I was sleeping in a Walmart parking lot. Now I own a company

Keith Dixon says the big problem with employee stock ownership plans (ESOPs) is that there aren't enough of them. (Credit: courtesy of Keith Dixon)

Thirteen years ago, I was working as a cashier in a candy store. I wasn’t making enough to pay rent so slept in my car in a Walmart parking lot. 

It was really tough, I’m not going to lie. I saw no way out of that parking lot. But then I got thrown a lifeline. I landed a temp job separating aluminum and steel scrap at a local manufacturing plant where my grandfather was a production manager.