"Tyler Perry said something to me I'll never forget, because I battle this all the time, I always try to bring everybody with me," Hayes tells Fortune. "'Sometimes you've got to leave them in the sand. Sometimes you've got to go in the water, row the boat, leave them in the sand, and offer to come back and get on the boat' ... Sometimes people aren't going to understand the mission."
""Sometimes you've got to go in the water, row the boat, leave them in the sand.""
Derrick Hayes founded Big Dave's Cheesesteaks in 2014, launching the first location inside a Shell gas station in Georgia. The chain expanded to 12 locations across the U.S. in a decade, selling a cheesesteak every 58 seconds and offering items priced from $11.99 to $46.99. Two Atlanta locations generated $1.1 million to $1.8 million in net sales last year. Hayes struggled with trying to bring everyone along but learned to prioritize a committed inner circle. A memorable piece of advice from Tyler Perry reinforced moving forward even when not everyone understands the mission.
Read at Fortune
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