Oh Fudge Fritters! It is terribly difficult for a guy like me to admit that I have been wrong for more than twenty five years. Since everyone has always called me John the alarm guy I just figured that I was John the alarm guy selling and designing security and home automation systems. Why not? I have a vast knowledge of technology and security and I lived and breathed it day and night. What else would they call me? But something wasn’t right.
Immediately after of college I began my security career you might have called “green” but full of endless enthusiasm. My professors would state it was my educations that accounted for my soon to be success. Others would tell you it was my gift to gab and that I was a born salesman. My father would still to this day tell you, “That boy knows how to work harder than most.” I’d like to think it was a little of all of them put together.
When I walked into that 500 square foot, one man office, with an IBM type writer, sitting on a metal desk and a radio shack phone with some of the buttons missing on it; I did not see a beat up office. I saw potential. I did not see that he had one employee; he and only clients were his friends and family. I saw that there were file cabinets to be filled with new customers. I saw opportunity. So loving a challenge and not ever considering failure I took on what some saw as impossible.
I hit a lot ton of singles, led the league in doubles, and frequent home runs; sure I struck out quite a few times too. I did not mind striking out because I knew that I had to strike out so many times before I hit my double or home run. After twenty five years I was given an opportunity to look back and we had taken a 5, ooo dollar initial investment and built into a 3.5 million dollar company with forty-five employees. The company was known and respected in the industry and community as a leader in the security industry.
Now suddenly I figured it out I not only John the Alarm Guy because it does not matter that it was security systems. You see, it would not matter if it was sprockets or security. In reality, I create opportunity and make business grow. So do you call me a business maker, business creator, or maybe more conventional title would be business developer. Either way my gift is that I can take a little and make it into a lot. I am not a magician but simply a guy that believes in hard work and creativity. Some might call that the American Dream.
