I was having a conversation with someone the other day and, after a debate on differences, he said I was “just like the rest of the ‘TOWHEADS’ in this industry.” After we ended our conversation, I walked away but the name he called me stayed in my head. TOWHEAD. I was insulted.

I thought about it for a couple days, then I was at a website many of us in the industry visit to share or vent our daily adventures, and I was pleasantly surprised to find I was voted “Best of the Best Operator of the Year.” It was the second annual award, and I have been blessed to win it both years. As I wrote a little something to thank everyone and acknowledge the people in my life who have mentored me throughout the years, I still had that word in my head.

The day after, I was reading comments others had written about me, and some were from my heroes and industry leaders. I received calls from my great friends and heroes Doug Yates and Tom Luciano, who were also nominated. I have had the pleasure of working side-by-side with both of them, and I greatly respect them. They told me how proud they were to watch someone they worked with and mentor receive some recognition, but I was honored that they shared their knowledge with me so I might grow beyond the just-another-driver status.

I read the words from Ron Pullin of Big Red Towing, and he put it all into prospective regarding my conversation days earlier. I realized I was a “TOWHEAD,” and now I wasn’t insulted by the word. I was proud. Proud as hell.

You see, many of us are TOWHEADS. We do this job not for money or because it is heroic. We do it because it is in our blood. From the first time I drove a tow truck, I was a TOWHEAD. I would do anything I could to be in that truck, and as the years passed, the feeling has never let up. I knew from day one I wanted to know everything about my industry and my career. Yes, that’s right. I called it a career from day one.

I wanted to be the best, to try new things, to drive the biggest and baddest trucks, and to do the jobs many dream of. I wanted to know the industry inside and out, and, most of all, I wanted to represent my industry. The last few years I have focused my work on teaching the next generation what I have learned and working with others to make our industry better and to raise the standards.

Every company has at least one TOWHEAD. It might be the owner or an employee. It doesn’t have to be the lead operator or manager. It might be one of the “little guys.” It’s the one who is always there helping out and excited to be part of this industry and a team. You see these guys at tow shows standing in line to get autographs from the Wrecked crew, in the “show trucks” group, polishing their truck all night, in the driving competition, showing their stuff, or at a demonstration, watching and thinking “I would love to run that truck.” To these guys it’s not a waste of their time; it’s more like a hobby, and hobbies are what you like to do not what you are paid to do or expected to do.

So to those owners who are not the “TOWHEADS” at their companies: you need to be thankful someone is, because it takes one to make a company a safe, clean, educated model for the towing industry. Instead of making fun of them or not supporting them, thank them for not being embarrassed to be a TOWHEAD.