I used to run all the time; I’ve recently started getting back into it. I’d try to beat the younger guy; I’d try to beat the older guy. But you always know you pushed yourself when you got that almost sick feeling of your endorphins dumping into your gut. I’d try to do a hundred more of one activity, I’d try to do a minute faster at this distance—there was always something worth striving to achieve. You didn’t always make it, sometimes you’d go a few days and maybe you made it in ten minutes on a Monday but you were coming in at eleven and twelve on a Tuesday and Thursday. Well, you have to look at it compared to where you were—at thirteen or fourteen minutes the previous week. Life is a lot like that, it has its ups and downs and you can’t always control when they happen.

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.