Unless you have an infinite amount of time on your hands and only one thing to do with your entire day, from waking to sleeping, you have to prioritize your activities. Most people will do so in order of importance, i.e. going to work, spending time with family, hanging out with the guys. As important as priorities are in our personal lives, they are just as important professionally.
The obvious top priority for any business, self storage or any other is to make a profit. However, the quality of the business can be judged on what else they prioritize.
In many different ways, the self storage industry has shown that along with succeeding as a business, people are a priority. Many facilities across the nation do whatever they can within their communities to show that they are not just interested in taking money from the tenants of the facility, but care about trying to improve the lives of the people in the community as well.
That could not be truer than it was in the case of the son of an employee at a self storage facility in Florida.
Josh Metzger is a longtime employee of Extra Space Storage in Davie, Florida. Over the years he had grown to really enjoy his work and had even brought his son, Jonathan, to work on occasion to show him what his dad did and to teach him the value of an honest day’s work.
When Josh heard about the scholarship that the SSA Foundation had scholarship opportunities he knew he had to sign Jonathan up.
“I called our HR Department to see if I could try for it for my son Jon and they said ‘of course’ and gave me our SSA number and the rest is history. When I found out that he was one of the winners of the SSA Scholarship, I was so excited…”
The money Jonathan received from the scholarship went towards a very necessary and often costly college expense—books. It also served as a reminder to Jonathon of something he learned while watching his dad at work; the self storage industry cares a lot about the people in the community and not just as a source of income.
“The one thing I definitely remember is how when people’s homes were destroyed by hurricanes, my dad was there working at his storage company, giving people a place where they could save their stuff … giving people a foothold to start again,” Jonathan says.
Josh could not be more proud of his son, but also can’t help but feel a sense of pride for where he works.
“It’s nice to know that you work in a profession that cares about the future and is willing to help people who are trying to be their best at what they want to do in life.”
Sources Used:
“Jonathan Metzger’s NASA Dreams Aided by SSA Foundation Scholarship.” SSA Globe; April 2011.
“Supporting Causes and Community Makes Good Business Sense for Self Storage Facilities.” Self Storage Industry News; 06 April 2011.