HELLO BEAUTIFUL FLATHEAD!
My name is James Taylor (nope, I can’t sing at all…and yes, I get that a lot, too), and I’ve spent the last year learning, saving, and preparing to bring Rivercross Window Cleaning to life.
This business is literally a dream come true. A couple of years ago, I was lost. I had loads of passion, but no aptitude for anything, a whole lot of dreams, but no concrete vision, some long-term goals sprinkled in, but no real belief that I could really do much of anything. I was working too hard, and getting absolutely nowhere. An idealist without direction; a prime example, in other words, of the “Millennial Problem.”
THERE IS DIRECTION
My wife, Amanda, and I prayed constantly for direction. We felt like we were floating in a sort of dazed limbo—for her it was taking care of our three darling daughters: Sarah, Willow, and Emilíyah, homeschooling, and keeping up our rather pathetic little apartment, discontent, not in the work itself, but in being constantly alone and feeling trapped at home all the time. And for me, it was the zombie-like routine of waking, working, eating, sleeping (repeat five days a week…probably forever). Time was passing, but we weren’t really living. We had no idea how to claw our way out of the situation we were in. Every time I tried to move on to a job that should, theoretically, have made more money, we made less because of gas expenses, or getting less hours than I was promised. We didn’t want to let on to how bad it got; we didn’t want anyone to worry about us or think we were sitting around feeling sorry for ourselves…suffice it to say, it was really, really bad.
One night, I heard a voice in a dream say, “There is direction.”
I woke up and wondered: was it God? At the time I was hesitant to make such an awesome claim.
Today, I’m inclined to believe pretty confidently that it was.
About one year (and one more baby—our first son, Asa) later, I made the monumental decision to build my own window cleaning business. After that, we were flooded with confirmation, inspiring mentorship, and, most exciting of all, the passionate vision which we craved in what my small service business could become.
NOT YOUR AVERAGE WINDOW CLEANING BUSINESS
I’m not going to lie, when I first made the decision to start my own business, all I really thought I wanted was to, essentially, own my own job. I wanted something that would help us upgrade to a modest-sized house, and let me spend as much time home with my family as possible, while still paying the bills. But that’s not what I really wanted. It was what I thought I was supposed to want. We had been living in survival-mode for so long, that I had blurred the line between contentment and complacency; between existence and living. And a lot of that mindset came from my own fear.
But because I’m wired as an idealist, and not much of a risk-taker, I didn’t jump right in the moment I made the decision. I took the time to prepare, research, and uncover our vision. I realized that business is changing, and that I had a deep passion and even a long-latent aptitude, for what it had the potential to be. I finally understood how I could build my business on Amanda’s and my united vision, our faith, and our values. I found my purpose and my direction.
“The strength of a nation derives from the integrity of the home.”
-Confucius
My generation is losing hope. There is an undying determination to make an impact on the world, and to better our country for the future generations but the majority are like I was. They are so trapped in survival-mode, they don’t have the time or energy to contribute anything of consequence, and those who are able are so lacking in concrete vision and clear direction, their idealism is often misguided and their frustration is immense.
I am no longer willing to leave my generation, and my nation, broken under dreams deferred. My overall object in building this business is to release my customers of the tedious tasks of cleaning their own windows, or dealing with below-par service providers, but it’s also to inspire them to enjoy their lives. It is to eventually provide jobs that will sustain employees, but it’s also to cultivate leaders and function as a starting point to launch those leaders into the world. It is to ripen the economic climate with healthy competition, but it’s also to strengthen our local economy through interdependence.
We are on the cusp of a revolution, where business is about relationships, and not just about money; where every community is hyper-focused on building themselves to a point of independent success, and ultimately join together for a powerfully successful nation. It is my hope that Rivercross Window Cleaning will contribute to that revolution; to inspire other’s to know what I now know: There Is Direction.