"Chasing a Vision"

Chasing a vision takes courage, risk, and determination—but having a strong backbone of support can make all the difference. From leaving a secure career to building businesses and investing in real estate, he shares how his wife’s support and partnership helped keep him grounded while pursuing something bigger.

Transcript

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SPEAKER_01 0:07

What was the moment you realized you really actually could build something big?

SPEAKER_00 0:14

Well, uh I I don't know that I could put my finger on it at an exact moment. Uh uh I I know that uh during my time at Concord, uh I I became friends and fraternity brothers with uh uh a couple of guys that came from very successful families, and I I thought uh I can do that. I can do that. And uh I I I know what it's like to be poor, and I didn't know exactly how I was gonna reach wealth. I didn't know, but I knew I wasn't gonna be poor. And uh uh and it you know, over the years it's it's worked out. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 0:56

So yeah. What uh what risk did you take early on that most people today might be too afraid to take?

SPEAKER_00 1:03

Oh I had a fantastic job with Norfolk Southern. I was gonna get paid well, and the benefits were fantastic, and working conditions were fairly good. And I came home one day and told my wife, I'm not gonna do this. This is not what I'm gonna do. It's not this is not why God put me on earth. I am going to be self-employed somehow, somehow.

SPEAKER_01 1:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:29

And uh I began to pursue those opportunities and uh and look seriously hard. And uh when the when the opportunity came to to buy the nationwide agency, the first small nationwide agency, the made the I call it the nationwide opportunity, not the nationwide agency. Uh I took it, walked away from a fantastic situation, and uh, you know, at that point, you gotta make it work. I mean, you got a family to feed, you gotta make it work. There's failure is not an option. And then in the real estate business, you know, the first few years and until you start getting some of these properties paid for, uh, you know, oddly enough, uh in my opinion, it was easier to take risk at that point, because I really didn't have much to lose. You know, if if the bank was dumb enough to loan me the money, I'm gonna take it.

SPEAKER_01 2:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 2:29

And I'm gonna buy a house or, you know, or an apartment building or something. Yeah, and if uh for some reason I didn't make it, uh yeah, I didn't I could start over, you know. But uh as you move along and you start acquiring a few of these and and gaining a bit of wealth, you know, and then all of a sudden it gets harder to to take those chances, you know.

SPEAKER_01 2:52

How did your wife uh what was her first take and how did she support you early on there?

SPEAKER_00 2:58

Well, uh keep in mind we went to school together since the second grade. I was co-captain of the football team, she was a cheerleader. We started dating after the Princeton football game, our senior years, and we've been together now for 55 years. Wow, wow. Uh we uh uh she uh she went she she graduated second in the class and I graduated second for the bottom. So she she's a whole lot smarter than I am, and it it's been such a good good partnership. She keeps me from she keeps me grounded and keeps me doing stuff at um uh you know that I would probably probably years ago, I guarantee I would have done something that would have caused this financial ruin for her.

SPEAKER_01 3:51

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 3:52

But she went to school, she became a a medical technologist, and she worked for the first five or six years of our our marriage until we started having children.

SPEAKER_01 4:00

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 4:01

And uh she has been a domestic goddess since then and uh uh has been my partner in every stretch of the imagination.

SPEAKER_01 4:12

Yeah, that's amazing. So you had the vision, but really she helped support the backbone of it.

SPEAKER_00 4:17

Yeah, I mean and really she she's great at interior design, so lots of times we'll buy this product. I I have eight or nine Airbnbs, and uh I'll buy them, I'll rehab them, and then uh she'll come in and do the interior design uh work and tell me uh what I should and should not be doing. And um then I at that point I have a younger brother who's a retired deputy sheriff in Roanoke, and uh uh he uh he he manages the Airbnb. It's you know, it's been a good it's been a a wonderful fifty five year relationship.