Winter Edition — 2024
theLink
Employee Newsletter
In This Issue: 2023 Year in Review...........1-11 TRL News..........................12 TRL Wins............................13-14 Events................................15-17 Team Beat..........................18
2023 Year
in Review As we welcome 2024, plans are underway for another remarkable year for TRL Systems. Before we move on, we want to reflect on all we accomplished in 2023! This past year was marked by teamwork, resilience, and an unwavering commitment to our mission. Despite many economic uncertainties, the TRL team stayed focused on supporting our customers and each other. As a result, we landed some great new projects. While there were challenges, we found creative workarounds to get the job done. We’ve grown our business and our reputation for unmatched customer service.
A Big TRL-Wide Win CEO Mark Purdy shares that one of TRL’s biggest 2023 wins was to select and begin scoping the implementation of Solutions 360, a new enterprise resource planning (ERP) system. This ERP software
manages day-to-day business activities such as accounting, procurement, project management and timekeeping, and much more. “Our current system wasn’t working for our teams,” says Mark. “This will be easier for our field staff to work with and provide us with more accurate data in real-time. It’s a huge deal for TRL!” Mark added that the upcoming launch of our new payroll system, Paycor, is also a big win for TRL.
Thank You One thing the managers all shared was the tremendous dedication to excellence exemplified by our TRL team. “I’m very proud of our TRL family,” says COO Jeff Purdy. “Our people make this company a special place to work and a truly unique competitor in our market space. Everyone has done a stellar job during a challenging year. Thank you!”
Finance &Accounting Pam Montgomery
Service
Challenges: Because
Younan Bakhus
2023 Highlights:
2023 Highlights:
• We’re preparing to roll out a new payroll system in early 2024. The whole team is excited to gain more efficiency and processing power.
• While we don’t typically have big projects, the Port of Long Beach and Camp Pendleton are examples of some of our bigger customers. We treat every service ticket as a mini project. We worked hard to keep all of our customers engaged and satisfied. As a result, we continue to achieve consistent growth by maintaining good relationships with our customers.
• We’re working with Project Manager Kati Souza on a major implementation of the new enterprise resource planning (ERP) system, which will consolidate multiple systems into one complete, integrated database.
Challenges: Post-COVID, keeping the department fully staffed has been challenging. Fortunately, the TRL culture is well-known, and we’ve attracted some great people. Everyone has their role, but we’re planning more cross-training on the new systems as we head into 2024.
Team Spirit: We work together and support each other. We have a hardworking, diligent group that really wants to perform. Everyone is outstanding. Looking Ahead: We’re thrilled to implement
some exciting new systems over the next year to benefit all TRL and our customers.
• We invest in our team. We’ve done a lot of training this year, and many of our techs and service leads are getting NICET certifications. Our team members participate in in-house and manufacturers’ training as well as soft skills training, which makes us one of the best-trained service teams in our industry.
Human Resources 2023 Highlights:
• We worked with Healthcare, Security and Service on staff engagement surveys. We got a lot of good ideas and constructive feedback, which we incorporated into action plans for improvements. Both managers and employees were very positive about the project.
• We have a great team! We’ve generated a consistent profit for the last four months, which is a big win for a small office. We’re proud to contribute to the success of TRL. Our customer satisfaction is great—we’re a happy and productive group.
• Staff development and developing new processes was a focus this year. We’ve spent time cross-training to back each other up when someone is out. Because we worked so hard on the cross-training, things are flowing well.
• Some of our high-profile projects this year include Clearwater, Golden West College, CVS distribution center and One World Trade Center.
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Looking Ahead: We have the people, the tools and the expertise for even greater success in 2024.
Younan Bakhus
2023 Highlights:
Team Spirit: We have a fast-paced and hard-working team that supports each other. But we also make time to have fun and enjoy team outings.
Team Spirit: I can’t pinpoint a single employee on my team right now because they are all rock stars! I give them room and direction and support them to do what they are good at. If I could, I would mention every single one of them—I’m so proud of this team.
