What Makes An Entrepreneur

Some people are content to spend their lives working for others. Still others have a burning desire to get off the beaten path and blaze their own trail. Take Peter Vekselman for instance. The Atlanta-area businessman knew at an early age that he wanted to do something different, but by the time he graduated from Florida’s Miami University with a degree in Finance he still didn’t know what it would be. When he explored his employment options, he discovered they were rather slim, despite having a college degree.
His independent nature – and inattention to his studies – severely limited his choices.
The only job offer he got was as an insurance agent for Mass Mutual. Moving to a new city he was determined to make a name for himself. He was at a distinct disadvantage because most insurance agents have a huge list of “warm” prospects to whom they could sell insurance. Lacking a list of his own, he started cold and developed an extensive line of business in near-record time. Quickly finding success, he set about to become the best insurance agent he could be, and within a year was one of the top 20 rookie agents in the company.
Quickly tiring of the corporate environment so prevalent in the insurance industry, he tendered his resignation and founded VEX Snacks, Inc. He didn’t know anything about the snack business, so he drew off of the entrepreneurial foundation he had begun developing at Mass Mutual. Starting with just five used vending machines, he established his own routes and worked day and night to build his business. Adding additional machines and securing better locations allowed him build the company into a profitable enterprise.
A chance meeting with a prominent network marketer stoked an interest in the multi-level marketing industry. However, Peter Vekselman had a problem: his snack company was a full-time commitment. Deferring his interest in MLM, VEX Snacks continued to grow; he now had more than 100 vending machines. When a subsidiary of the Coca Cola Corporation offered to purchase the two year-old company, he jumped at the opportunity that selling the company gave him to chase the dream of greater wealth and residual income that MLM gave him.
After finalizing the terms of the sale, Vekselman received intensive training in multi-level marketing and began criss-crossing the country, fully immersing himself in this new opportunity. MLM is a challenging industry; however, to say he was successful would be an understatement. Peter Vekselman built an extremely profitable business from the ground up by giving presentations at thousands of conventions and hotel meetings coast to coast.
It was during this period of his life that he credits with truly igniting his entrepreneurial spirit and developing his tenacious, never-say-die attitude. Vekselman always possessed strong people skills, but being in almost constant demand as a speaker allowed him to further refine those skills, and with his success and popularity came a corresponding increase in income – and soon after – the accumulation of tremendous wealth. Audiences loved his attitude and his ability to make them believe in themselves, and a number of his recruits went on to build extremely successful MLM businesses of their own.
While Peter Vekselman enjoyed his success and popularity, three years of near-constant travel was beginning to take its toll on him. He was in a different city every day, and had slept in more rest stops and small motels than he cared to remember. He decided to step away from the day to day operations of the business he built and try his hand at something new.
Returning to Atlanta, he teamed up with a business partner to form Tech Touch Cash, Inc., a firm that marketed a line of credit card processing machines. From the company’s humble beginnings in a 900 square foot rented office building, the fledgling company very quickly grew into a regional powerhouse, with 15 franchises and 100 employees.
Feeling stifled by the increasingly corporate feel of his successful business, Vekselman began seeking a different opportunity, one that would draw upon his strengths and feed his entrepreneurial spirit. Having recognized the limited future for personal growth, development, and fulfillment available through Tech Touch Cash, he sold his stake in the company to his partner.
After reading a book about mobile homes, he got so excited about the concept that he drove to Virginia to meet with the book’s author and learn as much as possible about the business. The meeting answered many of his questions and Vekselman decided to purchase a mobile home and open a mobile home brokerage in Atlanta.
He chose a good time to get involved in mobile homes because – at that time – the demand for used mobile homes was explosive. Sensing that he was on the front end of a tsunami of growth, he rode the wave and reinvested every spare dollar he could into his mobile home brokerage. Within three years he had become the largest used mobile home broker in the Atlanta area.
Finally feeling alive, Vekselman realized what he had known all along: While he had achieved levels of success that many only dream of, he was now doing something he truly enjoyed. As the company grew the company became more and more automated, which freed some of his time to explore how he could become even more successful within the real estate industry. Real estate was a passion he didn’t know he had.
So, for the first time in his adult life, he was truly content and at peace with himself. His journey through career uncertainty and self-discovery was over. He wanted to fully immerse himself in real estate investing and all that that entailed.
He was ready.