Who Inspires You?

People always seem to ask “Who is your hero?” “Who inspires you?” “Who you do look up too?” This always seems to be a hard question for some people because sometimes you can’t pick just one person. Well today I actually sat down and tried to figure out who inspires me in life the most and why did I pick them? After thinking long and hard and looking at different perspectives, it was a no brainer to me. The person who inspires me the most is my Father. Since day one my Dad has shown me nothing but who I want to be in life. He has shown my sisters and I that we should never settle for anything less than what we deserve and want. Growing up, my Dad was a full-time FireFighter and I have been nothing but proud of him. The fact that my Dad would risk his life to save others was amazing to me, but scary at the same time because you never know what could happen. As I got older I realized that FireFighters didn’t make much money and always seemed to have side jobs. My Dad had three daughters to support and my Mother. He wanted to make sure we always had everything that we needed and wanted to make sure we could go to college to fulfill the future that we wanted. When my dad got sick of having random side jobs on his days off, he decided to start up his own small business. Now keep in mind, he has never went to college and growing up school was never his thing. He started up a little trailer business where he would drive down to Mississippi after working a full 24 hours on the department and bringing 10 open trailers back and selling them off Craigslist. He did this for a couple of years and then ended up realizing the demand for trailers in our area and all the different types of trailers he could venture off in. 10 years later, my Dad has now taken an early retirement from the Fire Department, due to health issues from the job, and now runs a successful business that he started on his own from scratch. I have currently worked for him for 4 1/2 years and would never want to work for another company. My Dad is so passionate with what he does and always makes sure his customers are taken care of. He will stay late for customers who cannot make it during business hours, or meet on the weekends, even when he does not feel like going in. He will bend over backwards for anyone just to make sure they are taken care of and satisfied with their purchase. Everything that he has shown me and taught me in life, I could never of learned in college. Yes, college teaches you the book end of businesses, but they can never learn or show you passion in a company. The things I learn from him in a day, I could never of learned in my 4 years of my college career. Helping my dad run his business is one of the most rewarding thing I could ever do. Just watching him put his entire heart and soul into something is so inspiring to me. Yes the money at a big corporation may be nice, but the feeling you get from working with a small business is so rewarding and heart-filling. I will never look up to someone as much as I look up to my Father. Next time you stop at a small business, just remember all the work and time that owner puts in their business just to make you satisfied.