The story of Shiraz Balolia, a Kenyan born immigrant, is a true American success story.
Shiraz Balolia, is the founder of Grizzly Industrial and owner of major woodworking and metalworking brands including Grizzly, Shop Fox, and South Bend Tools.
Kenyan-born, Shiraz offers his up his tale of travel through war-torn countries, courtroom battles, success, failure and everything in between.
Compelling, honest, and inspirational, the book is equal parts business primer, verbal history and collection of life lessons.
Full of inspirational stories, humorous anecdotes, and displays of how grit and determination can help anyone beat the odds, this is a book that belongs on the shelves of entrepreneurs, woodworkers and anyone looking to build a better life for themselves and their families.
Excerpt from Chapter 3.
Age 14, on the Congo-Uganda border, 1966:
About forty-five minutes later, one of the border guards exited the hut. Clutching a bottle in one hand and his rifle in the other, he veered toward me. I sat motionless in the old truck. A couple other guards, laughing, stumbled out of the hut after him. Some of the women paused to watch. It was later now, and the little children had vanished.
“Hey. You!” he yelled at me through the open driver’s side window, waving the bottle, sloshing the liquid. “Come out! Come with me!”
“Why?” I asked. “Where? Where are we going?”
“Get out of the lorry and I will show you!” he barked, swigging from the bottle. I slid off the bench seat and jumped down onto the dirt road. He pointed to a girl, about my age, leaning against the hut. She was smiling at me.
“That’s your bibi (wife),” the guard said.
