This month, our Member Spotlight is on Justin Worthy, Building Engineer for Hines at the Atlanta Financial Center and Georgia Tech student. Justin grew up in San Antonio TX and Aiken SC. At age 20, he shared with me that his mother woke him up one morning with the news that he needed to “either go to the unemployment office or the recruiter’s office today. You have to get a job”. Having been in the Navy ROTC program in High School, Justin chose the recruiter’s office and joined the Navy. He served for 10 years as a Nuclear Machinist working on reactor plants on submarines. After leaving the Navy, Justin was living in Iowa and pursuing an MBA. During this time, he was hired by Hines here in Atlanta, and moved to Woodstock 2 years ago. Justin is currently working on his Master of Science in Building Construction and Facility Management, Integrated Facility Management Degree at Georgia Tech. He will graduate December of 2017.
Justin is married with 2 boys ages 5 & 9. On his commute to and from work/school, he enjoys the “peace and quiet”, sometimes opting for an audiobook or Pandora. He and his family enjoy visiting local parks and indoor kid activity experiences on the weekends. He told me that his favorite thing about living in Atlanta is “there is never not something to do. If someone tells me they’re bored…they aren’t paying attention”. With both his family and his wife’s family still living in Aiken, they also spend a lot of time there. “And when it comes to date night, where is your favorite place to eat?” “Texas Roadhouse for a good steak. But I don’t like to discriminate.”
Justin’s father was the most influential person in his life, teaching him “what it means to be reliable, have a good work ethic, and do a good job. I’ve always taken those things with me.” His father worked for the FAA “he was a big aircraft guy”, and had it not been for the fallout of 9/11, Justin believes he would have followed in his father’s footsteps. However, he likes that his current work is related to his Navy days with the same types of equipment and systems. “A light went on one day that THIS is what I want to do. I had learned about the Georgia Tech program from a former co-employer who was at that time a current student, looked into it, signed up, and now here I am.”
“So let’s talk dreams” I said to him. Justin’s dream job would be working for a company with offices all over the country as an FM. He loves to travel, but finds that he has to give himself an excuse to travel. “So job with travel would be awesome.” Dream vacation? Scotland or Ireland. Favorite destination visited? Taipan, a small island in the Pacific near Guam. “The island is like an entire memorial monument to World War 2 in the middle of the Pacific. And with the white beaches and blue waters, it’s a miniature Hawaii, without all of the people”. Perhaps this is why he shared with me that his favorite color is blue. And this could lend to his love of aquariums. Justin got his first fish aquarium at age 9 or 10, and currently has six. “Only one is saltwater as they take so much work to keep them going. But I love to tinker with all of the equipment and stuff. I probably enjoy the ‘stuff’ more than the ‘critters’ “. Besides the aquariums, Justin tells me his hobbies are kind of random. “I like to find things I can build. Something that will serve a purpose. I enjoy tinkering. I’ve built furniture for our house, electrical things like lights and little actuator to automate my aquariums.”
Justin became an official member of IFMA Atlanta last month. He has thoroughly enjoyed the events put on at Georgia Tech, and specifically mentioned how much he has enjoyed meeting and speaking with Joseph Geierman, Ken Stephenson and others. “Getting to meet all of the different people, each coming from a different area in the FM world and sharing knowledge from their experiences has been my favorite experience to date.” I asked Justin “If you could take the mic at the December Holiday Luncheon and Awards Banquet and speak to IFMA Atlanta, what would your message be?” “The biggest resource that anyone can have is the next guy who is sharing the same experiences. We do not utilize the human resource enough. Everyone turns to the internet to read an article when they need to know something about something. In doing this, we miss out on another’s experience and insight.”
“So how would others describe you?” “I like to joke around a lot. I don’t take myself or anything too seriously. If you’re not having fun doing what you’re doing you probably need to find something else to do.” Which probably explains Justin’s favorite quote – “Keep it simple stupid”.
