It was more than 50 years ago when my family decided to start a commercial lighting business. My grandparents were just barely getting by with enough food on the table for their 13 kids, when one day my grandpop walks in and announced, “We’re starting a business! It’s the commercial lights business!” Grandma was to her wits-end, so she was up for anything I guess. Even though they had nothing, the bank gave them a loan. The banker signed the check to them then exclaimed, “I don’t know why I’m trusting you on this, but I have a solid feeling about these commercial lighting fixtures you’re telling me about!”
Well, it wasn’t long until the two of them had found some property, bought it, and began the building process for their factory that was to make commercial light fixtures. After five years, the business was booming. Not only was my dad’s house filled with indoor and outdoor commercial lighting, but FOOD! The whole family had never been happier.
Today, I am an integral part of the business partnership. And we’ve done more than sell a commercial light or two since those first budding years of business. Now, we sell LED commercial lighting, which has literally made our sells go out the roof! Literally. I say that because one day we had this funny old man walking around on our roof, “fixing things” as he told us, although Grandma, Grandpop, Mom, and Dad never hired him for anything of the sort. Well, we helped him down from the roof, gave him a cup of Joe, and then what do you know? He’s like this billionaire from New Zealand (don’t ask me how he got on our roof), and he wants in on our LED commercial lighting! He not only wants to buy several hundred of our fixtures, but he wants to buy half of the business for more than it is worth!
So now, the family is partnered with his family. He sells all of the lights to the Eastern Hemisphere, and we sell all of the lights to the Western Hemisphere. Last week we were featured in Forbes Top 100. Thanks, Grandparents, for leaving a legacy that will long outlive your incredible lives.
