By: John S. Morlu II, CPA
There’s a sacred place in the mythology of capitalism. No, not Wall Street. Not even Davos. It’s the garage.
Yes—the musty, oil-stained, spider-infested, half-storage-half-hope garage. It’s where billion-dollar dreams are born next to broken lawnmowers and paint cans that expired during the Obama administration. This is the holy birthplace of tech legends, side hustles, and more motivational TikToks than your Wi-Fi can buffer.
In fact, if your business didn’t start in a garage, some people won’t take you seriously. You could build a startup that saves endangered whales and feeds orphans, but unless it began in a cramped space that smells like despair and WD-40, investors will still ask, “So… where was your garage phase?”
Why the obsession?
Because the garage symbolizes struggle, creativity, and duct-tape-level resilience. It screams: “I had no money, no air conditioning, and no real plan—but I had a dream… and Wi-Fi from the neighbor.”
The Gospel of the Garage: Steve Jobs and the Apple of Our Capitalist Eye
Legend has it that in 1976, Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak started Apple in Jobs’ parents’ garage in Los Altos, California. Now, this garage has become the Sistine Chapel of tech startups. Pilgrims (a.k.a. tech bros and wannabe CEOs) make the digital Hajj to look at the closed-off property and say things like, “This is where the magic happened,” while their own startups burn through VC money faster than you can say “Series A.”
But here’s the thing—Jobs didn’t really build anything in that garage. It was mostly storage for old junk, dust, and his dad’s half-broken tools. The actual work happened in labs and offices later. But no one cares—because optics. And because every great myth needs a birthplace. If Apple had started in a Cheesecake Factory booth, we’d be idolizing dessert menus instead.
Garage: The Global Franchise
You thought the garage hustle was only in California? Nah. It’s now a global franchise. Like McDonald’s for ambition.
- Nigeria: Somewhere in Lagos, an ambitious twenty-something is coding the next fintech unicorn between power outages, mosquito ambushes, and his mom yelling “Come eat!” every 10 minutes. He’s got ambition, an Airtel data bundle, and a prayer. That’s enough.
- Indonesia: In a village in Java, a group of teens is 3D-printing eco-friendly shoes out of cassava peels. Their “garage” is actually their aunt’s kitchen, but branding is everything. They’re calling it “The Sol Lab” and marketing it like they invented shoes.
- Brazil: In São Paulo, a guy named Lucas is running a crypto exchange from his grandma’s garage. Grandma thinks he’s playing video games. In a way, she’s not wrong. The entire “business” might be one Elon Musk tweet away from crashing.
- India: In Bengaluru, two engineers have built a billion-dollar edtech platform out of a storeroom, surrounded by incense, old bicycle parts, and one enthusiastic goat named “Profit.” The goat does QA testing by chewing through Ethernet cables.
Garage, by the way, is now a mindset. Not a structure. If you’re broke, sleep-deprived, over-caffeinated, and building something no one asked for but everyone will eventually use—congratulations, you’re in a garage. Your vibes are valid.
Fun Facts That No One Asked For but You’ll Still Quote Later
- HP was also founded in a garage in 1939. That garage is now a historic landmark. Not because it’s special—but because it’s proof that even rust can be romanticized with enough stock options.
- Amazon? Jeff Bezos started in a garage too. That garage had a whiteboard, a fax machine, and pure delusion. Now he owns a yacht so big it has its own yacht. His garage now wears a tuxedo and speaks Italian.
- Google? Larry Page and Sergey Brin? Yup—garage again. Their landlord, Susan Wojcicki, eventually became YouTube’s CEO. Moral of the story: rent your garage to nerds. Preferably ones who mumble in algorithms.
- Elon Musk? Didn’t do the garage thing. But don’t worry—he made up for it by launching a car into space. Literally. He skipped the garage and aimed for Mars.
Common Sense Takeaway: Build Something, Anywhere, With Anything
Let’s be honest. Your garage might not look like much. It might smell like regret and old Christmas decorations. It might be home to one too many angry raccoons. But if you have a vision, a laptop, and a reason to not go back to that 9-to-5 job where your boss says “let’s circle back” 17 times a day, then your garage is enough.
Forget fancy offices, bean bags, or kombucha taps. The first real currency in entrepreneurship is grit. Not capital. Not connections. Just the audacity to believe that your weird idea, duct-taped together with faith and maybe ramen noodles, is worth something.
Closing: The Billionaire Checklist (Garage Edition)
To summarize, here’s how to become a billionaire:
1. Start in a garage (or any makeshift space with poor insulation, weird smells, one sad desk, and zero funding).
2. Pretend it was harder than it really was. Add fake tears to your TED Talk if needed.
3. Tell your origin story with passion, shaky details, and just enough exaggeration to inspire LinkedIn posts.
4. Eventually, buy the garage, turn it into a museum, and charge tech nerds $25 a ticket. Bonus if you add a fake pizza box labeled “first brainstorm lunch.”
So next time someone laughs at your “business idea” scribbled on a napkin while you’re squatting in your uncle’s shed, smile and say:
“Every empire starts with bad lighting and unpaid electricity.”
Because in the garage, we trust.
And who knows? Maybe one day, your own dusty corner of broken dreams will get its own historical plaque too.
About the Author
John is an entrepreneur, strategist, and founder of JS Morlu, LLC, a Virginia based CPA firm with multiple software ventures including www.FinovatePro.com, www.Recksoft.com and www.Fixaars.com . With operations spanning multiple countries, John is on a mission to build global infrastructure that empowers small businesses, entrepreneurs, and professionals to thrive in an increasingly competitive world. He believes in hard truths, smart execution, and the relentless pursuit of excellence. When he’s not writing or building, he’s challenging someone to a productivity contest—or inventing software that automates it.
