Alumni Mini-Documentary with Orlando Jimenez # Farm Kid to Entrepreneur ## Farm Kid to Entrepreneur [Embedded content](https://www.youtube.com/embed/5NFOhWt_zPc?rel=0&controls=1&fs=0&modestbranding=1&cc_load_policy=1) × Overcoming Adversity: A Journey from Abandonment to Achievement 0:03 poor farm kid abandoned by his father. Left for nothing and given everything. 0:15 to wrestle at the highest level and be the best. When I get done with that, I'm gonna go get a job and I'm gonna still compete at the highest level and be a husband and be a father and show the world that they can do it. 0:23 And then I'm gonna go get another degree and then I'm gonna start a business and then we're gonna do it together. 1:02 My name's Orlando Jimenez. from Phoenix, Arizona, uh University of Phoenix MBA graduate and current DBA student. 1:18 I was born in Florence, Arizona. Casa Grande didn't have a hospital, so I was born in Florence, raised in Casa Grande, to Debbie and Sammy Jimenez. 1:28 About three or four years old, I can remember the police taking my biological father away. 1:36 he was choking my mother. Not a lot of people know this. 1:42 When I was 19, I went to find him. And he was in this little apartment in Bethany Home and 35th Avenue. 1:51 And he was just so happy and kind. And I was in the Navy and I just wanted to make peace with him. 1:57 And he sat me on his lap and he sang to me. 2:04 And I thought, yeah, we're good. And he let me know too, I didn't raise you. 2:10 Victor, who my father knew growing up boxing and wrestling with him, knew him and said, that's your father. 2:20 I said, I could be your friend. And I understood that and I accepted it. 2:26 But I realized he was a man who chose drugs, Alcohol, smoking cigarettes, and just poor eating and poor living. 2:35 And he didn't make it to 58. Stem and cancer fell over and died at work. 2:45 So I went to see his body and sit with him and be with him in this empty, cold room and hold his hand and share that time with him. 3:04 said my piece and moved on and paid for the burial services and everything. 3:09 I just wanted to have that moment and make peace. That was a forgiveness I felt was needed for me so I can move on. 3:23 you 3:31 Five years old, I met my stepdad while he was working on my mom's uh little rusty sedan in our carport. 3:41 I was in kindergarten. I can remember this very robust male on his name tag on his uniform shirt said Victor and his blue and then he had the thermos underneath which showed his physical muscularity 3:57 which was like, wow, this is... This is somebody I want to be like, I hope he could be my dad one day. 4:05 started dating my mom and first time I went to his house, he shows me his room, it's full of trophies and all his memorabilia from sports and wrestling. 4:14 He invited me to let me know that if I wanted to be a family, he was willing to take that on and be my dad and that he could teach me three things. 4:24 One is to be a good man, to be a fighter, and how to work on cars. 4:31 All three things came to fruition and made me who I am. The Impact of Family: Lessons from a Father Figure 4:38 What kind of man in his mid-20s, right, you're just retiring from boxing, you have a career, you could do anything, you'd be anything, and you decide you want to be a father 4:48 to four kids, you know, and take that on, it means everything to me. 4:53 So much so that I wanted to build it for myself as a man. 5:02 came from that migrant mentality, you know, that farm, that cornfield, husking figs and fruits and cotton around the country as kids. 5:11 And he always taught about that, that they took care of each other. 5:17 Everything I've learned or we've learned and the camaraderie and the brotherhood that you can get experiencing in the military really came from my pops and his friendships and his 5:26 brotherhood. Having his own brothers and them showing up to everything, sporting events, NBA programs, they're there. 5:33 Graduation day, they're there, everyone. 5:38 It's not been perfect having a son with PTSD or maybe their own bouts of anger or depression. 5:47 So he's dealt with that for 20 years. 5:57 This is my garage. think there was zero trophies or accolades as a kid. So seeing my father's room, I created my own space for myself. 6:06 I wrestled around the world, gone to school around the world. He's been there for everything. 6:13 First place wrestling, know, number one wrestler in Arizona. His fanny pack dad just won't stop yelling in the stands, right? 6:20 It's like super proud. Like that was probably the only time he was verbally loud. 6:27 He doesn't speak much. His very stoic and just will look at you and shake your hand and he brings you close and you feel how proud he is of you. 6:37 He's happy and that made me happy that he's happy. So I was like, wow, maybe I pursued all these things because it made me happy that he's happy for me my whole life. 6:47 Every opportunity to go to school with the NBA program is the opportunity to make my father proud. 