during my youth, my entrepreneurial challenges were rather simple and could be handled without bureaucracy and regulations. Shoe shining, snow shoveling and door-to-door sales had no bureaucratic obstacles. My first real challenges came when I struck out on my own, with my partner, Jerry Berg, to form Constable Equipment Company, a police equipment distribution company. I had very limited knowledge about the product lines and no experience dealing with banks for funding. I didn’t know what a line of credit was or how it operated. My first bank loan for the business was for $1,000 from my local bank. About a year later I secured our first line of credit for $10,000. I didn’t understand how to use it. The Executive Vice President of the bank approved the line because I had gone to a well-known Catholic high school. That line grew over the next 3 years to $750,000 and finally to $9 million when I purchased Stewart Warner Instruments.

The operational challenges were related to securing product lines to distribute and acquiring the product knowledge to sell to, and train, police agencies in the use of such things as tear gas, body armor, signaling equipment, and weapons.

Being a start-up company we had to convince suppliers that we could successfully market their products. We were competing against established companies who, in the early days, had significantly more capital than we.

In 1968 I was hired as an Industrial Engineer by a man named Jim McCarthy, Plant Manager for Federal Sign and Signal. . I was 21 years old and had no experience and no education as an engineer. Jim hired me saying: “You’re green as grass, but I like your attitude.” That ushered in my first real career job. The experience I received with his guidance provided me with opportunity to manage projects and people.With his help I worked my way up into the Sales organization and he continued to mentor me for years after I left the factory and moved into sales in the Dallas office.

Without his confidence in me and his generous support, I don’t know how my journey would have changed, but quite possibly I would have had an hourly job with my name on my shirt. Although there is nothing wrong with that, it’s quite a different path than I ultimately took. Jim was the most important man in my professional life, may he rest in peace.

I am convinced that honesty and integrity are the greatest tools to achieve success in business and in life. With those guiding principles, if you can surround yourself with good people whom you treat with respect you’re 90% of the way to success. No one does it alone! If you can make those around you successful, you’ll ride the wave.

A few years ago I began posting “Thoughts at 3:00am.” It came about as the result of my erratic sleep pattern. I would get some philosophical thoughts in the middle of the night. I began sharing them on Facebook. Over a period of about 5 months I posted one thought each day. Among them was “Sometimes the best advice is no advice.” While I still believe that, I’m not opposed to sharing my thoughts with whomever might be interested. Another 3:00 am thought was “ You can compromise on tactics but not principles.” Still a third thought “There’s a difference between listening and waiting to talk.” And “Success is often built by picking up the ruins of failure.”

So my advice: be honest: believe in what you’re doing,. Listen to those who have accomplished something. If you have an idea that you believe has merit, don’t ask a person who lives in a trailer park for his opinion. Set your sights high and don’t give up. Be prepared to sacrifice a large potion of recreational time to devote to the pursuit of your goals. How you spend your discretionary time determines your priorities. It’s not sufficient to claim a priority. You must commit to it.. When you fall, learn from it and get up more resolute from the experience. Finally, success is measured not by what you accumulate but on how many people you were able to positively impact.