Ten years ago, Salil Gautam arrived in the U.S. from Nepal with little more than a suitcase, a dream of building a better life, and a new job at 7-Eleven.
After a stint in the Army as a finance clerk with tours downrange in both Iraq and Afghanistan, Gautam is coming full circle — this time as the owner of his own 7-Eleven franchise.
Gautam is one of three veterans who have each received a $190,000 leg up in opening their own convenience stores in a recent 7-Eleven competition dubbed “Operation: Take Command.”
“This is my dream come true,” Gautam told Military Times from his home in Chesapeake, Virginia, shortly after getting the news that he’d gotten the nod from among some 1,700 current troops and veterans who initially entered the contest.
Company officials narrowed the entries down to 10 semi-finalists, with Facebook voting picking the three finalists.
7-Eleven Operation Take Command
Photo Credit: Courtesy
Active-duty Army Capt. Robert Kemna, stationed at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, and Navy veteran Mark Anthony Page of Granbury, Texas, also will become owners of their own 7-Eleven stores.
As the last step in the almost six-month-long contest, the three finalists were interviewed by 7-Eleven President and CEO Joe DePinto recently at the company’s home office in Dallas.
An Army veteran himself, DePinto was supposed to pick only one of the finalists to get a waiver of the company’s $190,000 franchise fee.
“How can you pick just one winner when you have three?” DePinto said. “I was extremely impressed by each one of them — for overcoming adversity, serving their country selflessly, having a heart for service and demonstrating outstanding leadership qualities. These are the kind of folks we want in the 7-Eleven system. They are all too deserving not to win.”
Before enlisting, Gautam’s first job was with a 7-Eleven store in California. After leaving the Army in 2011, he used his military “mission first” mindset to turn a failing gas station and convenience store into profitable businesses.
“7-Eleven was the first company to give me a job when I first came to this country, right when I really needed it,” he said. “It’s so exciting to get to do this.”
“This is life-changing,” said Page, who served on active duty in the Navy as well as in the Navy Reserve. “It’s very rare that you know someone who wins something big; you mainly see that on TV. As I moved through the levels of the contest, I started thinking maybe I had a chance. Seeing people from here and even other countries who didn’t know me but voted for my video on Facebook was very humbling.”
