After Hicksville
After high school, he went to WVU in West Virginia and then entered hotel management with Marriott in Raleigh for 6 months and then was promoted to an Atlanta position where he settled. He started a Diamond business part-time and sold that while working for Marriott. Hal changed jobs when his boys were 8 and 10 and started at Xerox. He then went to another competitor in the Facilities management world.
During that time, his sons were really into gymnastics, and when they hit the national stage, their gym went bankrupt. Hal bought the gym while still working full-time. Purchasing the gym helped both of his sons become gymnastics captains and graduate from the Naval Academy. His oldest, Joshua, was attached to Seal Team 3 as an Intel and Communications Officer. His youngest, Sean, was an F18 Super Hornet fighter pilot.... pretty cool. They are both now 41 and 43. His oldest is working for a PE firm in Atlanta, and his youngest started his own business 4 years ago called Nooks and is "crushing it".
Hal was motivated to start his company when his compensation was cut by 75%. Not only did it happen once, it happened twice. Once when Hal was working with Xerox and again with the last company he worked for, and he had enough. He was able to develop the necessary skills because of his love of learning, although it can take a lifetime to develop the skills needed. While working for the big organizations, he became a SME (Subject Matter Expert) in both Sales and Management, which helped him launch IST.
