Despite the failure of many entrepreneurs to become successful, the future growth of the US economy depends on new capital formation that leads to jobs and growth. It is important, therefore, that governmental policies not impede this process. Explore how sixteen entrepreneurs from Virginia and Maryland took risks to become successful. They focused on customer service, good employee relations, and other innovations to overcome the recent recession and other obstacles. These entrepreneurs and others like them prove that Adam Smith's eighteenth-century "invisible hand" theory continues to be true. Entrepreneurs embrace change that is disruptive in order to deliver better products to customers. Ultimately, they enrich not only their own lives, but also the lives of their employees, their customers, and their communities. Good entrepreneurs can succeed in all areas. Whether it's food service, health care, engineering or another field, they always find a way to get the job done. Discover how they do it, gain an appreciation for their accomplishments, and learn how you can experience similar success in Journeys of Entrepreneurs.

Journeys of Entrepreneurs

Stories of Risk Takers Who Improved Themselves, Their Employees, Their Customers, and Their CommunitiesBy Lee Rice

iUniverse, Inc.

Copyright © 2011 Lee Rice
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-4620-2874-0

Contents

Introduction...............................................................................ixDario Marquez, Security Expert.............................................................1David Ward, Contractor and Voting Machine Entrepreneur.....................................12Sharon Dabney-Wooldridge, Janitorial Company Owner.........................................20Patrick Duffeler Sr., Winery Owner.........................................................27Mark Motley, Auctioneer....................................................................36Bobby Ukrop, Food Company President........................................................45Teresa Mason, Health Care Teacher..........................................................56Stewart Hargrove, Business Insurance Advocate..............................................63Michael Kelleher, Heating, Air-Conditioning, and Plumbing Entrepreneur.....................70Wayne Hazzard, Electrical and General Contractor...........................................78Michael Kasmir and Dan Wolford, Staffing Company Founders..................................87Suzanne Wolstenholme, Catering Company Owner...............................................94Michael O'Neil, Health Care Entrepreneur...................................................100David Watson, Machinist and Engineer.......................................................109Al Katz, Retirement Community and Nursing Home President...................................119Epilogue...................................................................................127Bibliography...............................................................................131Notes......................................................................................133

Chapter One

Dario Marquez, Security Expert

I'm comfortable with risk.

Anyone knowing Dario Marquez during his youth could be forgiven if they did not think he would become successful in life. Abandoned by his father early in life and living in Dover, New Jersey, where there were only a few Puerto Ricans, Marquez's mother raised him during the final years of WWII. He said his mother worked in a factory to support her family. Indeed, he said that the values he carried and the spirit came from his mom.

Despite the less than satisfactory economic circumstances in his early years, Marquez believed his mother carried the entrepreneurial spirit and the gene because her father was a business owner. Moreover, Marquez had a dream at a young age to become an entrepreneur. He said:

I would sit in my mother's car and daydream of what I thought I would become ... I had an image of a man with his back to me, carrying a clipboard and wearing a perfectly laundered shirt with French cuffs as he walked down the middle of what was a manufacturing plant.

The attire and demeanor of the man in Marquez's daydream indicated he was in charge. Marquez believed his dreams would help liberate him from his social and economic environment.

As the years advanced, Marquez read much about American industrialists who became his heroes and role models: Henry Ford, J.C. Penney, Andrew Carnegie, and, very importantly, Napoleon Hill. Hill worked his way through Georgetown Law School and wrote Think and Grow Rich. He was an early pioneer in the studies of personal success literature.

One particular story Marquez had not forgotten was Hill's interview with Andrew Carnegie, which lasted for three days as opposed to an anticipated time of one hour. Moreover, what impressed Marquez was Hill's belief that everything starts with an idea. Marquez said these images or ideas provided hope for his own future. Furthermore, he said he developed the "Lee Iacocca fire in the belly" idea to become an entrepreneur and be successful.

Becoming a Secret Service Agent

Following college and graduate school, Marquez searched for an idea that would provide the impetus to become a successful leader, comparable to the man in his dreams. First, however, he had to find a job. A friend suggested he apply for a position at the US Secret Service, which was in the process of seeking new recruits. Thus, from 1972 to 1979, Marquez began his professional career as a special agent where he served under the administrations of Presidents Nixon, Ford, and Carter. He was also assigned to provide protection for not only heads of state, but Secretary of State Henry Kissinger and former New York Governor and Vice President Nelson Rockefeller as well.

But to prepare for a career in security and fulfill his boyhood dream of becoming an entrepreneur, Marquez received a bachelor of science degree in business administration at Southeastern University, finished graduate studies in criminal justice at Long Island University in New York, and completed the US Secret Service Law Enforcement Training Institute in 1972.