Orange County
AlexisRan
Looking Ahead: Launching Paycor, our new payroll system, is a great solution that will make a positive change—it will integrate with our current CRM and the upcoming 360 implementation to simplify and automate several processes.
we faced rising costs, we needed to raise our rates. Rather than passing the bulk of our increased costs to customers, we managed our internal processes and minimized indirect costs. We worked on efficiency to minimize the price increase we are passing to our customers.
Team Spirit: We have a phenomenal OC team— every one of them is committed and doing a great job.
Looking Ahead: I’m thrilled about the possibilities for our exceptional team—from our dedicated admin coordinators and supervisors to our great sales team—we will see strong growth from OC in 2024.
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Healthcare
Security
Steve Adams, Sy Granillo and Jason Souza
Gary Chavarria
2023 Highlights:
2023 Highlights:
• The Cedars Sinai Lenel migration project and the City of Hope security project are a few of the large-scale projects we’ve managed this year. The Cedars upgrade is the start of a very important relationship and a big deal for TRL. We competed against some major players to land this project using a creative approach in collaboration with our External IT Department. Now that we have our foot in the door, we anticipate many more projects in the future.
• Our number one win is the University of Redlands— we are putting 240 readers into 42 buildings. We had a ton of competition to get this one, but the entire team came in and did a great interview—it won it for us. We partnered up with Lenel and Access Hardware Supply and leveraged our knowledge. We were the only bidder who took a week and walked every single building, looking at every door. We did our due diligence, and it paid off.
• We are the only integrator locally with a clinical team staffed in So Cal. Having our clinical director on board has been great for our team and customers. Because we brought this in-house, we don’t have to rely on our manufacturers for support—we’re self-sufficient from a clinical standpoint. So, for example, we can offer clinical workflow enhancements and efficiencies such as mobile devices integrated with nurse call communications. This has led to expanding services to our current customers. • We’re the only integrator around that does fire alarm, nurse call, security and other systems in the same division, specializing in the unique Healthcare Market—we bring a lot to the table for our customers. This year, we’re one of the top sales groups for Evolv, a high-flow weapons detection system. We’ve been putting many of these in hospitals and getting great results. This year, we won the Regional Healthcare Achievement Award from Evolv for our volume and success.
Challenges: Post-pandemic, the challenges
have been product sourcing and the roller coaster economy. Several clients have been waiting to start projects. Thankfully, we are nimble and adapt quickly to the changing landscape from a solid strategic core. We’re constantly reevaluating our processes; that mentality and culture help us navigate these uncertain times.
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• Another big win is the McCallister project in San Diego. At 50 card readers, it’s the biggest cloudbased system we’ve done to date. Chris Carpenter in San Diego did a terrific job on that.
Team Spirit: The San Diego team is doing very well in their market. They’ve been somewhat of an island down there and have been challenged with waiting to move into their new office. Floyd Moore is a great leader, and Debbie Strunk has ramped up and cultivated multiple client relationships. San Diego is a top team. Looking Ahead: We have a lot of infant security jobs in the pipeline, many migrations from old systems to new, a few big nurse call solutions on the table and big and ongoing security and fire alarm upgrades.
• We got the Getty Annex, and we’re doing their access control. We’re doing a big campus-wide reader addition and upgrade for the University of Santa Barbara. And we’re doing a large Genetec system at the Temecula Valley School District. • We do all the maintenance, support and service work for a large local stadium complex. We worked this year on the tail end of the 18-month Union Station access control and camera system upgrade. We’re finishing up a big upgrade for the new Tower at Providence Cedar-Sinai Tarzana Medical Center.
Challenges: Business has been down
industrywide, and we had a few million worth of work that got put on hold until next year. To offset
that, we’ve managed our projects more efficiently and focused on gross margins, which we’ve done a good job improving over the past year. Finding staff has also been a challenge, but we’ve been thinking outside the box by working through referrals with our manufacturing partners.
Team Spirit: Our division as a whole is phenomenal. We’ve pulled together and made improvements as a team and continue to grow. I’m grateful to everyone for their excellent work and collaboration. Looking Ahead: We have some large projects coming up for next year. We expect to get a large project for a major hospital. We’re in the final running for a large performing arts center designed by a famous architect. And we’ve been awarded the “integrator on call” position for the Port of Long Beach, which will keep us busy!
