I was always told growing up that there are three kinds of people: wolves, sheep, and sheepdogs. The monikers should seem fairly obvious, but I’ll explain: your average human being is a sheep. The sheep being inattentive, oblivious, and just following the crowd is prey to the wolf--who wants the sheep or what the sheep can offer. The sheepdogs are the ones who watch out for the wolves, always wary. You can’t be a sheepdog if you’re not paying attention to the world around you. Pay attention when someone opens a door in a convenience store. Pay attention to your finances, your checking account and your cash flow. There’s no excuse for ignorance or obliviousness. You overdraft at a three dollar coffee and ask yourself what happened, well, you weren’t paying attention.

It wasn’t tithing, at that point we began giving what we believed we could spare beyond what it would take to keep the business and ourselves afloat. It wasn’t too long after when we had a meeting with BB&T, our bank at the time. I had great financials, a business plan, so I went in and met with them—they said they’d get back to me in a few days. Their eventual response—“Well Larry, we love your business, it’s doing well, but we can’t loan you any money because your cash flow is so poor.”

My wife has always said I am a very passionate person, the most passionate person she has ever known. She isn’t talking about the thing you may be thinking of, but if you’ve ever seen me eat, you can tell I am very passionate about that. I absolutely love food. I don’t have a real wide pallet, but what I like, I like. This can sometimes have a negative impact on my waistline and what have you, but the takeaway here is that when I focus in on something, I hone in with a passion most humans will never know.

When I sold this floor truss machine, I made 25,000 dollars, couple years later I would’ve been lucky to pass it off for $5,000. By this time I’ve moved all of my operations to my plant in Warsaw. (By March of 2009 housing starts to plummet to less than 500,000 annually) Then suddenly two years pass and I look like the smartest guy in the room as everything collapses. The market is no longer crushing it and things are getting bleak. No one could have predicted that things would have gone the way that they did and lasted so long.

How often have you heard the phrase, “Do what’s right” and dismissed it as an overused platitude? In my life, I’ve learned to treat my wife, my family, my employees, my customers, and anyone I encounter with the same degree of outstanding character. Doing so has made all the difference.