Living My Dream A Local Entrepreneur’s Twisting Pathway to Success August 2006

by TC Cagle
Photos by Russell Byrne

My work is recreation for me. Not only do I get to play with toys but also the toys are always getting better. People actually pay me to put fun stuff together, play with it for a while, and then give it to them. They get to play with the toys I made for them after I’ve finished playing.

I put together very high-end integrated audio and visual systems, tailored to customers’ individual life-style, preferences, and checkbooks. The TV will come on pre-set to the channels they want to watch. Their media content provides on-demand access to 2,800 hours of music in a multi-channel delivery system. Mom can listen to light jazz in the kitchen while dad’s in the den listening to classic rock, junior’s grooving to metal in his room, and 13-year old Bunny is listening to hip-hop while dancing in front of her mirror. I take a lot of pride in my work. I can look at an installation and think, “I made that stuff work! I did that!” It feels good!

A Winding Pathway
My background was an unlikely one, given the business that I’m in. I entered the world of mechanics at the age of 15 when my dad told me one day, “The starter on my car doesn’t work.”

“So what?” I answered.
“Well, you’re going to crawl under there and pull it out for me,” he said.
“I don’t know how to do that!”
“I’ll tell you how to do it. Take these tools. See that bolt…?”

I followed his directions getting my hands all greasy and dirty in the process. But when I finished I was standing there holding that starter in my hands and the experience had been a lot of fun. I guess my dad was pleased, also, since he continued sitting in his easy chair and commenced to tell me how to put the replacement part back into the car.

From that point on whenever something went wrong on dad’s old Chevy Van, I was the one who fixed it. I was having a great time and discovered that I had a love for mechanics.

My dad was a real mechanic, himself, and wanted to pass on to me the knowledge that he had acquired. He had learned the business as a kid disassembling parts in a scrap yard. When the depression came along dad figured that he could make an income by tearing cars down, and then selling the parts. After he got back from WWII he started his own lead smelting business. He would buy sludge at a refinery, smelt the stuff, remove the lead, and sell the lead back to the refineries. He did that until 1965 when the state shut him down for smog.

I began my professional career working as a mechanic for oil refineries. My specialty was installing and servicing steam turbines, compressors, process pumps, and valves. I took the local UniCal refinery apart nut by nut and reassembled it as a better model facility. I was good at what I did, but an engineer on the site inspired me to go to school in order to improve my position in the job market.

Back to School
I enrolled in Chico State where I not only learned about tolerances and design, but also got a chance to scratch an itch I’d had for a long time. In a high school gym class we had played volleyball for a week. I thought it was a great sport. “When are we going to do that again?” I asked the coach.

“That’s a girl’s game,” he said.

I played on the Chico State varsity volleyball team for two years until I was 30 and the oldest guy on the team. I have good memories of that time, plus a closet-full of jerseys, t-shirts, and shorts.

I helped put myself through college by entrepreneurial activities. I would fix friends’ cars for pizzas and pick up a few bucks by rebuilding VW engines. Most of all, I started a recording studio business. I was renting an old farmhouse in Chico that had been a dairy farm with a freezer locker that I converted into a recording studio. I would set the PA system up for a struggling band, perform sound checks, and then come back at 1:30 in the morning to close the place and pick up my check. I was making enough to pay the rent on the farm and the equipment, with a few bucks left over for books and beer.

I began expanding my rental business and brought in a lot more equipment for my studio. I became a self-trained audio engineer and was figuring out things through on-the-job learning. And since I was the only person working on the job, I was teaching it all to myself. I got the mechanicals of the business down cold, and absolutely knew how to fit all the wires and leads together so that the maze of pieces would function as a single system.

After six years of college I received my BS in Mechanical Engineering. My horizons had expanded considerably and I took my place in the workforce as an engineer. I felt I had an advantage over my peers because of my nuts-and-bolts-level background. My fellow engineers were good at working out formulas and understanding things like stress tables, but some of them had never changed the oil in their car. I brought a helpful practical knowledge to my engineering tasks. I had also developed my skills as a technical writer, and could create readable documentation about my work.