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Fire TI & Fire Large Projects Javier Machuca, Efrain Sandoval and Miguel Bautista
2023 hlights: • We were awarded Pepperdine Mountain, a 10K-person arena and event center, including a student fitness center and community center. • We’re replacing all the pre-action panels for a prestigious museum in Los Angeles—now that we have our foot in the door, we expect it to lead to more projects. • We’re pleased to be awarded the Royal Oaks Senior Living project. • Another important win: We’ve successfully completed EST3 to EST4 conversions for a high-rise, an upscale hotel and a theme park.
Challenges: A big challenge has been the
slowdown of TI in downtown LA. While we’re waiting for that to pick up again, the team went after new markets this year, including mid-rise buildings in surrounding cities such as Santa Monica and Pasadena.
Thank you to our revamped Estimating team, who has exemplified their commitment to excellence while growing their knowledge of the Fire Alarm industry. We couldn’t have been successful in 2023 without them.
Looking Ahead: We are excited about the tremendous potential for growth in the coming year. We want to double the size of the team, and we’ve got some big things in the pipeline. We’re looking forward to more EST4 projects and building on TRL’s reputation.
Fire Service & Fire Test Repairs Todd Ashworth
2023 Highlights: • We’ve been conducting manufacturer training for our techs, so we have more staff certified on EST4 and VESDA. We have also been training more of our staff for site DAS testing. Today, we’re more efficient and provide a higher service level to our customers. • One of our high-profile customers had been told by their current vendor that nothing could be done about a ground-fault problem that had plagued their panels for years. They asked us to give it a shot. In three trips, we were able to clear much of the issue and pinpoint what their vendor needed to do to fix their proprietary system. As a result, we’re getting a lot more work from them.
Challenges: Our biggest challenge this year was
getting our four new techs up to speed so our customer service was seamless. We accomplished this by teaching them our practices and so thoroughly weaving them into our culture that our customers didn’t even know they were new.
Team Spirit: Our recently promoted field supervisors, Anthony Jaurequi and Wesley Pinnick, have been doing a great job growing into these roles and helping to train and develop our new technicians and sharpen the skills of our senior technicians. Wesley just got his Regulation 4 cert from the City of LA, which expedites signoffs for our customers. Looking Ahead: We’ll continue factory training and get more techs certified—our goal is to certify everyone on the team. We’ll also focus on in-house training for our techs to hone their skills.
Additionally, before we completed our recent EST3 to EST4 conversions, many potential customers were hesitant to have the conversation. Because of TRL’s excellent reputation, we were able to add this type of project to our portfolio, and we expect to grow this type of project on the commercial fire side. Part of our success is our approach, which includes thorough planning that puts our customers at ease.
Team Spirit: The Fire TI team had a successful 2023, thanks to the contributions and efforts of the entire team. Many projects this year stood out, including the US Bank Tower building elevator modification and main lobby remodel projects, Cal Mart SPARC LA multi-floor project and the Technicolor project in Culver City. Our Fire TI team successfully completed over 300+ projects this year and looks forward to maintaining our stride into 2024. Thank you to each one of our team members for who they are and what they do to keep our customers happy.
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San Diego Fire
Engineering
Tony Torres
2023 Highlights: • Our biggest win in 2023 is a four-building bioscience project, two nearly complete, and two just being built. Landing this project was a coup for us. We leveraged TRL’s reputation and our relationship with the contractor. • Because of our great working relationship with JD Pacific and Summit Electric Contractors, we got another set of projects—including installing an EST4 into a high-rise downtown.
Challenges: Our biggest challenge was running
our business without being able to see everyone on
a day-to-day basis for the last year while we were waiting for our office. We worked hard to stay in close communication.
Team Spirit: Our San Diego Branch Administrator, Nichole Bloxham, is invaluable in the support she gives the team. She completely organized all of the many logistics necessary for our move into the new office. She’s a godsend! Looking Ahead: We’re focused on bringing in
new customers and relationships to expand our footprint in San Diego. We’ve got a good start, and we’ll continue to make our presence known.
