The Root Keeps Growing

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screen-shot-2016-10-01-at-9-18-25-amhttps://tonywalkerpost.com/root-philosophy/

Originally Posted: January 1, 2017
Last Updated:  July 27, 2021

From the very beginning in 1978, it has been my goal to provide the vision, resources, and confidence necessary for the development of the Advantage Co as a business experience for those willing to take the full measure of the challenge.  This approach has energized our Root Philosophy for over 40 years, and it has been our good fortune to build a number of world-class businesses.

Here is a short list of businesses we have started or helped to start over the years. [165 and counting].  The businesses in italics are partnerships. The businesses in bold are currently operational.  Each one has been visited by success and failure.  Some businesses never really got off the ground, while others have been thriving for decades.  One of these nights I’ll start filling in the stories.   The really good news is that over 50 of the businesses we have helped to launch are thriving enterprises.

All told, we estimate there have been over 8,000 participants in the building of these opportunities.  If you have a backstory for any of them, why not share it with us?  I’ll take the good with the bad [they all have their share].  It is never meant to be easy, but it is always meant to be rewarding.

A man who says he never had a chance is the man who never took one.  Be big, be a builder.

Advantage Co Businesses

  1. Advantage Brands Group
  2. Advantage Catalog
  3. Advantage Computer Co.
  4. Advantage Global Resources
  5. Advantage Home Theater
  6. Advantage Outlet
  7. Advantage Properties
  8. Advantage TI
  9. Advantage Trade Group
  10. Aussie T Co
  11. Bogavia
  12. Brinkley Builders
  13. Chuggs
  14. Computer Head Start
  15. Giancarlo’s Sicilian Steakhouse & Pizzeria
  16. Giancarlo’s Cafe & Patisserie
  17. Gift Giving Registry
  18. Grivani
  19. Grivani Wine Cellar
  20. Grivani Wine [Distributing]
  21. House of Cotton
  22. Forrestel Clothing Co
  23. iFul
  24. iSport
  25. iWorldFundraising.org
  26. iWorld Shopping Center
  27. King Finley
  28. Lab to Beauty
  29. Leave It To Alison**
  30. Lifetime Service & Solutions
  31. Love Pink & Green
  32. Luxuri Link
  33. Merwin & Payne
  34. Modern Luxuri
  35. MyWarehouse.org
  36. Nantucket Clothing
  37. Naples Properties
  38. Osaka Speakers
  39. PALM Investments
  40. Piece Apparel
  41. Pioneer Home Theater
  42. Pure + Fresh
  43. Scotch Boots of Holland
  44. Smart Car Store
  45. Smart House Cafe**
  46. Smart Squad Design
  47. Smart Squad Install
  48. SmartLinks
  49. Sneaker Advantage
  50. SONY Home Theater
  51. Stereo Advantage
  52. Stereo Advantage [Olean]
  53. JVC Home Theater
  54. Taplin Marketing
  55. Tiny Walker
  56. Touche’
  57. TW Outlet [Niagara Falls]**
  58. TW&Co
  59. UnBiasIt
  60. Walker Center
  61. Walker Kids Trust
  62. Walker Global Parts
  63. Walker Global Solutions
  64. Wehrle Properties
  65. White Box Services

