Did you imagine becoming a CEO? Was that your career path? Never.

Never.

That was not on my track.

My goal at the time was actually, so I should caveat, I got my start.

I did go to college, although I'm advocating for the fact that that isn't necessary for a lot of folks who want to just simply go into the trades.

I did go to college.

I had a degree in environmental science, and I thought that was the route I was going to need to take to work outdoors in a beautiful environment and um you know do things that i thought would help improve that environment um i quickly learned that i was not patient enough to be in an office doing you know science uh studying things evaluating things and not to uh in no way want to discredit the work that needs to be done there this all has to happen together but i felt like i needed to get out and be in the field and i so i i I think part of the choice I made there is what affected my leadership down the road.

Like you've been in those shoes when you direct somebody to do a project or to dig a trench and you hand someone else a shovel, right? That's an incredible gift to be able to empathize with your employees on that level.