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SM: You take care of your body, but what do you do to help relax your mind, or spirit?
BT: Believe it or not, I am big into antique cars. I have about eight cars, you know, antique corvettes. And the other thing is I enjoy owning and sponsoring a professional modified Softball team. This year, for the first time in 27 years, we were national champions.
SM: Wow, that's wonderful. Congratulations!
BT: I have people come from New Zealand, Canada, and the Dominican Republic - I'm well known all over the country for softball.
SM: Did you play?
BT: I played when I was in high school and up until a few years ago, but now I can't compete-I'm not getting any younger. Now this sounds corny too, but I also enjoy working. I relax while I'm working.
SM: No, no-that's good. You should enjoy what you're doing. If you enjoy what you're doing then it's easier to work with diligence.
BT: Exactly. I love to create. I love to see things change; I love to see buildings change; I love to see areas change - like I said my houses, developments and apartment complexes. I really, really enjoy that and I think that brings out the best in me.
SM: Having a vision, planning it out, and then making it come to fruition and then seeing the final project. Now as far as giving back to your community-I know you do things with charities, what are your thoughts on this?
BT: I learned a long time ago that you have to give something back. I gave land to the Mechanicville school district. Without that land, they could not have built that school. I just gave sixty acres of land to the town of Halfmoon. Whenever I get asked to donate to someone I try to do my best to do it, whether it is to the Arthritis foundation or Alzheimer's foundation. Obviously, you can't donate to every single charity, but we pick and choose. The one that sticks out in my mind the most is the Down Syndrome organization. We sponsor a major tournament here every year. I think that because of that tournament we provide half of the money for the Down Syndrome organization in the Capital District.
SM: Many people say that after an event like a heart attack you have to take a step back and recoup and become simplified in your life.
BT: That's what I've done.
SM: Yet you also seem to have moved forward again. Some people crash afterwards and go retire in Florida, thinking that there is no point of working again.
BT: Right. After my heart attack I have become more intense and more focused than I ever have in my life, but good focused-only on what really matters.
SM: That's good. Focusing, again, is one of the critical things to being successful. Your time management is also crucial because you do so much. There are only a certain amount of hours in the day.
BT: Exactly, you have to stay focused.
SM: Do you ever plan on slowing down?
BT: I'll slow down when I die. Along the way if I can help somebody be a better person or live a little bit better, then I would feel that much more accomplished in what I'm trying to do. Because you're right, I don't need to be doing anything more than I'm doing and everybody says to me, "why do you keep doing what you're doing?" and bottom line is that I enjoy it. I don't want to retire. I don't want to sit home and do nothing, because I'd like to think that God put me on this earth to be a little more productive than to stay home and do nothing.
SM: Is your daughter involved in the business?
BT: She has been working here for three years, she's 17 now. I'm trying to give her on the job training, because eventually what is mine will be hers. I'm trying to teach her from the ground up. Two years ago she wlast year she was bussing tables and this year she's waiting on tables. I've been criticized by some people about having my daughter work, but I think after working here for the past couple years I think she has a total different outlook towards me as a father and what it takes to operate a successful business. I was not always so successful and I always keep that in mind.
SM: You were not born rich. There were times in your life when you had to fight for your survival-what made you stronger and allowed you to persevere?
BT: Well I think when you're in that position and dealt those cards, the only way you can go is up. So you just work that much harder and you stay that much more focused and eventually it's like climbing out of a well, the closer you get to the top the more light you see.
SM: But not everybody gets that.
BT: Well I believe that everybody in life are dealt certain cards and opportunities, it is what they do with those opportunities that might manifest themselves later on in life. Some people might get an opportunity and not do anything with it, or not do the right thing. But above all I think it takes hard work. And if you have those opportunities, with hard work you're going to be successful.
SM: Some people have vision but they don't have what it takes to implement that into a plan.
BT: But again if you have the opportunity, and are lacking the will to follow through with it then you have nobody to blame but yourself. For example, people that win the lottery are some of the unhappiest people in the world. They get divorced, they quit their job-they go bankrupt. Why? Once again, it's what you're going to do with the opportunity.
SM: Right. It's when you're past the point where working is not a necessity to live, and you're on the successful side, that people need the most advice. It's so easy to lose your money and work ethic at some point.
BT: Right. I think the hardest point of business today is keeping what you have.
SM: How do you protect that?
BT: You have to stay focused on what you're doing and not turn your back on your business once it's going successfully. You can't expect things to go smoothly. When we have a sit-down dinner at the banquet house I'm always the last guy in line at the kitchen to make sure the food goes out hot and that the plates are clean. Do I have to do that? No, but that's my reputation on the line and I'm not a connoisseur of restaurants, believe me. But I know that if your food is hot, you're going to be pleased. And that's what I believe.
SM: Good. I know out of twenty or so golf courses in the region, they all have a catering and restaurant business but none are as successful as yours.
BT: I know. My staff does an excellent job and I think the staff that I have is a reflection on me.
SM: Paying attention to detail again.
BT: Exactly. I tell my assistants to run my business as if it were their own.
SM: Right, set the standard and make sure it will be maintained. Has their ever been a time where you have felt the effects of the outside world on you which you believe has caused you to have a turning point?
BT: I believe I felt the pressure of the outside world for the first twenty years. It's such a struggle to be successful today. Every time you turn around there is always a barrier that is stopping you along your path. It is definitely a struggle to get to that threshold where you have climbed out of the well so to speak. I don't think there is really any one event in my life that has caused me to have a turning point, other than the heart attack. It is more or less a culmination of events.
SM: Currently you are booked solid for current constructions, but do you have any plans for the distant future? What's next?
BT: I'm looking for some property to build some affordable senior citizen houses. That's a pet peeve of mine. There are a lot of elderly people looking for homes around here and it is harder and harder to find an affordable home in the area.
SM: Are there any other goals for your life?
BT: I'd like to see my daughter set up a successful business, and I'd like to see her grow and hopefully be able to help her. And I'd like to be able to see my grandchildren develop. I'd like to see them progress and I'd like to see everyone who I know and my family, and my friends stay healthy. Because if the people you love don't stay healthy, then it's going to be hard for you to stay happy. You could have everything in the world, but if you don't have your health and family then you don't have anything-and I learned that the hard way.
SM: What do you think are the greatest differences that you have accomplished in your life?
BT: That's a great question. I hope to leave a small legacy to friends, family and people that I have helped.
SM: Thank you for this excellent interview. With everything you have done, being the embodiment of a successful man. Again family, home, business, mind, body and spirit-is there anything that you would have changed along the way?
BT: You know I can't answer that question because I never want to look back. I always want to be moving forward. I hear too many people regret what they did in the past, and it slows them down and causes pain. I've made as many mistakes as anybody else and I've learned from them and become a better person because of it.
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