Scott Boice
2023 Highlights: • Our number one accomplishment is the sheer volume our six-person team successfully managed this year. We support four divisions across four offices, and as of December 18, we’ve closed 521 project tickets. I’m very proud of this team! • Among the biggest projects we completed is the Saddleback Medical Center in Laguna Hills— a campus-wide project including the medical office building and main hospital. It was a huge project with tight deadlines.
Challenges: Our biggest challenges are always
installations for the Healthcare Division because they deal with strict AHJs (authorities having jurisdiction). We had a difficult time with a project with two different occupancy types—thanks to our relationships and years of experience, we got through it.
Team Spirit: I can say great things about everyone on the team—they are all fantastic. One person who’s really grown into a great designer is Yamen Laktineh. I can give him anything, and he just runs with it. Looking Ahead: I look forward to growing the team as sales increase. The long-term goal is dedicated engineering teams at each location.
Estimating Roberto Sandoval
2023 Highlights: • One of our top wins was landing the job to replace the pre-action systems for the artwork at the Getty Museum. We are in the process of the installation of 38 panels. • Replacing the fire alarm system in the Royal Oaks retirement home is another big win. We hope to get that project going before the end of the year.
Challenges: Post covid, we lost team members
to other jobs. We had to regroup, hire replacements, and quickly get them up to speed. We’ve come a long way this year with much mentoring from me and Angel Diaz.
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Team Spirit: We have six estimators and one admin, and the whole team is excellent. At the helm is supervisor Angel Diaz, an expert on codes who acts as a coach and mentor. Our administrator, Bianca Sanchez, does a great job keeping us on track and ensuring we hit our deadlines. Looking Ahead: We hope to close some of the big jobs we’re estimating.
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Internal IT
Warehouse, Fleet & Purchasing Albert Sharp
Micah Metroka
2023 Highlights: • Last year, we created a plan to bring internal IT in-house, and in July of this year, we launched. We hired three techs and released our thirdparty vendor. It’s been a great transition—our new team has done a terrific job. • The first month, our ticket count went from 20 to 30 per week. Now that we’ve proven ourselves and built trust, our weekly ticket count is more than 100.
Team Spirit: This new team has really pulled together. Kati Souza has been instrumental in setting up our internal ticketing system, getting our
2023 Highlights: • Opening our San Diego warehouse, including moving and organizing all our materials after successfully working out of a storage facility for several months in 2023, was a big win for us. • We celebrated two very well-deserved promotions. We promoted Trevor Matus to Warehouse Manager and Alexander Perumean to Fleet Supervisor. • Our purchasing agents managed through unprecedented pricing and supply chain issues to get the products TRL needed to service our customers. • The Knox product line represented tremendous growth this year—with the new service areas, we’ve easily tripled our sales since we launched the product. Right now, we ship an average of 75 to 100 units per week, and it’s growing.
Employee Newsletter
fix-it board set up, and training the new hires on how to use the board. We all have the stereotypical technician’s sense of humor! We are playfully competitive and vie to see who can help the most people. We have great customer service because we all jump on things and get them knocked out as fast as possible.
Looking Ahead: We’ve got a lot of projects planned, including a full infrastructure refresh. Over the last year, we’ve been upgrading networking, doing a wi-fi refresh, upgrading laptops and looking at retooling back-end management tools. We’ll also be working on rolling out full integration with a third-party security company.
Challenges: The volatile market conditions that
impacted product availability and pricing were a huge challenge. In some cases, pricing changed every 20 to 30 days. Some of our major vendors put us through three or four price increases in the last year. It’s a lot of logistics to update all the pricing.
Team Spirit: Everybody here is committed to serving our colleagues and customers who count on us. I’m pleased to say that, despite the challenges we had to work through, everyone on the team did a great job. Looking Ahead: We’re excited about providing our drivers with access to a new app for their dash camera, which helps them access their metrics and gives them a safety score in real time. And we look forward to Knox growth in 2024.
