dec-2017

166 167 ADAM HERGENROTHER COMPANIES THOSE “AHA” MOMENTS ADAMHERGENROTHER COMPANIES F or Adam Hergenrother, Founder & CEO of Adam Hergenrother Companies in South Burlington,Vermont, it was those “aha” moments that led him to his current profes- sional life as a serial entrepreneur and the head of several businesses whose ethos is constant growth for his employees and continual disruption of the status quo. “When I was 15 years old in high school, I was a hundred pounds overweight, I was failing classes, I was not applying myself, and one day I came home and I started crying; I cried the entire night,”Her- genrother begins.“I didn’t knowwhat my life was going to look like; I just realized that this was not what life was supposed to be. So, I made a decision at that moment to stop hanging out with the peo- ple I was hanging out with and that I was going to change my life around.That year, I lost a hundred pounds, I ended up becoming captain of my football team, and I decided that I was never going to to live in mediocrity.And most importantly, I was never going to live anybody else’s life.” The next “aha”moment came a fewyears later, in college,when Hergenrother learned the value of leverage, and howmoney and other people could contribute to his own well being: “I had a friend whose dad owned a car dealership and he said,‘Hey, would you want to go in $500 each on buying a car.’ And I said,‘Sure.’ It was all the money I had at the time. I never saw the vehicle; he went and bought it.He fixed it up a little bit and within two weeks, he sold it and we doubled our money. It was the mo- ment that I felt what it was like to leverage an op- portunity by using your own money and how it can be invested. I never saw the car, I was never involved, but I got a great return.”