6:55 I see him in my kids. 7:02 Yeah, because who else takes a risk on a kid who doesn't feel wanted, right? 7:09 And that's all you want is to feel wanted. And here's this man that makes you feel that. 7:17 I'm that little boy not wanting to lose that connection with his dad. 7:27 when you're overseas and you're serving, are your heads down with the books that you're studying? You're like thinking about the day you're coming home or you're thinking about graduation. 7:39 Am I making him proud? steal that. It's steal that dude. 7:46 I still want that. always be that son. 7:51 I'll always be that son. 8:03 My old man means everything to me. That same day I saw his trophies of wrestling. That's what I knew I wanted to do. 8:08 Wrestling at home on the grass, on concrete, just brother sisters and then you just find a program in grade school. 8:17 And then from there middle school, high school, state championships. During my senior high school I received a full right scholarship to wrestle. 8:25 That all changed on the morning of 9-11. my senior year. 8:31 I walked into English class first period and on the TV screen were the airplanes flying into the Twin Towers. 8:42 Today our fellow citizens, our way of life, our very freedom came under attack in a series of deliberate and deadly terrorist acts. 8:57 to the Naval Recruiting Station and I signed up that day. It changed everything for me. 9:08 with these calloused hands, right? There's not from lifting weights, that's all from just calloused, casquing corn by hand, boxing by hand, shipping by hand, 11 p.m. 9:18 to 11 a.m. from age 10 to 18. So I worked literally into the fills until the day I left for basic training in Great Lakes, Illinois, the United States Navy. 9:38 Going into Great Lakes, Illinois, basic training for boot camp, I real quickly learned that I was far ahead of other men my age at 18 in preparedness for life. Service and Sacrifice: Life in the Navy 9:50 They were young men my age crying for their mothers under the rack underneath me and realizing that this was a different experience for them, that they weren't prepared in the 10:01 way that I was. My father's always telling us that you're going to be in charge of your own family one day, right? 10:06 So take responsibility now. 10:11 He would teach us how to do taxes. He would teach us how to finance and budget their checkbooks. 10:17 It's like we just want to play. But it made sense when I was 18 now with money, right? And all my friends are broke. 10:24 Every first and 15th, you're getting paid and I'm buying a house at 21. 10:32 Those are the type of things that I took in the lessons of my father through the military, through basic training, through getting in trouble in the Navy, fighting, losing my 10:41 rating, not being able to be what I wanted to be and learning, standing at attention, taking it like a man, accepting accountability and responsibility quickly so that I can 10:52 move on. realize that you're the master of your ship and your destiny and you have to steer that for yourself. 11:03 Thank you for being the person in my life, the leader that I needed. Because I could have been in so many different scenarios in life. 11:11 Prison, jail, who knows, gangs, that was real. That could have been me. 11:22 USS Duluth, October 12th, 2002, and I thought I was gonna see the sights, check out San Diego, all the guys are going to Tijuana, right? 11:31 And you're like, yeah, I got it. Let me get to the ATM. And lo and behold, the BM-1 on watch, I said, no, you're not gonna go spend your money over there. 11:40 You're gonna buy these books for this humanitarian courses and this world religious courses. 11:47 You're not gonna go party. So I started college on board the USS Duluth first thing when I got to the ship October 2002. 11:56 That's led to 23 years of education still currently now in pursuit of that doctrine. 12:08 Somebody believed in me. Said, no, you're not going to buy that tundra that you want. And you're not going to go to TJ or party downtown. 12:15 You're going to stay on this ship. You're going to get an education. 12:20 and you know how to wrestle? Okay, we're going to get the full-word captain of all 48 ships over here to meet you and then give you an opportunity to wrestle for him. 12:29 I was not expecting that. That's not something I signed up for. 12:35 I signed up to go to war, I signed up to serve, and they gave me that opportunity, the United States Navy, not just to serve my country, but to get an education for my country. 12:46 And I'm still getting an education for my country, for my family, and for me, and for my brothers that never made it back from that deployment. 