You Can Be the Best with John Ply | Always on the GROW Podcast Interview

John Ply is a successful entrepreneur and an avid golfer.
His father Ziggy, a Polish WWII POW immigrated to the US and built a fulfilling life for a family of five kids on a butcher's salary.
He implemented the first lesson he learned from his father "be the best", first with Priority Food Processing, a service provider to the food industry, then with Insight Beverages, a company he started to become a customer of his first company.
John’s beginnings were humble. His parents could not afford private school.
So, John graduated in Finance from Indiana University out of scholarship.
He started his career as inventory controller but grew up become the president of the company all within 1 year. He was 24 then.
When he came into situation where he had to start his own company, he made sure the employees were paid well and treated well.
After the initial struggles, the company grew in leaps and bounds: 1.8 million a year to 4 million a year to 15 million a year to 33 million a year in sales.
He ended up with a 9 figure exit.
Timestamps:
2:25 What was the journey in John’s early days that gave him the drive, the hunger
9:40 What kind of circumstances happened that allowed John to grow from inventory manager to President of Lordson in less than 1 year at the age of 24
15:15 Circumstances that lead John Ply to start his own company
21:04 When too much business became a problem
24:13 How did John execute the ‘not giving up’ when he didn’t give up after selling zero products paying $75000 a year for a product manager, what was happening in those moments.
27:31 How is Priority Foods growing so fast: from 1.8 million a year to 4 million to 15 million to 33 million a year in sales
33:02 During the first 18 months of starting Priority foods, how difficult was the struggle
39:27 As an entrepreneur, how does one go ahead with harder decision of reinvesting in business instead of chasing new cars or selfishly using it all on themselves
47.56: What was John’s exit strategy from his company
50:00 Favorite 3 things that happened when he sold his business
55:55 Most successful person according to John Ply
1:00:53 How was John’s dad helping relatives in Poland get out of their poverty
1:10:50 How did they come up with the title for the book ‘You can be the best’written by John
1:16:13 How John addressed the ‘purpose of life’
1:21:44 What does ‘Always on the Grow’ mean to John Ply
John Ply’s book on Amazon You Can Be the Best: Life Lessons from the Butcher and the Businessman
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