[ amazing webs ]
I chanced upon this article.
Instead of 'Supersized Me', i got this interesting story from our Church Website.
The amazing story of one man's meteoric leap out of poverty to the top of the Golden Arches.
By Adam Palmer
It's easy for a conversation with Ken Brown to turn one-sided in a hurry. Just ask him to tell his testimony and your side of the discussion will rapidly turn to affirming noises like "Mm-hmm" and "Oh, wow."
Brown is excited, and understandably so. His is a rags-to-riches story that rivals the best Hollywood has to offer, ending with a man so passionate about his life's mission that he dives into storytelling and seldom comes up for air.
"I am the proud product of two teenage parents," he flatly states off the top. "I remember hearing parents tell their kids, 'You were an accident.' My parents never spoke those words to us. They always said, 'There's a reason why you were born.'"
For Brown, that reason is simple: to obey God. His road to obedience started in poverty in Chicago, where he was born and raised. Though separated, his parents were committed to providing him and his four siblings with a good education, so his parents sent them to a private Catholic school, skimping financially in other areas to make ends meet.
"Sometimes we didn't have gas," Brown says. "We didn't have lights. We didn't have food. One Christmas, our neighbor let us run an extension cord through her kitchen so we could cook on a hot plate."
Despite the lack of financial accommodations, Brown says his upbringing was still a matter of positive confession. "There was no negativity. My mother would say: 'This isn't the end. God has something bigger for us.'"
However, before that happened, something else unexpected came: they got evicted. Ten times.
"[The first eviction] was absolutely the lowest point of my life," Brown says. "I'll never forget that day, getting off the bus, seeing all our stuff on the street, with all our neighbors looking around, and some of them pilfering through our stuff."
Faith in God's provision is a running theme in Brown's life. He showed up at college with a wicker chair, a TV set and $25 from his grandmother. Four years later, he graduated with a degree in food and nutrition, an ambition to own his own restaurant and the first step to realizing that goal: a full-time job at a nationally known food-service company.
Brown instantly became a managing natural. "I was younger than all the people I was leading. My management style was always to lead ... shoulder to shoulder." Unfortunately, Brown's style was different from his director's, and he soon found himself terminated.
"[They] fired me," he says. "Just like that. I felt like I'd been evicted again. But I knew that God had something bigger and better in store for me."
That time came quickly. Brown soon found himself working for one of the largest food-broker companies in the world, getting paid even more than before. And then it all changed.
"One day, walking home, I saw a new restaurant being erected, and the Holy Spirit spoke to me to stop in and see what it was. I [told] the owner ... I could help him out with getting some food, and he said: 'I don't need food. I need people.'"
After discussing it with his wife, Brown decided the best way to become a restaurant owner was to study someone who was doing just that. But this owner didn't want Brown's food, nor did he want Brown's managerial experience. He wanted Brown to wait on customers.
It was a difficult decision, but one Brown ultimately knew was the right one. And that service is exactly what led him to his current status as the youngest franchise owner/operator in McDonald's history.
It started with a chance encounter at a McDonald's job fair, where Brown was hoping to find an audience with McDonald's executives. During that brief meet-and-greet, one of the executives stopped him for a conversation.
Turns out she and her husband were regulars at the restaurant where Brown worked. They were frequently impressed by the level of service he gave them as a waiter. "She gathered some of the other executives around and said: 'This guy. This is the type of guy we want at McDonald's.' She gave me a business card and said, 'Trust me.'"
It was a divine appointment, and it turned into a lucrative job, complete with all the perks he'd laid down in order to work as a server at the restaurant. "She [wanted me] to oversee four different restaurants. And she never checked a reference. She already knew about me and my attitude."
Six months later, she was promoted to director of the entire Michigan region. It wasn't long afterward that she called Brown with an astounding offer. "She invited me to come to Michigan and pick out some stores to own. Plural. I picked out two of them."
Brown now speaks regularly to organizations, para-church groups and schools. He also released his first book, From Welfare to Faring Well.
At 38 years old, Ken Brown still has a lengthy career ahead of him, but you can bet he won't focus on money or ambition. "We get so comfortable with our jobs that we forget to do our real jobs," Brown says. "Our real jobs are to find out why we were born. You don't go to a job to make money; you go to make a difference.
"When I tell people my story, it changes their lives. They think what they're going through is bad," Brown says, quickly turning a potential pat on the back into something larger. "But God took the largest global name in the world and hooked me up with them so He can get glory. I was set up from the beginning, and the only thing I can take credit for is being obedient." NM
makes you feel you got nothing to lose but everything to gain doesn't it :) ?
The next time you are evicted .. you know something big is coming your way..
cheers.
[ adapted from newmanmagazine.com or World News Bulletin from CHC]
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