13:06 was exactly what I signed up for is war. Not sleeping, operations, uh Marine corps in the well deck, small boat operations, morning, noon, and night. 13:15 I learned what it meant to care more than about myself. In that process, you learn brotherhood. 13:20 All hands on deck, right? Working parties, everybody was involved. Everybody's painting the ship. 13:25 Everybody's cleaning every bit of debris off the flight deck. 13:38 grew up instantly. You cross that equator and you enter into a war zone and there's night skies that look like the 4th of July. 13:49 I'm no longer in Phoenix, Arizona. I'm not in the United States anymore. I'm not home. 13:58 his friend that couldn't come back from that. He locked himself in the armory and killed himself on the ship to be there for that, right? 14:08 Not wanting to be that statistic, so really, really fighting against that, finding something to do all the time. Education as Empowerment: The Role of Learning 14:19 Staying live. like in here. 14:27 Yeah, accolades and the achievements. 14:37 I still carry a lot here and here, right? 14:42 I don't want to wave that white flag anymore, but it's heavy, man. 14:52 You still have those dark moments. I still wake up early alone by myself. 14:59 and ask them if I'm making them proud. You know, they didn't get to get out and try college and start a family, buy a house, and go to University of Phoenix and start an MBA program, which with the encouragement of the 15:16 university that led to the doctoral program, giving me the opportunity to take classes while I was in my MBA. 15:22 They'll never know that. To sit here with you, to tell that story, to tell them I miss them, I love them, and this is for them. 15:29 They're a part of all of this. That's what we promised to each other, you know? 15:40 I love my brothers. Everything's for them. 15:49 I met my wife in high school. We were friends. She was a basketball player and a runner. 15:56 And so she would see my brother and I running on the track, just these little wrestlers, just no form whatsoever, right? 16:02 We just don't know how to run. She would teach us how to run with form. 16:08 I saw him running one day on the track and he was real, like stuck to himself running like this, like he was fighting or wrestling. 16:16 Like, you need to run, like. Head up, back straight, breathing, posture, literally. 16:23 Stance and motion, everything. Diagnostic breathing. They're smarter than us, that's all. 16:33 From there we just became friends in high school. I didn't really date. I was really focused on school and wrestling and getting into college. 16:40 oh I was in Great Lakes and I had her address in the address book. 16:49 wrote her, she was the first one to write back, right? And you don't know nothing about being romantic, so you're on Great Lakes thinking you're gonna put this little flower inside of something, but it's mushy, so she receives it, and 17:00 she understands the sentiment, and then that led to, oh, I think he likes me. 17:06 I went to Carnes, Australia. I had been there for my first deployment, and I remember thinking if she would have me and want to date me still after I come back from the second deployment. 17:18 I'm gonna buy this ring and propose to her. And I did, I came back from deployment July 2005, which her birthday is July 21st. 17:29 So I proposed to her on her birthday and we got married November 5th, 2005. 17:36 I was still in the Navy, I still had six months left, so I was still serving. But I married my bride, yeah, my best friend. 17:46 giving me five beautiful children, has helped me build everything. The kindest person I know, the kindest heart, all my children have that softness from her. 17:56 She's my best friend, my soulmate, um the breath of life for me. 18:04 It's my breath of life. She's my cup of coffee, Yeah. 18:18 Three out of the four years, I wrestled for the Navy. And in that, I was recruited to wrestle in college after the Navy. 18:26 So it came full circle where I was able to go back to wrestling in college and then still continue to wrestle. 18:35 martial arts that's really tied into the fabric of who I am, for sure. 18:41 This constant need to pump one, that it's gonna always be there. There's few brief joys in life, but most of the time it's a struggle. 18:51 My father, my pops, a wrestler, stud wrestler. I remember him telling us a story. He couldn't afford to go to China to represent Team USA at 14 years old because it cost 800 bucks. 19:01 And my grandfather, who was a farmer, 800 bucks to go put on this leotard to wrestle for in China? 19:09 Ridiculous. So he never got to go. I still compete around the world today because of that. 19:27 got accepted to the law enforcement academy and I realized for the first time in my life at that age, I was 26, you know, I needed a job. 19:35 I needed a job and law enforcement was that for me. It was the area where I wanted to study and focus on. 19:42 And it was also wanting to be a peace officer. My uncles and a lot of friends that got out of the Navy became law enforcement officers and peace officers. 