LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — Before you pick up some momentum in life, you need a nudge in the right direction. For 32-year-old Donnie Dupray, the Army was just that.
"I didn't know what I wanted to do, so I figured that would be a good starting point," said Donnie Dupray.
He got his degree in fire science and criminal justice, and after about four years in the service, a shoulder injury left him sidelined.
"I wasn't able to get a job after I got out as a firefighter or a police officer because my medical records wouldn't let me. And after having three kids and a wife to take care of and support, I had to do something," he said. "So becoming an entrepreneur was what it was. Starting a company."
The idea for his company — All Veteran Transit — came to him simply out of a desire to do it himself.
"So, I woke up one morning and decided that I was going to start a moving company and I got the business license that day and it just took off from there."
He's been moving Las Vegas' stuff around since 2018 and has three employees. Before the pandemic, Dupray had as many as eight.
"It's awesome," he said. "And the growth that we've experienced in Las Vegas has been unbelievable."
Whether the Army knew it, Dupray picked up the confidence needed to forge his own path because of it.
"The perseverance to just hold my own and when I decide to do something, to stick with it and go through with it. But it also gave me the capability of-and the knowledge, I guess-of how to run a company. And it didn't do that on purpose, it was just something I took out of it."
His best advice is to aim high.
"Try everything that you want to try. There's no point going to work every day for a job that you hate doing. If you wake up every morning and you go to a job that you love, you'll never work a day in your life."
Learn more on AllVeteranTransit.com.
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