Jaime Mayorga has a lot of sentimental stuff in his house that reminds him of where he's been in life.
There's the black suitcase that he balanced on his head as he splashed across the border separating Mexico and the United States. Then there is the car he and his wife drove from Florida to Utah in search of a better life. And finally, the Super Bowl-size ring he earned as the most prolific used-car salesman in a five-state region that includes Utah."I am a winner," Mayorga said. "I like to win."
Mayorga's victory could not have happened if he hadn't suffered a bit first.
Mayorga was born 31 years ago in Cali, Colombia, a place most Americans associate with cocaine dealers working for violent cartels.
One night about 25 years ago, while his parents were drinking with friends, someone started horsing around with a loaded gun. Mayorga's mother was shot in the abdomen. She survived but had to endure 18 operations and walks with a limp today.
Six years ago, his father, a watch repairman and operator of a lottery ticket business, was shot and killed.
Years before his death, Mayorga's father took out a second mortgage on the family home and borrowed money from friends and relatives for Jaime to go to America.
"It is hard there" in Colombia, Mayorga said. "I came here for an opportunity at the American dream."
Mayorga flew to Mexico City in January 1986 with a friend. They carried clothes packed in a suitcase and $1,800 to pay someone to sneak them across the border into America.
"I still remember it. It was 2:30 in the morning," he said. "It was after a long ride. They opened the doors of the minivan and told us to get out and start walking. There were 14 in the group."
The smuggler, called the coyote, walked out into the no-man's land dividing Tijuana, Mexico, from California. Moments later, the coyote came rushing out of the darkness, screaming at them to dash back to Mexico. Border agents rounded up 10 of the 14 in the group.
Later that night, the coyote showed what was left of the group a second route through a fence where the Mexican border meets the ocean.
Mayorga bought a Social Security card for $300 and got his first job as a dishwasher in a hotel. He was later promoted to vegetable cutter.
Mayorga started learning English by simply memorizing the names of items in the kitchen where he worked - knife, fork, plate, pan. It was, at this time, he met the woman who would become his wife. When the two married, Mayorga became a legal resident because his wife, Marina, also Colombian born, already was a citizen. He later became a citizen.
Mayorga gained employment as a construction worker. He later took work as a door-to-door salesman of pots and pans in one of the poorest neighborhoods in Miami.
"Being a door-to-door salesman in my country is the lowest. But we needed the money," he said. "That made me mentally tough."
Those guts and business acumen would come in handy when Mayorga and his wife relocated to Salt Lake City. He had been in town one or two days before landing a job as a used-car salesman.
In his first year at Henry Day Ford in West Valley City, Mayorga rocketed to the top of his profession. He outsold 1,100 other salesmen in the region encompassing New Mexico, Colorado, Utah, parts of Nevada, Oregon and Idaho.
"It is not about money, though," he said. "I had a family to take care of. I want to be self-reliant."
Henry Day Ford general manager David Ibarra said it is unheard of that a rookie car salesmen could do what Mayorga did.
These days, Mayorga, the father of three children, is the man Ibarra has chosen to put new salesmen through the paces. If the new guys can't pass Mayorga's "belly-to-belly," on-the-job training course, then Ibarra doesn't hire them.
"Jaime's come a long way," Ibarra said.