This is someone I personally know. His name is Tom, and he’s built a six figure landscaping business at 19. He has been such a big inspiration to me, and I’m absolutely fascinated by his drive and success. He started mowing lawns at 14, but wanted to grow his business quickly. He relentlessly pursued customers and was obsessed with making their lawns perfect. At 16, he bought his own truck, a new F-150, to go with his business. When he went to the dealership with his Dad, the salesman was astonished when Tom wrote out the check for the truck. At 18, he had three crews working for him while he was in school. He made over 500 while attending his classes, and spent his afternoons hanging with friends and growing his business. Now, at 19, he makes over one thousand dollars a day with his landscaping business, and has begun doing complex landscaping projects. His crews work efficiently and quickly, and Tom has a rigorous process for choosing who will work for him to ensure a high quality result.

Some of the challenges that Tom faced was that he was often too young to advance the business by himself. When hiring employees, he had to have the employees under his father’s name, since he was too young to have the employees himself. When Tom was working with his different crews, customers were shocked when they realized that Tom was the owner of the company, not just a crew member. He was even too young to use the dump truck that they had, and only recently started driving it.

Tom is an inspiration because he ignored the status quo, knew what he wanted, and did not stop until he reached his goal. He’s such an inspiration to me and I hope that his business continues to grow.