There's no elevator in life. You've got to take the stairs. When I opened up my first home

security business in 2005, I ran it from a hundred square foot office that was also my bedroom.

The room, aka my office, was so small that two people couldn't stand shoulder to shoulder across it. All I had was a

tileboard from Home Depot that I got for $25, a black magic marker, and a scruffed up second-hand table and

chair. I didn't have a fax machine, a computer, or much of anything else.

I hung the tileboard in the hallway and used it to schedule the installs as we booked them.

I spent hours standing in that hall working on the tileboard and getting annoyed with Liz every time she needed to shimmy by me to go to the bathroom.

My business partner then, who is still

with me today, was Kevin Klingk. I love the guy. Our business was growing, but it was slow.

Almost every week, I would drive to our customers to pick up sign contracts for the alarm systems

my installers were putting in. Then, I would mail them right away to fund payroll.

Every month, it was the same routine.

I'd pull up to whatever address was next on my clipboard.

I'd flagged down my guy and double-checked that the information was complete

so we didn't have any issues processing payments.

Anything missing could cause payment delays.

Once I'd collected enough signed contracts to meet payroll,

I'd head to the nearest post office and mail them in.

I was working for Verizon as a sales guy too,

all the while growing this home security business on the side from my home.

We were making progress, but it was a slow climb.

Life was nuts.

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