Road to Perseverance
By: Mark Gronowski June 2, 2015
Introduction to Perseverance
Tom Monaghan's Adversities (Problem and Solution)
In the story Rolling Dough to Rolling in Dough, Tom Monaghan faced many adversities and drove right through them. One problem he faced was that his partner quit on him and he was running the whole business by himself. He responded to this by searching for someone that had determination and a great worker. Another adversity he faced was that his partner was using him to get money and then asked to dissolve the partnership. After that Tom had almost gone bankrupt but he decided to buy his partners share of the business. Two years later, Tom’s ex-partner declared bankruptcy. He was responsible for over $75,000 in bad debt. In response to this he set up a payment plan with the creditors and promised to pay every penny he owned. The next year a fire burned down his anchor store and insurance only covered $13,000 of the $150,000 in damages. With resilience he cut back wherever he could, and devised ways to cover the fire losses. In 1970, Tom became overwhelmed and lost control of his business and sold most of it to the bank. He had to live in his car and work a lot more and a lot harder. Eventually he bought back his business and his business grew greatly. Tom was able to triumph his successes when he started to make a lot of money and businesses were all over the U.S. As you can see with hard work, determination and resilience, he was able to fight through many adversities and have his company be one of the most well known pizzerias in the country.
Compare and Contrast
Jackie Robinson Overcoming Adversity (Sequencing)
- He first went to the army and served in WWII.
- He then joined the Brooklyn Dodgers and was the first African American to play in the MLB.
- When he came on to the field he was taunted by many racist fans and opposing players so he had to leave his natural combativeness in the locker room.
- He endured incredible abuse without fighting back.
- He let his batting and base running speak for him and they spoke eloquently.
- And with that people gave up on making fun of him and accepted him for his abilities.