Adalberto Ravelo was 37 years old, had a degree in Education with a focus on Social Sciences and History, and no connections when he arrived in the United States.
Today, 26 years later, he is the founder of Dolphy School, a school for insurance, taxes, and accounting that, as he explains, is certified by the state of Florida and has had more than 50,000 students pass through its doors.
Her story is the star of the , the podcast for Cuban entrepreneurs from CiberCuba, hosted by Katia Sánchez and recorded in the Dolphy TV studio in Miami.
Tears behind the columns of Bongo's
Guajiro de Corralillo, a small town in Bauta, in the current province of Artemisa, Ravelo started like any other immigrant: working in construction and then at Bongo's Cuban Café, the restaurant owned by Emilio and Gloria Estefan in downtown Miami, which has since closed.
It was there that he/she lived his/her worst moments.
"I spent many years alone in this country, and I can confess something to you: I used to cry behind the columns of Bongo's Cuban Café, because I was lonely, because I had left behind a six-year-old daughter," he remembers.
He did not see his daughter again until she was 12 years old.
“One good day I said: I won’t cry anymore. She is not going to do anything with my tears. She will take advantage of the work I’m going to do here, of the success I achieve, and of the little money I can send her,” recounts Ravelo.
The shirt in the car and the leap to the commissions
A friend spoke to her about a career in insurance, and she studied it while continuing to work at the restaurant.
At the end of his shift, he would change his shirt inside his own car and go out to visit clients.
"Many times, perhaps the customer sensed the characteristic smell of the restaurant, but I did it with a lot of love," he says.
In less than three months, he quintupled what he was earning at Bongo's.
While his colleagues were asking for more work hours, he was reducing his to dedicate time to insurance, until one Saturday he told the manager that he was leaving.
"Since that date, I have never earned a salary in my life. Everything I earned was commission," he states.
The failures that no one sees
He insists that the path was not linear, however. Here are some of the setbacks and challenges he listed:
- $50,000 lost with his first insurance agency in West Palm Beach. "And I didn't have the $50,000 under the mattress," he warns.
- A second agency that operated until it partnered with his friend Iván Herrera and became a franchise of Univista Insurance.
- A first school that did not thrive because it did not find the right partner.
- In 2016, he had to establish a new school from scratch, obtaining all the necessary licenses, and spent almost two years unable to sell a course.
- It took him 11 years to build a team of trust.
“Perhaps you might doubt what you are doing, but one thing you can never doubt in life is yourself.”
A school that was born from the comments of a blog
Dolphy School was not born from a business plan.
Between 2005 and 2007, Ravelo taught himself online marketing, created blogs and websites, and began writing articles about insurance.
One of them explained how to obtain the agent license, and the comments kept coming: “How do you get the license? Can I get it with you?”.
There were a hundred, two hundred, three hundred, four hundred comments, all asking the same thing.
"One day I sat down and said: how do you start an insurance school?"
In 2014, the school opened. At first, he was the only teacher and taught three or four students. As he explains, today he has more than 15 teachers and offers over 37 types of courses.
It also claims that Dolphy School is an IRS certified provider and has opened locations in Georgia, Texas, and the two Carolinas in less than a year.
Around him, he has built an ecosystem: graduates can work as agents at Univista Insurance or as tax preparers at Dolphy Taxes, while Dolphy TV produces the podcasts and YouTube content that attract most of their clients.
"There are no stable businesses."
At 63 years old, Ravelo started studying artificial intelligence a year and a half ago and now uses an assistant daily. “You don't create a business for a lifetime. You create a business for 30 days, for 60 days, for 90 days,” he argues.
And it issues a warning: AI needs to be customized and its responses must be reviewed, not copied blindly.
For him, being a millionaire is not about having a full bank account, but rather having left behind the times when he would split a check among credit cards without being able to cover the rent.
"I have a wonderful family, my daughters, my granddaughters, a business that I have built with all the love in the world, and my accounts on autopilot," he concludes.
His advice for beginners
- Take action: "Luck is the excuse of the failures," he says, quoting lines he attributes to Pablo Neruda.
"A period of five years opens: 'Give yourself just five little years to realize that your life is going to change.'"
- Look for short professions: insurance, taxes, or real estate can be studied in less than 90 days.
Invest in yourself: save 20 dollars each time until you can afford a course, rather than spending it on glasses or branded clothing.
- Don't pay attention to those who call you crazy: Adalberto Ravelo recounts that a relative called him that while he was spending 12 hours a day learning to use a computer.
In the episode, Ravelo showcased two objects that tell a lot about his story: an old VEF radio his mother brought him from Cuba, with her name engraved on it, and a figure of the iconic Wall Street bull. One represents the roots he has never forgotten; the other symbolizes the opportunities he found in the United States to carve out his own path.
Watch the full episode on YouTube or on the .
$how me the mon€y is the podcast for Cuban entrepreneurs from CiberCuba, hosted by Katia Sánchez and presented by Dolphy School, the program's sponsor. .
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