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This article ends right before the actual interesting part begins. Janitor takes some food his company produces, adds spices, makes a shitty pitch deck and pro

This article ends right before the actual interesting part begins. Janitor takes some food his company produces, adds spices, makes a shitty pitch deck and profit? Cool, but... this could have easily happened in a dozen different configurations and gone nowhere. This is more luck than anything else. The interesting story begins after that. This guy didn't end his career there - so, presumably, he was't a one-hit wonder. We have an illiterate janitor who suddenly got swept into the orbit of the CEO, without any business or operational acumen. He somehow -how??- managed to learn the ways of the new tribe, learn business, learn to read and write, learn how to lead a business unit, and do it well. This guy came out of nowhere, and had to zero-to-sixty from manual laborer to - what? executive? What position did they put him in? How did he ramp up? What kind of support did he get, if any? What kind of education did they provide him with, if any? There's a long, interesting story between "janitor" and "successful VP", and they neglected to tell almost any of it!

dsfyu404ed 7y ago
>He somehow -how??- managed to learn the ways of the new tribe, learn business, learn to read and write, learn how to lead a business unit, and do it well. This guy came out of nowhere, and had to zero-to-sixty from manual laborer to - what? executive? What position did they put him in? How did he ramp up? What kind of support did he get, if any? What kind of education did they provide him with, if any? When you get an opportunity like that not learning isn't a realistic option. You do whatever to take advantage of the opportunity.
- Cyph0n 7y ago
  Trust me, it takes a motivated (and talented) individual to push through something like that. I would wager that the vast majority of us would never have taken it this far.
thundergolfer 7y ago
thehustle.co as a publication is catered to young 'hustlers' who very much buy into the capitalist American Dream. This is a hype-article for the 'anyone can make it' myth, a myth that fuels culture of overworked young people[1] struggling against structural changes they're told to ignore. [1]. https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/02/religion-workism-making-americans-miserable/583441/ https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/02/religion-w...
- mindcrime 7y ago
  thehustle.co as a publication is catered to young 'hustlers' who very much buy into the capitalist American Dream. Good. We need more of this kind of thing around here, and less negativity and the "luck is everything, effort is irrelevant, sit on your ass and wait for the government to fix all your problems" bullshit that we've been overrun with lately. This is a hype-article for the 'anyone can make it' myth There's a big difference between saying "anyone can make it" and saying "everyone will make it". There's also the fact that there's a wide continuum regarding what "it" means. Not everyone has to become a billionaire to have "made it." If you're working in the fields for less than minimum wage in 110° temperatures, then becoming a manager at McDonalds could easily count as "making it." People should be encouraged to work hard and pursue their dreams... at the very least, I think we can all recognize that you're more likely to "make it" if you put the effort in, than if you sit around doing nothing.
  - wavefunction 7y ago
    you'll find success in yourself and not fawning praise of hustle lifestyle pieces... or... you won't
  - umanwizard 7y ago
    > If you're working in the fields for less than minimum wage in 110° temperatures, the become a manager at McDonalds could easily count as "making it." This is something I thought was cool about this guy’s story: by the time he became a janitor, he had already “made it” relative to his campesino upbringing (or at least how the article makes it sound). But he didn’t stop there.
  - droithomme 7y ago
    > 110° temperatures 110° temperatures has a tendency to kill off whatever crop you are growing. It's not a common growing condition and most areas with these temperatures regularly are not considered suitable regions for efficient agricultural production.
    - umanwizard 7y ago
sophacles 7y ago
I suspect the movie "mentioned" in the article will cover some of that, etc. (The casual mention towards the end of the article strikes me as the whole article being advanced marketing for the movie, by drumming up general interest in this story. That's not a bad thing but I suspect we'll start seeing more articles about Mr. Montañez before too long.)
- m463 7y ago
  I want to know the story of the guy who pitched the story to the movie studios.
_wldu 7y ago
The point is that the CEO was open minded (he took a phone call from a janitor... and actually listened to him and then gave him a chance). He saw past this mans lack of education and experience and focused on his dedication and enthusiasm. There's value in everyone, everywhere (even the lowest employees). We need leaders who can put ego aside and see that. IMO, that was the point of the story. The subsequent success of this man is another story entirely (and a good one I bet). I'm just glad that someone recognized his talent. Edit: Credit also goes to the secretary for putting the call through to the CEO and not acting as a gate-keeper. She could have ended the call. Thankfully, she was open minded too.
- nashashmi 7y ago
  Everyone gets a chance when they are young. I know lots of people who beared with me when they should not have.
  - PostOnce 7y ago
    You got a chance, people should get a chance, but it's not true that everyone does get a chance. Some people are just dealt a bad hand and get no lucky breaks, and have no path to leave mediocrity despite their effort. I think people are downvoting because they disagree with you and not explaining why.
  - carapace 7y ago
    > people who bore* with me Past tense of verb "bear" is "bore" (not "boar", FWIW.) ;-)
    - nashashmi 7y ago
      Thanks.
    - tk75x 7y ago
      FYI, English is slowly evolving away from having irregular forms of many verbs. This means that simply adding -ed to the verb is acceptable. Some common examples: bend and bent/bended, lend and lent/lended, weep and wept/weeped...
RandomBacon 7y ago
I guess we'll have to wait for the inevitable autobiographical book. (Which I will look forward to reading.)
droithomme 7y ago
Good questions. Even if he really did drop out of school in elementary school, he would not be illiterate at that point. That aspect of the story seems reasonably questionable and is probably exaggerated for drama.
- SketchySeaBeast 7y ago
  If one left school in elementary school, one could very well be functionally illiterate.
southerndrift 7y ago
The point is that he is self-made. He didn't leave school because he was stupid but because he had to. The family caused the lack of education but they gave him the right values. They instilled the pride and curiosity that allowed him to execute and not to just fulfill orders. To me, these parts of the article stand out, all beginning with his grandmother: >When he broke the news to his family, his grandfather imparted a piece of advice that would always stick with him: “Make sure that floor shines,” the man told his grandson. “And let them know that a Montañez mopped it.” He was prepared to execute because he knew the company, out of his own curiosity: >In between shifts, he set out to make himself seen, learning as much as he could about the company’s products, spending time in the warehouse, and watching the machines churn out crunchy snacks in the lonely midnight hours. This is the key part: he actively sought the knowledge by himself. From my experience, that's a rare value that is far more important than any shortcomings in his knowledge. People help him without him having power. He already is a leader. >After nearly a decade mopping floors, Montañez gathered the courage to ask one of the Frito-Lay salesmen if he could tag along and learn more about the process. Finally, not being able to read must be an exaggeration. He just went to school for four years. This doesn't mean that he stopped reading afterwards. I would assume that he regularly went to the library and thus it came naturally to look there for help. Why would an illiterate seek help in the library if his manager was kind of supportive ("YOU’RE doing this presentation!") and at least would have told him the basics? >Accompanied by his wife, he went to the library, found a book on marketing strategies, and copied the first 5 paragraphs word for word onto transparencies. After all, being captain obvious, this is on HN because it is the startup tale: a young, ambitious man without the right education can become a business leader if he stumbles upon the right opportunity. At least for this story, I think the tale is true. There is no need to know more because whatever he learned at Frito-Lay is specific to Frito-Lay. It's his attitude that brought success. But then again, he didn't become CEO or a regular manager, he is the token multicultural person of the executives: >vice president of multicultural sales for PepsiCo America
- etchalon 7y ago
  I don’t think I’d denigrate a person’s position, the responsibilities, scope and importance of which you know nothing about, with the phrase “token”.
JetSpiegel 7y ago
The best part is how he fraudulently gamed the market test. > So Montañez assembled a small team of family members and friends, went to the test markets, and bought every bag of Hot Cheetos he could find. > “I’d tell the owner, ‘Man, these are great,’” he recalled. “Next week, I’d come back and there’d be a whole rack.”

