Success Story: Vincent Salazar

Most of us don’t think much past the next 15-30 days. We don’t plan for losing our jobs.

I was a graphic designer for 20 years. One day, the owner of the company I worked for asked me to help unload a truck. I was helping a co-worker when I was injured, it wasn’t part of my job. The company owner didn’t have insurance and when I told him about my injury, he had a very weird way of showing me how much he appreciated my work—he fired me. So I ended up without a job, injured, and with no idea what I was going to do with my life.

I got very depressed. Not only had I lost my job and the way I made my living to support my family, but I also lost my friends. When you are the person who is injured and fired, the people you used to work with don’t want to associate with you. They think it will make them look bad.

One day in the middle of this deep depression and with no work coming to me, I was at my desk with my son playing video games beside me. I looked over at his screen and commented on how amazing the graphics are in video games these days. They look nothing like the way they looked when I was growing up. I told my son, “One day I am going to buy you an arcade game or I will build one for you.” He really didn’t understand what I meant because it is just not his generation, but in that moment, I remembered how happy I was when I was a kid. Back then I would play video games and I didn't have to worry about anything.  I didn't have to worry about bills. I didn't have to worry about work. It was just fun. It was just something that I was doing for myself. It brought me happiness.

The next day I began to look for materials like wood and things like that to build my son's first arcade game. A lot of people tell you that they have a dream and they pursue that dream and then they accomplish it. I just wanted to make my kid happy and by building a little machine I started to feel useful. I was doing something. Even though I was at home and I still didn't have a job I was feeling useful. The hardest part of being on disability is that you feel that you are not 100% anymore.

So, I built this little machine for my son and he liked it a lot and I began to realize that I was really enjoying building little, mini arcade machines so I built a few more. Little by little I ended up with seven or eight arcades in my living room. My wife came to me one night and said, "They are really cute but they are in the living room." So I decided to post them online and sell them. To my surprise in less than four hours they sold and I was like "Whoa!" I figured out that I could be doing something that's part of my therapy and at the same time make money to provide for my family.

I started doing more arcades and then I jumped into bigger projects. I realized how much I was enjoying this work and that was the moment when this became my dream—not before then. I realized that it was something I really wanted to do and now it has been seven years since I went through this process and I work every day and I enjoy it so much. I don't see myself working for anybody else again. I see that I have so much potential in creating things that make people happy. When I see my clients receive the machine I have built for them, that's when I get to meet the kid that they used to be. Seeing them play video games from their past gives me a lot of enjoyment because I am not only doing what I love to do, but I am also giving happiness to people.

Jeff Cohen with his custom arcade from The Goonies.

For the last two years I've been able to bring my arcade games to E3, one of the biggest video game events in the world. I have been working for Capcom, Starbreeze, and Oculus and a lot of other video companies. I have built arcades for celebrities like Jeff Cohen from The Goonies and several other people. I get to meet musicians, I get to meet producers, I get to meet a lot of people who have found something in common with me and I cannot ask for anything better to happen to me. I was never aware of all these beautiful people who are there to help you out, and to thrive through this process.

If somebody were to ask me what my keys for success were, I think to believe in yourself is the most important thing, no matter what you do in life you have to believe in yourself. You have to work hard, and never give up. Never give up no matter how crazy people tell you that you are. Stick to it because all these companies like Apple start in the garage. Disney went through a lot of problems in the beginning. I never understood until now. The only difference between the people who have success in life and those who don’t is that they try something crazy. We have to actually take the step to do something that we love to do because we were all born with talents. Everybody has something that they can be passionate about and when you pursue your dream, you cannot go wrong.