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Warning: date() [function.date]: It is not safe to rely on the system's timezone settings. You are *required* to use the date.timezone setting or the date_default_timezone_set() function. In case you used any of those methods and you are still getting this warning, you most likely misspelled the timezone identifier. We selected 'America/New_York' for 'EDT/-4.0/DST' instead in /data/9/1/57/101/1220753/user/1301555/htdocs/blog/wp-content/plugins/wp-db-backup/wp-db-backup.php on line 106
Bernie Marcus: “My Life Began When I Was Fired at 49” | The Richest Man in Town
Warning: strtotime() [function.strtotime]: It is not safe to rely on the system's timezone settings. You are *required* to use the date.timezone setting or the date_default_timezone_set() function. In case you used any of those methods and you are still getting this warning, you most likely misspelled the timezone identifier. We selected 'America/New_York' for 'EDT/-4.0/DST' instead in /data/9/1/57/101/1220753/user/1301555/htdocs/blog/wp-includes/link-template.php on line 110

Warning: date() [function.date]: It is not safe to rely on the system's timezone settings. You are *required* to use the date.timezone setting or the date_default_timezone_set() function. In case you used any of those methods and you are still getting this warning, you most likely misspelled the timezone identifier. We selected 'America/New_York' for 'EDT/-4.0/DST' instead in /data/9/1/57/101/1220753/user/1301555/htdocs/blog/wp-includes/link-template.php on line 135

Warning: mktime() [function.mktime]: It is not safe to rely on the system's timezone settings. You are *required* to use the date.timezone setting or the date_default_timezone_set() function. In case you used any of those methods and you are still getting this warning, you most likely misspelled the timezone identifier. We selected 'America/New_York' for 'EDT/-4.0/DST' instead in /data/9/1/57/101/1220753/user/1301555/htdocs/blog/wp-includes/functions.php on line 41

Warning: date() [function.date]: It is not safe to rely on the system's timezone settings. You are *required* to use the date.timezone setting or the date_default_timezone_set() function. In case you used any of those methods and you are still getting this warning, you most likely misspelled the timezone identifier. We selected 'America/New_York' for 'EDT/-4.0/DST' instead in /data/9/1/57/101/1220753/user/1301555/htdocs/blog/wp-includes/functions.php on line 50

Warning: date() [function.date]: It is not safe to rely on the system's timezone settings. You are *required* to use the date.timezone setting or the date_default_timezone_set() function. In case you used any of those methods and you are still getting this warning, you most likely misspelled the timezone identifier. We selected 'America/New_York' for 'EDT/-4.0/DST' instead in /data/9/1/57/101/1220753/user/1301555/htdocs/blog/wp-includes/functions.php on line 52

Warning: date() [function.date]: It is not safe to rely on the system's timezone settings. You are *required* to use the date.timezone setting or the date_default_timezone_set() function. In case you used any of those methods and you are still getting this warning, you most likely misspelled the timezone identifier. We selected 'America/New_York' for 'EDT/-4.0/DST' instead in /data/9/1/57/101/1220753/user/1301555/htdocs/blog/wp-includes/functions.php on line 54

Warning: date() [function.date]: It is not safe to rely on the system's timezone settings. You are *required* to use the date.timezone setting or the date_default_timezone_set() function. In case you used any of those methods and you are still getting this warning, you most likely misspelled the timezone identifier. We selected 'America/New_York' for 'EDT/-4.0/DST' instead in /data/9/1/57/101/1220753/user/1301555/htdocs/blog/wp-includes/functions.php on line 55

Warning: mktime() [function.mktime]: It is not safe to rely on the system's timezone settings. You are *required* to use the date.timezone setting or the date_default_timezone_set() function. In case you used any of those methods and you are still getting this warning, you most likely misspelled the timezone identifier. We selected 'America/New_York' for 'EDT/-4.0/DST' instead in /data/9/1/57/101/1220753/user/1301555/htdocs/blog/wp-includes/functions.php on line 41

Warning: date() [function.date]: It is not safe to rely on the system's timezone settings. You are *required* to use the date.timezone setting or the date_default_timezone_set() function. In case you used any of those methods and you are still getting this warning, you most likely misspelled the timezone identifier. We selected 'America/New_York' for 'EDT/-4.0/DST' instead in /data/9/1/57/101/1220753/user/1301555/htdocs/blog/wp-includes/functions.php on line 50

Warning: date() [function.date]: It is not safe to rely on the system's timezone settings. You are *required* to use the date.timezone setting or the date_default_timezone_set() function. In case you used any of those methods and you are still getting this warning, you most likely misspelled the timezone identifier. We selected 'America/New_York' for 'EDT/-4.0/DST' instead in /data/9/1/57/101/1220753/user/1301555/htdocs/blog/wp-includes/functions.php on line 52

