I wanted to take a second to let all my friends and family know that I am no longer at Lowe’s. This may come as a surprise to some of you since I was approaching my 11 year anniversary with the company and had become somewhat of a familiar face to hundreds of our loyal customers. Others who know me pretty well may not be so surprised, knowing that I have aspirations beyond a life in retail management.
Last year, I started to follow a dream that began nearly 17 years ago as my father entered the final years of his life. This dream was to build a company that would provide for myself and for a family which I hadn’t yet began building. The problem was, I was lacking in a few key areas for this to become a reality. First and foremost, I lacked capital funds. Second, I lacked the discipline necessary to hold myself accountable for performance and sustained growth. Third, I lacked leadership and management skills. Fourth, I (mostly) lacked solid people skills. Lastly, I lacked the life experiences that are difficult to quantify but immeasurably important for knowing how to handle almost any situation. Although I cannot give full credit to my career at Lowe’s for developing the skills and proficiencies needed to be successful in my own business endeavor, it certainly has provided me with the opportunities that I needed to build those skills. I have met countless people during my career there and I truly value the friendships and connections that I have built as a direct result of my career there.
After one short season of running my new business it became obvious that I was going to have to make a difficult decision before the next season began. I knew that I could no longer pursue my dream of building this company and still maintain a satisfactory performance at Lowe’s. The decision has been made and it feels like a huge weight has been lifted off of my shoulders. I will finally be able to give my business my full attention. Looking forward to a great year in 2019! I also want to thank all the contributing members of this forum for all the great info that you’ve been so willing to share along the way.
