Born in New York City, pitchman Ron Popeil is a multimillionaire. Over the past 40 years his products have grossed more than $1 billion in retail sales, and made him famous for: The Veg-O-Matic, Buttoneer, Smokeless Ashtray, Mr. Microphone, and The Pocket Fisherman, just to name just a few.

At 3 years old Ron’s parents divorced, sending he and his brother to boarding school in upstate New York. When he was 7, his grandparents brought the brothers down to Florida to live. At 16, Ron decided to move to Chicago to live with his father, Samuel J. Popeil, an inventor who sold his inventions to major stores like Sears and Woolworth’s.

Shortly after he arrived in Chicago, Samuel began to show his son how to persuade storeowners, managers, and buyers that customers wanted his gadgets. But Ron Popeil’s turning point came when he took a walk down Maxwell Street, a tourist attraction where vendors of every kind would sell their wares on the street.

Ron says, in his book, The Greatest Salesman of the Century, “I saw all these people selling product, pocketing money, making sales, and my mind went racing. I can do what they’re doing, I thought. But I can do it better than they can."

So, Ron gathered up some kitchen products from his father’s factory and went down on a Sunday to test out his salesmanship. Before long, he was stuffing money into his pockets from customers who pushed in to hear his “sales pitch." Suddenly, Ron realized that he didn’t have to be poor for the rest of his life, and could escape the miserable existence he had experienced up to this point.

When he wasn’t selling on Maxwell Street, he was demonstrating and selling his father’s products just inside the front door of Woolworth’s flagship store in downtown Chicago making $1000 a week. During the summer, he would work the state fair circuit, demonstrating his products in front of real people who asked silly questions. Ron quickly learned how to build answers and counter-arguments into his pitch.

By the mid-50’s Ron Popeil was at the top of his game. So he went to a television station in Tampa and produced a 60-second commercial for $500 for the Ronco Spray Gun, which ran on small stations in Illinois and Wisconsin to save shipping costs. His small investment quickly turned into a huge success, and opened the door for Ron to become one of the first people to make millions of dollars from advertising on television. By the early 60’s he was selling products exclusively over television.

So, what can you take away from the story of a poor kid from a broken home who found his calling creating products and selling them? Ron discovered how to:

1. Harness his ambition by working 10-hour days selling on the street.
2. Recognize the potential of each invention and gadget.
3. Find the right venue where he could turn customers into buyers.
4. Work to become competent explaining his products to his audience.
5. Listen to his customer’s concerns and solve those problems.
6. Refine his presentation until it became polished and affective.
7. Refuse to allow his history to affect his destiny.