During his nearly eight years at the Secret Service, Marquez mastered and implemented the fundamental principles of personal and physical security and logistics management. As an agent, he attended presidential conventions, one of which in Miami was marked by riots. Marquez also worked with many other agents, a few of whom were later assigned to protect former President Ronald Reagan on the fateful day of March 30, 1981, when John Hinckley Jr. shot the president following his departure from the Washington Hilton where he delivered a speech to AFL-CIO representatives.

While Marquez did not protect President Reagan, nevertheless, the story about the agents who did save his life may be of interest since he attended the same classes and knew them very well. Agent Tim McCarthy, who trained with Marquez and attended classes that led to his job as a Secret Service agent, received a bullet in his abdomen as he fell across Reagan's body to absorb any further shots that might be intended for the president from Hinckley's revolver. Following the attempted assassination, another Secret Service agent or detail leader, Jerry Parr, who had been assigned to protect the president, discovered a bullet had punctured Reagan's lung, prompting Parr to divert the presidential motorcade to nearby George Washington Hospital rather than return to the White House. Marquez said Parr's quick decision saved Reagan's life. Furthermore, Marquez said Parr had the power to lead the president of the United States. Importantly, he concluded the agent took control of events and made decisions that saved the life of the most important leader in the world. "It is amazing the amount of power an agent can really have and how really boring the job can be (on some occasions)."

During his career as a Secret Service agent, Marquez said most agents spend their days performing investigative work, which the public might not know. However, he added the most exciting, fun, and challenging times in his career were the early days when he worked in New York City as an undercover agent in the counterfeit squad. His ability to speak Spanish was an enormous benefit in this aspect of his career. "When you work with a counterfeit squad, there are also drugs that are linked to terrorist activities," Marquez added.

In his eight years as a Secret Service agent, Marquez, according to his company's website, had: [M]astered and applied the principles of personal and physical security and logistics management, which are the hallmarks of the United States Service ... which meet the needs of private and public sector clients in the areas of security personnel management, security training, executive protection, criminal and civil investigations, technical security, and security risk assessments and studies.

From Agent to Entrepreneur

Marquez saw his years as a Secret Service agent as an important step on his journey to become an entrepreneur, the type of entrepreneur he longed for since the days as a young boy when he sat in his mother's car on Crystal Street in Dover and dreamed of his future. Because he really desired to own his business, in 1979, he founded and became CEO of his own company, MVM, a large and privately owned security company that employs thirty-five hundred security professionals worldwide and is based near Dulles Airport. MVM is very fortunate to have two senior vice presidents—David Westrate and Louie McKinney—who bring many years of experience in the security industry and add real depth to its top management.

Marquez is a very articulate, disciplined, and determined man. Like his boyhood visionary, the heroic leader who walked along the factory floor, he also wears distinctively French laundered shirts and is in charge of a large growing company. His story is remarkably similar, in part, to the journey of the nineteenth-century American folk hero, Horatio Alger, who worked his way to the top of the ladder and motivated other entrepreneurs in their journeys through life.

In the beginning, MVM attempted to work for mostly large companies in the private sector, but he learned his company could not count on consistent growth from these enterprises. Therefore, to gain a wider market share and become more effective, MVM has grown into a diversified governmental contractor on a global basis. Since terrorism and threats to security can and do occur anywhere regardless of national boundaries, MVM seeks to respond to challenges at any time. Accordingly, its employees protect the citizens and institutions of the United States across the world.

Protecting American Citizens

At various periods in its history, MVM has provided services to an impressive group of governmental agencies and institutions that include:

• Departments of Homeland Security, Justice, State, Defense, US Navy, Air Force, Commerce, and Energy

• Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA)

• US Marshals Service

• Internal Revenue Service (IRS)

• Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)

• Bureau of Prisons

• Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)

• Federal Protection Service

• National Institutes of Health (NIH)

• Smithsonian Institute

It has also provided protection services to Ford Motor Company, Time, and the Rockefeller family.

Under Marquez's leadership, MVM has developed an excellent reputation for developing security programs that address special challenges. In 1987, for example, MVM obtained a US government contract to install security protocols at the United States embassy in Moscow following an internal investigation that revealed foreign intelligence agents had penetrated it. In the aftermath of its success in Moscow, MVM assisted the US government in adopting the security protocols of the Omnibus Diplomatic Security and Antiterrorism Act at American embassies across the world.

MVM provided the Haitian government in Port-au-Prince with trainers and advisors in 1994 to set up a presidential protective program to prepare for the return of President Aristide. MVM continued to provide these services during the transition of power for the administration of President Preval. Two years later, MVM was the first American company to supply security to a seated US ambassador, who, at the time, was Ambassador Robert Frowick in Bosnia, a country that was at war between 1992 and 1995 following the death of Marshall Tito and the breakup of Yugoslavia, a multinational country he had ruled for decades with an iron fist before it split into different ethnic groups.

