep in mind the “days ago” line is relative to the day the post was published.
Monday
Apple: WW Retail Fulfillment Operation Planner - 5 Days Ago
Amazon: Head of Product, Alexa Japan - 5 Days Ago
International - Based in Japan
Capital One: Software Engineer, Back End - 6 Days Ago
Capital Mind: Trustee Officer - 5 Days Ago
International - Based in Bengaluru, Karnataka, India.
Disney: Theme Park Development Specialist - 4 Days Ago
Stripe: Product Manager, Financial Systems - 5 Days Ago
Disney: Senior Data Scientist - 4 Days Ago
Apple: Senior Product Manager, Affordability Programs - 4 Days Ago
https://www.linkedin.com/posts/activity-7270099497181941761-zJDH
Google: Data Scientist (Various Roles) - 5 Days Ago
Vizio: Data Scientist + Staff Data Analyst - 6 Days Ago
Tuesday
JP Morgan Chase: VP Lending Innovation Product Manager - 5 Days Ago
JP Morgan Chase: Workforce Planning Business Analyst, Senior Associate - 5 Days Ago
Salesforce: Product Manager Director, Continuous Integration - 5 Days Ago
Disney: Theme Park Development Specialist - 6 Days Ago
Capitol One: Senior Software Engineer, Full Stack - 1 Week Ago
Meta: Software Engineering, Infrastructure - 6 Days Ago
Disney: Show Mechanical Engineer Principal - 1 Week Ago
Google: Senior Analytical Lead, Apps - 5 Days Ago
JP Morgan Chase: Data Science Manager, Focused Analytics Solutions Team - 4 Days Ago
TikTok: Logistics Category Procurement Manager - 4 Days Ago
Wednesday
Capital One: Senior Software Engineer, Full Stack - 5 Days Ago
https://www.linkedin.com/posts/activity-7270620354442661890-eTxZ
JP Morgan Chase: Senior Associate of General Management, Alternative Lending - 5 Days Ago
Google: Data Analytics Sales Specialist III, Google Cloud - 1 Week Ago
DraftKings: Corporate Counsel, Commercial Transactions - 4 Days Ago
Microsoft India: Various Roles - 1 Week Ago
Based in India
Meta: Partnerships Manager, Payments - 1 Week Ago
Adobe: Manager, Strategy Execution - 1 Week Ago
DocuSign: Lead Product Manager, Business to Employee - 1 Week Ago
Google: Director, Technical Program Management, Cloud Supply Chain Operations - 1 Week Ago
JP Morgan Chase: Data Scientist Marketing Analytics Vice President - Consumer Bank - 1 Week Ago
https://www.linkedin.com/posts/activity-7270123622499778561-2m0D
Thursday
Geico: Senior Product Manager - Insurance Platform Services - 1 Week Ago
ZoomInfo: Senior Product Manager - Platform - 1 Week Ago
JP Morgan Chase: Data Governance Lead - Vice President - 2 Weeks Ago
Capital One: Business Manager, Decisioning Platform - 1 Week Ago
Wendy’s: Product Owner - 1 Week Ago
Expedia: Vice President, Corporate Strategy - 6 Days Ago
GM Financial: Software Development Engineer II - 6 Days Ago
Target: Product Manager - 6 Days Ago
JP Morgan Chase: Vice President, Product Management, Payments - 6 Days Ago
GM Financial: Scrum Master III - 1 Week Ago
Friday
GM Financial: Tax Analyst - 1 Week Ago
FedEx: Data Analyst Advisor, Data Governance - 6 Days Ago
https://www.linkedin.com/posts/activity-7270903796828954624-wnIL
Honda: Data Analytics & BI Sr. Analyst - 1 Week Ago
Roblox: Data Science Summer 2025 Internship - 6 Days Ago
Duolingo: Lead Product Manager, Notifications - 1 Week Ago
https://www.linkedin.com/posts/matthewjameslong_hiring-activity-7270589130407915520-ukPa
Instacart: Senior Data Engineer, Finance - 4 Days Ago
https://www.linkedin.com/posts/activity-7271607876425543681-e37g
Amazon: Software Development Engineer II - 3 Days Ago
JP Morgan Chase: Vice President, Segment Experience Strategy - 5 Days Ago
American Express: Associate Digital Product Management - 2 Days Ago
https://www.linkedin.com/posts/activity-7272317719117545473-g0Kw
MetLife: Senior Marketing Performance Analyst - 2 Days Ago
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