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Do you know Peter Cancro? Peter is 69 years old and someone to be admired, someone who started out very ordinary and in one transaction became a new US billionaire, around $4.9 billion netted from selling his business.
I greatly admire such people, I wish I was as ambitious, a risk taker and committed to success. Sure he had help along the way, notably his high school football coach who was also a banker, but he started this journey at age 14 and took the big risk at age 17.
That’s a long journey from age 17 to 69 and quite a retirement your plan with a $8 billion dollar sale for part of the business you built.
And yet, there are many who resent his success, his multi-billion dollar net worth. Why I’m not sure. I bet there are 20,000 workers in 4000 shops across the Country and beyond who appreciate it.
I hope he has many years to enjoy his success in any way he likes. Hey, I could go for a “Jersey Mike’s” sub now, hold the hot peppers though.
I’d never been to Jersey MIkes. After working hard in the yard this morning, Chrissy told me that I would love to take her to lunch 🥰. Out of the blue she said we should try Jersey Mike’s. I figured if you’ve been to one sub shop, you’ve pretty much been to them all; I was wrong. That may have been the best Philly Cheesesteak sandwich I ever had, outside of Philly of course.
I like their turkey club. I’m going to try the cheesesteak though.
Extreme inequality hurts all of us, even the rich. Studies have shown that the more
unequal a society is the lower life expectancy they have, even the most wealthy have.
A partial list of why this is so:
* These societies tend to force workers to be further away from their jobs to find affordable housing, meaning they drive more, leading to more carnage on highways.
* It makes health care more expensive for someone to access and don’t offer sick pay
for many. This means people don’t go to doctors, potentially spreading deadly diseases.
Or they go in when they really have bad health that is harder to treat, tying up resources
that won’t be available for someone having a heart attack or other serious problem
* It allows powerful corporations to dump toxic pollution with impunity. True, this mostly
affects poorer people, but we all breath some polluted air & drink polluted water
CEOs are already swelled headed egotists enough without repeating the elitist myths that
they somehow singlehandedly “create thousands of jobs”. A typical CEO claims they are solely responsible for a company’s success.
But as soon it goes South, suddenly they discover there are others working there, and those others are solely responsible for a company’s woes. And those other poor souls pay the price with mass layoffs.
The other factor in the healthcare realm is those that can’t afford healthcare still get sick and injured and the hospital writes the expense off but then raises rates to recoup the losses. This results in those that do have health insurance paying higher premiums.
Also if there is bifurcated wealth in a country sure the wealthy can prop up the economy to some degree. The poor mostly limits their spending to fulfilling their needs necessary to survive, ie have little to no disposable income. In this type of economy there eventually are not enough wealthy citizens spending to grow the economy. You need a strong middle class with larger number of people doing well enough to buy more than the essentials. This can be accomplished by more of the poor being elevated to the middle class. If this occurs companies have more people to sell to which would result in greater profits which then makes the wealth wealthier.
I summary then, helping the poor earn more increases the wealth of the rich. It doesn’t have to be an I win, you lose society, but everyone wins.
That my friend is gobbledegook. The difference in wealth in terms of dollars held by a 1,000 people out of 340 million is not the problem. Most economists agree money is not the issue. What can be the issue is concentration of influence and power.
All you cite about workers implies they work for large abusive corporations and that’s not where most people work.
A typical CEO makes no such claims as you state.
“Number 17, with extra meat, peppers, and onions!” That’s the Philly Cheese Steak at Jersey Mike’s.
Great story and great food.
You made me do it. Until today I had never tried Jersey Mike’s. However, I should have researched it before going and would have been better educated about what makes it stand out from other sub chains. A 👍 for you RDQ.
I’m interested to learn more about Peter’s history, his philanthropy, and how he differs from another great founder, the late Truett Cathy of Chick-fil-a. A truly remarkable person.
Years ago, I was an agency owner of a Major Brand Insurance Carrier in Texas. One of my clients, an older woman, was involved in an auto accident, and the other party was at fault.
The other carrier wasn’t handling the claim fairly or expeditiously, and the woman’s daughter, who flew to TX to make sure her parents were OK, came into the office and told me what they were experiencing. As it turned out, my client’s daughter was the executive secretary for Mr. Cathy.
Once USAA was apprised of this situation, their attitude miraculously “adjusted” and the claim was settled “expeditiously.”