Like many successful entrepreneurs, Marquez does not fear innovation because he understands that companies must change to remain alive. In fact, MVM's decision to work for governmental agencies instead of mostly corporate clients was a manifestation of being innovative and recognizing the nature of the threat to national security. Moreover, this decision has enabled MVM to survive and help protect Americans most anywhere in the world. Marquez said they had to adapt in order to survive because he realized all Americans had become targets of terrorism following the Iranian hostage crisis during the final years of the Carter presidency in 1979 and 1980 and other events, including some that have occurred within the United States.

The Silver Eagle Group

To continue the process of adapting to the changing world, one that continues to pose threats to all Americans, Marquez and his four sons created another company called the Silver Eagle Group in 2008. Marquez said forming a new company is a big risk, but it was necessary to enable them to expand their service offerings and continue to grow. He added he was comfortable with risk, as he discussed the reasons for creating the Silver Eagle Group. He said he had the courage of his convictions as he elaborated further on his idea of the entrepreneur, but also on the need to meet new challenges from threats to all Americans. Marquez said that standing still is not an option, as he defended his decision to spend millions of dollars to embark on what he called "innovative training" in a new company within MVM.

Looking to the future, Marquez said his investment in the Silver Eagle Group would be either based on reality or missing the mark as he assessed the threats to all Americans. Located in the same building with the parent company, MVM, the Silver Eagle Group Training Facility perhaps offers the most comprehensive and innovative self-defense education and specialized training program in the United States. Importantly, local, state, and federal law enforcement personnel as well as the public at large engage in training at its Northern Virginia location.

The Silver Eagle Group has built a state-of-the-art training facility featuring three indoor shooting ranges that consist of two twenty-five-yard ranges and one fifty-yard range with ten lanes each. These ranges, according to its website, allow shooters to practice with pistol, rifle, or shotgun, using calibers of up to fifty BMG. Furthermore, a multi-stage filtration system independently ventilates the ranges, ensuring shooter health and comfort.

Included in the facility, the Silver Eagle Group features a retail section that sells firearms, ammunition, and rentals and accessories. Gunsmith services are offered for weapon cleanings, repairs, and those who desire to customize their weapons. Shooting ranges are not the only features in this attractive facility. Self-defense courses are offered in a specially created mat room that contains matted floors and walls as well as boxing bags and other mixed martial arts equipment. Also contained in the facilities are four classrooms as well as a twenty-two thousand-square foot scenario training area that contains a two-story townhouse, a replica of a school and office suite, and a laser technology training area. The training facility, coupled with the scenario area, seeks to instruct the student in a realistic training environment. Marquez said his company hired martial arts experts to add combatives and mixed martial arts training alongside the weapons instructions.

The Silver Eagle Group's services have become more relevant and necessary in a country that experienced:

• Terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, that Al-Qaeda organized and carried out

• A single gunman killing thirty-three students at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Virginia, in April 2007

• An American-born Muslim soldier killing thirteen people and wounding twenty-nine others at Fort Hood in November 2009

These mass killings that occurred in the United States demonstrate the need for an effective response. Marquez believes we can all fall victim to a criminal or terrorist act. He added that the training philosophy of the Silver Eagle Group is to teach the student to be aware of the surroundings, think clearly under stress, and respond appropriately. The response could be to find an avenue of escape, if possible, or to use their own marksmanship or martial arts skills, if necessary.

Marquez's own marksmanship skills support his comments on training students and officers in his company's shooting ranges. In fact, during my interview, he displayed a silver pistol trophy that members of his staff presented to him as a result of achieving a perfect score on a pistol qualification course.

Training Everyone to Meet the Threat

Elaborating on the critical importance of the Silver Eagle Group, Marquez said, "We teach the student, who may be a civilian, police officer, or military personnel, to respond appropriately under pressure" because, he said that, if you cannot execute under pressure, you are done. He acknowledges that it's a tough course, and not everyone who attempts it is successful. In fact, he added that, in some of the most challenging courses, 50 percent of the students are unsuccessful.

Furthermore, Marquez said his company creates scenarios in which they use simunitions (non-lethal bullets) that add reality to their training scenarios. They teach the students to respond to a real situation and to think and make the right decision. Importantly, he indicated, "We have to change our training to meet the changing tactics of the enemy."

Calling his program a training laboratory, Marquez said his students must be fast and accurate because they are making lifeand-death decisions. The Silver Eagle venture is important to the future growth of his company. Marquez wants to make this company a success. If his company could tailor its programs to meet the new threats, he believes it would take them to the next level of growth.

"The challenges we face today are much more daunting," Marquez said, as he reaffirmed the importance of training not only existing law enforcement personnel, but citizens at large who desire to learn to protect themselves through an innovative program. This training laboratory seeks to counter how the adversary is operating, and he said the adversary's behavior is fluid and his tactics are ever-changing. Thus, Marquez said the Silver Eagle Group constantly adapts to the changes of our adversary. Consequently, he said, "Our philosophy is that training is never static, but must constantly evolve." Marquez said the Silver Eagle Group is the most comprehensive and innovative training available anywhere.

(Continues...)

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