Even before I founded Tower Engineering Professionals (“TEP”) in 1997, I decided that the company would always pay its obligations in full and on time. Afterwards, and only after everyone else was paid would I take my cut.

That decision was inspired by my MeMa Holland.

My grandparents lived on a small farm in rural North Carolina. PaPa Holland was born there. MeMa married him when she was 13. They were as unsophisticated and as decent as anyone I knew. I miss them terribly.

MeMa’s Sunday dinners were epic. Ham, beef tips with rice, peas, corn, fried okra, butter beans, collards, fried chicken (from Mom), corn bread, fat back, biscuits, hot peppers, and more. Most of that food was from PaPa’s garden. Some came from the neighbors’ gardens: Uncle Preston, Aunt Lib and Aunt Vila and more that I can no longer recall.

MeMa attended Clement Missionary Baptist Church. She told me that she did much of the reading of the Bible during Sunday School because few others could read. She never missed a Sunday.

To get to church, and do all that cooking, she stayed up all night. From dawn on Saturday morning until bed on Sunday night she endured a 40-hour day. She did so into her seventies.

During the dinner she did not eat, nor even sit down, until everyone else finished. No one could make her do otherwise. She wouldn’t relent even when Uncle Tony would entreat her, “Mom, why don’t you sit down and eat?”

After dinner the men went to watch football while the kids went outdoors to play. The women remained with MeMa to talk while she ate. Even then she would get up to serve her adult daughters. She was duty bound to serve her family before herself.

My realization of this came in adolescence when I noticed her leaning against the kitchen wall. She looked tired. Mom told me that she had been up the previous night cooking. From then on, I watched her do her duty entirely of her own volition.

It stuck.

From the beginning of TEP I insisted that employees, vendors, suppliers, sub-contractors, creditors, taxes and investments toward the future of TEP were all paid before I was. I did so of my own volition.

As TEP grew, and I awarded equity to key leaders, then they were also added to the “last-paid list.” I insisted on it because leaders have that duty.

For example, during the 17 years that I controlled TEP we were not late with a payroll, an expense reimbursement or a mileage payment to employees. That may sound like a no-brainer for a business, but I had worked for firms that would not reimburse employee expenses until months passed while their CEOs lived in privilege.

I hated that crap then and I hate it now.

Thank you MeMa for modeling honor. You did your duty. Not only to your family but to everyone who ever received a check from TEP.