66. Which of the following would be the best title for the test?
A. Cell Phone Alerts Protecting Students
B. Cell Phone Alerts by Wireless Industry
C. Cell Phone Alerts Natural Disasters
D. Cell Phone Alerts Coming Soon
C
It was the summer of 1965. Deluca, then 17, visited Peter Buck, a family friend. Buck asked
Deluca about his plan for the future. “I’m going to college, but I need a way to pay for it,” Deluca
recalls saying. “Buck said, ‘you should open a sandwich shop.’ ”
That afternoon, they agreed to be partners. And they set a goal: to open 32 stores in ten years.
After doing some research, Buck wrote a check for $ 1,000. Deluca rented a storefront (店面) in
Connecticut, and when they couldn’t cover their start-up costs, Buck kicked in another $1,000.
But business didn’t go smoothly as they expected. Deluca says, “After six months, we were
doing poorly, but we didn’t know how badly, because we didn’t have any financial controls.” All he
and Buck knew was that their sales were lower than their costs.
Deluca was managing the store and to the University of Bridgeport at the same time. Buck was
working at his day job as a nuclear physicist in New York. They’d meet Monday evenings and
brainstorm ideas for keeping the business running. “We convinced ourselves to open a second store.
We figured we could tell the public, ‘ We are so successful, we are opening a second store.’” And
they did — in the spring of 1966. Still, it was a lot of learning by trial and error.
But the partners’ learn-as-you-go approach turned out to be their greatest strength. Every
Friday, Deluca would drive around and hand-deliver the checks to pay their supplies. “It probably
took me two and a half hours and it wasn’t necessary but as a result, the suppliers got to know me
very well, and the personal relationships established really helped out,” Deluca says.
And having a goal was also important. “There are so many problems that can get you down.
You just have to keep working toward your goal,” Deluca adds.
Deluca ended up founding Subways Sandwich, the multimillion-dollar restaurant chain.