dsfyu404ed 7y ago

>He somehow -how??- managed to learn the ways of the new tribe, learn business, learn to read and write, learn how to lead a business unit, and do it well. This guy came out of nowhere, and had to zero-to-sixty from manual laborer to - what? executive? What position did they put him in? How did he ramp up? What kind of support did he get, if any? What kind of education did they provide him with, if any? When you get an opportunity like that not learning isn't a realistic option. You do whatever to take advantage of the opportunity.

Cyph0n 7y ago
Trust me, it takes a motivated (and talented) individual to push through something like that. I would wager that the vast majority of us would never have taken it this far.

thundergolfer 7y ago

thehustle.co as a publication is catered to young 'hustlers' who very much buy into the capitalist American Dream. This is a hype-article for the 'anyone can make it' myth, a myth that fuels culture of overworked young people[1] struggling against structural changes they're told to ignore. [1]. https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/02/religion-workism-making-americans-miserable/583441/ https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/02/religion-w...

mindcrime 7y ago
thehustle.co as a publication is catered to young 'hustlers' who very much buy into the capitalist American Dream. Good. We need more of this kind of thing around here, and less negativity and the "luck is everything, effort is irrelevant, sit on your ass and wait for the government to fix all your problems" bullshit that we've been overrun with lately. This is a hype-article for the 'anyone can make it' myth There's a big difference between saying "anyone can make it" and saying "everyone will make it". There's also the fact that there's a wide continuum regarding what "it" means. Not everyone has to become a billionaire to have "made it." If you're working in the fields for less than minimum wage in 110° temperatures, then becoming a manager at McDonalds could easily count as "making it." People should be encouraged to work hard and pursue their dreams... at the very least, I think we can all recognize that you're more likely to "make it" if you put the effort in, than if you sit around doing nothing.
- wavefunction 7y ago
  you'll find success in yourself and not fawning praise of hustle lifestyle pieces... or... you won't
- umanwizard 7y ago
  > If you're working in the fields for less than minimum wage in 110° temperatures, the become a manager at McDonalds could easily count as "making it." This is something I thought was cool about this guy’s story: by the time he became a janitor, he had already “made it” relative to his campesino upbringing (or at least how the article makes it sound). But he didn’t stop there.
- droithomme 7y ago
  > 110° temperatures 110° temperatures has a tendency to kill off whatever crop you are growing. It's not a common growing condition and most areas with these temperatures regularly are not considered suitable regions for efficient agricultural production.
  - umanwizard 7y ago