19:50 It was a great experience. It's at Casa Grande, my hometown. So got to serve grandparents, parents. 19:57 neighbors, family, friends. I was a peace officer, street uh patrolman for a year, then became a bicycle patrol officer for a year, drug interdiction officer for a year. Building a Legacy: From Struggles to Success 20:08 My last year before being accepted into law school, I was a school resource officer. So I was able to also coach the wrestling team at that time because I was there every day. 20:17 That four years was some of the best experience of my life in serving. 20:22 It's a tough world, right? But kindness goes a long way. Even the young man I had a run-in with as a law enforcement officer is my landscaper and can remember that time on campus and that situation with a fight. 20:38 And I didn't treat him ill or make him feel any less. I told him, you had an altercation. 20:46 You had a disagreement. It's not the crime of the century. 20:52 but from drug interdiction in the Sonoran Desert. Playing these cat and mouse games, I remember being pulled off graveyards. 21:01 Just dirt still chasing guys, know, cartel bad guys in the desert too. 21:08 You're gonna come and be the school resource officer here and here's all these principles and go clean up. So was just, you know, the job, nothing was ever the same. 21:24 You don't know where you're gonna get into, where you're gonna meet, or where people are gonna be down the line. You your heroes or your mentors that guided you that, some of these people I can't even find. 21:35 I was able to get ahold of BM-1 before the NBA to let them know that I was in the NBA. 21:41 And they said, responded with, I'm proud of you. I wanna be a BM-1, know, the boats that made first class that saw me coming in on that Mastec first day. 21:53 and cared enough to guide me and direct me. 22:02 Who told them to do that? No. But thank you because I'm here because of it. 22:07 I am much of who I am where I didn't even think I could take a college class and pass or maybe be equipped enough for that to ace all of them and be given the confidence to know 22:19 when you get out to go to college in the world that I can do this. Not only can I do this, I can do this and can wrestle at the highest level and be the best. 22:28 And not only can do that, but when I get done with that, I'm gonna go get a job and I'm gonna still compete at the highest level and be a husband and be a father and show the 22:33 world that they can do it. And then I'm gonna go get another degree and then I'm gonna start a business and then we're gonna do it together. 22:38 So there's no excuses of what you can or can't do. Get up, lace it up. Right here, my dad always said, this drawstring is connected to your testicular and intestinal fortitude, man. 22:49 And when you're having a hard time, you're a little hurt, double knot it and keep going. 23:09 It was the 2020 global pandemic and so everything shut down, right? uh Couldn't go anywhere, couldn't train, no school. 23:16 And we created Fight Rope because children were logging off the Zoom calls and computers and were committing suicide. 23:25 And we thought we have to do something. What's a tool that we have and use that's always been, since childhood, a jump rope? 23:33 when it was a philosophy that your life is in your hands just like this rope, just like the handles of the jump rope. 23:40 And just you can keep going one pace, one skip at a time, right? You don't have to rush this process, but just keep moving. 23:48 So there's a philosophy that just much like the jump rope, your life is in your hand. 23:56 go on to Instagram stories and enroll schools and neighborhoods and gyms to log on and do these workouts with us. 24:02 And it led to people buying the ropes all over the world. And uh that mission still continues to this day. 24:14 Coffee for me, if I can just go back, my grandparents, my grandparents always with hot coffee in the morning and the little pastry cookies. 24:25 With my father, it was understanding that men use that as a source of energy for work. 24:31 So then he equated that smell from five years old on until this day. Smell it and then you're gonna share it with the neighbors. 24:39 It means to work. Coffee is a love language. Whatever you want to do, it is going to help you do. 24:45 It can get you through anything. It's a connecting thing. It's a human connector. The bean water in the cup, that's great. 24:52 That's something. But it's what can we do in this exchange? What can we create in this space between you and I right here? 24:59 When you come up to me or I come up to you with coffee, what can we create? Anything. 