2001

I came out of school at the depths of the dotcom bust, before the mortgage bubble had picked up momentum. Jobs were scarce so I found work as a laborer for a landscaping design-build company that specialized in hardscape construction for residences in the Oakland hills.

I only worked there for half a year but this is the most influential six month span in my career. Physical labor created a real sense of teamwork in our crew of eight, which I have tried to cultivate in my project teams ever since. I lived the raw exchange of one’s physical body for money that our construction workers make every day. And I’ll always remember looking at a simple plan, and then trying to figure out how to translate that piece of paper into the messy physical reality of the overgrown hill slope that was in front of us.

Mr. Hecht passed away a few years ago. He was also a trained musician, singer, and jazz trombonist.