2 Quotes & Sayings By Wilbert Rideau
Wilbert Rideau was born on January 11, 1924 in New Orleans, Louisiana. He was drafted into the army during World War II and served as part of the European theater of operations. By the time he returned home, he had become a skilled pilot. After his service, he married his wife, Evelyn, and then moved to Florida where he opened his first delivery business
After opening three more businesses, including one that sold gas by the barrel, Rideau decided to become a professional entrepreneur—a route he had followed on previous occasions. He spent nearly two decades studying others who were successfully self-employed before opening his own business venture. Rideau’s first attempt at entrepreneurship came in 1974 when he opened a used car lot.
He had previously worked as an independent salesman for several automobile dealerships and believed that this experience would teach him how to be successful as an entrepreneur. At the time, there were few used car lots in the Tampa Bay area and they were often taken over by larger chains. Rideau knew that if he were able to find a niche in the market that no one else had entered, he would have a successful business for years to come.
This is exactly what happened when Rideau decided to open a used car lot specializing in Mercedes Benz vehicles; he found exactly what he was looking for. He expanded his company by purchasing another lot with ten Mercedes-Benz vehicles and added five employees to his payroll; now he had fifteen employees total. Soon thereafter, Rideau bought another lot with sixteen vehicles and added another seven employees to his workforce; now Rideau’s company consisted of twenty-seven employees working on various automotive projects.
The success of this business venture led him to sell off all of his other automotive-related enterprises and focus exclusively on automobile sales; now Rideau owned two automobile lots—one each with sixteen and twenty-eight vehicles respectively—and twenty-five employees who worked together under one roof. After five years of successfully running this endeavor, Rideau decided it was time for him to retire from the world of business; however, after several years of sitting around doing nothing with his life, Rideau got restless again and began thinking about starting another enterprise with his limited retirement savings. His attention once again focused on automobiles; however, this time he wanted to work only on foreign cars since this was by far the most profitable segment of the industry today.
At this point in time there were no used car lots specializing in foreign cars in Tampa