I don’t hide the losses. I lost $20 million before 22. Went bankrupt. Lived in my truck for a year. Went back to the firehouse and started over. On UtahPreneur, we got past the hero narrative and into the operator math that actually travels. Dreams are cheap. Discipline compounds. Define the end state. Attack one constraint at a time—machine, skill, supplier, cash. If it doesn’t move lead time or first-pass yield, it’s noise.

We talked doors, sure. But mostly we talked utility. People don’t want to feel like they’re walking into a movie set. They want a bookcase door that carries real weight and doesn’t sag. They want a pantry door that stays quiet and square. That’s why Murphy Door works: utility first, then the magic. The best “design” disappears and earns its keep every day. When we forget that and ship cute instead of useful, the market corrects us. Quickly.

The “first break” story matters because it shows the cost of learning. DIY Network put us on TV off a tiny builders-show booth. Orders hit a site that barely deserved customers. We shipped, learned, and rebuilt a bunch of early doors on our dime. Expensive tuition, priceless data. You don’t hide misses. You fix the jig, fix the checklist, and make it right. That habit is boring. Good. Boring wins.

We also hit numbers because the internet loves numbers. The show page frames Murphy Door north of $50–60 million, and the trajectory tracks when you stack years of small process gains. I’m not a valuation guy. I’m a backlog / margin / returns / lead-time guy. When those four hold while I take a paycheck, the system is working. If they wobble, I go back on shift. Calm beats chaos. Process carries the load.

Work-life came up. I don’t do 8/8/8. I front-load life. Seventeen hours a day for a decade so the back half is free and useful. People call that extreme. I call it arithmetic. Time compounds like money. Stack the hours while you’re strong and you buy decades later—decades with grandkids, not chasing benefits. That’s not moralizing. It’s a choice. It’s also not for everyone, and that’s fine.

Hiring? I screen for a 10-year picture and a willingness to match effort to outcome. In interviews I ask for personal, professional, and financial goals. We draw them. We cost them. If you want 20 acres and a Ferrari on 20 hours a week, we’re misaligned. If you want to outwork everyone and be measured on output, welcome—let’s talk SLAs, not slogans.

If you’re underwater, here’s the play we ended on: stop chasing ten ideas. Pick one constraint and fix it this week. Call people first when the news is bad. Spend wins on capability, not vanity. And when you blow a tolerance, don’t “make it work.” Find the root. Change the cut list, change the CAM, change the training—whatever actually removes the cause. Then write it down so the next crew doesn’t have to learn it twice.

You don’t have to be special. You have to be consistent. I’m living proof.

CTAs: Listen to the episode • Join the newsletter • Shop Murphy Door
Sources: UtahPreneur (Buzzsprout) episode page; companion YouTube clip.