STORY AND PHOTO BY KAREN BOSSICK

You might not think that holding up a sign on the streets of Sun Valley would figure into the ladder to success.

Dushime Gashugi thinks it does—so much so that he has come to Sun Valley three straight years during the annual Allen & Co. conference.

Gashugi took his position on Sun Valley Road at 6:30 Tuesday morning, flashing a 24-carat smile and holding a sign expressly meant for Microsoft Founder Bill Gates and Michael Bloomberg, whom he figures are attending Herbert Allen’s yearly gathering of some of the most powerful people in the world of media, finance and technology, along with President Trump's daughter Ivanka and son-in-law Jared Kushner.

“Messrs. Bloomberg & Gates: Entrepreneur From CA Seeks Advice. Coffee’s on Me. (323) 637-7198,” the sign reads.

“Premium Starbucks, if they’ll meet with me,” said Gashugi, who recently co-founded an investment advisory firm. “I want to figure out what are their habits of success and what are the things they’re doing consistently on a regular basis that other CEOs are not doing. And how can I translate that to my own business.”

Gashugi, an imposing figure at 6-foot-4, embarked on his quest in 2010 when he hopped a plane to Omaha, Neb., following graduation at the University of Chicago where he had earned a degree in economics. His mission then: To learn the key to success from Warren Buffett.

Gashugi spent a month trying to secure a meeting with Buffett, only to learn Buffett was in Sun Valley at Allen & Co. Intrigued that someone could assemble so many powerful people in one place, he put Sun Valley on his radar.

Gashugi drove 13 hours from his home of Yucaipa, Calif., an hour east of Los Angeles, in hopes of obtaining an audience.

He planted his 6-foot-4 body on Sun Valley Road near the Sun Valley Barn after promising security he would stay away from Sun Valley Resort for the conference is taking place.

Gashugi, who taught conversational English in South Korea after college, has read Gates and Bloomberg’s books. He’s read their interviews. And he’s created detailed questions he hopes to pose to the men to figure out who he needs to become and what habits he needs to cultivate.

“Bill Gates, for instance, said that success is a lousy teacher because it seduces smart people into thinking they cannot fail. Given that, I want to ask him: What do you do to keep from falling into that trap of letting success get into your head?” Gashugi said.

“Michael Bloomberg said a good salesman is someone who, if the door slams to their face, goes to the next door believing they are going to make a sale. But, he said, a great salesman keeps knocking on the same door. So, I want to ask him: Exactly what are your most successful habits for creating a win at that first door?”

Specifically, Gashugi wants to know how he can grow his investment advisory firm into an investment holding company.

“I figure, hey, these are people at the end of their lives who have figured this out. What can I take from them to save myself years of trial and error?”

Gashugi’s family has always done things a little unconventionally. His father came to the United States from Rwanda in 1965 to dance the Watusi at the New York World’s Fair. When he decided he wanted to stay, he befriended a man with a cross around his neck to make it happen.

Gashugi’s mother met his father when she came from Rwanda in 1978 to attend Andrews College in southwest Michigan. Today Gashugi’s father is an economics professor at Loma Linda University in California while his mother is a nurse practitioner.

Even if Gates or Bloomberg don’t take him up on his offer of coffee, Gashugi has learned a few things from his sojourn in Sun Valley.

“No 1, it’s not what you know but who you know. If you have one person who believes in you and lends their name or credibility to open a door for you--relationships matter,” he said.

The most remarkable thing he’s learned, he says, is that the people of Sun Valley are the most friendly people in the world.

“I was almost to the point of tears yesterday I was so blown away by the level of kindness and support the community has shown,” he said. “Gary and Connie Hoffman brought me a chair, invited me to dinner and asked if I needed a place to stay. Other people brought me popsicles or gave me their business cards. I was moved--I didn’t expect that and it lifted me up.

“It made me feel like these people are counting on me to try and get this done and so I’m going to stay out here and keep fighting and do my best.”

At the same time, Gashugi seems to have made an impression on Sun Valley-area residents. Some have told him they’re inspired seeing him out there, making himself vulnerable. A few have told him his example would inspire them to push ahead with their own projects.

“He’s destined for success any way you slice it,” said Gary Hoffman. “He’s an amazingly personable gentleman of seemingly limitless talent and enthusiasm. Most of all, he’s ambitious in a country that doesn’t always seem to have as much ambition as we would like to see.”

Gashugi hopes his own habits can help others realize their own values and capabilities.

“Particularly in young people,” he said. “We’re the next generation and right now we’re only scratching the surface.”