Monitoring may matter more to me than to most. Although most of my career has been dedicated to monitoring, when I started, I had never heard the term “central station.”
As a young man beginning my journey in 1978, I couldn’t imagine that I would play a notable role in the growth and progress of the industry.
I don’t mean this in a self-indulgent way. I’m simply proud of my work, longevity and the impact I’ve had on the industry.
When I reflect on the time when I didn’t know what a central station was, and then think that, a decade later, I was leading the largest third-party monitoring company in the U.S., it feels poetic.
A Variety of Roles
Throughout my 40-plus-year career, I have had the benefit of taking on a variety of roles and working with strong teams in scaling and building some of the largest and most intuitive monitoring operations in the industry.
To truly understand why I see this as poetic, though, it’s important to understand the details of how it started.
One of my earliest influences was my first distributor. When asked to install an alarm system for my boss’ sister, whose property had been burglarized, I turned to the Yellow Pages to locate an alarm distributor. This is how I met Kalman Drebin, who owned Certified Alarm Distributors in Brooklyn, N.Y.
Although I had a formal education in building and installing alarm panels, when met Drebin, I didn’t know the business, brands, pricing or options. I was inquisitive and questioned everything and Drebin answered my many questions and guided me.
Although I was naïve, I did recognize his wisdom and I was thirsty for knowledge so I listened and absorbed what was shared with me.
Over the years, this fundamental education allowed me to progress in the industry.
Digital Communicators
For perspective, when I first started installing alarm systems, I had not been exposed to digital communicators. Digital communicators and central station monitoring were not taught in school.
When clients required agency responses, we installed tape dialers that would activate on an alarm condition and call the authorities directly with a prerecorded message, describing the event and the address.
Let’s move forward a few years. I was installing a system for a client who requested central station monitoring for his home.
Because I didn’t know what a central station was, I immediately jumped into my 1971 Econoline van, which I had purchased from The New York Telephone Company, and drove to Imperial Alarm Distributors on 18th Ave.
I waited for Drebin to free up and asked the question that likely changed the trajectory of my career: “Kalman, what is a central station?”
Drebin not only provided me with an in-depth explanation but also introduced me to one of the leaders in monitoring at the time: Stanley Oppenheim at Affiliated Monitoring. Additionally, and equally importantly, he explained and taught me something that became the cornerstone of my career.
He stated, “Always do it right the first time. Get paid on install and continue to get paid every month for central station monitoring services.”
He went on to say, “Your central station is your reputation, so make sure you are with the best.”
My First Central Station Account
After activating my first central station account, I activated a few others that year. Although I installed many more systems, only a few were willing to pay $15 per month for monitoring after paying me $2,000 to $3,000 for the installation of the system.
When I moved to Florida a few years later, I asked my distributor what I could do with my small portfolio of monitoring accounts. I received another life-changing lesson. I was told that I could sell the contracts.
My ears perked up and I learned a second major lesson that would shape my career: the great lesson of building and realizing equity through accumulating a portfolio of monitoring accounts.
This, of course, was just the beginning for me and it was a catalyst that afforded me the initial knowledge of mergers and acquisitions. Twelve years later, I created a business plan and educated lenders on the value of alarm monitoring subscribers.
After a two-year journey, we earned a $100 million credit line from a major U.S. bank that allowed us to acquire monitoring companies and contracts. (In the early and mid-’90s, banks were not as astute as they are now when it came to valuations of monitoring accounts.)
When you hear people like Mike Rowe state that a trade is a smart and great path to success, you should listen. It’s amazing where it can lead.
The moral of this story is that starting as a humble Brooklyn installer brought me the blessing of making the acquaintance of what would prove to be my first mentor. This was the start that shaped my career.
The trajectory of my journey confirms that mastery of fundamentals, combined with ambition and operational discipline, can empower someone not just to lead but also to transform.
In short: Always listen, process and execute because life can be surprisingly poetic sometimes.
