A bit about beginnings...

Sometime during my sophomore or junior year in college I remember thinking about how I wanted to one day open an outdoor shop. This was back before Baylor had a rock climbing wall, before Lone Star Safari had opened (the previous gear shop in Waco from about 98-2003 or so), this was way back when. Then during long bouldering sessions on the banks of the Brazos river or when I would take my earliest journeys into Cameron park on a mountain bike was when I began to dream. I had a full head of hair then.

My first two years after college I worked as a financial advisor with American Express (now Ameriprise) in Euless and I remember having a conversation with a client about how great it would be to run a nice simple outdoor shop and work with people and product you loved. I wore a suit and tie to work everyday. That was ten years ago.

One of my favorite cards when I graduated from college read "never be afraid to change paths." Paths change. Really I was a bit of a wandering soul then. I didn't really know what I wanted to do with my life. College had been a lot of fun, maybe too much fun and I wasn't giving too much thought to what I would do after college. I spent a month or so in Tennessee after my junior year as a raft guide and I figured after college was over I'd move to Colorado and be a raft guide in the summer and work at a ski resort in the winter. However most of my friends were lining up real jobs after college and I thought I'd better fall in line. So off to the real world I went. When I graduated from college I was 21.

I learned a lot those first two years after college working as a financial adviser. I got to work with and was trained by some excellent people, who taught me the art of relationship selling. Many of the things I learned there are employed at the shop today. I learned to ask the question, "How do we attract, identify and help people meet their needs" and this is how we sell at the shop today. I think it's the best way to be good at sales no matter the product. Thus my twenty-second and twenty-third years of my life were spent selling insurance and mutual funds and wearing a tie to work everyday.