SO YOU NEVER HAVE TO HEAR THE BACKSTORY AGAIN.

PHASE 01 // THE ROUGH-IN

1975 — 1998

The Beginning

I was born and raised in central and southern New England.  By the time I could walk and was out of diapers my parents had divorced.  My father having found love in someone else, and ultimately fathering two more boys.  My mother’s sense of betrayal ultimately led to me not knowing my father very well.  Additionally, it was the 70s and 80s.  A time when children were left to their own devices most of the time.

I remember countless times as a youth where I should have died because of the crazy things my friends and I go up to.

As a single mother there wasn’t much she could do to keep tabs on me, anyway.  She was the mother of five with a range of 14 years between them all.  By the time I was four my eldest two brothers were off to serve their country, leaving my sister (just 14) to keep things together at home while my mother did her best to keep food on the table and the bills paid.

After my ninth birthday we moved to Connecticut to be closer to my mother’s mother during her final year of life.  That December, a woman she barely knew from work was going to Quebec to visit family for the holidays – and with my mother struggling so hard to keep up with everything – they decided it was best I went along.  During this time, with a massive language barrier between me and everyone around me, I learned a great deal about the Catholic church, the sacrifice of Christ…  

Oh, and I got to watch The Day After… In French… In another country… With no idea what was going on.

By the time I was 12 I was seeking answers; the meaning behind it all.  My uncle taught me astrology and I spent a decent amount of time in New Age shops learning about past lives, alternative – and I mean alternative – medicines, and most importantly how to read a star chart.  I was lost and this was as close as I had ever come to learning why things in the world worked as they did, which isn’t saying much.

By 14 I was so lost I found myself drinking and smoking… and yes, I mean nicotine and cannabis.  At 16 and 17 I started experimenting with other things like LSD, mushrooms and anti-psychotics.  I was in and out of psych units in my freshman year of high school, and spent the rest of my adolescent years doing just enough to not drop out of school.

And through all of this, I kept searching.  Granted, I was looking in all the wrong places.  But I was determined to find meaning.

Then, after I turned 21, I found myself living in a VW van, completely oblivious to all the wrong choices I had made.  And that’s when it all came crashing down.  I fled back to my mother’s (she was living in Massachusetts again).  I cut off all ties to any friends I had and buried myself in computers.

I should point out that I reconnected with my father a year earlier, although not very well.  My father had divorced his wife and the elder of my two half brothers was finishing high school living with him.  During that time, my father had used my name to register a car and insure it, and ultimately neglect payment – leaving me to have to take care of his mistakes.  Well, the year after returning home (when I was 22) he became sick.  My mother ended up taking him in while Hospice came to assist – my father had nowhere else to go.  By Feb of ‘98, just two weeks before my 23rd birthday, he passed.

By my 24th birthday, my mother had decided to retire.  August of that year, she moved to Florida and three months later I met my wife.

PHASE 02 // TEMPORARY POWER

1999 — 2004

Growing Up

Being forced to go out on my own – the best thing she could have done for me – I had become a web developer for a local group of radio stations belonging to what’s now the largest radio empire in the world.  I didn’t go to school.  The general manager just happened to see I had developed a website as a hobby and decided to give me a chance.

That’s when I really began to learn about business.  Advertising, marketing, budgets. 

When I say I was the web developer, I mean to say that without any education and training, I was to put together a department for four radio stations’ websites in which I had to manage all of those things.  And also train the sales team on everything “interwebz.”

That general manager left during a merger with the second largest radio conglomerate in the world, and about 2 months before my wedding date I was laid off.

During the next nine months I witnessed the largest attack this country had ever seen, was one of the last civilians to ever be allowed inside the cockpit of a commercial airline,

began the process of becoming a Virginia State Trooper (and due to injury quit said process)  and ultimately succumbed to crippling anxiety and depression.  I was diagnosed with Acute Agoraphobia and Social Anxiety disorder and was put on Social Security Disability Insurance.

My entire world kept getting smaller and smaller for the next three years, the darkest days of which came after my son was born.

PHASE 03 // ON THE TOOLS

2016 — 2015

Finding Myself…  Well, Sorta

In 2006 I had had enough being afraid of my own shadow, being lost, and having to look at my son thinking how unlucky he was for having me as a father.  So I went looking for a trade.

When I was a kid, my youngest “full” brother did a lot of crazy things with electricity, and I learned a thing or two about it.  So I thought maybe becoming an electrician would be best… I actually thought, “how bad could it be, I’m just going to change lightbulbs and wire switches and plugs.”  But in my very first month of school I found a part time job working for a fledgling contractor and learned really quickly how absolutely wrong I was… 

but more importantly, how much I was going to fall in love with it.

