When we think about business success stories, we usually picture corporate boardrooms, stock market wins, or big company launches. But sometimes the most valuable lessons in business come from places we least expect. For Regis Sauger, author of Getting There!, one of those lessons began when he was just a boy, standing ankle-deep in muddy water, fishing lost golf balls out of a drain at Maple Lane Golf Club.
This might sound like just a quirky childhood memory, but it was the start of something much bigger. That muddy drain was Sauger’s first taste of entrepreneurship. It taught him about opportunity, ethics, people skills, and how a little hustle can take you a long way.
Regis didn’t start out with a business plan or even a pair of clean socks. What he had was a friend named Harry, a soup strainer from his mom’s kitchen, and the guts to try something. The two boys realized that golf balls often ended up in the Red Run drain during play. If they could retrieve them, clean them up, and sell them back to the golfers, they could make some money.
And eventually, they did. Sometimes they made more in a day than their parents made working full-time.
But as with most ventures, success brought new challenges. Some of the golf balls they found were scuffed or damaged, and selling a flawed product was risky. That’s when Harry came up with another idea of using a bar of ivory soap to fill in the cuts. It was far from perfect. Still, it showed an early understanding of product presentation and customer satisfaction.
Of course, all this worked until they were caught. When Regis pulled one of those balls from the drain for the wrong person, a man named Red Hansing, who happened to be the general manager of the club, his side hustle hit a wall.
But here’s where the story gets interesting. Instead of punishing him, Red offered Regis a deal. He gave him a stick with a nail on the end and told him to clean up trash around the course. After a long day of picking up cigarette butts and scraps of paper, Red bought him a ginger ale, a hamburger, and drove him home. Then he told him to be back the next day. Regis was going to become a caddy.
That honesty was important, that handling the fallout from a mistake is even more important than the error itself, and that sometimes, what looks like the end of the road is really the start of a new one.
As Regis worked his way up from caddy to starter, then to pro, and eventually to course designer and businessman, he never forgot the lessons of that muddy drain. He learned to spot opportunities in unlikely places. He understood the importance of showing up, even after being knocked down. He knew how to read people and offer value that made them want to do business with him.
In business, not every venture is clean or easy. Sometimes it involves getting your hands dirty, literally or figuratively. But if you can keep your head, work with integrity, and learn from the people who challenge you, you will get further than you ever imagined.
Regis Sauger may have started in the mud. Still, he ended up shaping golf courses, mentoring young pros, launching successful ventures, and building a legacy based on grit, gratitude, and generosity.
If you ask Regis what really shaped his career, he might just tell you it all started with a soup strainer, a muddy drain, and a man named Red who believed in giving a kid a second chance. That is business wisdom worth remembering. It can only be learned with Getting There!
Here is a link to purchase: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DKDM6ZQC.
