Roger Pollock started his first business a bit younger than most – he was five. Reading like a scene out of John D. Fitzgerald’s Great Brain series, Roger and his brother, Mike, bought candy in bulk, repackaged it and then sold it to neighborhood kids for a profit.
Before he likely could’ve pronounced the word “entrepreneur,” he already understood two of what would later become his rules for success: Rule #4 “Work smart, not hard.” and Rule #11 “Know all the parts of your product.”
By age 10, he could boast sole proprietorship of a successful three-year-old company. Spending summers in Salishan on the Oregon coast, Roger made a business of retrieving lost golf balls from along the resort’s golf course, cleaning them and then reselling them. See Rule #1. “Keep it simple” indeed.
It’s all about being able to map out your own destiny. How do you want your life to look?
These early enterprises illustrated what would become a lifetime’s habit for Roger of identifying a need and then devoting himself to filling that need. Other businesses followed.
In 1990, Roger Pollock started RMP Properties and quickly became one of Oregon’s top builders. He took the company from a start-up to Oregon’s number one homebuilder for four consecutive years starting in 1995.
When asked if he was born with this entrepreneurial zeal or learned it from his father, Don Pollock, once one of the largest home and apartment builders in the Portland area, he can’t say. But he does know this approach to life came naturally to him and continues to drive him.
Today, as founder and president of Buena Vista Custom Homes, Roger Pollock is committed to bringing the public the best quality homes at the best possible price.
Entrepreneurs are born and created. It comes down finally to a belief in yourself.
