Rick Meinzer.

• Author: Creager, Janine S.
• Position: SUCCESS STORIES

Rick Meinzer isn't afraid to get his hands dirty. As a successful businessman and entrepreneur, he knows that if he doesn't do the work, nothing is going to happen.

But Meinzer understands this work concept on a more literal basis as well. As president and CEO of Platinum Landscape and Design, getting his hands dirty is what. Meinzer's business is all about.

Meinzer can trace his entrepreneurial roots back to growing up in San Francisco. "When I wanted to purchase [something], I had to generate the money for it," he says. He started his own landscaping business before he had a driver's license, paying his mother to ferry him back and forth to jobs.

But the career mentality at time was to work your way up the corporate ladder of a large corporation. He received his MBA, and started climbing that ladder at FranklinCovey.

"I saw all sorts of different people doing all sorts of different things," says Meinzer, whose work took him throughout the world. "If they loved it and were passionate about it, they made it work."

At the time, he was not feeling particularly validated by his own work. Seeing others following their hearts and their dreams brought Meinzer back to where he had begun: landscaping, with a focus on high-end residential projects.

Although he had been out of the industry for 15 years, "I knew the basics of landscaping and I thought I would jump in and figure it out." But he didn't let go of his day job for three years, putting in 40 to 50 hours a week at both efforts.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

"I tried to quit, but they wouldn't let me," he said. "I would have quit earlier but it was nice to have the capital to get the business going. I should have jumped ship, but it was that fear factor."

Taking that plunge is something Meinzer now shares...