ForeRunner's Anniversary

Today, February 16th, is the thirteenth anniversary of ForeRunner. Like almost everything else in my life, it began with no plan or goal in mind. There was just the overpowering need to leave the now, the familiar, and just be free. Even now the memory of that wild rush of freedom that came with leaving my previous job has the power to intoxicate and enchant.

Viewed by a rational person, it was a stupid thing to do. I had a very good job with a very good organization. I had four kids, two in high school, one in junior high and a fourth in elementary school. In the coming fall, the oldest would begin college, with the thought of at least 12 years of college tuition payments following. The amazing fact was that my wife allowed me to quit. She gave up paychecks and health insurance. She much later admitted to how frightened she was. But she never let me know. So much for the myth that I have any sensitivity at all.

February 15 was the last day at my old job. February 16, a Friday, was the first day at ForeRunner. I had bought a new desk at Oak Express that was delivered to my new office that day. My new office was a 10’ by 14’, room with attached closet. But it had a window with a tree outside. While my old (bigger) office was on the 17th floor of a downtown building with multiple windows on an expansive view of the Front Range, I was very excited about this new place.

The next day, a Saturday, I built shelving for my new office out of 2x4s and plywood. It was a sight. The office building had a small landing outside its entrance. I can still remember plugging my saw in there, cutting the wood and using my DeWalt 12 volt battery screwdriver to put the pieces together. I am sure the other tenants’ in the building thought that Jedd Clampett had moved in when they saw what was going on. But they held their peace, at least that first day. It was an all day job, but Diane and the kids came over with McDonald’s for lunch. It was a great day.

Monday came and what I had done began to sink in. An office can be a lonely place. Time passes very slowly. It gives you time to think. After awhile you get tired of thinking. I used the phone to call people. I left a lot of messages. I learned a lot about receptionists and caller screening. I sent out mailers to the people I knew and the people I didn’t know. The silence was deafening.

A month passed. Then another month passed. Then four more months were gone. I had watched the leaves on that tree outside my office bud, leaf out and now in a few more weeks those leaves would be falling off. One day the phone rang and it was a client. They had a pipeline project in Texas and needed someone to help them. The downside was that I would have to work out of their office to do the job. I heard myself politely turning the job down and hanging up the phone.

For the next two weeks, I rehashed that conversation again and again. Against my taking the job was that I would have traded an executive position with a window office for a contract job in a cubicle was more than my pride could handle. Can you tell that I am status conscious? Also the job looked like it wouldn’t lead anywhere. On the other hand, our finances were in the toilet. As for going nowhere, how can you go anywhere when you don’t know where you want to go. More than once, I came within an inch of calling the client back. Calling him back and begging, if need be.

And then, miracle of miracles, the phone rang again. A large engineering company wanted to talk to me about specialized consulting on a large project they had. Actually, this sounded even worse. But it was “consulting” not “contract engineer”. Euphemisms were important. Also the thinking of the previous couple of weeks had brought home the depths of the financial hole we faced. So I went in and talked to them. If I am honest, I will say that I went eagerly.

On the Saturday over Labor Day Weekend, I sat down with three people I had never met before. They explained the project they wanted me to help them with; and amazingly, I realized it was the same project the client had talked about two weeks before. Yes, I would still have to sit in the client’s office. But my pride was beaten and I recognized that God was trying to get my attention. I accepted the humiliation of my fate.

The next few months were tough. Returning to a job level I thought left behind played on my mind. Yet those months were among the most important in my life. After doing projects as an engineering contractor for the entirety of my career, I now did a project from the perspective of an owner. It was truly an epiphany and forever changed my ideas about how projects should be done.

That project was where ForeRunner began. After a couple of months, the scale of work required more help. At a fateful lunch, Creg Hughes agreed to leave his budding career in financial services and join me. I met so many of the people, future clients, employees, competitors and friends, that were instrumental in the future of ForeRunner on that job.

From those humble beginnings, ForeRunner came to be. We have had our successes and our failures. But that first project created our foundation of respect, both for the needs of our clients and for our own people, as well as the vendors and contractors with which we work. Along with that respect, I came to understand humility, another foundation stone of our company. Humility is not something that comes easily, especially to engineers. Yet that was the genesis of the company, and being true to our beginnings requires us to remember from where we came.