25:04 We can create anything. You come up to me, the first thing I'm going to say is, hey, Before you woke up this morning and your feet hit the ground, what did your heart want? 25:13 What did your heart desire before you came? You know what your heart wanted before your feet hit the floor and you knew what kind of coffee you knew. 25:20 You wanted, tell me what you want so I can make it for you. 25:27 I Dos Bros growing more than coffee truck and trailer or small cafe and mobile units. 25:32 I see us moving into uh franchising. I'm already being asked by several other friends, which are veterans, which have the opportunity to do this. 25:40 So it's a great opportunity that we've built something that we can franchise globally. I want to be everywhere. 25:46 I want you wearing the merch. You're feeling the vibe. It's the culture. 25:51 It's the culture of the Brotherhood that... People care for no reason other than we should care about each other. 26:00 I returned to Phoenix, Arizona. The fight life was over. So I thought, yeah, let's get back into law. 26:06 So I joined a lot of wrestlers that created a firm out here and started uh competing and working for them. 26:11 There was a program through the VA, the VR &E, the Vocational Rehabilitation and Education Program that allowed for me to continue education beyond exhausting the GI Bill. 26:25 And that allowed me to select the perfect schedule, which was with the University of Phoenix that fit my work schedule, family schedule, and my athletic competitive schedule because I still compete around the 26:36 globe. So I could take the school with me everywhere. It's so neat when you have like a venture capitalist or an entrepreneur as an instructor and you're not realizing like, this isn't a traditional school where he's just or she's 26:50 just teaching the subject. She's actually a professional in the business world. 26:56 owns 10 service stations in Phoenix, While a family and an online business and instructing, you're like, whoa, what am I doing? 27:04 You know? Like, I need to pick it up. And it shows you, right, how will you do with your time, your bandwidth. 27:10 What am I doing with my 18 hours a day? And it's an eye-opener. 27:15 What am I doing with... I can do anything. I can build anything because she's doing it. 27:22 My instructor's doing it right now. So she's telling me, you stick with this, you don't quit. 27:29 Not about the program, about what I'm building outside of the NBA, personally. 27:38 I didn't pay for that. I paid for you to guide me through an MBA, but you're actually guiding me through life as an entrepreneur. 27:47 And anybody that doesn't say it, like, you're gonna question, am I gonna finish this? Can I finish this? I'm a working adult here in the working world. 27:57 and then you go open that email at work and you're tired and it's 6 p.m. and you want to get home to your wife and kids and boom, University of Phoenix just lets you know that you have a 3.98 GPA and also you're part of the National Honor Society of 28:10 this and you're just like, let's get to work. 28:16 Phoenix doesn't provide just instructors or teachers or let's get to the graduation. They provide you mentorship. 28:22 They provide you heroes that will guide you in your business to where you want it in life. And that's the belief of mine. 28:28 That's why I'm gonna finish the DBA here because I want other veterans and student athletes and fighters and farm kids like myself to know the University of Phoenix is a 28:39 home for you because it's a home for me. And I've been doing it and you can do it too. 28:45 and you can build whatever you want here. Look at this. You built this. It didn't exist. 28:51 You created it and then you went with it. That's what U of P does for you. 28:56 That's what U of P had done for me. A year from now, man, it's gonna be whole different story of what we've done here, what we've created here. 29:03 Just this, and this relationship, and this interaction, and that the people get to see it. 29:10 This poor farm kid abandoned by his father, you know? left for nothing and given everything. 29:17 Thank you University of Phoenix, you've given me everything. I believe that will be the last thing I ever do in education is have a doctorate degree from the University of Phoenix and I'm gonna wear that proudly. University of Phoenix alumnus Orlando Jimenez shares his journey from a challenging childhood marked by abandonment to achieving personal and professional success. The video was uploaded on 12/11/2025. The video lasts for 30 minutes and 20 seconds. **Key Moments** 00:00 – Overcoming Adversity: A Journey from Abandonment to Achievement 04:37 – The Impact of Family: Lessons from a Father Figure 09:39 – Service and Sacrifice: Life in the Navy 14:12 – Education as Empowerment: The Role of Learning 20:04 – Building a Legacy: From Struggles to Success ```html ``` ```html ```