I was the teenager with a plan.

I'm Nick Gonzalez. I grew up in Ohio. In high school I started a lawn and landscaping business, and I won first place in a statewide business plan competition. What mattered most was not the award. It was what I learned preparing for it, the people who helped me and the confidence it gave me.

I then spent ten years in the U.S. Air Force, in construction and financial management, and earned associate's degrees in Financial Management and Construction Management from the Community College of the Air Force. After that I spent eight years leading operations and growth at a company of more than 100 people in Chatham-Kent, Ontario, where I helped turn co-op students into apprentices and journeypersons, and tradespeople and administrators into supervisors and managers.

I am on the board of the Chatham-Kent Chamber of Commerce, a Rotarian, and I coached high school basketball for nearly 15 years. Launch League is how I want to give young people, and the owners who hire them, what that competition gave me.