When I joined Luby's nearly 20 years ago, I didn't have much restaurant experience. I had just graduated from college in Kansas, where I played football on scholarship, and moved back home to San Antonio looking for my first real job. Luby's took a chance on me.

About a year later, I got my first real opportunity to prove what I could do. I was an Assistant Manager at one of the busiest Luby's locations in the company when suddenly it was just my General Manager, Mr. Taylor, and me running the store. When he finally needed a day off, he trusted me to run it on my own. I was about 26 years old. Looking back, that experience taught me something I still believe today: you can accomplish a lot when you have the right people around you.

Maybe that's the football player in me. I played safety, where your job is to see what's happening in front of you, make the adjustment and get people into the right positions. I approach running a restaurant much the same way. Every day brings a different lineup and a different challenge. My job is to understand the strengths of the people around me, put them in positions to succeed and then work together as a team. That's probably what I love most about this business. No two days are exactly the same.

I've also never been particularly afraid to try something. Sometimes I've failed. But I think you need failures to become successful. You learn from them, make the adjustment and keep going. My philosophy has always been to swing for the fences.

I learned a lot of that from my parents, especially my dad. He spent 45 years as a bus driver in San Antonio, and watching how hard he worked taught me what commitment looks like. He always encouraged me to do my best, work hard and keep going even when something wasn't easy. Today, I try to bring that same drive to my restaurant.

When I took over this location, we were number 13 in the company in sales. Today, we're number three, and I'm incredibly proud of that. But I would never take credit for it alone. I have an experienced team that shows up every day and makes this restaurant what it is. Without them, none of that growth would have been possible.

And we're not finished. I've always wanted to see how far we could take a restaurant, not by inheriting one that was already at the top, but by building one together and seeing how good we could become. We're getting pretty close. But if you know me, you know I'm still swinging for the fences.