GALLO is the largest winery in the world today.

The company consists of over 100 brands in more than 90 countries. They have more than 20,000 acres of vineyards across California.

As Prohibition ended, the Gallo brothers—Ernest and Julio—wanted to get into the wine business, but they didn’t have too much money. Their starting capital was less than $6,000 (about $140,000 in today's inflation-adjusted dollars).

Ernest borrowed $5,000 of that money from his mother-in-law, a Mrs. Franzia, who had founded her own wine company in 1906. That company still exists today, by the way.

If the name rings a bell, most of the nation's boxwine comes from that company. Ironically, the Franzia brand is not owned by GALLO.

When they were starting out, the young Gallo brothers knew next to nothing about wine, though. So they decided to visit the McHenry Research Library near their home in Modesto. They spoke to the librarian there but they couldn’t find any books on wine because Prohibition had just ended. Only a few vineyards were operable during Prohibition because they were producing sacramental wine.

“Wait a second,” said the librarian. “I think we have some pamphlets.” They all went down to the basement and found some pamphlets written by a college professor from UC Davis years before prohibition.

The pamphlets were exactly what they needed. “You can take the pamphlets. We don’t need them,” said the librarian.

At this point, the Gallos were in their 20s. They had a big family who worked for them in the wine business. But they wanted to hire a winemaker.

However, they couldn’t afford a proper winemaker, so they had to do it themselves, and they did okay thanks to those pamphlets.

More than okay, frankly. The company is now huge and the company is still family-owned.

Late in their career, the brothers reflected. “This was the beginning of our knowledge about making commercial wines, such as how to have a sound, clean fermentation, all that stuff.”

The biggest winery in the world all began in 1933, in a library.

Get to know the research library, whether it’s in college or your hometown library.

Librarians can be geniuses. Sometimes better than what Google even has to offer.

Find a mentor, perhaps.

Figure out what you want to do and then discover the knowledge to do it.

Ask for help.

Learn all you can.

Get your start.

As always,

Brian

P.S. – I have zero idea how to make wine, though I fancy a glass of Spanish red every so often.

I also don't know how to do a lot of things, but it's not for a lack of trying. One thing I've learned over the years in the coaching world is that we should probably all ask for help here and there.

None of us have it all figured out.

Life is hard and most people are overwhelmed, but you can do it. You have the power to improve. Just take action on one thing and you will deserve the success that follows.

If you want help, we're here for you.