Silver Founders Podcast

Gary Hoover began his entrepreneurial journey at an early age. He grew up in Anderson, Indiana, a General Motors factory town, and began asking questions about business at an early age. Convinced that the best way to change the world (for the better) was to lead or create enterprises, he started subscribing to Fortune Magazine when he was 12. While other kids were playing baseball, he was memorizing the Fortune 500. He visited hundreds of corporate headquarters and offices before he was 18, and studied the stock market in depth. His question was the same, “What separates the losers from the winners?” In this quest, Gary’s research was not limited to for-profit enterprises but included the study of all types of enterprise from empires to unions, from General Motors to the United States of America. As part of his education, he studied economics at the University of Chicago under Milton Friedman and two other Nobel Prize winners served as a securities analyst for CitiBank on Wall Street, worked as a buyer for Federated Department Stores, and headed up acquisitions and strategic planning for the May Department Stores Company. At the age of 30, he finally took the plunge and created pioneering book superstore BOOKSTOP, which helped change the nature of book shopping in America. BOOKSTOP also won kudos for its preservation and restoration of historic buildings such as old movie theatres. This company was sold to Barnes & Noble for $41.5 million cash when it was 7 years old and became a cornerstone for their industry-dominating superstore chain, which in 2007 did over $4.5 billion in sales out of 700-plus stores. After he and his partners sold BOOKSTOP, Gary returned to his first love of understanding businesses, and (in 1990) began a small business information publisher, the Reference Press. This company evolved into Hoover’s, Inc., the world’s largest Internet-based provider of information about enterprises. Hoover’s Online, at www.hoovers.com, covers thousands of companies around the world and includes private, public, and non-profit enterprises. Millions of users from all countries access Hoover’s every day for the site’s easy-to-use and easy-to-read information on enterprises, generating hundreds of millions of page views a year. In July of 1999, Hoover’s went public and in March of 2003, the company was purchased by Dun & Bradstreet for $117 million. Like BOOKSTOP, Hoover’s has changed the way we do things and today employs over 600 people. This is what Gary Hoover started out to do as a teenager. Gary lives in Flatonia, Texas, with his 50,000-book personal research library. In Austin, he has worked to develop entrepreneurial thinking among local young people, helping to create a group of students who meet monthly to learn the keys to entrepreneurial success. Gary Hoover also maintains a list of new business ideas, containing over 100 concepts, as reported in Fortune Small Business Magazine and elsewhere. In the spring of 2002, Gary’s alma mater the University of Chicago opened Hoover House dormitory, named in honor of Hoover for the gifts of stock in his companies made to the University over the last 20 years. He continues to be an active supporter of nonprofit entrepreneurship, particularly in education. Find all things Gary Hoover at his Website: https://hooversworld.com/gary-hoover/ American Business History Center Non-Profit: https://americanbusinesshistory.org/ Gary Hoover's Youtube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/hooverbits/

Some of my favorite peoples of all time are from Lebanon.  

Authors Khalil Gibran, Nicolas Nassim Taleb along with many other artists, actors and writers have roots in modern Lebanon, and what the early settlers called Phonecia.  

In our interview,  George explains how he arrived in America to pursue what he believed to be HIS American Dream!  

He not only achieved success but has become a husband, father, real estate entrepreneur, business owner, and investor.

George runs his businesses as a Family affair with his wife, two brothers (and their parents who are always close)-by to keep an eye on their boys.

Enjoy this wide-ranging interview with my friend, George Chidiac! 

Gavin works with organizations to achieve business transformation through digital technology and professional consulting.

After working his way up through the accounting profession for over 10 years, Gavin moved into technology by chance following a corporate implementation of a leading ERP system. 

Always having a strong interest in IT, Gavin decided to align his accounting and technology skills to provide value and benefit to clients. 

This began a new consulting career in the world of business intelligence, performance management, and business transformation.  Out of his consulting work, Gavin is building easy to use software that helps his clients solve big problems while allowing them to achieve their top objectives.

JC is the Global Ambassador and Pioneer of the Angelize Yourself movement.

He is also the Founder of Angeldom Academy.

In 1994, he retired after a successful career as a banker and financial analyst.

Two years later, on June 25, 1996, he was killed by a chainsaw.

During his afterlife experience, he was revealed the timeless mechanics of Infinite Intelligence and Angel Consciousness that the mind of God is.

He was sent back from his afterlife experience to reveal the profundities and depths of Angel Consciousness and Infinite Intelligence Mechanics so their superpowers can be unleashed by anyone.

From 1996-2019, he completed his twenty-three-year Angelization internship to prepare himself for its revealing.

He has written fourteen books about his afterlife revelations and is today’s foremost authority on Angelization.

From Tanzania to Texas! Jude Samson's story is so unique, inspiring and remarkable that it should be a movie!  

Inspired by an American 1970s classic film comedy, as a Child in East Africa (you'll find out in the episode), Jude kept receiving signs he was destined to live his dreams in Texas.  

On a math scholarship at the age of 16 to Baylor University, Jude began that TEXAS journey--34 years later, the trip has wildly exceeded his expectations!

Value, Service, Family, Gratitude, and Relationships. 

These are the enduring values and principles that Jude Samson is committed to living by in his incredibly rich life!