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What’s
the best advice your parents ever gave you?
Being an only child, there was no shortage of advice.
Honesty is essential in every aspect of your life. Never
lose a hard work ethic, and build your life on strong family
values.
Why
this career?
At the end of the day I need to see that I’ve done something
worthwhile…I’ve always liked math…I like to look at a plan
that’s not 100 percent finished and conceptually piece
together what it’s going to take to build the project. I
enjoy working on lots of different projects and I have a
passion for focusing on the details – it’s what I do best.
There isn’t a day that goes by that I don’t learn something
new…and you never see the same thing twice.
Why
Commodore?
I have a ton of confidence in Joe. I knew that if he put
even 50 percent of the effort into building Commodore that
he had put into his career at Shawmut, he would achieve
something great. I want to contribute to that success.
How
would you define the difference between Good and
Great?
Good is a round of golf. Great is a round of golf
at Pebble Beach on a sunny day when you shoot a 72.
In this
business,
Good
is setting the bar way too low. People can jump over it…and
they will. Good is an obstacle to being great because
it’s comfortable. You read the book. Good gets you
projects on time and on budget. Great gets you Raving
Fans. I’m having a Great day when the client and the
design team are equally happy with the results of a
project. Those days end in Johnnie Walker Blue nights.
What’s
your favorite way to spend free time?
I still enjoy ski racing. It’s mostly limited to Tuesday
nights at Wachusett Mountain with friends in a corporate ski
league. I’d love to go back to Mineral Basin at Snowbird in
Utah; I skied there with my dad and it was the most
memorable ski trip I ever took. I golf whenever I possibly
can. I’m looking forward to taking a trip in the near future
to play Pebble Beach, Spanish Bay and Spyglass in Carmel,
California, with three of my closest friends.
If you
could travel anywhere tomorrow, where would you go?
There are so many different places I’d love to go…Europe for
a month…ski Little Cottonwood Canyon…experience more golf
courses. The ideal trip for me would be with my family and
my wife’s family all together. We’d all go hiking through
the Alps in Southern Germany – Bavaria. But ultimately, if
I’m with the people I care about most, then the destination
really doesn’t matter.
What’s
your dream project?
I’d love to design/build a home for me and my wife,
Stacey. She’s an interior designer and would be my design
partner. We’d build the house with the help of both our
fathers; hers would take on all the carpentry and mine is
the painter. It would be a sprawling, bungalow-style house
with enough rooms to hold everyone in my family. Of course,
this is in addition to the two vacation houses I’d build…one
on a mountain top and one on a golf course.
Is
there a philosophy you live by?
I try to make time to appreciate every day. I’m in a
position that I love, so it would be easy to be consumed by
all the deadlines and the constant last minute changes. I
make the time, so I don’t lose track of how precious time is
and how fast it goes by.
Where
does your fulfillment and motivation come from?
I’m really close to my parents. They raised me with strong
family values. I have countless memories of traveling with
them, skiing every weekend. Along with my wife, they’re
my best friends. I’m ecstatic about our upcoming wedding
and spending the rest of my life with an incredible woman.
And I get a lot of satisfaction from buying a brand new
house, which in this region is particularly challenging…and
motivating.
Jim and
Stacey were married on October 21 2006 |
