From Coal Mines to 4AM Training: The Work Ethic That Built Me

Where It All Started

If I don’t have those experiences of shoveling coal on my knees with my back rubbing the ceiling in 42 inches of top for 16 hours, I’m not me.

If I don’t stack lumber for 10 hours straight, soul searching for my profession, I’m not me.

I think about what’s required daily for the people who keep our lights on, who work in the mills and the field. I learned how to work as a coal miner and in the sawmill as a young man, and I’ve never forgotten it.

My 4AM and 5AM routine? It started there. It was forged in those mines, in those mills, and it continues today in the work I was truly meant to do.

I get up every day proud of being a multi-generational coal miner, even though I know my kids won’t be doing that — because times have changed, and I’ve changed it. That’s the strange relationship between your internal blueprint and what you want differently for the next generation.

I stand on work and consistency. I learned that from my family, and I’ll continue to teach it. To my family and to the world.

So thank you to everyone who helped me back in the day at Denoon Lumber and the Cadiz Porthole. You built me.

The blueprint of work ethic never leaves you. Build on it. Pass it on.