Growing up with a Master Plumber as a father, I started working with him on weekends and during the summer since the age of 11. Digging ditches, crawling through attics and crawlspaces. Then I moved up to cleaning pipe and preparing fittings, while watching him plumb step by step so I can anticipate the tool or piece he'd need next so I could have it in hand ready to go for him. Eventually he would leave me on a job site with the tools and materials and just instructions on what I had to do there.

At 25 I asked him to sign off on my experience so I can test for my master's license. Since his customer base was small and the jobs were all relatively minor and repetitive, he told me only after I went to work for other companies to learn what he hadn't had the chance to teach me. From there I went to work at a company doing residential and commercial service work in houses, condos, and businesses.