I was born and raised in Chicago, and spent 27 years in Chicago. I left about 8 or 9 years ago and came to Evansville to work for an industrial services company. I never thought I would be in the tree and landscape business again in my life. When I was younger, I dabbled in it during the summers and weekends. Then, when the ice storm hit here in Evansville, we decided to diversify our business. In doing so, the tree and landscaping company got started, and it took off. I’d been a manager with the company for about 2-3 years, and decided to make them an offer to buy the division out about 4 years ago.
I grew up in a lot of family businesses. My father was a tree climber for a good part of his younger years. So that’s kind of where I started. I had an uncle who owned a business, and I worked there at nights and I worked for my father during the day. So I’ve always worked in a family business one way or another. My father and uncle are the ones that taught me about business.
I think in Evansville, things are a lot more attainable — business is a lot more attainable. Leadership in the community is more attainable. There are a lot less people. In Chicago, you’re definitely the little fish in the big pond. You can really thrive here. Bringing the mentality I have, where back home, it’s kind of an aggressive mentality there; you really have to compete. The competitiveness is a lot different there than it is here. So I feel bringing that here, it was a lot easier for me to transition in business and also in the community, because I’m used to being 100 miles an hour. Not that I’m not a 100 miles an hour here, but it’s just different.