I was 17 and still a little sweaty from gym class, and that’s when I saw her. She was the most beautiful girl I had ever seen, and she was talking to a friend of mine down the hall. And then, our eyes met, and I KNEW I had to meet her.

This was my chance. Walking over should have been easy, since I could just act like I was saying “hi” to my friend.  But then the internal “what ifs” started kicking in:

What if I say something stupid and embarrass myself? What if that after-gym deodorant wasn’t doing its job? What if...? So, as most people do in moments like that, I hesitated. I told myself this probably wasn’t the right time and that I should wait for a better moment. We went to the same school, after all, and surely I would see her again.

Then, like a scene from a movie, my grandfather’s voice entered my thoughts, asking the same question he repeated to me so many times in my childhood: “If not now, when?”

I always hated that question because it left no room for excuses. And standing there, I realized something that has stayed with me ever since - I wasn’t waiting because I didn’t know what to do. I was waiting because doing nothing felt safer than doing something.

That lesson has shaped how I view leadership and decision-making in our industry.

The Illusion of Responsible Waiting

The most important business decisions rarely present themselves as emergencies. They show up as moments that feel optional, moments where waiting seems thoughtful, disciplined, even responsible.

We don’t tell ourselves we’re avoiding decisions. We say things like, “We need more information,” or “The timing isn’t right.” Sometimes those statements are valid. But doing nothing is still doing something.

Markets don’t pause. Costs don’t pause. Competition certainly doesn’t pause.

That realization became a filter for me, especially when decisions became uncomfortable, expensive, or unpopular.

Innovation Begins with Challenging Familiarity

My experience with window screens is the only frame of reference I have, but the leadership lessons apply across the entire window and door industry.

I didn’t set out to disrupt manufacturing. I was a salesperson selling aluminum screens, a product that has remained fundamentally unchanged since 1907. But the more time I spent inside window plants, the more I saw an industry fighting over pennies while relying on processes that were never designed for modern scalability.

When you try to improve a product, you inevitably confront the process behind it. And that’s where many organizations hit resistance. Not because people lack intelligence or effort, but because familiarity often gets confused with safety.

FlexScreen wasn’t built with automation as the initial goal. It was built to solve cost, labor, and variability challenges. Automation became possible because the product was designed to allow it. Once volume justified the investment, the decision to automate wasn’t bold, it was logical, and that’s a critical distinction. In most cases, automation technology exists for years before it becomes widely adopted. The delay isn’t engineering; it’s leadership hesitation.

Down Cycles Reveal Leadership

The window and door industry is experiencing another cyclical slowdown. History tells us we will recover, but down cycles expose structural challenges that exist during strong markets as well: rising labor costs, workforce shortages, volatile material pricing, and margin compression.

The leadership trap during downturns is survival mode. Protect cash. Delay decisions. Push investments forward.

Some of that is necessary. But survival mode is not the same as positioning mode.

The companies that lead during the next up-cycle are rarely the ones that simply endured the downturn. They are the ones who used the slower period to address cost structure, efficiency, and scalability. Waiting until demand returns to fix those issues is like trying to rebuild an airplane mid-flight.

Action Compounds — So Does Inaction

Eventually, I did walk down that hallway and said hello, and that girl became my wife. Nearly 30 years later, we have built a life and family I could never have imagined standing in that hallway. What I didn’t know at the time was how marrow that window really was. She was only at our school half-days, and that moment may have never repeated itself.

Business decisions often work the same way. The companies that appear to have predicted the future rarely had a crystal ball. They simply understood the long-term consequences of inaction and chose intelligent action instead.

Our industry will continue to evolve. Automation will continue to advance. Cost pressures and labor challenges will continue to shape how we operate.

The real leadership question is not whether change is coming. It is whether that change happens with you, or around you.

If not now, then when?