Warning: date() [function.date]: It is not safe to rely on the system's timezone settings. You are *required* to use the date.timezone setting or the date_default_timezone_set() function. In case you used any of those methods and you are still getting this warning, you most likely misspelled the timezone identifier. We selected 'America/New_York' for 'EDT/-4.0/DST' instead in /data/9/1/57/101/1220753/user/1301555/htdocs/blog/wp-includes/functions.php on line 54

Warning: date() [function.date]: It is not safe to rely on the system's timezone settings. You are *required* to use the date.timezone setting or the date_default_timezone_set() function. In case you used any of those methods and you are still getting this warning, you most likely misspelled the timezone identifier. We selected 'America/New_York' for 'EDT/-4.0/DST' instead in /data/9/1/57/101/1220753/user/1301555/htdocs/blog/wp-includes/functions.php on line 55

Bernie Marcus: “My Life Began When I Was Fired at 49”

Posted By Randy Jones on
Warning: mktime() [function.mktime]: It is not safe to rely on the system's timezone settings. You are *required* to use the date.timezone setting or the date_default_timezone_set() function. In case you used any of those methods and you are still getting this warning, you most likely misspelled the timezone identifier. We selected 'America/New_York' for 'EDT/-4.0/DST' instead in /data/9/1/57/101/1220753/user/1301555/htdocs/blog/wp-includes/functions.php on line 41

Warning: date() [function.date]: It is not safe to rely on the system's timezone settings. You are *required* to use the date.timezone setting or the date_default_timezone_set() function. In case you used any of those methods and you are still getting this warning, you most likely misspelled the timezone identifier. We selected 'America/New_York' for 'EDT/-4.0/DST' instead in /data/9/1/57/101/1220753/user/1301555/htdocs/blog/wp-includes/functions.php on line 50

Warning: date() [function.date]: It is not safe to rely on the system's timezone settings. You are *required* to use the date.timezone setting or the date_default_timezone_set() function. In case you used any of those methods and you are still getting this warning, you most likely misspelled the timezone identifier. We selected 'America/New_York' for 'EDT/-4.0/DST' instead in /data/9/1/57/101/1220753/user/1301555/htdocs/blog/wp-includes/functions.php on line 52

Warning: date() [function.date]: It is not safe to rely on the system's timezone settings. You are *required* to use the date.timezone setting or the date_default_timezone_set() function. In case you used any of those methods and you are still getting this warning, you most likely misspelled the timezone identifier. We selected 'America/New_York' for 'EDT/-4.0/DST' instead in /data/9/1/57/101/1220753/user/1301555/htdocs/blog/wp-includes/functions.php on line 54

Warning: date() [function.date]: It is not safe to rely on the system's timezone settings. You are *required* to use the date.timezone setting or the date_default_timezone_set() function. In case you used any of those methods and you are still getting this warning, you most likely misspelled the timezone identifier. We selected 'America/New_York' for 'EDT/-4.0/DST' instead in /data/9/1/57/101/1220753/user/1301555/htdocs/blog/wp-includes/functions.php on line 55
April 9, 2009


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Warning: date() [function.date]: It is not safe to rely on the system's timezone settings. You are *required* to use the date.timezone setting or the date_default_timezone_set() function. In case you used any of those methods and you are still getting this warning, you most likely misspelled the timezone identifier. We selected 'America/New_York' for 'EDT/-4.0/DST' instead in /data/9/1/57/101/1220753/user/1301555/htdocs/blog/wp-includes/link-template.php on line 135

Bernie Marcus is, without question, one of the greatest American self-made success stories of all time.  The company he founded, Home Depot, has immeasurably changed the landscape of virtually every town in America. Marcus’s Home Depot added its trademark orange to the red, white, and blue American Dream of owning your own home and finding pleasure in fixing it up.  Today Home Depot has more than 2,200 stores across North America.

This success story began for Marcus at a point when most people would be thinking about hanging up their spurs and heading to sunny retirement villages. Not so for him and his co-founders, Arthur Blank, Ken Langone, and Pat Farrah. Marcus and Blank were both fired from Handy Dan, a home-improvement chain that their new company ultimately put out of business. While you may be thinking that revenge is sweet, revenge was not the motivation for these then middle-aged middle managers—being fired was the best thing that ever happened to both of them.  In fact, Bernie Marcus said to me when I was interviewing him for my book, “My life began when I was fired at 49 years of age.”  Closing one door led to opening thousands more—more than 2,200, to be exact.

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About The Author

Randy Jones
W. Randall Jones is the author of The Richest Man in Town. Visit the About W. Randall Jones and About The Richest Man in Town pages to learn more.

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