sikhpride

Darshan Singh Dhaliwal is one of the richest NRI Sikhs living in America. He was born and raised in Rakhda village, near Patiala, Punjab. He had his education in Patiala and attended Government Ripudaman College in Nabha before joining his father, who was rich and successful farmer. However, he could not carry on farming after sometime and decided to shift to USA. In 1974, he married a girl named Dabra with roots in Holland and engaged himself in odd jobs like delivering Pizzas, operating a Bakery fryer etc. for his earning. It was in 1977 that he leased a Gas station at N. 35th St. and W. Garfield Ave. for $300 a month. He taught himself to change oil and do other simple mechanical procedures & then began maning the station by himself. He would work on a car, run out to pump gas, run back to work on the car, and on and on, back and forth, for hours. It was also during this time that he and his wife had their first child, a son, Jespal. During his 16 or 17 hour workdays, Dhaliwal sometimes would hold “Jessie” in one hand and pump gas with the other. “I enjoyed hard work,” he says. “I learned one thing that hard work always pays.” In 1979, Dhaliwal had saved $30000 enough to buy his first Gas Station at N.17th St. and W. North Ave. In his native language, when a person goes to see somebody very important, they say they are going to see their “Darshan.” Dhaliwal named his station : Darshan’s Gas. Dhaliwal sold the station the same year and bought two others. The next year he bought a half-dozen more. For the next six years, he bought two gas stations a year. In 1986, he bought 50 stations spread across Illinois, Indiana and Michigan from Chevron. Today, Dhaliwal won’t say how many stations his privately held company owns, but he acknowledges he has at least 50 each in Michigan, Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin, Iowa, Kansas, Misouri and Colorado. It is believed that he has more than 1000 Gas stations. He is a God fearing person and expresses his gratitude towards God for having blessed him with so much wealth, a lovely wife and a good family. He and his wife have brought up their children as per the Sikh tradition. S. Dhaliwal is definitely a role-model for all those persons who have big ambitions and with their qualities of hard work, dedication and unflinching faith in God can reach any height in their life.