The Closer
Les Gold made his first sale at 7-years-old. It was a hydraulic jack. He started at $14, the customer started at $7 and they settled at $10.
Gold, owns the largest pawnshop in Detroit, American Jewelry and Loan. His family are the stars of truTV’s reality show “Hardcore Pawn.”
While owning a pawn shop has gained Gold and his family celebrity status, he doesn’t let it get to his head.
“At the core, I’m a pawn broker and I come to work every day,” he said.
This year, Gold will serve as the closer of TEDxDetroit and he plans to use his time to help motivate business owners or those aspiring to own their own business.
His talk will focus on asking Detroiters to consider – How bad do you want it?
“When you wake up in the morning, how bad do you want it? This will tell you how successful you’re going to be,” Gold said.
He says at the end of the day, you should want it (success) more than you did the day before.
His son, Seth, who is Les’s business partner, said with “Hardcore Pawn,” they helped make pawn shops “cool.” But Les thinks that same transformation is going to happen for the city of Detroit.
“I look at these places that have hurricanes, it blows away all the bad and you start fresh and that’s what’s happening here in Detroit,” he said. “If you go downtown there are people everywhere, before it was a ghost town.”
For more information on Les Gold, his family or American Jewelry and Loan, visit www.pawndetroit.com.