Jesse Jensen of Dumfries didn’t think he’d end up a veteran and business owner, not with the way he started out in life.
Growing up in Michigan in a home rampant with domestic violence, Jensen saw his father, who had a drinking problem, arrested several times.
When Jensen was twelve, his parents divorced. He was left to live with his father. So Jensen started drinking with his father. Then his father was arrested again, repeatedly.
“With my father in jail, there was no adult at the house, and school became less important to me,” said Jensen.
“The only thing I was concerned with was hosting the next party at my house.”
And since dyslexia had already put him behind in his studies, school fell by the wayside.
“My high school transcript is blank for my junior year,” he said. “No credits earned.”
In his senior year, Jensen met Paige while attending an alternative school. He said he had a “wakeup call” then. He wanted more. So he and Paige took his $700 car to Tennessee, where they both enrolled in an online high school.
He and Paige married when Jensen was nineteen. And around this time, he discovered the power of hard work and books.
“That’s where my self-help journey started,” Jensen said.
He began taking on odd jobs during the day. At night, he took classes at the community college.
“I only was able to take two classes using financial aid and needed to find a better way to fund my education goals,” he said. “The military offered me that opportunity.”
So Jensen joined the Marines, where bootcamp provided him with another wakeup call.
“I definitely didn’t grow up in a home with any structure,” he said. “And the Marine Corps has a very rigorous one. I had some adjusting to do.”
But the military life proved to be good for Jensen, who thrived in the environment.
“The military made it easy,” he said. “They gave me all the tools I needed to be successful at anything I did. I became a very disciplined person, and discipline will get you far in life.”
Jensen went from Private to Private First Class, Lance Corporal to Corporal. Then he landed something a little unique.
“I was recruited from my job training school to work for HMX-1 Presidential Helicopter Squadron (Quantico) as an Aviation Supply Specialist,” he said.
But then, another challenge came Jensen’s way.
“About a year before I got out of the military, the doctors told me I needed brain surgery to remove an AVM,” he said.
An arteriovenous malformation (AVM) is a condition that puts the brain’s (or sometimes the spine’s) arteries and veins in a position to rupture, causing bleeding into the brain or spinal cord.
“I spent my last year in the Marines recovering from that,” said Jensen.
That set him back a bit, but the episode gave him “plenty of time to think” about his transition back to civilian life.
“School was a given, and I wanted to start a business,” he said.
“I day traded stocks for six months, then tried some real estate. Then I ended up in a franchise seminar and started looking at my options.”
Jensen decided to pursue a business as a franchisee of Floor Coverings International.
He said he started this business because it required him to do things he’s “not so good at.”
Jensen said, “This business puts me in the home of strangers and requires great communication skills and the ability to sell. Talking with new people makes me uncomfortable, and I’m not a good sales person. If I want to achieve my ultimate vision for my life, I need to be an outstanding communicator and able sell my ideas to anyone.
“Yes, I started this business because I thought I’d be bad at it. It makes sense to me.”
Given Jensen’s record of overcoming life’s obstacles and succeeding in the military, his approach did make sense.
“My military experience was the best thing I could have done for myself,” he said.
“They broke me down and rebuilt me into a functioning member of society. I met leaders of all types. They have mentored and guided me through my time in the Marines and now.”
Jensen said he is applying many of the same systems he used in the Marine Corps to his business.
“They instilled discipline and gave me responsibility,” he said. “They taught me how to organize, instruct and lead.”
Now, Jensen travels throughout Northern Virginia in a mobile flooring showroom, visiting clients’ homes and practicing the skills he wants to perfect as he learns new ones along the way.
For anyone who needs to overcome high hurdles, Jensen recommends the military.
Beyond that, he tells them, “Figure out what you want in life, and pursue it with everything you’ve got.”
