I spent 6 hours cooking Thanksgiving dinner. At 7 pm, my son arrived with 6 guests from my daughter-in-law’s family. They sat down like they owned my home. My DIL said, “Would you mind eating in the kitchen, Dad?” I just smiled and walked into the kitchen… what I did next had everyone screaming. – usnews

The first winter, I maintained those accounts myself, every one of them, driving the truck before dawn to beat the other crews to the good parking and working until the light gave out.

I hired my first crew member in the spring of the third year, a man named Vic Ostrander, 23 years old at the time, who showed up at the yard in a work jacket with someone else’s name on it and asked if I needed a second set of hands.

I hired him on the spot because in the 20 minutes we talked, he asked the right questions. Not what does it pay, but how do you schedule the roots? How do you handle weather delays? How do you keep clients when a competitor undercuts you on price?

Those were the questions of a man who was interested in the work, not just the paycheck. Vic had been with me for 29 years when that Thanksgiving came.