I happened to have ridden my motorcycle to work on the day my client’s daughter visited our office, and I mentioned that I had recently seen a picture of Mr. Cathy in a magazine, with him on his Harley-Davidson. Imagine my surprise and the pleasure I felt when I received a FedEx envelope a week or so later containing an autographed photo of Mr. Truitt Cathy on his Harley, and a letter thanking me for assisting his secretary’s mother.
And in the spirit of the Jersey Mike’s sandwiches discussed earlier…I do love the Chick-fil-A Number 1, with unsweetened tea!
I just read about Cathy. They have a very interesting franchise model unique from others. It creates mighty cash flow for the family.
He wasn’t fair to his children though. Left them the business, but with strict limitations, like they can never sell it publicly and never open on Sunday. Those were his beliefs.
Your comment about Mr Cathy “not being fair” to his children is inaccurate and mischaracterizes the nature of the restrictions he placed on his heirs.
He did impose strict operational and financial conditions on the future of Chick-fil-A, because he wanted to preserve the company’s Christian values and charitable mission, not to unfairly penalize his children.
He also did not restrict, or forbid, the sale of the company; he only prohibited taking it public (IPO) to ensure that shareholder pressure would not compromise the company’s charitable giving and religious principles. Not being open on Sunday’s may be a drawback to some, but Chick-fil-A ranks #1 in customer satisfaction among fast-food chains for the 11th consecutive year according to the 2025 American Customer Satisfaction Index.
Many of my neighbors are retired executives of the company.
The story of Jersey Mike’s is interesting. I’ve been enlightening my knowledge of the criticism Cancro received regarding his sale of a majority stake in Jersey Mike‘s to private equity firm Blackstone.
Dick, I love a good success story, and am neither resentful nor jealous of such people. I may dislike certain wealthy people, not because of their fortunes, but because they may be terrible people. Please don’t ask me to name names.
And I’ll take one of those Jersey Mike’s Subs; can I have your hot peppers? Are you buyin’?
Totally agree — no jealousy or resentment. To the contrary, I appreciate the hard work, risk taking and success.
I’ll take a Jersey Mike’s Club Sub with hot pepper relish on rosemary parmesan bread, please.
That’s the way I feel. And I will surely buy.
Richard, I’ve been thinking about your post since reading it yesterday and it’s taken me until now to understand why it doesn’t sit well with me.
The idea that someone deserves admiration simply because of the size of their bank balance doesn’t sit right with me. I can appreciate the work, effort, and tenacity that goes into building and scaling a business and that’s genuinely impressive. But appreciation and admiration aren’t the same thing.
What separates them, I think, is direction. Wealth creation, however hard-won, is fundamentally self-directed, with the effort and the reward pointing the same way. First responders and volunteers point in the opposite direction entirely, giving their time and energy toward others, often at personal cost, with no financial reward at the end of it. That asymmetry is what earns my admiration.
And yes, building a business is hard. But so is working a night shift, or showing up every week to help strangers. Difficulty alone doesn’t make one more admirable than the other. What matters is what you’re willing to do it for…Maybe that’s just my European sensibilities showing.
You miss the point, it’s not admiration based on the money, but based on the effort and achievements that far exceed what most of us accomplish.
A store clerk in high school at 14, finds a way to buy the store at 17, creates a nationwide franchise business with 4000 stores over the years and at 68 is able to sell the business for billions.
And along the way creates thousands of jobs, business for who knows how many vendors and rental income for someone. That is worth admiration. He may not have chosen to sell the business, but that is not the point. His accomplishments would still be real.
I see no analogy with volunteers or people who work hard. I say overcoming massive obstacles on a regular basis does deserve admiration.
You’re obviously best placed to know what you intended. I’ll defer to that, even if the wording led me somewhere else entirely.
I was, however, pointing out that earning a billion dollars over decades and honestly is not a bad thing or something to the derided.
Hey Richard. That’s two weeks in a row you’ve been criticized for admiring the wealthy. Tough crowd.
Don’t you realize that they light their cigars with $100 bills?
Are there not ways to earn fewer of those billions of dollars and at the same time reward those along the way who are helping you to your payday. And I don’t mean the exec board I mean the everyday rank and file?
Great to hear from you. I was starting to wonder where you’d got to.