About

Born the last of four children, to retired Sergeant First Class Joseph W. Carson, a Vietnam veteran, Theadore found himself living a rather normal life in beautiful San Antonio, Texas with his father, mother, and one sister. Little did he know that all that was about to change. “My life all changed with one phone call from my father’s doctor. I did not know what cancer was at my young age but I was fixing to get a crash course on it and its effects on “normal life”. I will remember that phone call for the rest of my life. It was that phone call that turned my life upside down, took me from being a “normal boy” to a man.” After getting the news, his father’s health quickly declined as the family traveled to many different treatment centers to try to stop or slow the inevitable. As his health declined, his mother found it necessary to put him and his sister, Lovonia in a youth development home for troubled youths. “0 how my life had changed in just a few months, the picture of a loving home to being in a home for troubled youths, but little did I know that God was working through all of these challenges to make and prepare me for what he had in store for me.” It was here that he learned about the passing of his Father. “Devastated is all I can say about the feeling that came over me as the flag was folded and given to my mother and Taps were played. My hero, my father, was gone. Somewhere in the sorrow and in the dark lonely nights that followed, I went from being a youth of four to being a man. It was the trials that made me what I am. I knew that I was going to be a fighter and successful just as my father had been though I did not know how or where to begin, my quest had started.” After moving back east to Georgia, Theadore found himself by age seven, walking the streets looking for work. At first, this was hard because no one would believe that such a young man really wanted to work and wasn’t there to play. So, he thought up a strategy that proved very successful for the young lad. “I’ll work for free until you see that I will out perform every employee you have,” Theadore recalls, “and that is the same strategy that I have used for 23 years and has made me very successful,” Every place he worked, he soon saw himself quickly moving to higher positions, where he learned that if you’re successful, it will come at a price. “I have experienced my share of “friends” and family being jealous, saying I was a “workaholic”, “money hungry”, not caring about my family and the list goes on and on. This is a fact to this day.” Through all of this, he kept going in the pursuit of success. Theadore said, “I think God wants everyone to be successful and naysayers are just road blocks. Most of them are just trying to justify their lack of success and drive. Love them, but know who they are, and do not let them slow you down. Thank God I did not or I would have never been able to achieve the success that I believe God had for me.” After working in land clearing, heating and air conditioning and truck maintenance, his next big break came when he was hired to work at Jay’s Hardware. “I knew I was on the right track and the owner Jay Bullock became a friend and a mentor.” He later moved on to work for Jay’s mother and stepfather and worked his way up to being a manager of the home improvement center, where he stayed three years. “It was then I knew I needed to establish a career for myself. I had a good job and felt very loyal to the owners and to Jay for giving me the opportunity, but I knew that I needed to establish a career for myself. So, through a mutual friend, he went to work for Benjamin Franklin Plumbing. “I had to start all over at the bottom, painting, cutting grass, dumping the cat litter box, digging holes, covering holes and cleaning, cleaning, and more cleaning. It felt like a real setback, but I never lost sight of the goal. I was going to be successful no matter what. In an interview, Mr. Owens, owner of the Benjamin Franklin Plumbing franchise, said, “we hired him to cut the grass and now he’s helping run the company”. Tired, yes, discouraged, never, he knew he was going to be successful. “The work was hard and $7.00 an hour, was not much money, but I knew it was not where you start, it is where you end up that matters,” Theadore recalls. It was there he developed a strategy, be the first one there and the last one to leave. Theadore said, “Yes, I would cut the grass with a flashlight. I was in pursuit of something much bigger than me.”Theadore found just like every time before, patience and hard work would pay off as he soon became an apprentice and then a service technician. Though this was a long way from such a humble beginning, he did not let this success slow him down.” It was not good enough to be good, I wanted to be the best of the best. Through continued learning and hard work, Theadore has been recognized in the top five technicians of all Benjamin Franklin Plumbing companies 5 times. Theadore says, “I make it my goal no matter what to finish each day better then it began, and be a better plumber today than I was yesterday.” One day, while on a service call in an embalming room of a funeral home (with a body in it, Theadore came away with this statement; “Look down, if you do not have a toe tag, that is God telling you to keep going” and keep going he did. In 2001, he got his commercial and residential on-sight sewage management license and installers license. In 2004, he obtained his Track Pipe certification and in 2005, his War-flex certification for stainless steel gas piping. In 2006, he obtained his septic tank pumping license and his Georgia state plumbing license. In 2007, he obtained his Georgia and South Carolina back flow license. Also in 2007, he attended and completed the South Carolina Business Law and Management exam. After passing the exam, he proceeded to get his South Carolina commercial and residential mechanical plumbing contractors license. In 2009, after much continuing education and several intense courses on plumbing, business management and business law, he obtained his Georgia Master Plumbing license. When asked how he was able to obtain all of these while keeping up with his demanding work schedule, he said, “once you get your eye on the goal, you do whatever it takes to make that happen and I am still not finished because I do not have a toe tag.” When asked about his success, Theadore says, “I contribute it to two things, first and foremost to God, who has entrusted me with the gifts to be successful and second, as a young boy in Sunday School I learned a verse from the Bible, Ecclesiastes 9:10, “Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might,” and I have tried to do that everyday. Whether I am in the office, on a job sight, or on stage, I try to do it with my might, and take it to the limit every time. Theadore is currently the Vice President of outside operations at Benjamin Franklin Plumbing in North Augusta, SC where he holds to the values that has brought him success and tries to inspire others, that the future you live tomorrow is the future you build today, and success must come from you making it happen. It is not just going to happen to you. When he is not working or studying, Theadore currently resides in the foothills of the North Georgia Mountains with his wonderful and supportive wife of nine years and his beautiful twin five year old daughters. He stays active at his church, plays the guitar with the church musical program and with other groups and is a licensed minister. He also enjoys occasional rides up in the mountains with his Harley and most importantly spending time with his family.