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Early History...
Like so many entrepreneurs, Richard Stitt was born and raised of modest means. He grew up in the Midwest on a small family farm, where he learned small town values and good work ethics. As the founder of several startup companies, he has never been too proud to get his hands dirty, or work twice as many hours as others to get the job done. Early in his career he realized that, "Nothing happens in life until something is sold. Then the real work begins." This motto, coupled with his business experiences, has given Richard a solid base to understand small business from all perspectives. He was born in Kansas City Missouri to middle-class American parents, Ronald Stitt (1936 – 2005) and Jo Ann Stitt (1940-1993). He lived with his parents and four 4 siblings in the Kansas City area until the age of ten, when his parents purchased a small 40-acre family farm near Excelsior Springs, MO. Both his father and great grandfather were career railroad men, from water boy, to clerk, to switchman, to fireman, and finally to locomotive engineer. His mother was a stay at home mom until moving to the farm as she loved riding Tennessee Walking horses. His parents divorced a year later, his mother started working at a local restaurant where she waited tables and drove a school bus during the day. Being the oldest, made Richard feel responsible for his younger brothers and contributed to Richard's life long work ethic. Honed by farm chores, which included caring for the family’s cattle, horses and pigs; by the age of fourteen, he was not only milking cows by hand both morning and night, but he was also working at the local motel, sweeping sidewalks and sorting laundry. During the summer, Richard and two younger brothers moved baled hay from the fields to barns with their dad to earn spending money. During the school year, Richard was active in 4-H Club, Junior Leaders, Glee Club (co-ed) singing group and band. In ninth grade, he joined the wrestling team, winning many matches and tournaments during high school. Richard's outstanding performance in high school wrestling provided a college scholarship that allowed him to start his university education. Richard, who loved the sport of wrestling, made a decision to put his university education above his wrestling career that he loved. Richard continued his athlete training, but only participated in one large wresting tournament annually sponsored by the university for three additional years, until a serious injury in off season caused him to quit the sport for safety reasons. Later as a parent, he became the assistant wrestling coach to help train his son in a sport he loved. Like many of his school class mates, Richard took advantage of the vocation training offered by his rural high school. Richard elected a 2 two-year Vocational Electronics Program which was divided into two parts; the first year covered the basics of electricity and electronics, how to trouble shoot circuits, the use a variety of testing equipment and how to make test circuits from diagrams. His second year was spent trouble shooting television receivers and learning how transmitters worked. Richard earned his FCC third-class Radiotelephone license and later used his knowledge to work at Education I-TV, the Central Missouri State University (CMSU) television station, as a cameraman and video playback engineer. The university station later became the PBS affiliate: KMOS-TV. Richard’s first summer job after high school graduation was working at Mid Continent Tool and Molding, a plastic injection molding plant. His responsibilities as floor man were to give the production workers their short breaks and lunch breaks, tape up the production boxes and installing and plumbing for new molds that were coming on line per the production schedule. Later he was moved into the tool room as an apprentice tool and die maker. The earnings from this summer job, combined with his scholarship, allowed Richard to pay for the first year of tuition. For More Information Contact:
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