JAKARTA – American billionaire Jimmy John Liautaud earned more than $ 2 billion in profits from his sandwich shop, Jimmy John’s Sandwich Chain. The success that he has now, does not just happen. There is a process that is long enough to be like this.

Liautaud had experienced a very turbulent situation for most of his life. At the age of 12, his mother immigrated to Illinois to teach elementary school there, and his father was a veteran of the army who turned into an entrepreneur who had experienced bankruptcy twice.

“My early years lived in total failure,” he said, as reported by Forbes, Thursday (01/03/2019). But finally, his father started success with a plastic maker company.

Liautaud himself was given USD 25 thousand to start a business, provided he would join the Army. Eventually he began setting up Jimmy John’s Sandwich Shop near East Illinos University in 1983, when he was 19 years old. He and his father shared ownership of the sandwich business, 52% and 48% respectively.

Liautaud works 18 hours a day to send sandwiches to university dormitories, also serving customers in his shop. In addition, he also learned about basic finance quickly. In the first 12 months he made a profit of USD 154 thousand.

Later, he opened his second store in 1986, and in 1994 had 10 stores with income of USD 4 million. Jimmy John began selling franchises in the same year, which mostly in large countries to grow faster.

In 2005, Liautaud decided to diversify its wealth by selling a portion of the company. “If I sell USD 2 million per year, I can still live life,” he said.

Finally, a private equity firm in Boston bought the company. He sold 28% of his business and generated USD 130 million.

For 6 years, the business has grown rapidly. But at a certain moment he experienced a less pleasant situation. Liautaud struggled to keep up with the growth of his company. In 2014, Jimmy John’s sandwich chain had branches in 2000 locations, and Liautaud could not control all parts.

“I feel like losing bandwidth. In the marketing department I have an advertising fund of USD 100 million and I am confused about how to run the fund effectively? “Said Liautaud who later appointed president James North, an old employee to become the first CEO.

Later, Liautaud bought most of the shares of Roark Capital, a large company based in Atlanta in 2016. It has a 35% ownership of the company worth USD 1.7 billion thanks to agreements made and other investments, such as farms in Illinos and shares of electric producers Juul cigarettes.