If you want to be successful in business you need a solid work ethic and put in hard work. But first you need an opportunity to get up and running.
That’s just what happened to Aiden Sterlin who over several months made friends during his early morning workouts with the owners of a New York-area restaurant chain. He now runs a successful taqueria in Park Slope, Brooklyn which he opened before even graduating from high school.
Brooklyn teen does a full court press into restaurant industry with his own business
The recent graduate from James Madison High School in Midwood, Brooklyn opened Tacos del Barrio in March. In the run-up to getting his diploma he was going to school from 7am to 11am before putting in 12 hours at his restaurant.
After he closed up shop at midnight, he’d then get in a couple of hours of studying. He told The New York Post that “obviously, business is business. But I gotta graduate.”
Now that he’s achieved that milestone he told News 12 Brooklyn that he said “Now I can put 101% in [the business] rather than the 100% I put on this and the other 100% I put on school.”
Sterlin says that being an athlete gave him his work ethic, which the owners of Poke Bowl United noticed during their morning workouts that convinced them to take a chance on a teen with no experience in the restaurant business. According to Sterlin, he was able to overcome that hurdle from the experience of being the captain of his high school basketball team over the course of three years.
He explained that that helped prepare him to run his business because just like when heading into a game at the restaurant Sterlin says he has his “starting five” and is “going with the flow.”
Expansion already in the works
Currently, Tacos del Barrio has a close-knit team of eight people on staff. However, Sterlin already has plans to expand his business with a second location ready to open in September.
He plans to dedicate the next year to the business with his goal being that gets to point where he’s known as “Aiden from Tacos Del Barrio.” He says with that marker “any other venture that I do, it would succeed because people can trust me.”
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