I believe it was in early 1994 that the hunger to start a business came upon me. As a mechanic, I had been doing side jobs on friend’s cars. One day a friend mentioned that he was going to start an auto-repair business. Since I was contemplating going to diesel school, I thought I would start a similar business, but with trucks. Up to that point, I had been a mechanic with Toyota for several years.

I registered for Diesel Technology class at Los Angeles Trade Tech. Once school was about to start, I quit working full time so that I could devote more time to school and believe God to meet my financial need through side jobs. I would travel to different locations throughout the city to pick up vehicles to be serviced, take them to my home, repair them, and then return them to their owners. Later on, I would discover how lucrative this would become.

For certain select customers I wouldn’t charge labor but, in turn, I would simply believe God to count the labor as seed toward the business I desired to start. Before enrolling at Trade Tech, I had heard a man say that first you must come to know yourself, then develop yourself (education). Once you're developed, he said, you can “give yourself” into the plan of God to help establish the kingdom of God. That was part of my decision to go back to school at the age of 30.

At an early age, I had gotten caught up in the drug scene and the fast life. Because of that I spent several years going in circles. I was in and out of jail for various infractions, but once I discovered Crenshaw Christian Center things changed. I realized that my former lifestyle was a revolving door in and out of the prison system. That was, if the grim reaper didn't catch me on one of those turns.

Once I knew I would start the business, I began to talk, eat, and sleep business. It was so much of a confession that people, even my wife, wondered if that was all I had to talk about. Every fellowship I went to, that was my topic of conversation. I looked for people in church who were already in business, because I knew the Scripture, which says be ... followers of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises (Hebrews 6:12). I believed that the promises were for me also. I also believed that God would show me who not to be like in business.

While in school, the plans for how my service truck would look took on a new shape after I found a company that was doing the same thing I desired to do. So I took a job with them. I worked faithfully, and during that time they were training me for the business I would some day have. While driving to their customers, I would make confessions that some day I would have my own service vehicle and my own customers. The blessing was I was able to see exactly how to and how not to do things. I was able to acquire pictures of equipment that I could use. All the working knowledge of my business was being imparted to me. Glory!

Upon graduation, I got a job with a larger company so that I could receive further training. I only made enough money to tithe, give offerings, and take care of home, but not enough to save much. Though, it was hard to put aside money for the equipment I needed, I knew with God there was always a way.

After about four years with the company, I received some final revelation knowledge. During Christmas 1998, I was with the family and, again, talking about my dreams. My brother-in-law challenged me by saying, "Why don't you put your money where your mouth is and start a bank account?" That was a very important question because in my thinking I had done all I knew to do up to that point.

At the first of the year I did just that. I opened a bank account, and it was as if the floodgates of heaven opened. I literally started receiving money from all over. People were walking up to me giving me money. Pretty soon I had enough to purchase every piece of service equipment I needed. By June 1999 all I needed was a van. The van came in October of that year. A friend from church called me to the auto dealership where he worked and worked a sweet deal for me to lease a brand-spanking-new van. The rest is history, and getting better. Just like my church, it's ever increasing.