Twelve No’s and a Yes: One Man’s Journey to Building a Business

By Jeff Becraft

 

I have mentioned before that years ago I was with an organization called Fairway Outreach. One of the kids that was part of Fairway Outreach was a guy named Antonio. Antonio was in elementary school. As the years went by, I lost track of Antonio but I ran into him again several years ago in downtown Columbia and found out that he had his own tree cutting service.

We have a bunch of scraggly pines in our yard and several of them have died and so Antonio has become our tree man. If we need a tree taken down, we call Antonio (although I think he goes by Lionel now… which is his first name). His company is Wood Pecking Tree Services. Recently, we had a tree that was not a pine tree but it was in a very awkward position where it was leaning out over our neighbor’s yard and it was dying. There were significantly-sized branches coming off this thing.

We knew that it had to come down. And so who do we contact? We call Antonio.

Antonio comes out on July 3 and takes care of it. He was supposed to come on July 4… but he decided he really didn’t want to work on July 4^th, so he came out on the 3^rd and took care of it. By the time we got home from work that day, it was done.

Well, Brenda contacted him and said, “Hey, why don’t you and some of your sons (some of them help him in the work) come out for lunch on the 4th?” So the next day, Antonio and three of his sons come out for lunch. One of his sons – Josiah – is named after our son, Josiah.

As we are sitting there at lunch, I said to him, “Antonio, how did you wind up having your own tree cutting business?”

I cannot really capture it all in this story, but I at least want to capture some of it. I told him that one day I am going to interview him and we are going to record all this and put it on a podcast.

Antonio was working for the city and he was on the grass cutting crew. He noticed that the tree cutting crew made more money and so he applied to join the tree cutting crew.

But he got turned down.

That did not stop him – every single month, for 12 months, Antonio put in an application to join the tree cutting crew. And every single month he got denied.

In month 13, he does the same thing. He puts in an application to join the tree cutting crew. They finally give him an interview.

In the face-to-face interview, they ask him, “Have you ever cut down a tree before?”

“No.”

“Have you ever run a chainsaw?”

“No.”

“Have you ever driven a big truck?”

“No.”

He had no experience in anything they asked him about.

Finally, half jokingly, one of the interviewers said, “Well, have you ever pumped gas?”

He states, “Yes, I’ve pumped gas before.”

They then asked him, “Well, if we said go outside and cut down that tree out there, what would you do?”

And he responded, “I would say, ‘Show me.’”

What a great response and coachable attitude! And they hired him.

Antonio went through all kinds of training and worked for the city, even going beyond what was asked of him. Over the years, he began to notice that private contractors were making a lot more money than him.

One day, his wife’s aunt asked if he would cut down one of their trees for $400 and he could use their chainsaw.

After he finishes the job, he takes some of the $400 and buys his own chainsaw, his first piece of equipment. He starts getting jobs like that one and eventually (and he shared that he wrestled within himself about this), Antonio stepped out on his own.

I sat there fascinated. I marveled at his wisdom and perseverance… and I am leaving out a lot of details. I sat there and just took mental notes of some of the great leadership principles I was listening to him articulate.

But the one for today is: notice the perseverance… 12 months in a row he was told, “No.” But he did not give up. And on month 13, he gets an opportunity.

Through that and by working hard, doing everything they asked him to do, and going beyond what they asked him to do, Antonio gained the skills and experience that he has now… one step at a time. And here he is at age 37, and the head of his own company.

Today is a great day to persevere!

 

Jeff Becraft is the Director of Our Place of Hope and the Director Emeritus for Youth Corps and has dedicated much of his life to helping shift the vision of people’s lives. Our Place of Hope is a paradigm shift for people living with mental illness that encourages them to regain meaning, purpose, and hope for their lives. You can connect with Jeff at  [email protected].