I needed time for my family.
I started my first carpet cleaning company when I was 21, I'd been working for a fly- by night company for 2 months and said wow, I have to get away from these guys. Did that for two years and had it off to a good start, but then moved to a different city and started to learn the carpentry trade because I wanted to be a building contractor.
That never really panned out and I ended up taking a really good paying factory job.
Fast forward eight years, now married with two kids, aged 1 and 3. My wife and I came to the crushing realization that our older son had a neurological disorder. As it started to manifest itself more and more, the behaviours became more challenging, our sleep patterns were terrible.. life was stressful and hard to manage. We were making really good money between her professional job and my factory job, up to this point I thought I had it all planned out and we were golden.
The big problem was that my job was shift work, so while I was on nights she was a single mom for two weeks... out of the question at this point.
We looked at our finances and decided we could get by on one income, paying all our bills but not building any wealth.
So I swallowed my pride as male provider and quit my job. Shift work factory job got the axe instead of my wife's better career job. One of the scariest things I have ever done. Gave up pension and benefits and the works.
Now I was at home with the kids and we had time to do be trained in a parent- led therapy for our son. That was a hard year. I had no idea what a hard job staying at home with little kids is!!
That year (2014) my wife suggested I put up an ad on Kijiji (Canadian version of Craigslist), for carpet cleaning since I still had my portable. I kinda scoffed at the idea, figured it would only be price shoppers. Lo and behold I actually started getting some decent jobs. This was perfect because I could work part time around our family life. Well, very quickly I got enthusiastic about this new venture, I got on TMF and started soaking up everything I could. (thanks everybody!!!)
The business gave me an outlet that I really needed in order to preserve my sanity, lol. Something I could be successful and productive at. (very important to me as a task oriented male, at home with kids being like Arnold in "Kindergarten Cop"! )
The business just continued to grow as I invested all the earnings back into it, and I was continually delighted with how business kept exceeding what I thought it would. It was growing in perfect synch with how much time our family life allowed it. I felt (and feel) truly blessed. Now the kids are both in school and our older son is doing better. I am working nearly full time after three years and finances are looking really good.
That hard time caused me to really sit back and examine what priorities to follow in life. I had my future wealth all planned out but it was a distraction. Then I had to give it up and follow another path. And the hardships have proven to give many blessings in disguise. I was able to be there for my family, and am so much closer with them than I would have been. I'm doing what I love, a venture thats so much more rewarding than my old job was! I love this business and the freedom I have! I could go on and on about all the benefits. Its even possible that in the long run this business may provide greater wealth than my original plan, but its not for my personal consumption any more
