This is a continuation of #VLPowerSummit: Voto Latino Launched it's Four-City Leadership Tour in NYC on April 11-12, Exclusive Interview with CEO Maria Teresa Kumar [Part I] ; #VLPowerSummit and the #VLInnovatorsChallenge: Voto Latino's President and CEO Maria Teresa Kumar Shares the Development of the Tech Contest [Interview] [Part II] ; #VLPowerSummit: Breakfast Plenary, Business and Community Leaders, Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr., and Unidos Latinos [Exclusive] [Part III]; #VLPowerSummit: NYC Leadership Tour Kick-off Event, Lemon Andersen and Establishing History Through Personal Stories and Poetry [Exclusive] [Part IV]; and #VLPowerSummit: Business and Community Leaders, PepsiCo's Javier Farfan, and the Godfather of Hispanic Branding and Inventor of Flamin’ Hot Cheetos Richard Montañez [Part V]

Southern California, The Frito-Lay plant, 1976: the inevitable inventor of Flamin' Hot Cheetos and the future "God Father of Hispanic Marketing", Richard Montañez, was 20-years-old and "just" a janitor at the company. But, that would quickly change with the development of one "small" idea, and a great deal of courage.

When Montañez was introduced to the possibility that he could be hired on by the Frito-Lay company, he was already aware that gaining that job could and would feed his destiny. At the Voto Latino Power Summit on April 12, Montañez shared this story; the origin tale that led to his present day success. Back then, Montañez worked at a car wash before he applied to a position at the Frito-Lay factory. Unable to read or write, Montañez asked his future wife, Judy, to assist him in completing the application. As he completed it, he thought, "What if I could get a job at Frito-Lay? What if I could create a revolution for the Montañez family, so that none of us would have to work the fields again? What if I could do that?"

When Montañez was first employed by Frito-Lay, he shared the news with his father and grandfather and they told him to make sure that the floor shone with brazen pride. They, like Montañez, were aware that an honest paycheck earmed outside of the fields was the beginning to a revolution within their family. Naysayers remarked to Montañez, "oh, but you were just a janitor," and to that, he would promptly respond, "There's no such thing as just a janitor! There's no such thing as just a waiter! There's no such thing as just a bus driver!"

Every day, he would mop the floor and take out the trash in such a way that people noticed, and would comment. Smiles were produced on the faces of employees, who could always look forward to glistening spaces and the smell of clean and mock-lemon. He put every effort into making sure that his work was the best that it could be; and one day when the CEO sent out a video, requesting that each employee act like an owner, this is message that the young Montañez took personally.

"Sometimes when the invitation does come, you grab it. Don't listen to what others tell you. Because they don't want to go... don't allow anyone influence what you want to do," said Montañez. "Nobody got a hold of it, but I did. I started to research what our company did. Because, remember, I was the janitor, I didn't know. We were a marketing and sales company, and I had an idea... another revolution was about to take place in my life; an idea that would change the course of my company, an idea that would change the course of corporate America. I saw this idea, so I went to a salesman and said... can I go with you on my days off? I'll load up the truck, I'll deliver for you... because I wanted to understand our business."

"The guy was like, 'Free labor? Oh my God... I'll give you anything you want.' I began going to the store, and I got it... I figured it out, and one day, destiny... you gotta get ready for destiny. I'm mopping the floor... and the Cheetos machine breaks... there's no cheese going out," Montañez said to the waiting audience. That was my destiny, a broken machine, so I took some Cheetos home with no cheese on it. And, I thought, 'What would happen if I put chili [powder] on them? So I made my own chili. I mixed it up... and put it on... I'm a little bit of an artist... I drew the graphics on the bag... I took it to work, and everyone was like, 'Bro, where'd you get this?' I brought Flamin' Hot Cheetos into existence, and it was a million dollar idea."

After listening to the CEO, Montañez decided that he would begin acting like an owner, and that meant that he needed to call the CEO. Back in those days, there were no emails... there were giant company directories that listed contacts in each plant and branch, which Montañez consulted when he decided to reached out to the CEO. Montañez went to the branch's secretary and asked if he could use her phone. She responded, "No," informing him that the phone was for company use only and reminded him that he was merely the janitor. He then informed her that he intended to call the CEO, and she quickly changed her mind, allowing him to use the phone. In hindsight, Montañez surmised that the secretary reveled in the possibility of watching someone get fired on the spot. He made his phone call, even though he didn't understand what he was doing.

Montañez admitted that he has made a fortune and become a legend... at being ridiculous. He then told the heeding audience that success sometimes comes in a ridiculous form, and told them that sometimes they must be willing to look ridiculous if they want to be successful.

The CEO's executive assistant answered the phone, and after Montañez provided his name, she asked him, "What country do you run?" He stated, concisely, "I'm from America." The assistant asked him if he was president of the U.S. sector of Frito-Lay, and he responded, "No, I'm from California." She continued to question, asking if he was the general manager of the California sector. He stated that he was from the Cucamonga branch. She asked if he was the plant manager, and he responded, "No, I'm the janitor."
Montañez caught the woman off-guard, but he explained his idea, and she allowed him to speak with the CEO, who listened to his idea and told him that he would be there in two weeks to discuss and develop the idea.

Montañez found, however, that there was another person set on trying to steal his destiny: the plant manager. The manager accosted Montañez ten minutes after he'd gotten off of the phone with the CEO; he was enraged because the janitor had urged change in his organization. The manager asked Montañez, "Who do you think you are?" Because in those ten minutes, the CEO had called the president... who called the vice president... who called the director before the plant manager was called. The plant director said, "Who do you think you are? Now, I gotta paint the place, now I gotta fix everything, and spend one hundred thousand dollars because you're doing a presentation."

Montañez's wife encouraged him to pursue his dreams, and she took him to the library, where they checked out a book on marketing strategies. He took 200 hundred bags and drew on each one of them, and copied five pages from the book, word-for-word, in preparation for the presentation.

Every senior executive was present to watch the CEO take a potentially high-grossing idea from the janitor. He stood in front of the audience with a $3.50 tie on, his very first; and his neighbor had tied it for him the night before. He stood, reading the slides that his wife had prepared, when someone who was trying to steal Montañez's destiny spoke. One of the marketers asked Montañez, "Well, Richard, how much market share are we talking about?" Clueless about what the marketer was talking about, Montañez quickly and boldly responded, "Market share! I haven't written that chapter yet!" Ready to faint, his courage kept him sturdy.

Montañez then quickly injected a story about how he'd gained his courage in third grade, standing in line for a cookie; in a line that was meant only for white children. He was scared and nervous; but hunger, however, dissolved his fear, and he got a cookie. From then on, he realized that hunger would trump fear when facing any challenge.

"No one is born successful, but we are all born to succeed, vision is the source of life and hope, and the greatest gift ever given to mankind is not the gift of sight, but the gift of vision. Sight is a function of the eye; vision is a function of the heart. Eyes that look are common, but eyes that see are rare. No adventure or great accomplishment was done without the vision first. Vision is the key to unlocking the gate to what was, what is, and what will be. Vision can set you free from the limitations of what the eye can see, and it allows you enter what the heart can feel. It's vision that makes the unseen visible, and the unknown possible. It is vision... when other people saw what I was, vision is when others saw what I would become," Montañez professed before thanking everyone for listening to his story, and exiting the stage. While everyone was able to hear a fraction of Montañez's story that day, Montañez's book, "A Boy, A Burrito, and Cookie," was gifted to all attendees in their registration bags.

Follow Richard Montañez at Twitter at @RPMontanez and on Facebook.

Tweets by @RPMontanez

Tweets by @Fritolay