This is the Gary V. Audio Experience.

I was a, you know, a 16 year old, 17 year old in the store, dusting shelves on the floor.

And I heard an exchange between a manager and a customer where the customer came in and said,

this lendemann, I know the product, this lendemann's Shardonnay, I paid $5.99 for it two weeks ago.

I just got this coupon in the mail for $4.99. Can you refund me the dollar difference?

And the manager said, no, said, if you buy some more, well, honor that price at this coupon price.

And the customer basically said, you know what, you don't have to worry about it because I'm never coming back and left.

And I just remember listening to the exchange and knowing my intuition was like, why not?

The value of that customer is much greater than this $1. I live in lifetime value.

I live in what is this customer worth to me forever, not this moment. I live in who's going to win the war, not the battle.

So my family and I first came to the United States because of political asylum.

And we were able to get out in 1978. I was three years old.

My dad was in the construction business by trade. But unfortunately that market was suffocated here.

My dad started working at a stockboy in the liquor store in Clark, New Jersey.

Eventually was able to save up enough money to become part owner in a small store, which actually happens to be here in Springfield, New Jersey.

This new building has engulfed the old little store that he first bought in 1983.

But going from stockboy to assistant manager to manager to part owner in five years with no language and no money makes me question if my dad shouldn't be sitting in this seat.

More than I should, we moved to Dover, New Jersey first. And then mainly I grew up in Edison, New Jersey, where I moved when I was five years old.

And that's really where my entrepreneur career began. It was that first summer and everybody wanted to play. I wanted to sell stuff.

I was like, where's our lemonade stand? Let's go car wash. Let's have a flea market. Let's make a golf course.

I basically started my business career in that town, but I was always trying to come up with some way to make a buck in those early days.

My baseball card career started when I was in fifth grade, and my mom took me to US one flea market.

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