When all You Have is Hope

I read a great book by Frank O'Dea called When all You Have is Hope.

Frank is the founder of Second Cup. That's impressive. But more impressive, is he started that business after being homeless and living on the streets of Toronto. He overcame a serious alcohol addiction problem and sexual abuse.

His seed money to start the business came from savings he invested in a manual coin sorter. He sold the coin sorter the old fashioned way. Good marketing. Figuring out who would want it (It turned out churches loved it).

His book shares his simple truths. His perceptions. It is well written. I certainly found it interesting and even inspirational.

From the book:

"Forget about the mistakes you made yesterday; yesterday is gone. Don't dwell on tomorrow; nobody knows what it will bring. Focus exclusively on today. When you wallow in remorse over yesterday, or quake in fear about tomorrow, you lose hope."

Much of the book draws on advice given by his self help group. I am not sure if it was AA but it sounds like it.

Everyone likes rags to riches stories. That said, I am not suggesting you become homeless to make your story more impressive (although that is part of the appeal). His story certainly makes me think that almost anything is possible in business.