Bob Williamson: From Homeless Drug Addict to Multi-millionaire
Renowned businessman and serial entrepreneur Bob Williamson has achieved national acclaim for his business acumen and philanthropic efforts.
Renowned businessman and serial entrepreneur Bob Williamson has achieved national acclaim for his business acumen and philanthropic efforts. All told Williamson has founded 11 successful businesses. His largest business accomplishment to date was the establishment of one of the most successful food service technology companies in the United States, Horizon Software International; a company that he sold in 2008 for $75 million cash that revolutionized the institutionalized food service market with its innovative software.
What makes Williamson's accomplishments all the more inspiring is to understand the tremendous personal challenges that he overcame in his early life which he details in his recent book, Miracle on Luckie Street. His childhood was dark and by the time he was fifteen he was an alcoholic; he attended 19 different schools; he graduated to intravenous meth and heroin use and became a hard core addict; he was extremely violent, carried a .357 Magnum, and became a dangerous criminal committing armed robberies; he was kicked out of the military as a diagnosed sociopath; he spent time in Parrish Prison in New Orleans, he went through a nasty divorce; his family had given up on him; he was homeless, penniless, was a loner that didn't have a single friend; and didn't believe in God.
At the age of 22 he'd reached the point where he felt that suicide was his only viable option and he was ready and willing to pull the trigger, but then a horrific car accident and a chance encounter with a merciful nurse helped change his life. During his long recovery he read the Bible and found faith in God and along with it personal redemption and hope. He stopped taking drugs and alcohol. He started at rock bottom, worked hard and smart, started a business, and virtually overnight accumulated a small fortune and achieved what he believed to be the absolute pinnacle of success; but the sudden mountain of cash triggered an avalanche of new problems and soon he was overwhelmed with temptation, arrogance, and sheer lust for more of everything. He was addicted to a new drug - money - but again miraculously overcame his addictions.
Today Bob Williamson is completely drug and alcohol free, he is no longer a slave to the "flash and the cash", the pride of life, and the lust for unadulterated power. He has been happily married to the woman of his dreams for 40 years and has been blessed with three successful, happily married sons and seven grandchildren.
He has achieved national acclaim for his business acumen and was selected from among hundreds of contestants as the 2006 Gwinnett Business Person of the Year by the Gwinnett Chamber of Commerce, (the third largest chamber in the country). He was also a finalist for the Ernst and Young 2007 Entrepreneur of the Year Award, which was previously won by distinguished entrepreneur Michael Dell of Dell Computers. He has been featured in AOL, Florida Trend, Inc. Magazine, Business Week, MSN, Yahoo Business, Investor's Business Daily, The Christian Post, Reader's Digest, various newspaper articles and many other publications, plus he's done numerous radio and television interviews.
He is currently the CEO of the Williamson Group USA, a holding company with several subsidiaries including his latest venture, $35 million Honey Lake Resort and Spa that is being built on his 4700 acre sprawling Plantation near Tallahassee Florida. He spends much of his time sharing his inspirational true life story in an effort to provide hope to anyone who might happen to need it. He writes a daily devotional Words for the Day and has been doing so for 12 years.