Arnold Kubei is an entrepreneur from Cameroon. In 2007, he moved to the United States with his mother and brother. Kubei started a cleaning business and saved $300,000 to make his “American Dream” come true.
He had used up all of his credit cards, but then he got an offer to buy a gas station and convenience store in Maplewood, a suburb of the east metro area. Owning a gas station is a big source of income for many business owners, and Kubei hoped he could make the most of his money with the station.
His plan to own a gas station didn’t work out, though. He found out later that the property had a leaky underground storage tank. It would have cost too much to fix, and without gas sales, the business went out of business. “I had nothing left. My car was taken away. “I didn’t pay my rent, so I was taken to court,” Kubei told Sahan Journal.
After his gas station business failed, the Minnesota Sex Offender Program hired him as a security counselor. But because it was too far to get there, he quit and got a new job in the City of Minneapolis.
After six months, he quit his new job to start Metro Care Human Services, a company that helps people in need. Sahan Journal says that the company’s goal is to find other places to live for people who are hard to house, like people in nursing homes, people with disabilities, former prisoners, and others.
“Metro Care Human Services is committed to giving their clients the best services for moving from a nursing home. “The staff at Metro Care Human Services creates individual plans for each client to help them move to a nursing home that works well and meets their needs,” the company says on its website.
Kubei started with just a few clients, but after Metro Care Human Services grew so quickly, she opened a second business called Home Sweet Home of Minnesota. The company buys duplexes and apartment buildings in the Twin Cities and turns them into places for people who need help living on their own.
Kubei said that his businesses made $3.7 million last year and expect to make $5.5 million next year. The 33-year-old says that he now has 45 people working for him.
The Cameroonian immigrant businessman said that his decision to keep going after his gas station business failed paid off, and he told other people who want to be like him to stay true to their goals.
“The most important part of my story is to keep going and not give up. I failed. I went bankrupt. “But I never changed my mind about what I wanted to do,” said the husband and father of two. “I haven’t failed at anything I’ve done since I lost everything in 2014. Going bankrupt was a good way to learn.”
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