My father’s trademarks of quality craftsmanship and integrity

My father has been employed in the tile & marble industry for 48 years. At some point, his brother took control of the company my grandfather started in the early 1950’s. My father was supposed to be a partner, but he was left out of the management and profit-sharing of the company.

My father was wronged, but he had a family to house, clothe, and feed. Instead of getting angry, stomping off mad, or pursuing litigation, my father went to work every day, sometimes 7-days a week, and did his job. His work gave the company the reputation it once held for quality craftsmanship.

In 2004, during my first week at the company, my father spent his last day with the company. He moved on and started his own small business. Although my father has not achieved great wealth, he has had success because his reputation has been spread by word of mouth and his customers come to him.

Anybody who has been a co-worker or customer of my father’s knows about his integrity when it comes to his work. One day in 1997, we were driving past a completed side job when he pulled into the driveway. My father went up to the porch we had completed and been paid for. He performed a test that was not required because he wanted to check his own work. He found a couple of small areas that were not perfectly flat. He put marks on the brick pavers that needed to be replaced and he replaced them on his own at no extra charge.

I told my father that the test and the extra work were unnecessary because no one would ever know. He told me, “That might be true, but I will know. My work has to meet my standard.”

In May of last year, with no fanfare, my father completed 20 years of self-employment. He does not have diamonds and gold to show for it, but he has improved the living spaces of countless customers and he has kept his promise of quality craftsmanship to everyone he has done business with.