52-Year Old US Entrepreneur Features In Forbes 400, Reveals He Worked 90-Hour Weeks To Save Money For His Business

Todd Graves owns the restaurant chain, Raising Cane’s Chicken Fingers, which is currently worth $9.5 billion. However, to reach this place, he worked day and night for the last two decades

Since the age of 30, Graves worked 90 hours a week and sometimes even 20 hours per day to save on money and open his first restaurant.

Source : X/@ToddGraves

The recent Forbes 400 list in the US attracted a lot of attention for one of its latest entries. Todd Graves featured on the list of the 400 richest individuals in the US and ranked 107th on it.

The 52-year old entrepreneur owns the restaurant chain, Raising Cane’s Chicken Fingers, which is currently worth $9.5 billion. However, to reach this place, Graves worked day and night for the last two decades to make it happen.

Since the age of 30, Graves worked 90 hours a week and sometimes even 20 hours per day to save on money and open his first restaurant. According to the company’s website, Graves travelled to Los Angeles in 1994 to start working as a boilermaker at an oil refinery. 

He went on to work 90-hour weeks to raise funds to start on his dream of a restaurant. He then shifted to commercial fishing after he realised how much money he could make in the field. He relocated to Alaska at 31 years of age and camped out for a month before securing a job on a boat to fish salmon, reported Moneycontrol.

The restaurant idea struck the entrepreneur during his college years in Louisiana State University. He pitched the idea in a startup-pitching assignment which got him the lowest grade. Later, speaking to students at the Nicholls State University in 2009, he said, “If people tell you something can’t be done, it makes you strive so much more to do it.”

After borrowing some money from friends and family, he used some of his funds and a small business administration loan to start his restaurant business. Currently, his restaurant chain owns more than 800 outlets globally and logged in $3.7 billion in net sales in 2023, the report noted. His journey is a testament to his hardwork, determination, and willpower to succeed.