Come True

President

Giles Enterprises

Whoever says fairy tales just don’t come true anymore probably never heard the amazing story of Terry Giles. A dynamic American from humble beginnings who rose to the top through hard work and strong faith.

Terry’s early childhood revolved around St. Louis, Missouri. His family was constantly on the move living under tremendous financial pressure due to his father’s many attempts at several unsuccessful businesses. In a span of just 10 years, he attended 21 different schools. It was tough for him always being the new kid on the block.

In his early childhood, Giles learned the value of hard work. He labored as a busboy, dishwasher, newspaper boy and also collected empty bottles to help support the family. Although the family was quite poor, he received one of life’s greatest riches from his mother LaDon. She taught him and his sister Debbie the power of positive thinking. “Without her encouragement I don’t think I would ever have made it this far,” states the proud son appreciatively.

“As a kid, I loved to play baseball,” recalls Giles. “As you can imagine, growing up in St. Louis, my hero was “Stan the Man” Musial of the St. Louis Cardinals. It was incredible that he was able to maintain a lifetime batting average of .331 over his 22-year professional career. He claimed he could actually visualize and see the seams on the baseball as the pitcher delivered each pitch. ...Incredible.”

At the encouragement of his eighth grade English teacher over a book report he had given, she recommended he take ninth grade speech class. He did, and became very good at it. With his excellent oratory skills he won a debate scholarship to the University of California at Fullerton.

While studying at UC Fullerton, Giles got a job at nearby Disneyland as a Jungle Cruise guide. While working there he was introduced to his future wife.

Giles soon graduated from Pepperdine University School of Law with honors. Over the next five years, he built up in an unprecedented time the largest criminal law practice in California, with 29 lawyers and a staff of 85. The future was rapidly building for the young couple.

Then, in 1983, Giles learned that one of his firm’s previous clients – one who several years earlier had been acquitted of serious crimes involving conspiracy to commit murder – had recently been arrested on two new charges.

Giles decided it was time for him to re-evaluate his career. He was now at the top of his field. This was something he had worked his whole life toward, growing his successful law practice. Then, the decision was made. He would no longer practice criminal law. He had to do what was right for him and that was to resign from the firm he worked so hard in building.

Searching for a new business opportunity, Giles saw an article that mentioned the most valuable franchise in the country at the time was a Toyota franchise. With that bit of information he took the risk and bought one of Toyota’s lowest ranking franchises in the United States, in Garden Grove, California. They were way down at 1,150 out of 1,200. Miraculously, the new owner built the franchise into the fifth largest Toyota dealership in the world in less than two years.

Seeking a fresh new opportunity Giles invested his profits from the Toyota franchise and bought into a Canon copier distributorship in Southern California. With the so-called luck of the Irish, sixty days later the fax machine came out. He eventually built his new business into the third largest Canon distributorship in the United States.

After building three very successful businesses, Giles decided to now sell the Toyota franchise and Canon copier distributorship. It was now 1987 and he decided to invest in real estate in West Germany. A year-and-a-half later, the Berlin Wall came crashing down and German real estate prices went through the roof. Our savvy entrepreneur seemed to always manage to be at the right place at the right time.

A few years earlier, Giles successfully represented ComputerLand Inc., in a civil suit. The company’s founder Bill Millard was impressed by his style and asked him to represent him in the sale of his company which was the largest computer sales business in the world. For over seven years, Giles has sat on the board of directors for ComputerLand (now Vanstar Corporation) and has been one of their largest shareholders.

Currently, Giles Enterprises is the holding company for the family’s interests ranging from banking to computer technology to luxury travel accommodations.

One of the strongest influences in Giles’ life was that of the late Dr. Norman Vincent Peale. “Dr. Peale’s wisdom from his classic all time best seller, “The Power Of Positive Thinking,” has been instrumental in my success. The principles are all there for us to use, although few may choose to apply them directly to their daily lives.”

The Giles Foundation believes strongly in giving back to the community. Terry Giles is also a recipient of the prestigious Horatio Alger Award, and one of the youngest to receive it. Currently he serves as vice chairman of the scholarship committee as well as on the board of directors and is instrumental in helping provide college funding to deserving students.

Giles encourages us to go for our dreams. He states his strong belief that we must, “Reach for the stars. Absolutely decide what you want to be and don’t settle for less.”

Terry Giles is a modern day inspiration to all of us that, yes, even in today’s times – FAIRY TALES CAN COME TRUE.

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Giles Enterprises