The Road Goes On
I became the Inside Sales Engineer with a small company called Ball, Screws, and Actuators. I was responsible for integrating a half million dollars a year worth of pieces and peripherals into custom turnkey systems. Following that I worked for a while as a Responsible Equipment Engineer with Lockheed Martin in charge of installing and maintaining reaction wheels in satellites. These wheels were actually gyros that took the place of jets in maintaining a satellite’s stability and rotation. A series of flywheels spinning on four planes maintained the satellite in correct orientation with the earth.

I got laid off during an economic slow-down and saw an advertisement for home theater installers. The company appreciated my extensive mechanical background coupled with my engineering degree. I stayed with them for a little over a year and then worked for a start-up doing home theater installations. I began learning how to start a business. I learned from that company’s successes and failures.

A commercial installation company hired me as an engineer and installer to create finished jobs for their customers. I negotiated a four-day workweek with them and then worked for myself on the side doing projects of my own that didn’t compete with my employer. I started creating a business plan with the intention of striking out on my own in September.

The plan was kicked into high gear when I was laid off in July. Things have a way of working out, they say. I told my manager, “You are giving me no severance. That means I can go into competition against you. Right?”

“We don’t care,” he said.
I guess he should have cared, because during the first week following my layoff I signed three contacts totaling nearly $100,000 that I couldn’t have taken if I were still employed or even if I had simply resigned. Four of my old customers eventually called me up, each one saying, “We want you to do this.” One of the three projects all by itself was a contract for nearly $400,000. Getting what you don’t want is sometimes a great stroke of luck.

I’m moving home media installations to the next level. For example, I bought engineering design software that enables me to create complete schematics for every job, including details such as equipment lists and locations. The software provides all the information required to do a job so my installers don’t have to make phone calls asking things like, “Where does this go?” Another advantage of the software is that six years from now I won’t have to try to remember what I did for a customer. Furthermore, I provide customers with an information packet that I call “Final Information Binder” containing schematics, manuals, and equipment lists. If they ever want to make any upgrades or improvements in the future they can give the material to the new contractor. Any technician can look at that stuff and know exactly what he’s dealing with.

I Had a Dream

I’m married to Debbie, a person who is beautiful both inside and out. We found each other on match.com. After our initial discussion she wrote in a chat, “Maybe we should meet.”
“I’d like to see a picture,” I wrote.
“I’m beautiful,” she said.
“I’m sure you’re beautiful,” I replied, “but are you beautiful to me?”

Sometimes life actually gives you exactly what you want. Through Debbie I also got what I need. She not only keeps our home running efficiently, she keeps my business organized, as well.

We currently live in San Ramon and maintain a weekend residence in Discovery Bay. Some day I’m planning to retire there so I’m going to live where I play, which will be good. My Discovery Bay based clientele is growing so on many occasions I’m going to be living where I work, as well.

I realized a while ago that I’m living my dream. I have a lovely wife, beautiful kids, and an amazing business. I enjoy playing with the toys, but most of all I love the expression I see on customer’s faces when they hear their sound system for the first time. They often haven’t been able to imagine what they were going to get.

I remember back in 1989, while I was in college, my buddy asked me, “What are you going to do when you graduate? What do you dream of?”

I told him that I wanted five things out of my life. “I want to meet a beautiful woman, have kids, a nice home, a boat on the water, and a nice car. I also want to be doing something I love. I want to wake up in the morning and say ‘I can’t wait to get started.’”

I’m living my dream life. Wife, kids, boat, job, and the Discovery Bay home are all just what I hoped for eighteen years ago when I had that conversation.

A friend asked me what else I could want out of life. “A Ferrari,” I said. It’s a great life, I think, when owning a Ferrari is almost the only thing left on your wish list.°