Robert Herjavec’s father was jailed 22 times for refusing to join the Communist Party. Then the family fled with nothing.
Robert Herjavec returns as an investor on ABC’s new season of “Shark Tank” this month. But long before he was a millionaire tech entrepreneur, he was an 8-year-old refugee who couldn’t speak English, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Herjavec’s father, Vladimir, was arrested by Yugoslav authorities 22 times for refusing to join the Communist Party and criticizing the government. His mother, Katica, took a job to support the family while young Robert was sent to live with his grandmother in a small village. By 1970, his father had had enough. Late one night, the family piled into their car and crossed from Yugoslavia into Italy.
They waited at a motel for a ship. The family boarded the SS Cristoforo Colombo and they arrived roughly two weeks later in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada’s version of Ellis Island, with only $50 and a few suitcases between them.
The family settled in Toronto, where Vladimir worked in a factory and Katica cleaned houses. Herjavec, who spoke no English, was placed in the same grade as kids two years younger. He caught up fast, motivated by not wanting to feel embarrassed in front of classmates.
He got his first real break at 12, delivering newspapers door to door. By his early 20s, after college, he took a job as an office manager, unpaid, at a small tech startup just to get a foot in the door.
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