This is only the beginning…

This past Friday night at the Frisco Chamber of Commerce Awards Gala, I had the great honor of being recognized as the 2017 Entrepreneur of the Year. While I was very humbled and grateful for this exciting recognition, it also led me to reflect on different aspects of this endeavor.

Four years ago, I was in my 17th year of a career with Nordstrom and didn’t know how to spell the word “entrepreneur.” I was being pressured to relocate to another part of the country (I lived in 3 states) and wanted to create a reason to stay in the Frisco community I had come to love. When I met my wife Christy who was born and raised in Fort Worth, I knew I needed a reason to plant roots.

While at Nordstrom, I had the opportunity to serve on the Frisco Convention and Visitors’ Bureau Board (now called Visit Frisco). This experience gave me terrific insight into the tremendous collaboration between the various city departments as well as the support of the City Council, the Mayor and the Frisco Chamber of Commerce. It became clear that if you were going to take a big chance, Frisco was the place to do it.

The other day someone commented to me that they enjoyed watching our construction process go so smoothly and how effortlessly everything came together – this could not be further from the truth! I hit almost every possible obstacle in every area from financing, land purchase, design, subcontractors, the weather, you name it! It was a daily struggle of waking up at 2am wondering how we would get to the next stage. In a later blog I will share some of these obstacles and insight as to what I learned during the process, but for today let me just say that regardless of how it looks on the outside, creating something out of nothing is not easy. It takes tremendous perseverance, thick skin, great mentors, supportive friends and family and a lot of luck. It is extremely humbling with all of the amazing people are doing in this bastion of growth to be recognized for our efforts to bring Verona Villa to life.

I am extremely thankful for the advocacy and support provided by the Frisco Chamber, particularly from the President Tony Felker. The recently retired President of the Frisco Economic and Development Corporation Jim Gandy was incredible. Former Frisco Mayor Maher Maso offered consistent support and encouragement. Current Mayor Jeff Cheney and his wife Dana as well as his Chief of Staff Lorie Medina have been an amazing blessing to us and our entire city. Our Verona Villa team has delivered on our mission from day one to create customized and personalized world-class experiences. And most importantly, our customers who have chosen us, particularly the ones before any steel was raised, with construction plans in the back of my Tahoe or at a nearby Starbucks that said yes, I thank you from the bottom of my heart. There is so much I look forward to sharing along the way. We have just begun.