John Haggard:  

After high school I served a two year enlistment in the navy. I bought into the whole "see the world" pitch but mostly all I saw was endless ocean. There were a few stops along the way like several ports in Italy. After that, I did come back to the UP of Michigan for six months but struggled to find a job so I went back to where I originally came from Burlington, Wisconsin. For a couple years I worked factory jobs but knew this would not work out for me long term. A friend and I decided to go into business together and opened a coffeehouse style restaurant in Baraboo, Wi. The only connection to that town was that my family had taken a vacation there when I was growing up and I really liked it. Well the business did great, it was a big hit, but our friendship failed. Let's just say he had a "Fatal Attraction" thing towards me and I had to get away. But I did meet Courtney my wife at that time. We were married in 1996. For the next couple years I held jobs but never something worth perusing. Then I worked for four years at The International Crane Foundation, a world renown group that exhibits all fifteen species of the world's cranes but also breeds endangered whooping cranes and has projects across the world to save crane habitat. There was a sense of purpose but I wasn't making enough money to raise a family. I worked for Reinhart Foodservice as a Beverage & Chemical Specialist in the Madison WI area for almost seven years and was pretty content. This job gave us enough income to feel comfortable starting a family. I decided to search for my "dream job" in the beginning of 2009. My idea was t...Expand for more