"My stepfather didn’t want me picking up his tools when I was a kid. He once told me if I picked up a hammer, he’d hit me with it. I think he was joking, but his point was clear: Don’t do what I had to do to get somewhere in the world."

"A lot of people look down on plumbers because it’s a blue collar job. Most people want to be sports stars or run Fortune 500 companies. No one really says, “Hey, I’m gonna wake up and decide to put my hand in someones toilet,” you know what I mean?

So, growing up, plumbing wasn’t a glorified job. But despite what my stepfather said, I kind of just fell into it. And when I realized that college was not for me, I decided to take it very seriously—I would treat plumbing like college. I would make it my career.

I ended up getting my masters license and quickly realized that I had a lot more to offer than just working for a company, so I decided to branch out on my own and see how it was on the other side of the fence, working for myself."

"It took a lot of courage to turn down a steady paycheck, but in time, I started meeting and working with great people. We’re not signing multi-million dollar contracts, but the work is gratifying. It’s a job you can make a career out of and it’s a job that gives back too—because I am able to do what I do, my wife and I were able to renovate our house the way we wanted it.

As I’ve gotten older, I’ve realized plumbing is more like being a doctor. Your water lines are the arteries of your home and the drains are the veins that carry out the toxins. If we didn’t have plumbing, how many diseases would be in our water? How would we wash our hands?

In a way, I guess you could say I’m a home doctor."