Growing up, I lived near an old train yard.
There were always tons of shipping containers sitting in a field near the back.
The train yard was filled with containers and my friends and I used to run around the yard and play. Our parents hated that we played in the trains, but we had so much fun. When the station master caught us, he’d yell and scream and send us away for a few days. After we waited him out, we went back and smoked cigarettes and drank beers from the corner store. After college, I started thinking about the old shipping containers. I knew there was a way to make money using those old steel structures. I bargained with the railroad and made a deal to purchase 50 shipping containers for $75,000. They were happy to get rid of the rusty pile of bolts. I bought a small semi truck capable of hauling the shipping containers and I transported them to a large field that I bought from a neighbor. That’s when I started my portable storage unit business. I transformed the old containers into mobile storage units. We drive the unit to your location and drop it off. You can fill it up and then we come pick it up to store. The idea boomed quickly and now I have locations in 17 states. I’m a multimillionaire and my company trades on the NYSE. When me and my friends were hanging out twenty years ago, I never realized those shipping containers would be my past, my present, and my future.