A couple of weeks back I received a surprise visit from Jim Wright, the President of the Kirkwood - DesPeres Area Chamber of Commerce.  He poked his head into my office door and said, “Have you listened to your phone messages lately”?  I laughed and told him I was a lousy businessman when it came to remembering to check for messages.  He smiled and said, “I just came by to congratulate you on being named the Businessperson of the Year and you tell me you’re a lousy businessman.  How is that going to look”?

I was caught totally by surprise!  I was stunned, then honored and humbled, and I had a hard time believing Jim was telling me the truth.  All the men and women that I have admired flashed before my eyes.  I was now one of them.

I’ve been going to awards ceremonies of one kind or another, my whole life.  With the Cub Scouts, Jaycees, Church, Rotary, Chamber and all the other organizations I’ve been active in; it represents at least 150 “banquets” over the last 50 years.  There have been a few of these ceremonies where I have been the recipient of an award but mostly I sit and applaud as someone else steps up to be recognized by their peers.  I always think to myself, “Wow, what an honor.  I wish that were me going up there right now.”  But I would remind myself that it takes more than a wish to be recognized; it takes a commitment to doing something to the very best of your ability.  It means going “all in” with your time and effort so that you get the very best results.

I know this because of the people who have preceded me.  I’ve admired them for their dedication and commitment; their desire to do the right thing.  Without the examples they set, I would never have understood the importance of giving back or paying forward.  These people have been my unofficial mentors and by studying and learning from them, I guess some of their qualities have rubbed off on me.  I would not have known that the best way to run my life and my business is by doing the right thing, no matter what.  I would not have realized that we must contribute our time and resources for the betterment of others and that the more we give, the more fulfilling our lives become.

It’s difficult for me to believe that the tide has turned and now I’m the old guy that the younger generation is saying, “Gee, I wish that were me up there”.  Now that I have achieved this honor, I have the responsibility to pay it forward to those who may look to me as their mentor.  I have four children; my oldest two, Amie and Bill are with me every day as co-owners of Riggs Construction & Design and there is Maddie who is a nurse and Emmy who’s a freshman at Kirkwood High School.  I hope the good in me will rub off on them and the mistakes I’ve made will be forgiven.  I have three grandsons and one more on the way and I want to show them by example that doing the right thing, no matter what, is what integrity is.  And personal integrity is the path to true success in both their personal and business life.

Tom Life In General

Over the New Year’s weekend the furnace in our office stopped working and it was 37 degrees when I arrived this morning.  I knew it was on its last leg because it shut down last week and I had to do some emergency repairs to get it running again.  The sad fact is I didn’t want to spend the money on a new one; just yet.

It got me to thinking about our clients and what they must feel about the improvements they are making on their homes.  Most of what we do here at Riggs Construction & Design is work with homeowners on voluntary improvements to upgrade their home life and environment but there are a significant number of clients who call us because of something that has to be done.  Things like new shingles on the roof or an HVAC system that is so old they have concerns about it lasting through the winter.  Other concerns we run across are moisture infiltration and rotten exterior trim (sometimes one in the same).  These owners have to spend their hard earned dollars on something that we call, “the un-fun stuff” as opposed to a new bath, kitchen or master suite that they can truly enjoy day after day.

Some of those expensive “un-fun” repairs could have been avoided with a more aggressive maintenance program but life expectancy on shingles, mechanical equipment and other building products have to be taken into account when doing a yearly home budget. I mentioned earlier that I didn’t want to replace the furnace just yet.  Our year ends January 31st and since I didn’t have a new furnace in this year’s budget, I was trying to prolong its life just one more month.  I didn’t do what I say to do and it caught me rather flat footed and red in the face!

We offer a maintenance program to many of our clients that includes a checklist of things we do every six months.  Some are simple, like checking all the caulking around the house and walking the roof for possible damage to shingles and flashing.  Some are more complex like having the mechanical systems serviced but they are all geared toward preventing the “un-fun stuff” and keeping those products with life expectancies in top notch condition to stretch that life as far as possible.  The clients we do this maintenance program with feel that the small cost of yearly checkups is much better than what can happen if the roof leaks or the furnace goes out when it’s 4 degrees outside.

As I write this, our space heaters aren’t working very well to warm up our offices and Schraut Heating & Cooling is downstairs replacing the furnace.  I’m going to print out a copy of the spring and fall checklists that I insist our project managers take with them when they perform the maintenance program on our client’s homes.  Before I finish the 2010 budget, I’ll be going over that checklist on both my office and my home!

Tom Home Maintenance, remodeling