Marcus Lemonis: The Lebanese Orphan Who Became The Transformer

It wasn't just any family that adopted Marcus Lemonis from a Beirut orphanage when he was nine months old. His father and grandfather ran the largest Chevy dealerships in Miami and Tampa. After graduating from Marquette University, in Milwaukee, Lemonis returned to Florida and started selling cars at his grandfather's dealership. At 22, he made a failed run as a Democrat for an open state representative's seat in South Florida, then chose not to rejoin the family business. "I decided that if I wanted to be successful, I had to get beat up, learn from others rather than from my family," Lemonis says. He took a job at AutoNation, the country's largest car dealer, and worked his way up to regional manager. Then he took some advice from a family friend, Lee Iacocca (the former head of Chrysler Corporation), who told him the path to long-term success lay in finding an industry that was ripe for transformation. Read more:

Marcus Lemonis: The Lebanese Orphan Who Became The Transformer