20 Years of Opportunity
By Kimberly & Trent Robinett
When we started TREKK 20 years ago, one of our drivers was the chance to create opportunities. We thought TREKK could be different. Not for the sake of being different, but rather to make a difference in our world. Our original vision statement for TREKK was to “Revolutionize the practice of engineering consulting to improve the quality of life for our clients, employees and community.” The original vision was a broad and lofty goal, but we were in our late 20s and wanted to change the world. The early days were fast paced and ever changing. We have always been good at pivoting as the next new opportunities presented themselves.
As owners, we would gather each year to lay out our yearly company goals. The group would set one-year, three-year and 10-year goals every year. Each year, as we reviewed the past year’s goals, we would continually find ourselves exceeding our goals, including the 10-year goals. Today, when we ask people to think about what they want to be doing in 10 years, we often get questioning looks of “I don’t know”. The point is you don’t have to be right about these goals, but you need to have them. We ask this question of others and ourselves because it is important to put our goals out into the universe. If we don’t verbalize them, then we don’t know where to consciously and subconsciously guide our lives toward.
The question that arises now, after 20 years, does TREKK look like the goals we set? The answer is both yes and no. We have seen amazing growth after we defined the purpose and mission of TREKK to “at TREKK we improve lives by providing direction to enable community and personal growth.” Every ship needs a rudder, and IMPROVING LIVES is our rudder. We have seen our company of three people in a basement grow to more than 185 people in soon-to-be eight offices across the Midwest. We had to pivot as leaders, and that’s part of the fun. We learned to be transparent and provide information that allows each TREKK team member to understand how they are contributing to the movement of IMPROVING LIVES.
The primary reason we started TREKK was to create opportunities, and these opportunities are more available today than when we started. As we embark on our third decade in business, we are excited about the future. We have built a model that has endless room for expansion, offering space for our team to grow and progress through their own individual careers. We are diligently working to develop and hire the future leaders who will continue the legacy of TREKK as employee owners. We are still growing every day, but we understand that our servant-leadership culture and core values of love, leadership and service are what makes TREKK different and must be protected.
TREKK will continue to grow. The fly wheel is turning and can’t be stopped. What is exciting now is that others outside of TREKK are noticing that we are different, and that they want to be a part of it. We are excited to have them join the mission and be a part of IMPROVING LIVES in the communities where we work.
We believe that the industry is hungry for our vision of engineering and service. We can’t wait to see who will join next or where the next opportunity will arise, and we are looking forward to watching as our team members all become owners of TREKK. They already own the purpose and vision, and soon they will own the company as well. It is really as simple as lead with love and have a servant’s heart, and opportunity will arise.
Are you ready for your next opportunity?