Aman Abraham, an Ethiopian national, has made a name himself in the United States after becoming the first African-American to own a Toyota car dealership.
This even after he lost everything he had during the economic downtown of 2008, and found himself $4 million debt.
However, instead of filing for bankruptcy, Aman made a trip to Mexico where he strategized and bounced back with a 12-year plan.
Here is his story as told by WoK.
Aman was born in Ethiopia, but his father left for the United States when he was 2, leaving him under the care of his mother who worked as a nurse.
He moved to the US to join his father when he was 12 as the Ethiopian government was drafting young kids to join the military due to the civil war.
Aman moved in with his father who had already remmaried and despite already having a job at the age of 13, he would be mistreated by his stepmother.
The situation was bad to the point that Aman was kicked out of the house, simply for asking for something from his stepmother.
However, despite these shortcomings, he worked hard and managed to secure an enrollment at California State University where his life changed for the better.
During his first semester, a car sales event was hosted in the university and when a sales representative approached him to buy a car, he told him that he was just a student looking for money to get through university.
Following this encounter, Aman was asked if he was interested in working as a salesman over weekends to which he agreed and started working after getting a license.
He took the opportunity as a learning experience and researched more about how to get partnerships with manufacturers and running a dealership.
A while after working as a salesman, Aman had to take a break following the birth of his daughter and ventured into real estate which was less demanding.
At this point, everything proved to work but the 2008 economic downtown struck forcing Aman out of business and $4 million in debt.
He travelled to Mexico where he worked on a 12-year plan to revive his entrepreneurial ventures and get himself out of debt.
Aman worked on a detailed plan of how he was going to run a car dealership and got an executive program offered by an existing dealership.
Additionally, he worked with people at Auto Nation, which was then the biggest car selling group in the world at the time, to help him realise his dream.
But also, this meant that Aman had to start all over again as a car salesman at Auto Nation.
His dedication and hard work paid off and he was selected for the Executive program he yearned for after about four years.
Aman also scaled through the ranks to the position of General Manager, per Mukurima.
Eventually, in November 2022, he became the first African-American to own a Toyota dealership in Southern California which became the largest financing Toyota had ever done in their history.
