BE PERSISTENT AND WORK HARD First Step, Determination.(LEADERS & SUCCESS)(IBD'S 10 SECRETS TO SUCCESS)

Byline: Cord Cooper

5 Determination and focus made Richard Sears and Frank Woolworth retail giants.

Sears (1863-1914) became interested in mail order in his early teens. He ordered trinkets of every description, traded them with friends and occasionally sold them at a profit.

At age 16, he went to work for the Minneapolis & St. Louis Railroad in North Redwood, Minn. There he learned pricing while processing the railroad's freight deliveries.

What really caught his eye was the high markup on watches. When a local merchant refused delivery of a shipment, Sears saw an opportunity. He bought the watches from the wholesaler for $12 per unit and sold them for $14 apiece, despite the retail price of $25.

By going for volume instead of price per unit, he undercut competitors and made a killing. He parlayed the sales into a side business, and six months later netted $5,000, a huge sum in the 1880s.

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