It was 20 years ago today, I was stuck in a K-mart in Louisiana with a broke down truck, trying to make my way home from college. Broke down walking the isles of K-Mark with my cat in my arms, pacing, pacing waiting to get back on the road.

After some time I used a pay phone (yes one of those blue boxes mounted to a wall, you put quarters in to call people) to check in with my parents and tell them I was still alive. I had been discussing with my father that I wanted to get married and needed to start a business so I could support my soon to be wife.

Well the family painter had just completed painting my parents home and while doing the prep work pressure washed the roof. It was impressive and Dad suggested that as a potential business.

The rest of the drive home to Orlando, Florida was about 14 hours. I used that time to plan, strategize, and dream about the new potential business. The next week Dad helped me out and we went by Sam's and bought a $450.00 pressure washer and found a used Dodge 50, long bed mini truck for $1,500.00. For less than $2,000.00 the fledgling business was started.

While figuring everything out I used the guinea pig name of Allstate Hope Appearance Services to operate under. Honing my skills and developing the completely chemical, non-pressure cleaning system that would soon become the Mallard System.

The first few roofs I cleaned I used a pressure washer and quickly found out that in order to remove the stains you had to bear down on the roof so hard with the pressure that aggregate began to fly off at an alarming rate. I knew then that pressure washing the roofs was going to be destructive. So I drew on my nearly 7 years of experience working in the nursery industry and my horticulture degree and looked at the roof top fungus as a pest not a stain and decided to treat it instead of clean it.

Now 20 years later this industry has provided me with a great living. One that my educational background or personal history would not deserve. I have put my two children through private Christian schools since they were in pre-school. My daughter is at a private Christian university in Texas and my wife and I will celebrate our 20th anniversary in June of next year. The business gave me the ability to afford the time and funds to work with our school in Honduras, educating the poorest of it's children. Visiting there several times over the years. It gave me the ability to take time off to see every school play, every football game (even coaching) every event in my kids lives no matter how large or small. Even giving me that ability to follow my dreams and fish a professional fishing tour winning the national championship with my buddy Thresher in our rookie year. Lately the industry has given me the ability to interact with other roof cleaning professionals throughout the country that at one time would have been viewed as competitors. Traveling to help them grow their businesses and see places I had never been before. It has been an awesome ride!

Twenty years ago, kicked out of college, broke down in Louisiana, having my birthday in a K-Mart store, in a down economy, dreaming of marrying my sweetie......... What does the next twenty years hold for you?

Here are some pix,

AC