I Love Capitalism! by Ken Langone

Ken Langone was highlighted at Palm Beach Atlantic University’s American Free Enterprise Day a few years back and I loved the story that he shared. When I saw that he had a biography released on Audible, I knew that I would enjoy learning more from him and his life. While the book was certainly impactful, I did not know much about his path to becoming the CEO of Home Depot. The things that he did were incredible. He is someone that I have a deep respect for now.

The first thing that stood out to me from the book was the way that he generated money while at Bucknell University. He was someone who had an eye for business early on in life and knew how to create opportunities. Ken did a fantastic job of identifying a potential opportunity in his life and then created a solution for the gap.

At Bucknell, he was contemplating how to make some money and realized freshman orientation would be a great time to target people. He contacted a stationary company and went with samples to people’s dorms. He said, “You have 10 friends you’ll write to? Maybe two or three times a week? Okay, here’s what you’ll need for the whole year but I’ll give you a nice price break it you get it all today.” He made sure to get all the money right away because after 2 weeks they had forgotten about their friends and writing letters was the last thing on their mind. He had people tell him…