The Mac & Cheese Millionaire

Epilogue: Mac & Cheese Millionaire

After a decade of running Homeroom, I sold the restaurant in 2020 to a large, venture-backed restaurant company. The acquiring company had some of the biggest names in Silicon Valley as investors, and a seasoned CEO who had led some of America’s most prominent restaurant chains. Despite their company being successful in its own right, Homeroom’s profitability out of a single restaurant was greater than five of their restaurants put together.

When I started Homeroom, I believed that if I wanted to lead with the values that lit me up, doing so would come at the expense of making money. I believed that financial success was for people who were ruthless, competitive, and winner-take-all. I thought that values like pursuing passion, maximizing collaboration, and sharing success were what led to such bad ideas as communism and John Lennon’s albums with Yoko Ono.

What I discovered is that the opposite is true. I learned that by playing a completely different game, I could still win at the one that I wasn’t even trying to play.

I never set out to become a mac and cheese millionaire. When I first put together my Homeroom business plan, I had estimated my take-home pay to be $40,000. I was stunned when in our first year I earned more than I had as a corporate attorney. I discovered that wealth generation can be a natural byproduct of creating something meaningful for as many people as possible.

Most of us are raised to believe that getting a big pile ...