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TRL News
External IT Anthony Garcia
2023 Highlights: • Our division doesn’t acquire work directly, but we are instrumental in completing the work and, often, supporting sales in landing projects. The ongoing Cedar Sinai Lenel migration project is a good example. Our team devised a creative approach that we knew would be a better solution for the customer—even though it was different from what the bid asked for. It worked! We landed the job. • Other high-profile projects this year include Common Spirit Healthcare Group and Dignity Health, which has over 100 hospitals nationwide and wants TRL involved nationally. We now have 10 to 15 projects on the books from this one relationship.
Team Spirit: It’s a team effort; everyone does a great job. But I want to call out Kevin Duarte, who started as a part-time student two years ago in our internal IT group. I saw much potential in Kevin and called on him for a job where I needed a developer. He blew me away with his skill set and work ethic. I brought him to the external team, and today, he’s essential. He develops training for others, volunteers for everything, and is outstanding in every way. Looking Ahead: I’m excited about 2024 and some potential projects we are going after. There’s one project in particular that we have the potential to land because of the expertise of my most skilled and seasoned IT pro, Jaime Villasenior.
Keeping Our Fleet Safe with Our New Driver Health Program Many of our TRL team members have jobs that require time on the road. Their safety, and that of their fellow drivers, is a top TRL priority. We’re excited to announce our new “Driver Health Program” to support our fleet in practicing the safest possible driving habits. We’ve launched the Driveri app to provide our drivers with a real-time driving score based on how safely they drive, encouraging actions such as: •
Moving over for vehicles on the shoulder
•
Creating separation by slowing down
•
Stopping fully at stop signs
The Driveri App also provides coaching and resources to help our drivers be their best on the road. Thank you to our fleet drivers for practicing good driving habits. Let’s all be safe out there!
Grinchy Fun! Thanks to everyone who showed up for our Grinchmas in Camelot. We had 500 people there and ate 800 metric tons of tamales!
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TRLWins Org Development Fire Service From Todd Ashworth to Angela Durand, Cesar Lopez, Anthony Jaurequi, Marcos Carbajal: Ron Rector took the time to reach out and recognize the efforts of the TRL team for excellent customer service, saying, “For the past several months, I’ve been up to my eyeballs with work and dealing with many vendors and contractors, and it has been almost impossible to get anything done without countless phone calls and emails. But then I noticed…Whenever I require anything from TRL Systems, the entire front office and field technicians have been AWESOME! They are courteous and extremely responsive with great follow up. They know their business, and they communicate with each other if my needs are outside of their perspective lanes and simply get it done.
From Derek Purdy to Nicole Schreuder, Nicole Perez, Monique Resendez, Kati Souza, Carlos Bruciaga, Kevin Duarte, Ashley Wake: Thank you for pitching in at the Halloween Trunk or Treat! It was such a blast but also a giant undertaking! We couldn’t have done it without your help. Thank you for making the day so much fun and a big success. I’m so grateful that I get to work with such generous, fun humans here at TRL.
Service From Younan Bakhus to Jovani Ramirez: I wanted to extend my gratitude for your exceptional service during the recent service call to Huntington. Darren, our valued customer, was thoroughly impressed with the completeness and professionalism of your documentation, saying,
Cesar Lopez and Anthony Jaurequi
That’s it! One phone call or email, and I can move on with the rest of my day, knowing that if there is an issue, they will let me know in short order. I have been in Facilities for a long time, and from my first phone call to TRL back in 2006 (I think), service has always been great. I wrote this in hopes that your management team would know and encourage them to keep up such great work and that it hasn’t gone unnoticed.”
Fire TI
Healthcare
From Ramon Torres to Gerardo Piceno: Great job, Gerardo! Thank you for providing great customer service and representing the team and Company at 601 S Figueroa. Engineering staff advised, “Gerardo Piceno stands out with their level of workmanship and customer service.” Well done, Gerardo!
From Floyd Moore to Christian Estioko: I received a call from Scripps Security Manager Ryan Summers on how impressed he was with Christian. He let me know that Christian was very professional and courteous. Keep up the great work, Christian!
