 Can you tell us about one of those times where it was really difficult for you and you weren't sure if you're gonna still make it? Yeah, it was because I was traveling more and more. I was home less. And when I was here, the business was doing well. I watched everything and so forth. When I was away, it was a little difficult for my son. For example, he was young and we had older employees who didn't think they had to listen to the young man. And you know, and I told him on the phone, I said, you just have to fire them and if they're not gonna be doing what you ask. And while we were going through that, I had another son who was younger and I didn't spend much time with him. And it still kind of bothers me today. He went through his young teenage years without me present and he got into some of the wrong groups of people. Right. He went up in drugs and ended up in prison. He almost committed suicide. And it really bothered me because I was so busy trying to grow the business. Right. My ability to grow my youngest son properly. And you have to be so careful in business. It is so consuming. Yes. This morning I was out here about five o'clock. Probably be out here tonight till about eight o'clock. Wow. It's so consuming. If you're gonna really maximize it, that sometimes you have to be careful that your family doesn't suffer because of that. And so I started staying home more. And when I stayed home more, we saw the sales starting to drop. And I hadn't talked to other people how to do sales. So there was a time when our business came down really severely and we didn't know if we were gonna be able to make it because we had loans that pay and cash was getting very short. Mm-hmm. We had to work with the banks, you know, and try and rearrange our loans for a longer period of time, smaller public payments. We went through that struggle and about the same time I got cancer. So, you know, I had to be working with her for both emotional and physical. Right. And they'd be here to hospitals. And these things are all part of life. And still the business had to go on. There were getting to be like 30 people that depended on us. Wow. That's one of the things when you're a small business and you drive into your parking lot in the morning and you see all these cars and employees. Them and their families depend on you. That's correct. To be steering the ship correctly. Yeah. We think things right. Sure. You know, some people might say, well, they can get another job, but that might be true. But in our community, it's not very easy to find another job. Wow. We have so much unemployment. So it makes a big difference. And we really wanna help them. So it's a big responsibility having employees and serving customers. So how did you overcome that time? How did you overcome that period of time where it was so severe that you weren't sure if you were gonna make it? I guess I've always been an optimist. And I believe in myself. I believe that, you know, by sharing problems with other people who are skilled or knowledgeable, they will help you. That's why our relationship with the fast and all, I would encourage other small companies to become aware of what the SBA, the Small Business Administration does, and to work with them, you know, to get in their data program, their home zone program, or, you know, maybe a loan through their financial arrangements, you know, or mentor program. There's so much there. But it really is helpful. And just having other professionals to talk to sometimes, maybe formally in their office or maybe over lunch informally about your family or some, you know, situation, it's nice. You see, as you grow into a small business and become an entrepreneur, you've gotta change friends, too. The friends I had before were more into education and teaching. Right. So they didn't have any interest in entrepreneuring. And while I was excited about helping growing. Right, sure. They didn't really have any interest at all in wanting to change the subject. So I had to find new friends who were also in business of some sort. And they certainly were in good health. Now that's an advantage of going to some of these events statewide or community that are organized for business, small business trade fairs, conferences, because you network with others. And among a group of people, you usually can find one or two that your personality kind of matches. Right. You begin to talk and, you know, share each other's successes and challenges. You learn from each other. So from the SBA got a scholarship to go to a Tuck University of Business at Dartmouth. Yes. And because of that, I didn't really want to go, but they gave me the scholarship. So I said, well, I'll see what happens. And we were really struggling here. And I told my son, you know, this is the worst time I'm just, we're barely making it. Now I gotta spend the week away sitting in some class. And when I got there, you know, I was really surprised because when I walked into a room, there was about 40 other people just like me, you know, struggling also. They were there to learn too. And when the professor came in, you know, we began to realize right away because we all had different issues that he didn't have the answers for us, but he did have the questions. And it was totally different than what I expected. I thought we would go in and they would say, here's what you do, A, here's what you do, B, here's what you do, so successful. It wasn't like that. But they came in, they asked us, take a piece of paper and write down, where do you want to be in 10 years? What do you like to do? What's your dream? What's your idea of a good day? And they had a thousand questions. And by answering the questions, each one of us had different answers. But we began to see what our future was like when they asked the questions and we provided the answers. We had the answers inside of us. And they helped us bring those answers out. So we began to have a roadmap of our direction in our business. And of course there were times we could certainly ask them, what do you do when you're short on cash flow and so on and they would give us some basic direction of things to try, but they would turn it right around and then ask us questions that would get us back on coming up with our own plan. We must have to have our own recipe for success really. And the last day they said, okay, so now you've got papers full of things you want to do, but that'll help you be successful, but who cares besides you? I mean, what are you going to do to be significant? What are you going to really make a difference in the world beyond money? And I began to think about that. And then one of them, an African American lady came in and gave a little presentation. And she was telling about how she was helping some young girls, you know, 14 year old girls who didn't have good homes. And she had three of them that she was helping. And I began to think, you know, I got to do more. We have so many young people that are struggling, they're kind of lost. And when they come to my door, we need help. And I came back home and was telling my son about this. And a week later, a young man came and applied for work and we had probably a hundred of them like him. Fill out an application on there. We asked the question, do you have a felony? And when they said yes, we would automatically reject them. We never told them that to their face, but we would just say, well, thank you for the application of this drawer. Never went any