Advantage Co Partnerships

  1. ABX Professionals
  2. Advacovery
  3. Advantage Business Exchange
  4. Advantage Investment, Development & Oversight
  5. Advantage Legal & Fiduciary
  6. Advantage Marketing & Incentives
  7. Advantage Systems Professionals [now iWorld Professionals]
  8. Advantage Woodshop
  9. American Wireless
  10. AP Charlotte
  11. AP Cincinnati
  12. AP Cleveland
  13. AP Denver
  14. APHQ [now Advantage Global Resources]
  15. AP Metro**
  16. AP Phoenix
  17. AP Rochester
  18. AP Solutions [now Capax Global]
  19. AP Syracuse
  20. AP Tampa
  21. AP Washington DC
  22. AP WNY
  23. At Your Service
  24. Aussie Outfitters
  25. Autonomic Resources**
  26. Beacon Global Resources
  27. Bellus Development
  28. BizHop [support only]
  29. Black Progress Matters
  30. Black Progress Staffing
  31. Black Progress Resources
  32. Butler Chemical
  33. Cascade Point**
  34. c1 Advantage
  35. c1 Secure
  36. Carolina Clothing Co
  37. Capax Alpha [now Capax Global]
  38. Capax Discovery
  39. Capax Global
  40. Capax India
  41. Capax Resource Management*
  42. CARES Act ADVISORY
  43. Chiampou Travis & Kershner*
  44. Christeus
  45. Cleary & Sullivan
  46. Cleary Travel
  47. Coco by CeCe
  48. Consilium1 [now c1 Advantage]
  49. Cross Pointe**
  50. DACKS
  51. Darmax Development
  52. Data Detect
  53. Delta Road Properties
  54. Duke Fund**
  55. Free Trade Consultants
  56. Gauntlet Design
  57. Greenview Landscaping*
  58. GRW For Hair
  59. Hudson Walker
  60. Images & Graphics
  61. Inspired Global Resources*
  62. Irwin Lazarus
  63. iWorld Professionals
  64. JALMAR Graphics
  65. JNorman & Co
  66. KATINI Skin
  67. King Finley
  68. Kizer Data Solutions
  69. LeCleanse Officiel
  70. LD World Resources
  71. Manzella Productions [support only]
  72. My Personal Advisor
  73. Mode
  74. Outback Paging [AdTel Worldwide]
  75. Pacific Data Resources
  76. Panther Data Solutions
  77. Phroket
  78. Pizza Shoppe
  79. PremCloud Services
  80. Real Properties Services
  81. Sceven
  82. SmartLink [Bailey & Kensington]
  83. SmartLink [Main Place Mall]
  84. Sozae
  85. State of Clean
  86. Stereo Advantage [Phoenix]
  87. Stereo Shops [3 Rochester stores]**
  88. Strategic Finance
  89. Taplin Design
  90. Tony Walker Golf Club [4 locations nationally]
  91. Total Health & Fitness
  92. Trend Depot
  93. TW Charter Stores [92 Aussie Outfitter stores nationally]
  94. UnCarbonIt
  95. Unified Global Archiving
  96. Wellingtin Resources
  97. White & Co
  98. Wynnovation Labs
  99. Zantaz EAS
  100. Zovy Cloud

Coming Sooner or Later or Never

  1. Ana Blu Mediterranean Kitchen
  2. 2 Girls 1 Deal
  3. 2×4 Office Anywhere
  4. ApothoClean
  5. Bambini Beauty
  6. Balance Bra
  7. Bedtime Monster Spray
  8. Christian Coop
  9. Church of the Good
  10. Clean Your Closets For Kids
  11. College Rep Program
  12. CopDrop
  13. The Fantasy League
  14. Fashion Resource Group
  15. FedDrop
  16. FedSecure Data Centers
  17. FedCloud Vault
  18. Giancarlo’s Boutique Hotel
  19. GoToCloud Express
  20. Greenskeeper Coop
  21. Grivani Golf
  22. iTech Protect
  23. iWorld Auto
  24. iWorld Banking
  25. iWolrd Accounting
  26. Life Source Insurance
  27. Merci 6
  28. OffShore Secure
  29. Scrubs
  30. Walker Global Mergers Acquisitions & Review
  31. Walker Sports Audit

* No longer involved in this partnership.
**Ended successfully.

There are three worlds: the one we are given, the one we are stuck with, and the one we bend to our will.

Theodore Roosevelt’s famous Man in the Arena speech.  ‘It is not the critic who counts, not the one who points out how the strong man stumbled or how the doer of deeds might have done them better.  The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena; whose face is marred with sweat and dust and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again; who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions and spends himself in a worthy cause and who, if he fails, at least fails while bearing greatly so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.’

My Favorite Things 009

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My favorite newspaper article.

Over the years, I have read countless newspapers, magazines, books, blogs, and postings.  I have been inspired, confused, dismayed, educated, informed, outraged, misled, disappointed, relieved, encouraged, assured, influenced, stimulated, transported, convinced, and energized in one way or another by everything I have come across for the past 60 years.  And still standing at the top of my favorite books is Will Durant’s Mansions of Philosophy.
https://tonywalkerpost.com/2015/06/13/my-favorite-things-003/

But at the top of my list of newspaper articles sits Janan Ganesh’s The Devil and Roger Federer.  Published in 2017 in London’s Financial Times, Janan exquisitely elucidates what I agree are the essentials of preparing for the world we are living in.
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“To prosper in life, or just to withstand its vicissitudes, a person has to possess some dark traits in controlled doses: aggression, swagger, ruthlessness verging on chicanery, an ability to block out other people and their judgments.”  – Janan Ganesh
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Admittedly, I had a hard time writing after reading this article.  What fascinated me most was that it was a throw-away article by Janan.  No Pulitzer Prize ambitions here, no scoops, and certainly not front-page news – just everyday journalism with terrific insight, written in a cadence that challenges my writing rhythm every time I have a go at the keyboard.  It is this kind of brilliance I admire most.  It’s not only having the intuition, but, more importantly, the ability to transport it succinctly and convincingly while entertaining and enthralling with every phrase –  and to do it all so effortlessly.
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I continue to read the Devil and Roger Federer on occasion and I recommend it often.
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“There is such a thing as the optimal amount of devil in a person, and it is not zero.  Call it the Federer Quotient.”  Janan Ganesh