"A father of six and founder of a Jacksonville, Fla.-based handyman and HVAC business, he's spent the past five years rebuilding from homelessness to his first $100,000 year. And he's done it, he says, through faith, mentorship, and the conviction that success in the trades can still offer the kind of freedom millennials and Gen Z Americans are chasing elsewhere."
""We as a country have done a poor job equipping our children for life," he said. "We used to have [wood]shop in schools." In his view, he had to struggle to reach this point in his career because of a lack of hands-on training in public education. "We expect children at the age of 18 to graduate high school and make a permanent decision in our lives by going to college," he said."
Arkeem Sturgis, 33, is a father of six and founder of a Jacksonville, Fla.–based handyman and HVAC business. He rebuilt his life over five years from homelessness to earning his first $100,000 year through faith, mentorship, and work in the trades. A 2020 layoff as a TMJ fabricator precipitated homelessness and instability, with his family moving among hotels, Airbnbs, and friends' homes. He advocates greater hands-on vocational training in public schools and criticizes the expectation that 18-year-olds must immediately choose college as a permanent life decision. He emphasizes steady leadership and teaching others as part of his approach.
Read at Fortune
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]