What would you do if you were 20 years old and just received one million dollars? If you are Jake Lapin, you buy a hunting and fishing shop and become an entrepreneur.
Jake used to work at the Sargento cheese factory when he entered a lottery pool with 99 of his fellow coworkers. They won the $208.6 million dollar Powerball jackpot on August 5th and Jake received $1 million of that total – before taxes.
Jake had always been an avid outdoors man and decided to use this opportunity to follow his passion and become an entrepreneur. In December he purchased Dutch’s Trading Post from its longtime owners and Jake was in business. “It’s always been a dream of mine, and now it’s reality.”
Jake quickly found out what life was like as a young entrepreneur. “At 20, most people don’t think about the 10 or 11 employees they have or who they’re going to schedule next week.”
Because of the long hours Jake has to put in to run the company he had to drop out of university and hopes to return to finish his business degree when he has more time. Jake’s sister helps him with the accounting and the former owners, who have had the shop for 25 years, have been mentoring him on how to run the business.
What would you do if you won a million dollars in the lottery?
Evan Carmichael
