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From welfare to wealth, Knoxville businessman overcomes odds to find success

Josh Smith rose to overcome an early life full of troubles and now makes a point to hire people who've also endured hardship in the lives or who are looking for a second chance.

At age 42, Knoxville businessman Josh Smith owns a multi-million dollar foundation and water proofing company, has been married for 21 years, and has four kids.

While everything is going well now, there was a time in his life, he couldn't pay the bills. Two separate times, he relied on welfare to get by.

"My dad left when I was 2," Smith said in an interview with WBIR 10News. "Left my mother to survive and figure it out which meant we ended up living in the projects."

Smith said until he was older he didn't realize that his family was struggling financially.

"My mother was one where you didn't know it was rough. She did all the things to help us," he said.

By the time he was 16, he was in and out of trouble with the law. He ended up in jail twice and dropped out of high school to start working.

"I find myself in my mid-twenties with nothing. I was having to work a $6 an hour job just to survive. My wife and two children and I are on welfare, food stamps," Smith said.

He recalls being embarrassed to use the food stamps at the grocery store. It motivated him to work harder to make enough money to get off government assistance.

"I went from that kid or young man who had all the answers and knew everything to realizing the importance of asking others advice and learning from others," he said.

The high school drop-out turned into a voracious reader, studying the success of businessmen through books. He found a niche in waterproofing and foundation repair. He started his own company in London, Kentucky.

"Today I would still be working for this one company if he would have bought my lunch and said thanks every once in a while," Smith said.

By 2008, he moved the company, now Master Dry, to Knoxville and has more than 100 employees and counting. He said all of his competitors combined don't total the size of his business.

"Most people think owning a company this size that I've got some kind of fancy business degree," he said. "I don't. Never went to college. Never even graduated high school."

His unconventional background is reflected in his company culture. Photos are featured around the Master Dry headquarters of employees serving locally and on mission trips abroad.

Employees are encouraged, but not required to volunteer 8 hours a quarter. They have an employee dedicated to coordinating service opportunities to employees.

"I think it's very unique because we are a for profit company. But my entire focus is making sure we are being true to a purpose statement: to be a unique service company that radically serves our community," Master Dry Community Ambassador Kathryn Ann Holt said.

Holt said employees volunteer for a variety of organizations around the area, from working with inmates inside prisons on job skills to preparing meals for the homeless to habitat for humanity.

Smith also makes a point to hire people who've endured hardship in the lives or who are looking for a second chance. While he evaluates every candidate and does background checks, he doesn't discriminate based solely on criminal history.

"Many of these people in jails and prisons, they're me. I'm more polished up now and cleaned up now but I'll never forget where I came from. For me it's one of those way of being able to give something tangible to really teach something somebody needs," he said. "I am getting to live a life everyday that I don't deserve."

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