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Ashley Wake and Monique Resendez
“Thank you to Jovani for the complete and professional documentation of his service call. I also appreciate that he was able to resolve the problem as well as he did. This invoice articulated every appropriately reported activity on this service and went above and beyond by capturing each detail of his time on campus. Even to say that he had to find a local source for parts to complete this service call. Jovani left no room for assumptions regarding what he did for the time he spent on this call. Please know that this level of detail on invoices is very helpful to ensure quick processing on our part in Security. His consideration for the patient (waiting for visiting family members to leave) and the nursing staff is appreciated.”
Warehouse From Trevor Matus to Ricardo Alvarado: Thank you for your help with moving the San Diego warehouse out of the storage unit and into the new warehouse. Thank you for the extra-long hours worked, the countless hours to prep and the early call times to make the San Diego warehouse move a success. You played a big role in accomplishing this goal. I appreciate your dedication!
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TRL Events TRL School Beautification Service Projects
San Diego Office San Diego office staff brought family and friends and were joined by school staff at Chollas Mead Elementary School. This ambitious one-morning facelift project included: • Large lunch area mural •
Four playground murals
•
Colorful playground map of the United States.
Burbank Office In October, 50 TRL Systems Burbank office members partnered with 365-Connect to bring a fresh face-lift to Joaquin Miller Elementary School. Students, parents, and TRL staffers worked together on campus improvement projects. With a little sweat and a lot of fun, we were able to: • Build and plant four new garden boxes with vegetables and herbs • Paint two giant murals (one sketched and designed by the students themselves!) • Build new benches and planters for the students to sit at during lunch • Landscape and plant several new spaces to add more greenery to the school quad and outdoor lunch areas
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Thank you
to the TRL members, friends and family who showed up to work together and provide a lasting improvement for the communities we serve!
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TRL Events
Team Beat What’s your theme song? El hijo del Pueblo (Vicente Fernandez)
Trunk OR Treat!
If you could time travel and give your 12-year-old self some advice, what words of wisdom would you share? Take advantage of all the opportunities life hands you … you miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.
TRL Systems partnered with our Rancho office neighbors at the California Highway Patrol and joined their Halloween Trunk-or-Treat Block Party and Car Show! We were joined by the church across the street and other local businesses.
What are three things you couldn’t live without? My family, music and YouTube.
TRL pitched in with a truckload of candy for the kid’s “trunk or treat” and a carnival game booth. Food vendors, a live band, a raffle and a variety of carnival games provided a festive vibe for our community Halloween celebration.
If you could meet a famous person (living or dead) and ask them one question: who would it be, and what would you ask? Fred Rogers (Mr. Rogers)—I would not have a question. I would just say, “Thank you.” Zeus Gomez Healthcare Technician
What’s your favorite food? Chinese food How long have you been at TRL? 2 years What do you like best about your job? The people I’m surrounded by and the fact that not every day is the same.
What’s your theme song? Summertime (DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince) If you could time travel and give your 12-year-old self some advice, what words of wisdom would you share? Stop overthinking! It’s okay to occasionally go with the flow. Listen more to Mom and Dad. It’s advice, not a lecture (sometimes!). And, most importantly, you’re gonna hit some bumps in the road on this journey called “life,” but don’t worry. You’ll get through it because of the people sticking by your side, LOVE YOU! What are three things you couldn’t live without? Flavored coffee creamer, Google maps, and one good pair of white tennis shoes you can dress up or down.
Patricia Fuentes Account Executive
If you could meet a famous person (living or dead) and ask them one question: who would it be, and what would you ask? Mr. Miyagi, for the obvious reason, I would ask him to teach me KARATE. What’s your favorite food? I LOVE SUSHI!!! How long have you been at TRL? 458 DAYS What do you like best about your job? Sounds cliché, but it’s meeting new people.
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TRL Systems, Inc. 9531 Milliken Ave. Rancho Cucamonga, CA 91730
Inspiring Minds “ Success comes from knowing that you did your best to become the best that you are capable of being.” ~ John Wooden