This is an I-Heart podcast.

Guaranteed Human.

And we continue with our American stories and with our American Dreamers series,

which is sponsored by the great folks at the Job

Creators Network. And today, Alex Cortez brings us a story that gives us a fascinating look

inside the pharmaceutical industry, one we generally don't get. Here's Alex.

At 29 years old, Bruce Paddock bought a bankrupt pharmaceutical company for $20,000, and everyone thought he was crazy.

I had a lab technician, an office manager, and me, so were three of us.

Now, I continued to work as a pharmacist nights and weekends.

I work part-time for Target, Walgreens. I work for

every pharmacy along Lake Street, which is in the South Minneapolis area. So I would work the

five to eleven shift or I'd work weekends because I had to put food on the table because the first

two to three years of Paddock Laboratories, I wasn't taking a salary.

I mean, there was a period of time. I remember I was working 80 hours a week.

I was known throughout the city as have spatula will travel.

I would work for anybody. Anybody would call me up. Bruce, I've got 11 to 7 shift.

I take it.

You know, a lot of times, a lot of these independent pharmacies,

they only got a day off a week.

And so they would pay cash, and they'd pay a lot of cash,

just to get a break, to get a Saturday night or a Sunday morning break. So I would work,

I think at one time, I counted, over a two-year period of time, I had worked in over 50

...