Businessman Larry Backstrom was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in 1951. Mr. Backstrom spent his formative years on chicken and hops farms in Oregon. At the age of 18, he moved to the Bay Area to attend college. For six years, he attended three junior colleges, studying both pre-med and business. After his education, Mr. Backstrom entered the electronics industry, working as a purchasing manager for a control system manufacturer. In 1975, he was offered a position with Avnet, the largest electronic component distributor in the world. As the division operations manager, he learned the distribution industry. He was appointed regional manager of operations on the West Coast and served on a corporate committee as an advisor to corporate operations decisions. In 1979 Mr. Backstrom was recruited, with two other industry professionals, to open a division for Schweber Electronics in the Bay Area. He was appointed the product marketing director and director of operations of the division. The division quickly grew to over 180 employees and went from being the 125th largest distributor in gross sales to the third largest distributor, with sales in excess of 60 million dollars in 1985. Personally, in 1983, Mr. Backstrom had his first child and soon after made the decision to leave the Bay Area for the Pacific Northwest in order to raise their daughter around his extended family. He moved to Olympia, Washington, where he started Olympic Food Equipment Sales in 1986 with his brother, Dennis. The Backstrom brothers worked as partners successfully for 25 years until Dennis's retirement in 2010. Mr. Backstrom still owns and operates Olympic Food Equipment Sales, Inc., designing and building commercial food service facilities. Mr. Backstrom has been working in the distribution industry for the past 40 years and has learned about business and government throughout his career. Most of the opinions expressed in this book have come as a result of working in and managing multi-million dollar distribution operations. His work with some of the largest corporations in America in the semi-conductor and food service equipment industries has shaped his opinions and understanding of business in America today.