Burn the Boats

I am starting to love our story. For a long time, I wished it was someone else's story. The things I love about it are what we have learned through hardship. God has become real and alive to us.  I think my takeaways are: perseverance, hard work, commitment, risk management, and above all else, spontaneity.
That would sum up our story, I think.

Young, stupid, and reckless? Maybe. We have heard that at almost every risk we have taken. I remember the first time I heard that at 18 when I met Tim on the 3rd day of college....."It's dumb to date someone right when you start college, you just got here. What are you going to do? Date him for 4 years?"
"Why yes. Yes I will." And I did. And I married him.
I could list out the other ridiculous decisions we have made, but this post would be too long.

Here is a post back from when we hit rock bottom here, here, and oh... here again.

I am so proud of Tim for following his dreams, not giving up, and working hard despite failure. We have been blessed to have mentors in our life since college. Tim has been mentored for the past 3 years by a man we met when we were at another rock bottom point after losing it all, after we started over. We had just barely gotten back on our feet, Tim finished HVAC school, we renovated a house we bought for $40,000 that was 800 square feet, and we were getting traction. His first job in the industry was making $10 an hour and working insane amounts, he was the lowest man on the totem pole. He did this for 2 years.  And 3 years ago, he was told there was no more work there. At this low point, this man who stepped in our life and started mentoring Tim got him and interview and Tim landed a commercial HVAC job. It was a turning point for us again.

This man not only helped Tim into the commercial industry, but pushed him into pursuing after his long term goal. 3 years ago, it seemed silly. Tim wanted to have his own HVAC company. It was a silly thought from what we had just walked through. And too "big picture" for me at the moment. I just wanted a minute of stability before we chased the next dream. He didn't want to just work for himself, but start an actual company and fleet of trucks.
And we got that stability and owned it for 3 years. About a year ago, Tim started lining things up to have his own company. We saved. He studied. He read 1,000 books. He signed himself up to take the State Licensing Exam. In order to have your own company, there is a state exam you have to take.
Tim took that test back in the fall and passed. Our dream became a little more real.

Following that, we spent the remainder of 2014 doing research, making a plan, and doing about 1,000 logistical paperwork duties. Summit was the name we kept landing on. We had to register it, buy the website, get licensed, insured, branded, and file papers with the city. We became a train in full force. Tim told his current employer and they were gracious to let him stay and keep working. That was a blessing because we did not want to start until we were ready.

After all the work had been done to launch the company, I think the reality started hitting. Being without a job cuts to our core. We know what it is like to be in a bad spot. It is incredibly hard to willingly and intentionally go back to risking that when you reach a place of stability. We started coming up with Plan B. Safety nets. How could we make ourselves safe? How could we quickly have a "back up" if things didn't work out. These became our conversations.

Tim told his mentor about it and talked through some plans if his business did not make it. And, his mentor told him a little story you might all know:

(Excerpt from www.burningboats.com)



'It was the year 1519 and Hernán Cortés, with some 600 Spaniards, 16 or so horses and 11 boats, had landed on a vast inland plateau called, Mexico.

The Span­ish con­quis­ta­dor and his men were about to embark on a con­quest of an empire that hoarded some of the world’s great­est trea­sure.  Gold, sil­ver and pre­cious Aztec jew­els were just some of what this trea­sure had to offer any­one who suc­ceeded in their quest to obtain it.

But, with only 600 men — none of whom had encum­bered them­selves with pro­tec­tive armour – con­quer­ing an empire so exten­sive in its ter­ri­to­ries could only be under­taken by a man with a death wish.

This dar­ing under­tak­ing was made even more insur­mount­able by the fact that for more than 600 years, con­querors with far more resources at their dis­posal who attempted to col­o­nize the Yucatan Penin­sula, never suc­ceeded.  Hernán Cortés was well-aware of this fact.  And it was for this rea­son, that he took a dif­fer­ent approach when he landed on the land of the Mayans.
Instead of charg­ing through cities and forc­ing his men into imme­di­ate bat­tle, Hernán Cortés stayed on the beach and awoke the souls of his men with melo­di­ous cadences – in the form of embla­zoned speeches.

His speeches were inge­niously designed to urge on the spirit of adven­ture and invoke the thirst of life­times of for­tune amongst his troops.  His ora­tions bore fruit, for what was sup­pos­edly a mil­i­tary exploit, now bore the appear­ance of extrav­a­gant romance in the imag­i­na­tions of Cortés’ troops.

But, iron­i­cally, it would only just be 3 words which Cortés’ mur­mured, that would change the his­tory of the New World.  As they marched inland to face their ene­mies, Cortés ordered, “Burn the boats.”

 

It was a deci­sion that should have back­fired.  For if Cortés and his men were on the brink of defeat, there wasn’t an exit strat­egy in place to save their lives.  Remark­ably though, the com­mand to burn the boats had an oppo­site effect on his men because now, they were left with only 2 choices — die, or ensure vic­tory.  And fight they did.
We know today, how Cortés’ deci­sion to burn his boats panned out.  Hernán Cortés became the first man in 600 years to suc­cess­fully con­quer Mexico.'


So, out the window went our Plan B. We adopted the "Burn the Boats" mentality and went ALL IN. No back up plans. All our energy focused on success and not on an exit strategy. I love it.

We hope you will pray as we embark on this new journey. That we would find favor and have wisdom with what we are doing. Our dream is for a company, not a one man show.  It will start with us and we will grow and hire. We could not be any more in awe of God and how He REDEEMS all the time for us. Where there is risk, there is loss, but where there is loss, there is redemption.

If you are not seeing God's hand in your life, it could possibly be you are living too safe. That you have it all under control. The areas where we have seen God the most are the areas that we have completely lost our minds and taken a huge risks. God loves it when people need Him. Let Him be the Father that He is.

I am thankful for all the support we have already had. I am grateful for this opportunity, and praise God that the American Dream is still alive and well.

 Way to go Tim, and Happy Birthday Summit Heating and Air!!! Lets do this!!

www.summitheatingandair.com

Does anyone else love that Summit is Timmus backwards? I now call Tim, Timmus. Don't look back!



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