This scholarship is dedicated to one of the greatest leaders in the world. We will be looking at leadership qualities and experience as well as demonstrations of hard work.

Vess Pearson, founder and CEO of Aptive Environmental, a pest control company with over a billion dollar projected aquistition has been one of the people I look up to most. Not only is he a successful businessman, he is an amazing husband, father and an outstanding member of his community and church. Here is a Q&A interview that was done with him talking about the things he has learned and leadership principles that was put together for Authority Magazine on Medium.com. The interview was done by Yitzi Weiner. Q: How do you define “Leadership”? Can you explain what you mean or give an example?

A: Employees want to be viewed as members of a team that are contributing to something bigger than their daily tasks. Great leaders help the people they lead to catch that vision. Great leaders raise the ambitions of those they lead and open their eyes to an elevated level of what’s possible. Great leaders listen and are not reactionary. Most importantly, great leaders train. They provide the skills necessary for their people to find success and reach their potential. With this principle in mind, Aptive has invested millions into training materials and software that help our people to be more competent and efficient in their jobs. I believe this commitment to training is a large reason why we enjoy such great employee retention, especially with our management team.

Q: What are your “5 things I wish someone told me when I first started” and why. Please share a story or example for each.

A: 1. Plan out your day in 30-minute increments. I’m much more productive and much less stressed when I take the time to plan this way. I also always use a paper planner — the act of writing a task down as soon as it comes to mind and then having a physical reminder is much more effective for me than setting a reminder on my phone or calendar. There is also great satisfaction when you get to cross off completed tasks.

2. There’s no such thing as a perfect work/life balance. I believe many people fall short when it comes to their true dreams because they’re trying so hard to achieve a mythical work/life balance. Don’t get me wrong — you need to make time for family, work, fun, and anything else you’ve got going on, but I don’t think it’s necessary — or realistic — to be balanced every day. I think of it as more of a “balanced lifetime.” Sometimes your career is going to take more of your time, and other times maybe it’s your family that you’re going to have to prioritize. It’s more of a sliding scale that you have to continuously re-evaluate as new things come up and circumstances change.

3. Listen before you speak or react, and then listen a little longer after that. People jump to conclusions and they’re so reactionary without understanding the whole picture or understanding both sides of the story. Early on in my career, whatever I heard first was what I believed, but I’ve learned over the years it’s much more productive to understand all the circumstances surrounding a situation before coming to any certain conclusions.

4. Do the hardest things first. There’s a book called “Eat That Frog” and the principle is basically figure out the most challenging tasks of the day and do those at the very beginning; otherwise, you’ll just push them off and either not get them done or finish them late. You also want to perform the more challenging tasks early in the day when your energy is high.

5. Embrace stress (unless it’s self-inflicted). Stress is a sign that what you are doing matters. People talk about stress like it’s something you should avoid or work around, but I think that’s a wasted opportunity. You can use stress to help you focus and push you towards your goals. Don’t run from stress, it’s your friend.

Q: You are a person of enormous influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. :-)

A: I love the saying, “You can give a man a fish and feed him for a day or teach a man to fish and feed him for a lifetime.” Because of that, I appreciate the idea of encouraging microfinance and giving people the tools they need to form small businesses so they don’t have to be dependent on government aid or other factors. Financial independence makes people self-reliant, and self-reliance fights poverty — self-reliance is freedom. When people have opportunities and mechanisms to become financially independent, they don’t have to rely on things like government aid, and they can help others around them while they’re at it. It’s an upward cycle.

Q: Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?

A: There are a lot of life lesson quotes that I live by, but I would say one of my favorites is “Set specific goals and make specific plans.” It’s simplistic, but it provides manageable ways for you to elevate your life. This life lesson has made me comfortable with setting big goals because you quickly realize that achieving big goals is just the product of doing a bunch of small things really consistently and really well. In a nutshell, your big goals will feel less daunting and more achievable.

For example, I remember when we set a goal to build our own custom headquarters, rather than leasing regular office space, which required us to hit certain revenue benchmarks over a couple year period. We completed that goal and purchased our own Silicon Valley-like building that includes an NCAA basketball court, golf simulator, movie room, and other amenities to increase employee morale and show our team how much we appreciate them.

Last year, we set a goal to service our 500,000th customer. That accomplishment required a concerted effort across all of our locations and involved every team member. And it worked — we met the half-million mark in September 2018, and then exceeded it by adding another 50,000 customers by the end of the year. Our current goal is to become the best pest control company in the country. Last year, Pest Control Technologies Magazine ranked us the 8th largest out of more than 20,000 competitors. Every year we close the gap to that number-one spot, and it’s really exciting to all our team members.

Q: Is there a person in the world, or in the US whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this, especially if we tag them. :-)

A: I’ve always looked up to Abraham Lincoln. He followed his heart and was firm in his convictions, even though the way he viewed slavery was, at that time, political suicide. He was quick to listen slow to speak, and had a thoughtfulness about him that most political figures didn’t have then or now.

Read more of the Q&A with Vess Pearson at https://medium.com/authority-magazine/aptive-ceo-vess-pearson-eat-that-frog-do-the-hardest-things-first-7b78b4addff2 .