Brian Hill came from humble, blue-collar beginnings. His father was a laborer in a lumber yard and his mother had a home day care. Brian was an only child and he looks back now with awe at the sacrifices Sam and Myra Hill made for him.

Brian also looked up to his late grandfather, Leroy Thornton, a Pentecostal preacher.
“Dad taught me how to work and granddad taught me how to represent myself, how to stand with the best of them,” Brian said. “He told me, ‘No matter how poor you are, you can dress, you can keep yourself clean, you can hold a presence’.”

Brian learned his work ethic from his father and his entrepreneurial spirit from his mother. He went to work beside Dad in the lumber yard when he was just 11 years old. He made $30 a week carrying concrete and loading 2x4s during the summers. When his father went to work at a plumbing and electrical supplier, Brian, then 15, joined him.

Brian didn’t play football or tennis, he worked. It was important that he pay his own way, buy his own clothing, his cars and his first pair of name-brand tennis shoes as a 15-year-old.

Brian’s mother opened a day care in the living room when he was 13, eventually decided to build on to the back of the house and filled it with children. From there she bought a second location and filled it with children. In recent years, she has suffered some health setbacks.

“She is a walking, breathing miracle. She’s had 21 or 22 major surgeries. She is a warrior like none other,” Brian said.