Forever21: From a gas station attendant to building a billion dollar fashion empire

Scan time: 2-3 minutes / Read time: 4-5 minutes

Hey rebel solopreneurs 🦸‍♂️🦸‍♀️

Ever feel like everyone else got the "how to do business properly" handbook and you missed the memo?

Like there's some secret playbook of rules you're supposed to follow, but nobody ever taught you?

Here's how Do Won Chang - who knew absolutely nothing about the "right" way to run a fashion business - built Forever 21 into a $3 billion empire by ignoring every traditional rule and creating his own playbook instead.

But first, let me tell you about his $3-an-hour beginning...

🧘‍♂️ From Seoul coffee shops to LA dishwashing

Do Won wasn't born to be a fashion mogul.

He grew up in a modest Seoul household, working multiple coffee shop jobs just to survive.

When martial law chaos hit South Korea in 1981, he and his wife Jin Sook made a desperate decision - they'd risk everything for a shot at the American dream.

They flew to Los Angeles with broken English, no college degrees, and empty pockets.

Can you imagine stepping off that plane, knowing you're starting from absolute zero?

Saturday: landed at LAX.

Monday: Do Won was washing dishes for $3 an hour at a coffee shop.

Talk about hitting the ground running...

But working 19-hour days was just the beginning...

🧩 When survival becomes your business school

$3 an hour wasn't enough to survive in LA.

So Do Won added an 8-hour gas station shift to his coffee shop job.

Jin Sook found work as a hairdresser.

They even started a midnight office cleaning business.

Some days Do Won barely saw sunlight, moving from kitchen to gas pump to mop bucket.

Sound familiar? That hustle where you're doing everything just to keep the lights on?

But here's what happened at that gas station that changed everything...

Then came the observation that sparked a billion-dollar idea...

🎪 The Mercedes-Benz epiphany

While pumping gas, Do Won kept noticing something interesting.

The nicest cars - Mercedes-Benzes, BMWs, luxury vehicles - all belonged to certain types of people.

So he started asking those drivers: "What do you do for work?"

The pattern hit him like lightning.

None of them sold coffee.

They were all in the garment niche.

His coffee shop dream died that day, replaced by something way bigger.

But he had zero fashion experience...

🕵️‍♀️ Learning by doing what you can't afford to fail at

Do Won quit the gas station and got hired at a clothing store.

Zero fashion background, but infinite hunger to learn.

"I treated it like it was my own business," he recalls.

His boss loved his attitude and taught him everything - ordering, merchandising, marketing.

You know that feeling when someone believes in you more than you believe in yourself?

After three years of grinding through 19-hour days, they'd saved $11,000.

Enough for a tiny 900-square-foot store in a location where three businesses had already failed.

April 21, 1984: Fashion 21 opened its doors.

But selling $100 a day wasn't going to cut it...

⛳️ When everyone else gives up, you double down

Highland Park was a low-income area where customers loved fashion but couldn't afford much.

Do Won and Jin Sook did everything themselves - display, merchandising, cashier, janitor.

$100 daily sales. Brutal.

But instead of quitting like the three previous businesses, they did something different.

They listened.

When a customer asked for a purple dress they didn't have, they didn't just apologize - they went out and found purple dresses to stock.

When they noticed customers wanted trendy clothes but couldn't afford designer prices, they started making affordable versions of expensive trends.

Word spread. People started driving five miles from LA to this tiny Koreatown store.

That's when the real breakthrough happened...

🌈 Fast fashion before it had a name

Why were people driving five miles to this tiny store?

Do Won cracked the code: take high-end runway fashion and make quality versions at prices regular people could afford.

While competitors took months to get trends to market, Do Won's team did it in weeks.

"Our target customers are people in their 20s," he said.

"Old people wanted to be 21 again, and young people wanted to be 21 forever."

Forever 21 was born.

From there, the growth was unstoppable...

🎁 The empire built on understanding, not funding

First year: $700,000 in sales.

By 2013: Over $1 billion.

By 2016: $2 billion.

Over 600 stores across 50 countries.

The Chang family net worth: $3 billion.

All from that tiny 900-square-foot store they still keep exactly as it was in 1984.

"I still feel a close bond to that store," Do Won says.

"It's the place where I had my first success."

🥂 Your turn to change the game!

Do Won's "disadvantage" of not knowing the "proper" way became his strength - instead of following industry rules, he created his own by simply listening to what customers actually wanted.

That rule-breaking approach helped him build a multi-billion dollar empire.

Your beginner's mind is your secret weapon - just like Do Won ignoring fashion industry "best practices" while competitors stuck to outdated playbooks.

Something tells me you're about to turn everything upside down.

Keep zoooming 🚀🍧

Yours 'rooting for your success' vijay peduru 🦸‍♂️