Thursday, October 30, 2014

It Takes Work

I've posted other articles concerning my past and how it shaped my life.  But I wanted to go a step further and talk about how I got to where I am.  Nothing I have achieved has been handed to me.  Hopefully this will inspire someone else to go for what they want.

As I moved from teenager into adulthood, I knew I wanted to own my own business.  I tried a few things but never really hit on anything that worked.  I also held a number of jobs during that time.  I delivered pizza, worked for a carnival, sold vacuum cleaners, serviced porta potties, did construction labor just to name a few,  At one point I worked part time for a grocery store and full time doing construction.  By focus always remained on owning a business.

I bounced around the country for a few years doing primarily cable TV installations.  It was towards the end of this time that I was hired by a small HVAC business owner.  It was a family business, and very small.  The owner mentored me and taught me the business.  Fast forward a couple of years and I was ready to start my own HVAC company.  I had worked for many other companies, but even with my experience I could not get a decent wage.  I decided it was time to try it on my own.

I started my business with a $400 van and some hand tools.  I took out an ad in the local paper and the rest is history.  I priced myself just slightly lower than the top dog in my market.  But the one thing I did different was I provided excellent customer service.  I also took a leap of faith in my manufacturer of the equipment I sold.  They offered a 5 year parts warranty.  I added 5 years labor warranty to it and was the first to offer a 5 year parts and labor warranty in my market.

That was the catalyst that launched my business to the next level.  In 3 years I went from a start up to the second largest HVAC company in the area.  I was grossing $500k per year.  But I knew I did not want to be moving furnaces when I got to be 50.  So I sold the business and moved into the computer field.  I taught myself most of what I now know.  If someone wouldn't hire me to do a job I wanted to do, I just started a business and did it myself.

The point of all of this is to show that being confident and putting in the hard work does have it's rewards.  During my computer career I have held positions from basic support guy to a Director's level position.  I have been a CEO, President and owner.  I have managed fortune 500 enterprise systems and developed military technology.  And all of this was with no formal education.  This was all self taught.  I knew what I wanted to do and I figured out ways to make it happen.

All too often I see people wanting to reach their goal, but they go about it the wrong way.  They rely on others to provide the knowledge.  I don't discourage anyone from asking questions.  I still do it myself.  However, there is a fine line between asking for the keys to the kingdom and asking for assistance in figuring something out.  If I had not taught myself to do the things I did, I would have never found some of the things I enjoyed doing.  I would have never learned the things I learned which has helped me in my career path.

Never let anyone tell you that you cannot do something.  And on the same token, never ask anyone to do the work for you.  Learn.  Be a sponge.  use trial and error.  It's the only way you will ever figure things out.  Nothing, and I seriously do mean nothing, can take the place of hard earned experiences in failure.  The more you fail, the more you will succeed.  Each success after a failure is better because you built it up based on the knowledge of what you learned not to do.

Don't let the thought of failure keep you from realizing your dream.  Dare to fail.  Get up and try again.  It is usually during those moments at the bottom of a failure that your greatest triumphs will arise.

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