Tom Monaghan, the founder of Domino’s pizza, had a tough childhood. He was raised in orphanages and fosters homes; his father had died when he was just four. He started living with his mother for a couple of years, but she sent him to a foster home when they could not get along. Monaghan struggled in school as a result of what’s happening around him and he finally graduated last in his high school class and was expelled from a catholic seminary. He tried college seminary. He tried college six times but never got past his freshman year.
In 1960, Monaghan and his brother Jim borrowed $900 and bought a foundering pizzeria in Ypsilanti, Michigan. Jim left within the year, but Tom hung on, surviving two near bankruptcies and a fire. Slowly, he opened new stores. In 1979, he was sued by the Amstar Corporation for infringing on the name of Domino sugar. Amstar won the first round, but Monaghan won on appeal. Through entrepreneurship, Monaghan- who had never succeeded at anything discovered that he had perseverance and drive... full story