Life is a Business – Chapter 7
A series of essays on the past, the present, and the future
In 2006, when I decided to create Metalworking Solutions, I knew that I could not do it alone with the resources Jan and I had worked 35 years to save. I knew how to be successful building a business, for I had done it most of my life for the benefit of corporations and owners who walked away with millions as they sold me with the plantation to the next guys whom I taught the business. I got just enough along the way to build a nest egg for retirement someday. It soon became clear that the only reason for a bank or investors to believe in me enough to risk their money was because I had labored consistently over those 35 years to demonstrate both knowledge, skill, persistence and integrity in my work and my relationships with others. First, Jan believed in me and blessed the enterprise, then my brother John, my sister-in-law Teena and my sister Ida Jayne believed and invested. We were still short and my good friend and CPA, John Moore stepped up to support this dream. With a good plan and reputation for excellence, First Volunteer Bank approved our SBA loan package and we were in business. We had no customers or promises, just a belief that we could be successful with a simple, old-fashioned way of doing business, using state of the art technology and processes. Remember earlier, when I said how and why you do things are more important than what you are doing?
You cannot be successful in life without building a life long foundation doing the little things when no one is watching, any more than you can do calculus for NASA without ever learning to add and subtract in elementary school! Success does not come from the last leap, but rather the first steps in the right direction.
Pick your path and start walking…go as far as you can and you will then see how to go a little further. I am nearly 63 years old and I still don’t know what I am going to be when I grow up!
By Bill Hewgley
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