Today’s Best Advice Q&A entry comes from Jon Polly, chief solutions officer at ProTecht Solutions Partners and 2026 member of the Life Safety Alliance (LSA) Top 40 Global Thought Leaders in Security and Life Safety. He shares the best advice he’s ever heard, gives tips to young security industry pros and singles out the person to whom all others in the sector should always listen.
Security Sales & Integration: What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever received?
Jon Polly: I have two and, if you know me, that should come as no surprise. Something my father has said for many years and it has been something that has worked out well for me: “If a job is worth doing right, it’s worth doing right, once and only once.”
Take the time to do the job right, not just try to get done the quickest. A couple of things come from this. A) You can take pride in your work. B) Your clients will appreciate you more, as a tech, as a salesperson, etc. If you have to return for the same failure, you won’t be happy, they won’t be happy.
The second came from Stewart Witt, a previous boss. He’s one of those people who could ignite a fire in you, not under you. I was struggling with a bridge that had been torched behind me and felt I needed to fix it. His words were, “Are you ever going to use that bridge? If not, let it burn.” The wisdom here is to know when to spend effort and when not to. That wisdom has not gone unnoticed.
SSI: What advice would you give to those looking to achieve success in the security industry?
Polly: Do what you really like to do and let others know. I have been in the security industry for 25 years now. I like security tech. During the COVID-19 pandemic, as I was starting my consulting firm, I knew a lot about a lot of things in security, but the thing that I really enjoyed was digging into the technologies, seeing what made it tick.
When I stopped trying to do all things security and chose to do the thing I really enjoyed, which was helping clients roadmap and design security solutions based on their use cases, it just clicked.
The second part of this: build your brand. Even as a regional sales manager, a technician, use the resources you have to build your personal brand. That could be social media outlets, industry associations (SIA, ASIS International, Life Safety Alliance, etc.).
Don’t wait for your company to allow you to be better or what you should want. Go get it.
SSI: If you could point to one person in the security industry and tell up-and-comers, “Make sure to listen to what they have to say,” whom would you pick and why?
Polly: There are so many I could name, many of whom have been named in previous Best Advice columns. However, the person who has been someone I have listened to, bounced ideas off and is simply genuine is Travis Willis.
Travis has literally grown up in this industry. He has not so quietly been doing things in the background to make this industry better and above all he has been willing to listen.
Click here to check out all entries in SSI’s Best Advice series!
