Because my boss wouldn't give me a $2/hr raise.
Just finished my freshman year of college, and I was back home. I had started a bunch of online forums that had grown in popularity, so I had acquired lots of real world experience with how to deal with people online, how to move traffic, and how to make money off the net.
I grabbed a summer job for a small company (just a local reach, around $400k in sales a year) who wanted to start having an online store to increase their sales. In four months I had their entire catalog online, built a forum around their product which was a SEO gold mine, and preached to every single employee that customer service is key when dealing with online customers.
Things were going good, and I was making $15/hr, and decided I didn't want to go back to college, because 19 year old me wasn't very smart.
Fast forward a year. I've automated the office, and migrated away from paper, cut costs in other areas, basically lean management 101. This was a huge accomplishment because the owner was old school, hand written receipts, blah blah. I've earned his trust.
Jump ahead one more year, I've now been working there for over 2 years, and I'm making $17/hr. I've grown an empire for his product niche online, eclipsed $1.0m in sales on the net, and we are growing online. We now have buying power, and our COGS is dropping due to bulk purchasing. Profit margins for the local market have increased 20% on flat sales (local market saturation), everything is working out good, I've accomplished a lot for the boss and the whole company.
I ask for a raise
I'm told the business is basically automated, and he didn't have a reason to pay me more because anyone he hired at my wage would be able to do my job. I put in my two weeks, I'm let go on the spot.
I was now on a mission
Over the next 3 months, I Sold my car, my forums, and the little savings I had and rented a small office space in a commercial plaza that had zero foot traffic. A computer, a desk, and a stack of business cards.
Built the website. Used the connections I had made over the last 2.5 years to setup purchasing accounts. Nicely explained to them (without throwing my old boss under the bus) how I was now on my own, and I could really use their help to get started.
Fast forward five years (2010) and my secretary messages me saying (old boss) is on the phone and wanted to talk. I was nice as could be to him, and he was interested in selling his business. I invited him to my office, I showed him my warehouse, my packaging lines, my forklifts, the hundreds of product racks, my inventory system, the game room for employees.
He was impressed. My accountant met with his accountant. My lawyer met with his lawyer. I met with his lawyer. I wasn't interested in his business.
His sales flat lined about 6 months after I left, and never had a single quarter of growth after. He actually closed up early 2014, nobody wanted to buy his business.
Let's just say I'm better off today than if I would have had that $2/hr raise.