In the backyard I keep my old work van. Actually, it’s a lot more than just a work van, it’s been a fixture in my life for almost twenty years. I never had close family, rarely had close friends, and only recently did I settle down and start a family of my own, so the early years were very transitional. I was on the move a lot, with no sense of permanence, and so for long periods of time that work van also served as my home. It was never just a work van, it was my personal van that I painted a logo on the side of when I started doing HVAC work. When I started out with a wing and a prayer, the local HVAC industry was not as tightly regulated as it is now, or my plan never would have worked. I got myself in the phone book, I started spreading word of mouth, and I started offering rock bottom prices on all HVAC work. I was hungry for work, so I would answer the phone even if it rang in the middle of the night with an AC emergency. My prices were always lower than every other HVAC contractor in town (I knew because I called around to check). After a couple of years I was taking enough business from the guys that a major HVAc contractor called me up and offered me a full time job. He said it was worth it to pay me to do all the HVAC jobs that I had been stealing from him.