What was the biggest challenge while being the CEO of 7-Eleven and Blockbuster that you had to overcome?

First of all, I had a really good run at 7-Eleven. Four or five hundred thousand employees. There was probably $12 billion company at the time. $1 billion. Yeah, billion. Wow. First of all, 7-Eleven went through a bankruptcy. I lived through two major financial crises. How did you guys turn out of 7-Eleven around after the bankruptcy? I haven't talked about this one a lot, but here was the idea.

James Keyes is an American business financial crises. How did you guys turn in 7-Eleven around after the bankruptcy? I haven't talked

about this one a lot. But here was the idea. James Keys is an American business leader and

transformational CEO, known for leading Fortune 500 Giants 7-Eleven and Blockbuster. Now chairman of

Key Development LLC and author of Education is Freedom. He's on a mission to inspire the next generation

of leaders. Dealing with hundreds of millions of dollars of business. It started on a mission to inspire the next generation of leaders.

Dealing with hundreds of millions of dollars of business. It started on a very basic level, right?

Oh, yeah, very basic. I literally grew up in a three-room shack with no running water.

My mom left and I was five. My dad ended up getting sick. I had all of these turmoil.

But it was great because in America, it doesn't really matter where you're from. If you're willing to learn, then sky's the limit. A little by little, your trajectory start to grow to CEO, 7-11 and Blockbuster. Yeah, during my tenure CEO, the stock moved from $3.5 to $40 to share. Now, Blockbuster, was it literally Netflix that killed Blockbuster? No, not at all. I know Netflix approached Blockbuster. They offered Blockbuster, I heard, for $50 million. To buy the company, yeah. But the stock was trained at like 70 cents a share. So, if anybody thinks that was dumb, my question to them, did you buy the stock in 70 cents? Nowadays, we think it's important to just be in a constant state of anticipating adaptation.

That's literally why I wrote the book.

Because if change equals opportunity, then the only way to adapt change is to be a constant learner.

Knowing what you know now, is there anything you would have done differently when running blockbuster or things you would have tried maybe?

Well, the first thing I would have done is and then here's the decision I would like to have back.

Hey guys, welcome to this episode of the Passionate Few podcast. It's your host, Omar, and today we have an incredible interview as we sit down with not only a leader who affected millions of people. He's the former CEO of 7-Eleven and Blockbuster. And now he's the author of Education and His Freedom, the Man, the Myth, the Legend, James Keyes. Thanks so much for being on the show today, James. Well, Mark, great to be here. Yes, sir. One of the passionate few. My man, thank you so much for coming in. I know you just came in for the Middle East, I believe, right? I did, yeah. I had a pretty amazing tour. I was over in Kuwait, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Dubai. It's pretty amazing. Beautiful. You were promoting the book or on a world tour? Well, speaking tour, the book has led to a lot of interest on social media.

Yeah.

And so, you know, here I am in the Middle East talking about freedom.

Right?

Very cool.

But it was fascinating because there's a real hunger I found everywhere in the world.

In fact, outside of the United States, there's been more interest than inside even,

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