Some of the most important feedback I receive on the Lunchbreak column is when people tell me they were inspired by reading about how successful entrepreneurs overcame setbacks. It is precisely the human common denominator of facing difficulties that make the people I speak to relatable. It is the overcoming of those challenges that make them inspiring. Enter Esriel Rappoport.
A couple of weeks ago, I interviewed Mendel Erlenwein, who runs a fast-growing company focused on helping doctors obtain state funding for better patient care. His mentor and the person who got him into that business? Esriel Rappoport.
Esriel built the main source of his multitude of businesses through selling on Amazon and has mentored hundreds of people to help them get started there. Though he still has that business, he has pivoted to multiple other businesses, including a focus on real estate.
Esriel offers a unique perspective on juggling the ups and downs of the business world and one’s personal nature. As someone with ADD, Esriel shares the unique way he manages his workday and to learn Torah for several hours a day. (There is no way you can guess his technique for learning.)
Esriel faced times when he needed to come up with significant sums to keep his business afloat. He did it with emunah and has some incredible stories to share.
As someone who gives of his time to mentor others and help them grow both personally and, as a result, in their business, reading this article is the next best thing to talking with Esriel one-on-one. There is something in it for everyone to implement in their lives. Enjoy!
-Nesanel
I was born in Zurich, Switzerland. The Lubavitcher Rebbe advised my father to work full-time while doing shlichus on the side. For 35 years, my father worked for IBM in various positions, including public relations and as a futurist. During his time at IBM, he had the opportunity to meet many of the Fortune 500 CEOs and was able to make a kiddush Hashem as a frum Yid. He’s now retired.
My mother is a Sternbuch; her family moved to Switzerland about 100 years ago. I’m the second of five siblings. I attended cheder in Zurich, where I mostly failed my way through from beginning to end. I especially struggled academically. This may have been due to ADD, which I will return to later.
The cheder in Zurich went until age 14. Afterward, I attended yeshivos in Los Angeles; Brunoy, France; and then New York. I was sent on yeshivah shlichus to New Haven, Connecticut [part of a program for older bachurim], and finally to Australia, where I receieved smichah.
I don’t know if “entrepreneurial” is the right word to describe me as a bachur. Because my father was working in the IBM research laboratory in Switzerland, he arranged summer internships for me there instead of sending me to camp. From the age of 15, I spent three consecutive summers involved in developing fiber-optic communication, calculating heat properties for materials used in undersea heat sinks. I played a small role in this significant global project.
In yeshivah, I always worked odd jobs because I felt uncomfortable asking my parents for money. My jobs weren’t particularly inventive. I earned $5 a day for two hours of organizing sefarim as well as other small tasks. I also sold soda cans in yeshivah. That’s pretty much it.
I got married a few months after leaving Australia. My wife grew up chasidish and became Chabad as a teenager. We both have relatives who are related to each other, and they suggested the shidduch. We lived in Crown Heights after we got married. I had started teaching in Australia while studying for smichah, so I continued teaching Gemara and chasidus in Crown Heights. My goal was always to teach in a way that even I would pay attention if I were a student in the class. This led me to creating videos with the scenarios of the Gemara together with my students.
I didn’t really have a track record of success with learning Gemara, so I had to prepare using an ArtScroll translation and then teach it to the students. I enjoyed teaching, but in my last year I was transferred from teaching eighth grade to first and second grade. It wasn’t for me, so I left. Although I always wanted to return to chinuch, I felt it wasn’t the right place for me at the time.
I started a small company with my brother, buying and selling items on eBay. This was 25 years ago, quite early in eBay’s history, and we made a modest profit.
I’ve witnessed Yad Hashem in every aspect of my business career. In fact, my first business got off the ground through clear hashgachah pratis.
I had a cousin who was working for 17th St. Photo when the first digital SLRs were released. SLR, or Single-Lens Reflex, is a type of camera that uses a mirror and prism system to allow the photographer to see exactly what the lens is capturing. These cameras were in high demand and sold out immediately. My cousin said he’d buy them from me if I could source some. I searched everywhere and found Dell had some listed on their website. I used all my available credit to buy five cameras. When I called my cousin to tell him I had the cameras, he said he no longer needed them. I was stuck with an unexpected $10,000 debt and had to figure out how to sell them. I listed them on eBay and ended up doing well, as people were paying almost double the retail cost. It wasn’t my intention to go into e-commerce; siyata dishmaya “forced” me into it.
To read more, subscribe to Ami
Recent Comments