08/15/2026
They Thought I’d Lose My Leg. I Decided to Build a Future Instead.
I don’t normally tell my story, but I think it’s time people knew a little more about the 17-year-old behind Wade’s Lawn Service Outdoors & More — and why this business means so much more to me than just cutting grass.
My story didn’t start with a truck, a trailer, or a lawn mower.
It started when I was 12 years old.
I was out celebrating my 12th birthday when I got into a serious ATV accident. The ATV flipped and rolled over on top of my leg, nearly ripping it completely off. I was airlifted to the hospital, and my family was told there was a very real chance my leg would have to be amputated.
Then there was one doctor who thought differently.
He told me he believed he could save my leg. He believed he could do it, and I believed in him.
He saved it.
What followed was surgery after surgery, pain, appointments, and a recovery that became a huge part of my childhood.
But life wasn’t done testing me.
Only a couple months into healing, my mom and I were going out to get something to eat when another vehicle hit us head-on at around 50 mph.
The same leg I had just fought to keep was destroyed all over again.
My femur was broken in that same leg, along with even more damage. Between everything I’ve been through, I’ve had more than 12 surgeries, and I still have rods in my leg today.
Eventually, I started recovering again.
And then I broke the same leg again.
The crazy part?
I didn’t even know it.
I walked around on a broken leg for months. Eventually, a red mark appeared on my leg, and that little red mark turned into another emergency. There was an infection, and I was rushed into surgery once again to deal with it and repair my leg.
Back to square one.
I spent around a year in a wheelchair and another six months on crutches.
For a long time, things most people don’t even think twice about weren’t normal for me.
I had to learn how to walk again.
But somewhere through all of that, I also learned something else:
I could either let everything that happened to me decide my future, or I could decide it myself.
I’ve never really had a dad around teaching me how to do all of this. There wasn’t somebody there showing me how to run a business, how to price a job, how to deal with customers, or how to make the right decisions.
A lot of what I know today came from trial and error.
Sometimes a lot of error.
I’ve made mistakes. I’ve underbid jobs. I’ve bought things I probably shouldn’t have. I’ve had equipment break at the worst possible time. I’ve had to figure things out on my own when I had absolutely no idea what I was doing.
But every mistake taught me something.
Growing up, I was also known as the trouble child.
I wasn’t necessarily the kid everybody looked at and said, “He’s going to be successful one day.”
There were people who thought I’d eventually end up dead.
For a while, maybe I even gave them reasons to think that.
But eventually I decided I wanted something different for myself.
When I was around 13, I started pushing a push mower around my neighborhood looking for yards to cut.
There wasn’t some big business plan behind it.
I didn’t have a truck.
I didn’t have a trailer.
I didn’t have commercial equipment.
I didn’t have somebody running around giving estimates for me or building a company for me.
I had a push mower, a leg doctors once thought I might lose, and a willingness to work.
So that’s what I did.
I cut lawns.
One yard turned into another. I made a little money, saved it, worked some more, and kept putting money away.
At 15 years old, I had finally saved enough to buy my own truck with money I earned myself.
And I kept building from there.
I bought my equipment.
I bought my mowers.
I bought my trailer.
I paid for my repairs.
I paid for my fuel.
I learned how to advertise.
I learned how to talk to customers.
I learned how to walk onto a property, look at a job, and put a price on my work.
I learned how to schedule customers and manage a route.
And when I got something wrong, I learned from it and tried to do better the next time.
I’ve had helpers work beside me, and I’m grateful for everyone who has helped me. I also want to be clear — my family has supported me in their own ways too. My uncle helps me with repairs, my grandma helps me stay organized with the business side of things, and my poppa has always been there for me in every way a family should be. I just don’t want to make this about listing everything — I just want to focus on the journey I’ve had to build with my own hands.
When you message my business page, you’re talking to me.
When you ask for an estimate, I’m the one who comes out and gives it.
When the phone rings, I’m the one answering it.
When the mower breaks, I’m the one figuring out how to get it repaired.
When I underestimate a job, I’m the one who still has to finish it.
When I make a mistake, I’m the one responsible for making it right.
And when you see my truck and trailer pulling up to your property, you’re looking at equipment that I worked for and paid for myself.
And just a few days ago, life decided to test me one more time.
I was out working when my parked truck and trailer were hit.
In a matter of seconds, the setup I depend on to make a living and serve my customers was taken off the road.
I’ll admit, that one hurt.
Not just because it was a truck and trailer, but because I know how many lawns I cut, how many hot days I worked, and how many hours went into paying for what I had.
But I’ve had worse things taken away from me before.
So I did what I’ve learned to do my entire life.
I figured it out.
Less than 48 hours later, I had another trailer.
And I also want to say this — one of my customers, someone I worked hard to find and earn the trust of, was kind enough to step up and give me $1,500 toward a new trailer. That meant more to me than I can even explain. It wasn’t just the money — it was someone believing in me and what I’m building.
I got my truck repaired and back on the road.
And I went back to work.
That’s probably the best way I can explain who I am and what this business means to me.
When something knocks me down, I might be frustrated. I might be tired. I might not know exactly how I’m going to fix it yet. But I’m going to find a way to get back up.
Today I’m 17 years old.
I’m nowhere close to where I want to be.
I’m still learning. I’m still growing. I’m still making mistakes. There are people with bigger trucks, bigger trailers, newer equipment, more experience, and bigger companies than mine.
That’s okay.
I’m not competing with where somebody else is. I’m trying to build something better than what I had yesterday.
There are days my leg hurts. There are days equipment breaks. There are jobs I’ve underestimated, long days in the Florida heat, unexpected expenses, and times where everything seems to go wrong at once.
But quitting has never gotten me very far.
This business represents years of my life already.
It represents a 12-year-old kid lying in a hospital wondering what his life was going to look like.
It represents learning to walk again.
It represents a 13-year-old pushing a mower around his neighborhood.
It represents every dollar I saved instead of spent.
It represents buying my first truck at 15.
It represents mistakes, lessons, long days, setbacks, customers who took a chance on me, and every person who has recommended my name to somebody else.
Wade’s Lawn Service Outdoors & More isn’t just a name on the back of my shirt. It’s something I’m building from the ground up.
I’m not sharing this because I want anybody’s sympathy.
I don’t want sympathy. I want opportunity.
An opportunity to work.
An opportunity to earn your business.
An opportunity to keep learning.
And an opportunity to see just how far I can take something that started with a kid pushing a mower around his neighborhood.
If you hire me to maintain your lawn, clean up an overgrown property, trim your landscaping, install mulch, or tackle another outdoor project, I want you to know the person you’re supporting.
I’m 17.
I’m still learning.
I’m far from perfect.
But I’m willing to work, I’m willing to learn from my mistakes, and when life knocks me down, I’ve gotten pretty damn good at getting back up.
And when my truck and trailer got hit?
I was back on the road in less than 48 hours.
I’ve got a long way to go.
But you haven’t seen the end of my story yet.
— Wade
Wade’s Lawn Service Outdoors & More
