Anne: So, you dropped out of high school to help with your dad because he was sick and then you got your GED without studying.Ben: Yeah.Anne: And you then went to community college. The community college, the courses that you took, were they designed to help you with your business? Did you think about that?Ben: Yes. The courses that I started taking were courses that I figured would help me, not just in my business, but in personal wealth later. For instance, I took business management, small business management, was one of the courses that I focused on. And then the other course was psychology-- definitely something that I knew would help. Then real estate finance because I figured later with accumulating some money I could invest in real estate. Understanding real estate finance was a very very important factor in me being able to grow my business later. I didn't know that at the time, but later I purchased my first home and then we purchased a home up in Indianapolis. And then when I hit a point where I needed to grow, I had the opportunity to take bigger jobs and bigger contracts, I didn't have that much capital to be able to take that much more on.

Ben: And then after dad got better and went back to work, I still stayed working there and then I need to go back to school. I didn't want to go back and start and be behind the class. So, I became aware of the GED program. So, I went and took the GED program, I didn't even study for it, I just went and took it and passed it. And I started taking community college courses before my classmates graduated [Laughing]. Already had a jump on them!Anne: That's great.Ben: I thought it was too, but I still miss the graduation experience and all that. I missed out on that, but regardless, I kept going and I just went mainly into construction, stayed with drywall and did really well. When I married Bena, I started a business of my own and it struggled at first, but then I was persistent and everything just, it just changed from one day to another. But it was really rough going at first; it was like working, working and then this money comes in and then it goes all out. And then finally, poof and from there everything changed.Anne: So, when you were in high school, did you feel like just any other American kid?Ben: Oh yeah. Yeah. Yes, I felt normal, I had a lot of friends and our high school,