I had some rough moments as an apprentice, but overall my dedication to being the best I could be at it ultimately kept me working during the housing crisis when most other apprentices I knew were sitting at home wondering if they’d chosen the right career path.  I didn’t escape the layoffs unscathed, so it wasn’t until 2012 that I finally had enough hours to test.  But immediately after having my license I was already being entrusted with foreman responsibilities.

I built my first bank in 2013.

By 2015 I was second to the lead foreman.

PHASE 04// SERVICE INSTALL

2016 — 2020

Self Sabotage

That’s when the heavy drinking really started.  I was spending less time with my family and more time – and money – drinking with friends.

By 2017 I was leading the biggest job my company had which culminated in my becoming lead foreman.  By 2019 I was leading 25 guys on a very large project, and also helping to shape the way in which the office and the guys in the field communicated.

All of that success meant drinking heavier.

I was disillusioned.  I had reached a level of success that I wasn’t prepared for and I was struggling to keep it together.  Where I was successful in teaching the next generation of electricians and manage successful jobs once, I was now struggling to keep tabs on my manpower, keep things organized, coordinate 6 or 7 crews at once and keep their respect.

My home life suffered as well.  By 2020 I was divorced and barely knew the man my son had grown into.

I was promoted to project manager that same year, however.  So the drinking didn’t really let up.  I was what you call “a functioning alcoholic.”

PHASE 05// PUNCH LIST

2020 — 2024

Blessings Come From True Suffering

Thanks to a global pandemic, poor economy and the world being shut down (except for the trades: we were considered “essential”), my wife didn’t kick me out when we started going through our divorce proceedings.  This ultimately meant that we would rediscover our love for each other and now we’re probably more committed to each other than we ever were.

It was also during this time that I was certified as a project manager, and really began to understand the business of electrical contracting.  I brought some of my pain points as a foreman to the job and started to focus more on the guys in the field and how I could better serve them instead of pushing them harder to meet deadlines.

I worked on teaching them about the logistics behind the scenes, how the estimates were done and where we could provide better efficiency in our day to day operations.

I made a decent amount of mistakes as well.  One particular one being the free work I did for a contractor whose electrical engineer was barely existent on a major housing project.  It started out with a $8 million dollar electrical price tag and had a million holes in the scope, and I helped them re-engineer it down to $4 million with a fully realized electrical package… only to see the contractor give the job away to a larger sub for the same price tag.

That’s when I knew my life wasn’t what I wanted it to be.

While I possessed the technical expertise to salvage a $4 million electrical package, my internal foundation was crumbling under the weight of impending burnout and lingering resentment. I had attained the rank of a top-tier tradesman, yet I was drowning in the realities of being an unprepared entrepreneur.

I blamed it on poor support from my boss who was really just letting me fail forward (I wish I understood this principle then).  My self-sabotage; my drinking; my entitlement and my victim mentality was all getting in my way, and I just needed to get out.

PHASE 06// COMMISSIONING

2024 — PRESENT

The Second Stage of Life

Although I initially thought working for a different company would solve my issues, what I really needed was to find my calling; my purpose and what I’m sure will be the most fulfilling thing I could ever do.  At 49 years of age, I quit my short-lived stay with another contractor and cashed out my 401k – all with a vague idea of a plan.

Initially I started day trading futures contracts.  I actually managed to get my first funded account just before I turned 50.  In that time I realized that if I was successful at this, I could actually do some good for the community once I reached a certain level. 

And that progressed into a completely different plan that eventually turned into a business plan and the founding of my consulting business, Elevated Velocity Electrical Consulting, LLC; the first of three companies I plan on founding if all goes well.

During this transitional period I found myself asking, “what do all successful entrepreneurs do that’s common between them, and how can learn to do those things?”  And the first part of that answer is self discovery.  I needed to learn how to manage my emotions.  And that process has changed my trajectory just a smidge:

I absolutely love the idea of helping others understand this process and I think that’s my true calling.

And so it goes, this is the direction I’m heading.  I truly believe that it’s never too late to find your purpose and to become successful at it.  Everything takes time, which most would say is very limited at this age; but what I can tell you is that even if I never reach the destination, the journey towards ultimate growth is the meaning of life… and so the circle is complete, and the real journey begins….

For 20 years, I thought my struggle was unique. I realized it was a pattern. The ‘Electrician to Entrepreneur’ podcast is a raw look at what happens when you decide that ‘good enough’ isn’t enough anymore. It’s a work-in-progress diary of the shifts in mindset and the hard-won lessons required to rebuild the engine while the truck is still moving. If you’ve ever felt like you were winning at work but losing at life, come join the conversation.