further. Well, a week after that school, when I came home, it was kind of on my mind. And one day, a fairly large Native American young boy came in probably around 22, 23 years old and he filled out his application. And I looked at it and I could see he had checked felony. And so, you know, a lot of them get into mischief, steal a car or do some drugs or something. Right, right. I love people, but they just start, young men 70%, 70% grew up without a father. So it's like big boys out on the street. That's for Native Americans or is that overall? Well, it's for Native Americans on our reservation. Wow. 70% no fathers in the home. And that makes a big difference. And so, anyway, I just kind of stood there holding his application, thanked him and he shook my hand and I said, well, we're really not hiring, you know, right now, you know, and he said, well, I understand that. He said, he knew what I was saying. He knew what I was saying. Right, right, right, of course. He said, thank you, he was very polite. He said, thank you anyway for talking with me here. And he shook my hand and I watched him here and walked back to his car. And I could see a lady in the car and some little kids in the back seat. And I said, you know, that's my turn to time to do something about this, to reach out and help people really on the bottom. And I said, looking for those graduates from the university or smart kids out of school, I want to help the other end, help the bottom part. Mm-hmm, wow. He's really a good teacher. You know, it's not about just teaching the best, it's about teaching those who are most in need sometimes. So he got back to his car and I suddenly turned around and I said, come on back, let's talk. I'd like to interview you. And of course, you know, he was, he just lit up like a birthday candle, he was happy. Right. And I felt, you know, going back to my family and nobody wanted me, this was an important thing to do. So he did come back and he worked with us. And it was the start of our academy. We then started the school. I wanted to make it official. We got state approval to provide on the apprentice program, it's 2,000 hours. And we write our own curriculum to be machinists and welders. And so now we've had 64 people go through this program. We have a full-time instructor and each one that's an investment of $16,000. And I put that in myself and we've had some scholarships from different companies a little bit. But we try to do eight to 10 a year. Okay. We've absorbed that much into our system. We have about 45 employees here. Okay. We get about eight or 10 apprentices without disrupting the total production. Right, right, right. And so they go through their year of training and then they get a certificate and they become journeymen if they want to leave or go into a union shop or something like that. Or they can stay, we'll hire them. They want to stay. So it gives them an opportunity for an education and a career in machining, which we're making good full-time wages, full-time benefits. And it changes the whole family because now the man comes home, the young boy is actually a man. We teach character too. Not just skills. We teach character, the value of honesty. And tell them you gotta build trust. People have to trust you. And you have to earn their respect. And here's how you do it. You be honest. You do what you say you're gonna do. You have integrity and you show caring for other people and we have a whole bunch of stuff that we follow. One day we wrote on Blackboard all the words that are important as an employee or as a good parent. And we have over a hundred words, things like being loyal, for example. Being prompt, being energetic. Right. So far the youths go on and on with so many. Do you have a picture of that, a Blackboard? I do actually. Oh wow, can you send it to me afterwards? I love to have that picture of that Blackboard shot. Yeah, so what we did then is we teach that along with the skills. And one day a sales person came to our shop and he was looking for a bottle of soft drink. He sure as he went over to the dispensing machine over at the store. And I put a dollar in and we spent a cocking and he's looking at my employees and he's seeing quite a mixture of people here. And he said, you know, you mentioned you teach skills. He said, I got that, but you teach character. He said, I've haven't heard that before. Does it really work? And I said, let's see what happens. So I took a $20 bill out of my bill phone. I dropped it right in front of the soda machine. And I said, just leave it there. Let's see what happens. And so we came back to my office. We're here maybe 10 minutes. And then we hear a knock on the door and a fellow, one of my enemy fellows who had been in prison actually five years who got out and was doing well here and ours as a student came in and he said, Mr. Wells, did you lose $20? And I said, well, let me check. I started reaching for my bill phone. Before I could get it out, he said, it must be you. I've asked everybody else, but what he's like. Well, he could have said nothing and just put it in his pocket. Certainly, right, right, right. Because we show them respect and honesty and they know we expected that. And, you know, I have my goals set high and I'm gonna show you something and I'm just gonna reach back and I'll show you an example of why this works. Okay. Now this is really impromptu, but I'm gonna show you this. If I hold this up, you see this stick of wood? Yes. This is kind of like the young men I bring in. Oftentimes they have some issues in their life and they're a little bit rough on the outside. The way they look and talk and act in their history. Uh-huh. I see is what's on the inside. I see the carved face. Wow. I can see, I see a face with eyes and... I see the potential within these... Wow. Wow. And give them some direction. They can turn around. I'm gonna start to take them this year out on the sales route with me and introduce them to trade shows. I took one with me last year. He did really well. So I wanna do more of that. Get them out so they can see the big world, see all the opportunity, meet the people. And I wanna do it for another reason. I want people to see that you can do this. We don't have to accept poverty. There is a way to help people. Sure, right. It requires not only help by folks like me, but they have to help themselves too. They gotta believe in themselves. And we've gotta give them that confidence. We gotta let them know that it's not just something you watch on TV. Know the success of other people. It's something that can happen to you too. Whether you're on inner city or you're on the reservation. It's for everybody. Wow. They come from the inside, but they can't do it on their own. It's like someone trying to learn how to swim. If there's another person there to show them, it goes a lot better. And that's where small entrepreneurs like me and others who have figured out how to get a little business, even if you just got one or two employees, the important thing is if you come back and mentor somebody else, maybe you can encourage them to start a little business or to do better in their life. Maybe first starting as your employee and being around there for a year or two and then trying to follow their dream. I encourage people to live their dream. Don't just come here to help me live my dream. You gotta live your dream too. And if you wanna be an entrepreneur, go for it. I'll help you. Those are powerful words, Andy.