In the American capitalist system, there are several paths to "the top."
Harvey Massey was on one of those paths when he jumped off to grab the reins of his own venture. As Senior Vice President of Operations for Terminix, he could very well have risen to the very top and enjoyed, along with his family, the fruits of a lot of hard work.
That wasn't the path he chose.
"The two most important days in a person's life are the day he or she is born, and the day he or she learns why," Harvey likes to say. At 80-years of age, Harvey Massey is convinced he was born to grow his own company, and he's been doing just that for thirty-six-plus years.
He never says that he always knew he would be successful. But neither is he surprised by just how successful he and his company are.
When Your Name is On the Door captures the life of Harvey, his family, and a company that every day sets an example of doing the right things, at the right time, and doing them right.
Harvey Massey grew up around business in Melville, Louisiana.
When Your Name is On the Door reveals Harvey's path from small-town American kid to the U.S. Army, to a job with Orkin Exterminating, to a position of corporate leadership with Terminix.
Then, at the end of 1984 Harvey walked away from it all. In February of 1985, he went almost $4 million in debt to buy a stagnant, 55-year-old pest control business in Orlando, Florida.
Two years later, he changed the name of the business to Massey Services.
When Your Name is On the Door chronicles how Harvey Massey methodically transformed a tired local business into the largest privately held, family-owned and operated company in the American residential and commercial pest prevention, termite protection, and landscape services industry.
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Harvey Massey and the Massey family hand-picked Bruce F. "Bud Brewer" Katz to write When Your Name is On the Door.
In 1986, before Harvey put his name on the door of his business, Bud served as a marketing and communication consultant to the company that would become Massey Services. Eight years later, he joined Massey Services, first as its director, then Vice President of Marketing. He worked with and for Harvey Massey for 27-years, until retiring in 2011.
Upon retirement, Bud and his wife, Lynn, moved to Highlands, North Carolina. He enrolled at Western Carolina University and was awarded an honors BA in English in 2014.
Bud hopes all readers, especially those in the Massey family and those on the Massey Services team, will find When Your Name is On the Door both illuminating and entertaining.
