Hey there!
I’m Brian Miller, an avid motorist and a garage door technician with 30+ years of experience. And also, I’m the author of this blog. Here, I share what I’ve learned during the years I spent installing and repairing all kinds of garage doors.
I started this blog several months after I sold my company and retired. I discovered I missed my job. Probably that was the reason why this website came to life.
For me, working as a tech wasn’t just a job – it allowed me to lead a better, safer life.
I grew up in a dangerous neighborhood in Baltimore, Maryland, in a family with six kids. I was the oldest, so I needed to start supporting the family rather early. I began working as a truck loader at UPS, which satisfied me for a few years. I was glad to have money of my own, and this was what weighed the most. I did not mind hard physical work – eventually, almost everyone I saw around me earned their living with hard physical work (unless they were not involved in criminal schemes, of course).
Yet, with time, I came to realize that there are safer places where I can live than in my neighborhood. The turning point in my life was when an old friend of mine (my best friend, in fact) was shot. I did not know whether he had issues with someone. The police never found them, too. This was when I decided the time to relocate had come. Also, I wanted to have a family, kids, and I did not want them to have this life.
I was already 26, four out of my five younger siblings already had a job, so my help was not as necessary for the family as it had been earlier. A school friend of mine had moved to Jackson Township, New Jersey. When he came to visit his family in Baltimore, I asked him about the place where he lived. He said he liked it. To me, it did not matter much where to go. “Why not Jackson Township?” I thought.
In May 1988, I rent a flat in Jackson Township and started looking for a job. During the first months, I worked as a truck loader, as I did in Baltimore. But I felt I needed something more serious, so I started to look for other opportunities.
When I saw that a local company was offering an apprenticeship for a garage door technician, I liked the idea. The company was offering on-the-job training, which sounded great, too. Anyway, I couldn’t afford years of expensive formal education (and associated debt!).
Frankly speaking, I was very unsure of myself. I knew the job required an understanding of how things worked, and I had zero knowledge or experience. I admired mechanisms, though. I had poor grades at school – learning was not among the things I loved or was good at, so I was not sure whether I will be capable to learn this trade.
Yet, my manager and the tech who was my tutor were always good to me. I was persistent and was always trying to learn everything and get as much information as I could. Soon, I picked up the essentials, and I was learning more and more while working and earning a living. A year later, I realized, the job was already easy for me.
I’m proud to say that with time, I became a top-notch repairman and my company was proud of me. I then started my garage door repair firm, which was rather successful during the decade and a half I was its owner. In 2018, I had a couple of health issues, so I didn’t have the time for my company. A couple of months later, I got a very good offer and sold the firm to one of my old employees.
I can’t say I regret it – now, I have more time to spend with my family. While this blog for me is a way to connect to what I like doing and to share my knowledge.