Having worked for large businesses (Sales of $2b+) all my life and watching most of the focus on KPIs and other financial measures for success, I felt there were more fundamental drivers that I could use my time and efforts to cultivate for overall business success. Business success for me was developing a business model that focused the operations on an effective and efficient team who work well together serving customers. I employed two key mantras to focus our business. The first was “Customer, Customer, Customer!” I used this as real estate people use “Location, Location, Location!” The focus of everything we were doing was to serve customers while ensuring we did so within the standards we were required to operate. We worked hard and listened carefully to customers’ feedback and took action to build solid long-term business relationships. The second was “Teamwork, Transparency and Trust”. These were the building blocks for taking a good team to the next level. The paid professional staff I was fortunate to join was small and comprised two lines of business. One line of business was the entire company one year before and the other was purchased in the same year I joined. Teamwork was my first focus but with a additional significant focus on transparency to ensure that all aspects of the business were open for discussion, review and direction. All the effort in these two areas, built trust not only for the employees, but more importantly with everyone. After five years, I commissioned an employee engagement instrument, which revealed significant improvements across key areas, including employee well-being, performance opportunities, and a clear understanding of their contributions to our company's success. Seeing the positive impact of our efforts was immensely fulfilling.