sophacles 7y ago

I suspect the movie "mentioned" in the article will cover some of that, etc. (The casual mention towards the end of the article strikes me as the whole article being advanced marketing for the movie, by drumming up general interest in this story. That's not a bad thing but I suspect we'll start seeing more articles about Mr. Montañez before too long.)

m463 7y ago
I want to know the story of the guy who pitched the story to the movie studios.

_wldu 7y ago

The point is that the CEO was open minded (he took a phone call from a janitor... and actually listened to him and then gave him a chance). He saw past this mans lack of education and experience and focused on his dedication and enthusiasm. There's value in everyone, everywhere (even the lowest employees). We need leaders who can put ego aside and see that. IMO, that was the point of the story. The subsequent success of this man is another story entirely (and a good one I bet). I'm just glad that someone recognized his talent. Edit: Credit also goes to the secretary for putting the call through to the CEO and not acting as a gate-keeper. She could have ended the call. Thankfully, she was open minded too.

nashashmi 7y ago
Everyone gets a chance when they are young. I know lots of people who beared with me when they should not have.
- PostOnce 7y ago
  You got a chance, people should get a chance, but it's not true that everyone does get a chance. Some people are just dealt a bad hand and get no lucky breaks, and have no path to leave mediocrity despite their effort. I think people are downvoting because they disagree with you and not explaining why.
- carapace 7y ago
  > people who bore* with me Past tense of verb "bear" is "bore" (not "boar", FWIW.) ;-)
  - nashashmi 7y ago
    Thanks.
  - tk75x 7y ago
    FYI, English is slowly evolving away from having irregular forms of many verbs. This means that simply adding -ed to the verb is acceptable. Some common examples: bend and bent/bended, lend and lent/lended, weep and wept/weeped...

RandomBacon 7y ago

I guess we'll have to wait for the inevitable autobiographical book. (Which I will look forward to reading.)

droithomme 7y ago

Good questions. Even if he really did drop out of school in elementary school, he would not be illiterate at that point. That aspect of the story seems reasonably questionable and is probably exaggerated for drama.

SketchySeaBeast 7y ago
If one left school in elementary school, one could very well be functionally illiterate.

southerndrift 7y ago

The point is that he is self-made. He didn't leave school because he was stupid but because he had to. The family caused the lack of education but they gave him the right values. They instilled the pride and curiosity that allowed him to execute and not to just fulfill orders. To me, these parts of the article stand out, all beginning with his grandmother: >When he broke the news to his family, his grandfather imparted a piece of advice that would always stick with him: “Make sure that floor shines,” the man told his grandson. “And let them know that a Montañez mopped it.” He was prepared to execute because he knew the company, out of his own curiosity: >In between shifts, he set out to make himself seen, learning as much as he could about the company’s products, spending time in the warehouse, and watching the machines churn out crunchy snacks in the lonely midnight hours. This is the key part: he actively sought the knowledge by himself. From my experience, that's a rare value that is far more important than any shortcomings in his knowledge. People help him without him having power. He already is a leader. >After nearly a decade mopping floors, Montañez gathered the courage to ask one of the Frito-Lay salesmen if he could tag along and learn more about the process. Finally, not being able to read must be an exaggeration. He just went to school for four years. This doesn't mean that he stopped reading afterwards. I would assume that he regularly went to the library and thus it came naturally to look there for help. Why would an illiterate seek help in the library if his manager was kind of supportive ("YOU’RE doing this presentation!") and at least would have told him the basics? >Accompanied by his wife, he went to the library, found a book on marketing strategies, and copied the first 5 paragraphs word for word onto transparencies. After all, being captain obvious, this is on HN because it is the startup tale: a young, ambitious man without the right education can become a business leader if he stumbles upon the right opportunity. At least for this story, I think the tale is true. There is no need to know more because whatever he learned at Frito-Lay is specific to Frito-Lay. It's his attitude that brought success. But then again, he didn't become CEO or a regular manager, he is the token multicultural person of the executives: >vice president of multicultural sales for PepsiCo America

etchalon 7y ago
I don’t think I’d denigrate a person’s position, the responsibilities, scope and importance of which you know nothing about, with the phrase “token”.

JetSpiegel 7y ago

The best part is how he fraudulently gamed the market test. > So Montañez assembled a small team of family members and friends, went to the test markets, and bought every bag of Hot Cheetos he could find. > “I’d tell the owner, ‘Man, these are great,’” he recalled. “Next week, I’d come back and there’d be a whole rack.”