The Power of One Entrepreneur

Not the drivers and owners of commuter vans—an industry he kept afloat in New York City by overcoming entrenched political opposition and harassment by enforcement agencies.

Not the 40,000 or more passengers who get to and from work each day using the commuter vans he helped organize in Queens and New York City’s other four boroughs.

Not the owners of businesses like the Visiting Nurse Service of Staten Island or Hybrid Advertising in Crown Heights, Brooklyn,that could not operate without the van service that brings workers to clients or creates a market for advertisers to promote their own enterprise.

Not the owners and employees of businesses that took root and thrived in the protective shadow of the van business, businesses that serve ethnic groups on their journey to prosperity that is the story of New York City.

When people speak of Hector Ricketts, it’s always Mr. Ricketts—not in deference to some great power or control he has that raises his status above them, but because they simply want to reflect the respect with which he has treated them, their hard work and their dreams.

Hector Ricketts is the most practical of dreamers. He is an entrepreneur: someone who saw a need, turned it into an opportunity, applied his own hard work, intelligence and personality, and shared his success with others—all the while facing down a bureaucracy full of barriers to build more opportunity and more success for himself and for many others….